Bumble Bee Slim - Vocalion 03328 (1936)

Born Amos Easton in Brunswick, Georgia, Bumble Bee Slim ran off to join the circus. He later went on to meet and be influenced Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell.

Does anyone know who his accompanists are on these sides?



Opie Cates & His Orchestra - 4 Star 1124 (1946)

This bandleader seemed to have had quite an array of jobs within his career as a bandleader...besides conducting his band since 1931, he became a musical director for a radio program (The Judy Canova Show), starred in his own comedy radio show (The Opie Cates Show), had a role in Lum & Abner...both on radio and a TV pilot. He became musical director for another radio show in 1950 which inspired the sitcom Green Acres.

But with all this on his resumé...he is probably best known (or not even known at all) for being the name inspiration for Sheriff Andy Taylor's son on The Andy Griffith Show.


Coleman Hawkins Quartet (Thelonious Monk) - Joe Davis 8251 (1944)

Mentioned a few weeks back how I had found a box (within my own collection) of post war jazz...a genre that is still not in my comfort zone...and was told to hang onto those "Dizzys & Monks." Yeah, Dizzy Gillespie was well represented in the stack but there were no Monks to be seen...until...

I opened another box today and the top record was Coleman Hawkins Quartet on Joe Davis 8251...I've gotta find 8250 now to complete the set of recordings made that day by the group.

Although Monk had recorded live cuts as early as 1941...the sides here are 2 of the 4 recordings he made during his very first studio recording session.

So...now I can finally say that I have a Thelonious Monk 78.

(He was also born in Rocky Mount, NC...the same place and about the same time as my country plowboy Grandpa. This also adds to the list of Tarheel jazz musicians I've been posting.)

Coleman Hawkins ts / Thelonious Monk p / Denzil Decosta Best d / Edward 'Basie' Robinson sb.

Recorded in New York on October 19, 1944.


The Tennessee Tooters - Vocalion 15068 (1925)

Just looked up the personnel in Rust's and lo and behold...every instrument is unidentified.



Pardon My French - Three Swing Label 78s

Found these at a local French antique store. Unfortunately, it has since closed down.

Anyway...Amusez-vous bien! (<---if that phrase is wrong...blame 'Free Translation')


Since the label below was erroneously a duplicate of the one above...I made my own...ya' like?





78s...To Play Or To Display...A Conundrum Solved

For far too long, I treated my 78s more as historical artifacts to look at and enjoy rather than something to play…and enjoy.

Besides collecting 78s, I also collected cd compilations of the same artists (Chronological, Neatwork, Jazz Oracle, Archives of Jazz, etc.) so I didn’t have the need to play the records when I had better sounding examples elsewhere. Just knowing I had an original was all that mattered…until…

Sonny Jones - Vocalion 05056 (1939)

Didn't find too much information on Sonny Jones but did come across this from his son's entry in Wikipedia:

Guitar Gabriel (Robert Lewis Jones) was born in Atlanta, Georgia, moving to Winston-Salem, North Carolina at age five. His father, Sonny Jones (also known as Jack Jones, James Johnson, and as Razorblade for an act in which he ate razor blades, mason jars, and light bulbs) recorded for Vocalion Records in 1939 in Memphis, accompanied by Sonny Terry and Oh Red (George Washington). Sonny Jones also recorded a single for the Orchid label in Baltimore in 1950 (as Sunny Jones). His family, who grew up sharecropping, shared a talent for music. His great-grandmother, an ex-slave, called set dances and played the banjo; his grandfather played banjo and his grandmother the pump organ; his father and uncle were blues guitarists and singers and his sisters sang blues and gospel.

Recorded in July of 1939 in Memphis. Is Sonny Terry and Oh Red present?


Jelly-Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers - Victor 38075 (1929)

Jelly Roll Moton p, dir / Boyd Red Rossiter, Walter Briscoe t / Charlie Irvis tb / George Bacquet cl / Paul Barnes ss / Joe Thomas as / Walter Thomas ts / Rod Rodriguez p / Barney ALexander bj / Harry Prather bb / William Laws d.

Recorded in Camden, NJ on July 9th & 12th, 1929


Sonny Greer & The Duke's Men - Capitol 10028 (1945)

The third and last 78 I own of a group led by Duke Ellington's drummer Sonny Greer.

