J. Neal Montgomery & His Orchestra - Okeh 8682 (1929)

Not much out there on J. Neal Montgomery other than he was a pianist and led territory bands around Atlanta in the '20s.

This is his only record as a leader.

J. Neal Montgomery p, dir / Henry Mason, Karl Burns t / tb / George Derrigotte, ___ Puckett cl, as / ___ Brown cl, ts / John Smith bj, g / Jesse Wilcox bb / Ted Gillum d / v.

Recorded in Atlanta on March 14, 1929.

Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra - Bluebird 5682 (1934)

From wikipedia...

Frederic Homer (Keg) Johnson (November 19, 1908 – November 8, 1967) was a jazz trombonist.

He was born in Dallas, Texas. His father was a choir director there and also worked at a local Studebaker plant where Keg also worked for a while.

He and his younger brother, Budd Johnson, began their musical careers singing and playing first with their father and later with Portia Pittman, daughter of Booker T. Washington. Keg played various instruments but is most noted for the trombone. The two brothers played in Dallas-area bands as the Blue Moon Chasers and later in Ben Smith's Music Makers. Eventually they performed with an Amarillo group led by Gene Coy called The Happy Black Aces.

Around 1928, in Kansas City, Keg and Budd played in several bands but by 1930 Keg left for Chicago to play with Louis Armstrong, recording his first solo on Armstrong's Basin Street Blues album. When in 1933 Keg went to New York, he played with such greats as Fletcher Henderson and Benny Carter, eventually playing with Cab Calloway at the Cotton Club. Keg remained with Cab Calloway for some 15 years, coinciding with fellow trombonists Claude Jones and DePriest Wheeler and later Tyree Glenn and Quentin Jackson, as well as other musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, before moving to Los Angeles where he briefly changed careers renovating houses. During the 1950s he returned to New York where he and his brother recorded the album Let's Swing. In 1961, Keg began playing with Ray Charles and was still in his band when Keg died in Chicago on November 8, 1967.

Fletcher Henderson p, a, dir / Russell Smith, Joe Thomas, Henry Red Allen t / Claude Jones, Keg Johnson tb / Buster Bailey cl / Russell Procope, Hilton Jefferson cl, as / Coleman Hawkins ts / Bernard Addison g / John Kirby sb / Vic Engle d / Will Hudson (Hocus Pocus), Russ Morgan (Tidal Wave) a.

Recorded in New York on March 6, 1934.

Duke Ellington And His Cotton Club Orchestra - Victor 38053 (1929)

Duke Ellington p, a, dir / Freddy Jenkins, Cootie Williams t / Johnny Hodges cl, ss, as / Harry Carney cl, as, bar / Barney Bigard cl, ts / Fred Guy bj / Wellman Braud sb / Sonny Greer d.

McKinney's Cotton Pickers - HMV B-6286 (1930)

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

Recorded in New York on November 30 & *December 17, 1930.

Tony Parenti's Ragpickers - Esquire 10-148 (1949)

Review by Scott Yanow...

In January 1949, clarinetist Tony Parenti, pianist Ralph Sutton, and drummer George Wettling recorded six rags, including the clarinetist's "Crawfish Crawl." Considering that ragtime had been considered virtually dead for over 30 years and, other than "Maple Leaf Rag," its pieces had largely gone unexplored since then, this was an important session. The music is not all written out as would be the case with classic ragtime, and to an extent the musicians jam a bit, but always keep the themes and tight structure in mind.

From wikipedia...

Rudi Blesh (January 21, 1899, Guthrie, Oklahoma – August 25, 1985, Gilmanton, New Hampshire) was an American jazz critic and enthusiast.

Blesh studied at Dartmouth College and held jobs writing jazz reviews for the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Herald Tribune in the 1940s. He was a prolific promoter of jazz concerts, particularly New Orleans jazz, and hosted a jazz radio program, This Is Jazz, in 1947. (These shows have been reissued by Jazzology Records.)

Blesh in collaboration with Harriet Janis (mother of actor and jazz band leader Conrad Janis) wrote They All Played Ragtime which was published in 1950 by Alfred A Knopf. A promotional record consisting of "Maple Leaf Rag" recorded to piano roll by Jerry Roll Morton in 1907 and an interview with the co-authors was sent to radio stations. They All Played Ragtime proved to be a popular book and is credited as the cause for a renewed public interest in ragtime music. Blesh founded Circle Records in 1946, which recorded new material from aging early jazz musicians as well as the Library of Congress recordings of Jelly Roll Morton. He sparked renewed interest in the music of Joseph Lamb, James P. Johnson, and Eubie Blake, among others.

Blesh held professorships at several universities later in his life, and wrote liner notes to jazz albums almost up until the time of his death. In 1976, he was nominated for a Grammy Award for his liner notes to Joplin: The Complete Works of Scott Joplin performed by Dick Hyman.

He died on 25 August 1985 on his farm from a myocardial infarction aged 86.

Tony Parenti cl / Ralph Sutton p / George Wettling d.

Recorded on January 22, 1949.