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May 28, 2005

Pianists Don Ewell and Willie "The Lion" Smith opened the program with "Some Of These Days," a title from their February 1967 session for Sackville that's an important record among The Lion's final roars. It's been reissued on a two-CD set with two other Sackville LPs featuring solo piano of Claude Hopkins and Sir Charles Thompson. The catalogue number is SK2CD-5011.

The plans were to play the instrumental take recorded for European or Latin American release by King Oliver's Dixie Syncopators of "Got Everything But You." That way, we'd get to hear pianist Leroy Tibbs' solo that takes up part of the time that the vocal occupies on the other two takes. But, it was difficult to cut out Andy Razaf's clever lyrics, so I edited together a composite of the instrumental take with the vocal chorus from one of the other takes. That way, we had our cake and ate it, too. All the takes are on Frog DGF35!

The Eddie Heywood Trio played "The Way You Look Tonight," recorded in late 1947 for Decca and reissued on Classics 1219. From a new set issued by Jazz Oracle, we heard Red Nichols with The Red Heads and "You Should See My Tootsie." Frank Gould was the vocalist on this early 1927 recording included on Jazz Oracle BDW8043. From 1939, Ray Eberle sang "I Beg Your Pardon" with Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, played from BMG 61015. "Miss Thing" closed the set, thanks to Count Basie and his Orchestra. Recorded in early April 1939, this title is included in the nice 4-CD survey of Basie recordings for Columbia/Vocalion, Columbia/Legacy C4K 87110.

We honored the fallen with some songs from World War II, beginning with Glenn Miller's Band of the Army Air Force Training Command and "Peggy, the Pin-Up Girl." The broadcast from the Vaderbilt Theater has been issued on JazzBand EBCD 2161. Three titles from a program in the "Jubilee" series followed � Peggy Lee singing "I Get the Blues When It Rains," the Les Paul Trio with "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise," and the Town Criers sang "Easy Street." The Town Criers were Lucy Ann Polk, her sister and two brothers. These performances were all transcribed sometime during the spring of 1946, and appear on a volume in a series from Storyville that presents two Jubilee broadcasts on each CD. This is Volume 9, Jubilee 501 1009. From the end of July 1944, Benny Goodman and his All Stars, with trombonist Vernon Brown and trumpeter Roy Eldridge, rendered "After You've Gone." This track comes from a "For the Record" program issued on Nostalgia Arts NOCD 3020.

"I Don't Want to Walk Without You" was sung by the gal who introduced it on the screen, Betty Jane Rhodes. Her January 1942 appeared on the now out-of-print Smithsonian collections, "We'll Meet Again: Love Songs of World War II."

Phylisse Lynne was the vocalist with Frankie Carle's Orchestra for "Saturday Night Is the Loneliest Night of the Week," recorded in 1944 for World Broadcasting and issued on Circle CCD-128.

From very early 1928, one of the Victor "house" bands, the All-Star Orchestra, played "I Just Roll, Roll Along (Having My Ups, Having My Downs" which appeared on Victor 21212 [78], with Franklyn Baur the vocalist.

Then we risked striking "out." From November 1936, Memphis Minnie sang "Out in the Cold" from the reissue set of her early recordings, JSP771. Bert Ambrose and his Orchestra recorded "Out of Nowhere" in May 1931; it was released on HMV B-6017 [78]. From 1946, drummer Sid Catlett sang a number he helped to write, "Out of My Way," recorded in Paris with Benny Carter and his Chocolate Dandies. It appeared some years ago on Swing SW8403 [LP]. Frances Wayne was featured with the Woody Herman Orchestra on the gorgeous "Out Of This World" from late February 1945, included in the Mosaic set Mosaic MD7-223. Lastly, Banu Gibson, accompanied by pianist David Boeddinghaus, sang a perky "Out or No Good," issued on Swing Out CD105.

A set of titles recorded between September 1926 and April 1927 by Don Voorhee's Earl Carroll's Vanities Orchestra followed. While there's some dispute whether or not Red Nichols was on the first of the titles played (it sounds to me as if he was), he definitely is on the other four selections in the set and there were some marvelous solos. The titles were (followed by their 78RPM release): "Hugs and Kisses" (Columbia 765-D) "Who Do You Love?" (Columbia 881-D), "Dancing the Devil Away" (Edison 51999), "That's My Hap-Hap-Happiness" (Cameo 1146), and "Pardon the Glove" (Romeo 369).

I referenced a recent discussion on a jazz list where one of the members was trying to place a particular recording of Louis Armstrong playing the "St. James Infirmary" that is heard in the soundtrack of an Iranian film, "Taste of Cherry," directed by Abbas Kiarostami. It turned out that that the record in question is the alternate take from one of the "Satchmo Plays King Oliver" sessions that Armstrong and his All Stars recorded for Audio Fidelity in the late summer and early fall of 1959. We heard that track as well as the alternate take of "Big Butter and Egg Man." Wrapping up the set were "My Old Kentucky Home" and the "Chimes Blues." These sessions have been reissued on Fuel 2000 302 061 241. Incidentally, the Criterion Collection has released "Taste of Cherry" on DVD.

We stretched out next with the ballad medley recorded in June 1952 at the first of the Norman Granz studio jam sessions. There were nine LPs issued in this series (some of the early ones were ten - rather than twelve-inch), and they've all been reissued in a nice little 5-CD set, Verve B0003252. The new LP format made it possible for Granz to try to bring into the recording studio something of the jousting that's to be heard at his live Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts. The ballad medleys were not jousts, but opportunities for the session participants to each grab a song and run with it. We heard Barney Kessell, "All the Things You Are;" Charlie Parker, "Dearly Beloved;" Ben Webster, "Nearness Of You;" Johnny Hodges, "I'll Get By;" Oscar Peterson, "Everything Happens to Me;" Ray Brown, "The Man I Love;" Flip Phillips, "What's New;" Charlie Shavers, "Someone to Watch Over Me;" and Benny Carter, "Isn't It Romantic?"

We heard a few encores from Dan Levinson's repertory projects evoking the "rag-a-jazz" sound of early groups like the Frisco Jazz Band." The Frisco Band's lead instrumental voice was a saxophone, not a trumpet. For more complete details on the coverage we gave to this earlier, please see the program note for April 30, 2005. Tonight, we heard the Frisco Jazz Band's August 1917 Edison recording of "All I Need is Just A Girl Like You (introducing "Oh Johnny! Oh!")," issued on Edison 51081-L [78], followed by Dan's treatment of it with his Canary Cottage Dance Orchestra on Stomp Off CD 1380.

We closed the program with one more segment saluting veterans and the fallen by going back to hear the legendary British music hall song, written by Jack Judge and Harry Williams in 1912, "It's A Long Way to Tipperary." The song became something of the unofficial marching song of the British troops. We heard it in an original recording from 1914 by the American Quartet (of which Billy Murray was one member), followed by a version by the Canary Cottage Dance Orchestra. By 1918, people had heard enough of Tipperary, spurring the satiric, "The Sooner I Get To Tipperary, the Closer I Am to Berlin," recorded by Billy Murray in 1918. The American Quartet and Billy Murray performances appeared on Take Two TT501.

Then we heard from Harry Leader and his Orchestra for a version of the Ivor Novello song, "We'll Gather Lilacs," recorded in early May 1945 with a vocal by Jane Lee. Lastly, Kay Kyser and singer Georgia Carroll presented one of the most poignant songs of the period, "Goodnight, Where Ever You Are," from Vintage Jazz Classics VJC-1042.