These are two of four sides (Bug In A Rug & Kandylamb are the others) recorded by this band in Los Angeles on February 24, 1945 for a Capitol Criterion album set called The History Of Jazz.

Taft Jordan t / Barney Bigard cl / Otto Hardwick as / Duke Brooks p / Fred Guy g / Red Callender sb / Sonny Greer d.



Moran & Mack (& Luckey Roberts?) - Columbia 1094 (1927)

I do believe it all comes down to certain takes as to who the pianist is.




McKinney's Cotton Pickers - Victor 23024 (1930)

Here are 2 sides cut the week that Rex Stewart joined the group.

Don Redman cl, as, bar, a, dir / Joe Smith, Rex Stewart c / Langston Curl t / Ed Cuffee tb / Benny Carter cl, as / Edward Inge cl, as, a / Prince Robinson cl, ts / Todd Rhodes p / Dave Wilborn bj / Billy Taylor bb / Cuba Austin d / George Bias v.

Recorded in New York on November 5, 1930.



Harlem Trio / Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds - Okeh 8072 (1922-23)

Continuing with another Bubber Miley track...I think.

Johnny Dunn, Bubber Miley ? c / Herb Flemming ? tb / Garvin Bushell ? cl, as / Herschel Brassfield ? as / Coleman Hawkins ts / Everett Robbins ? p / Sam Speed bj / d.

Recorded in New York on August 15, 1922.


George McClennon cl / Eddie Heywood p / bj.

Recorded in New York in April 1923.

Sonny Greer With Oran Lips Page & His All Stars - Circle 3004 (1951)

It looks as if these are two sides (out of 10) that were recorded in New York on February 10, 1951 for what looks to have been an album called Jamming At Rudi's. (Rudi Blesh)

I did a quick search of my Chronological cd series on Hot Lips Page...I am painfully missing one to complete the set but that's another story...but these (nor the other recordings from that session) were listed. They were also not included on Page's Neatwork cd which includes omissions and alternate takes that Chronological may have missed or did not release...not sure why.

Hot Lips Page tp, v / Tyree Glenn tb / Bernie Peacock cl, as / Paul Quinichette ts / Ken Kersey, Dan Burley p / Walter Page sb / Danny Barker g / Sonny Greer d.

 


Lil Armstrong (With Chu Berry) / Andy Kirk - Decca 3883 (1936)

Lil Armstrong & Her Swing Orchestra - Joe Thomas t / Buster Bailey cl / Chu Berry ts / Teddy Cole p / Huey Long g / John Frazier sb / Lil Armstrong v. Recorded in Chicago on October 27, 1936.



Andy Kirk & His Clouds Of Joy - Andy Kirk bsx, dir / Harry Lawson, Paul King t / Earl Thomson t / Ted Donnelly, Henry Wells tb / John Harrington cl, as, bar / John Williams as, bar / Dick Wilson ts / Mary Lou Williams p / Ted Robinson g / Booker Collins sb / Ben Thigpen d. Recorded in New York on March 2, 1936.

Sonny Greer & His Memphis Men - Columbia (UK) 5033 (1929)

Would really liked to have had the original Columbia 1868 but this one works...for now.

Arthur Whetsel, Freddy Jenkins t / Joe Nanton tb / Barney Bigard cl / Johnny Hodges as (Saturday Night Function) / Harry Carney cl, bar (Beggars Blues) / Duke Ellington p / Fred Guy bj / Wellman Braud sb / Sonny Greer d.

Recorded in New York on May 28, 1929.



The Savannah Six - Harmony 56 (1925)

Using the pseudonym The Savannah Six, the Original Memphis Five waxed three sides on the Harmony label in New York on October 26, 1925.

Here are two of the three cuts. (Knowing this now, I've got to be on the lookout for the side I'm missing...Jacksonville Gal on Harmony 58) EDIT: Just got a copy three years later.

Phil Napoleon t / Miff Mole tb / Jimmy Lytell cl / Frank Signorelli p / ? John Cali bj / Jack Roth d.


Arnett Cobb & His Orchestra - Apollo 778 (1947)

Just came across a batch of wax that had been boxed up for quite a while. While not being too keen into post-war / bop jazz, I still collect it for when my taste might come around.

Here we have a 1947 Apollo release by Arnett Cobb, one of a handful of Texas Tenors.

Searching the net for other tenor saxophonists from the Lone Star State, I also found Herschel 'Tex' Evans, Illinois Jacquet (from Louisiana but raised in Texas), Buddy Tate, David 'Fathead' Newman AND last but NOT least, Gordon 'Tex' Beneke!

David Page t / Al King tb / Arnett Cobb ts / George Rhodes p / Walter Buchanan sb / George Jones d.

Recorded in New York in August 1947.




East German Soviet Swing - Amiga (1947) Part 2

Here is another Amiga release from 1947. (The other two I have have been posted here)

I picked these German 78s and several French Swing labels...which I haven't come across since I packed them up a few years back...at a French antique store run by a lady that would bring back items everytime she visited her mother in France.


Ben Selvin & His Orchestra - Columbia 2381 (1931)

I first heard both sides of this 78 on Jeff Healey's radio show My Kinda Jazz several years ago. Yesterday, I discovered that I had a copy of my own.

A 21 year old Benny Goodman solos on both tracks.

Manny Klein t / Tommy Dorsey tb / Benny Goodman cl / Louis Martin cl, as / Hymie Wolfson vn / Stan King d / Helen Rowland v / others.

Recorded in New York on January 15, 1931.


Childhood Music Memories (Neither 78 nor jazz related)

(Originally written to Mr. Locorriere in 2008)

Growing up, the radio was always on...the turntable and the reels were always spinning and the 8-tracks were always "ca-chunking" between programs. Music was a part of my childhood as much as anything. 

I can remember going to Woolco's in the '66 Mustang on Friday nights with the parents and getting my weekly 45 rpm such as Convoy, Philadelphia Freedom, Star Wars & Close Encounters Themes and Cruising With The Fonz.

But there's one album...LP...that holds the top memory evoking spot in my life.


Alabama Red Peppers - Cameo 8130 (1928)

Not sure where I picked this one up but no doubt it was because of the name "Alabama Red Peppers." Having only recently gotten Brian Rust's The American Dance Band Discography, I can now try and identify who the players are on stacks and stacks of hot dance records.  

Listed as 'probably' - Leo McConville, Red Nichols t / Miff Mole tb / Loring McMurray as / Hymie Wolfson ts / Rube Bloom p / bj / bb / d.

Recorded in New York on January 20, 1928.


Celestin's Tuxedo Jazz Band - New Orleans Bandwagon RWP-9,10,11,12 (1950s)

I recently called a lady in New Orleans who had advertised that she had 100 78s for sale. (I always get my hopes up when a stash is listed from The Big Easy)

I asked her if she could tell me what a few of the labels and artists were that she had and, nice lady as she was, proceeded to name each and every one. About halfway through, I didn't have the heart to tell her, that so far, everything was run of the mill big-band, classical or 50's pop.

Still patiently listening, I heard her say, "Oh...here is the last one...it looks a lot older...Celestin's Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra...Papa's Got The Jim-Jams." 

Finally hearing what I had always anticipated when I call a New Orleans ad...I realized there was no way to justify the 7 hour round trip drive for just ONE record. Thanking her for her time, I informed her of the approximate value of the Columbia and wished her luck in her effort to sell off the entire collection.

Oh, if gas prices weren't so darn high!

Anyway, here we have 2 clean 78s I recently found of Oscar Papa Celestin recorded within a few years of his passing at the age of 70. These were recorded on local New Orleans' DJ Roger Wolfe's New Orleans Bandwagon label in the early 1950s. (See Sharkey Bonano's recording on the same label here.)

Oscar Papa Celestin t / Bill Matthews tb / Alphonse Picou cl / Octave Crosby p / Christopher 'Black Happy' Goldston d / Ricard Alexis b.

I do believe that each member was born in the 1800's and was around for the earliest days of jazz in New Orleans. Also read that Alphonse Picou played off and on with Buddy Bolden!





Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five - Okeh 8597 (1928)

I don't have many Hot Fives/Sevens but this is by far my favorite.

Louis Armstrong t, v / Fred Robinson tb / Jimmy Strong cl, ts / Earl Hines p / Mancy Cara bj / Zutty Singleton d.

Recorded in Chicago on June 27 & 28, 1928.