Month: December 2023

From the Record Shelves #122 – Auld Lang Syne. Today I listen to myself. A couple of years ago I made a record that to my surprise and great pleasure had very good reviews in the jazz press. It contains mostly forgotten songs played in some different early jazz styles (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #121 – Toronto Dig. I don’t remember where I got hold of this record, but it’s with James Sharpe (1877–1943) who used the artist name Olly Oakley. He’s British and one of their most recorded banjo players ever. He played a zither banjo (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #120 – Down Where the Blue Bonnets Grow. If you have ever been involved in a situation with a two or one microphone recording you may be aware about the big importance of the room and the distance to the mike. On this recording (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #119 – Ostrich Walk. Bix Beiderbecke never forgot the tunes that turned him on to jazz. It was after World War I that his brother returned with some records, among them the newly released ones by Original Dixieland Jazz Band. When he got (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #118 – Concentratin’ On You. There are vocal records and there are records with orchestras featuring a vocal refrain. In the beginning of the 1930s Mildred Bailey was doing records of both kinds. Here she is mostly in a sentimental mood (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #117 – The Joys. Jimmie O’Bryant (1896-1928), was a today obscure almost forgotten clarinet player. Though he was not at the very top he still was able to do performances on record that were mistaken for the great Johnny Dodds (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #116 – Santa Claus Blues. Christmas is not fun if you’re alone and cannot participate in the warm embrace of your family and friends. Luckily it never has happened to me but here’s a reminder that it’s the situation for some (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #115 – High Society. I have an extensive double CD with the Six and Seven-Eight String Band, but today I play the LP that that was my first encounter with this classic New Orleans group. When you read the line-up of the band (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #114 – That’s a Plenty. Danny Polo is for me the clarinet player that replaced Don Murray temporarily during an illness and came to play the clarinet solo on Jean Goldkette’s fabulous recording of My Pretty Girl in 1927 (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #113 – I Been ’Buked. They sing “There is trouble all over this world”. Nothing is known about The Bronzemen, but they left after them a couple of radio transcriptions from 1939. By that time the depression and radio had made (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #112 – My Baby Came Home. It’s not a generally agreed upon judgement, but to my ears and taste Red McKenzie had a wonderful voice and his expression of sentiments is fine with me. On this compilation of singers from the jazz age (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #111 – Love Sick Blues. Georgia White was a native of the state with the same name. She was born in Macon, Georgia 1903 and began her recording career 1933 when most of the classic, female blues singers had lost their popularity (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #110 – After You’ve Gone. During the pandemic Ate Van Delden’s biography of Adrian Rollini made good company, and he is also involved in this CD release with 26 well-preserved tracks from 1924-27. During this period (…) read more and listenread more and listen

Kiki remarked that the song is sad, but I said “so what?”. I’ve always liked sad songs even when I’m not feeling that way. First of all they remind us of the fact that not everybody is happy. Then it can make you remember times when (…) read more and view videoread more and view video

From the Record Shelves #109 – I Ain’t Got Nobody. This volume three in the complete output on records by the blues singer Ida Cox has a lot of good music. There are the duets with Papa Charlie Jackson and also “Coffin Blues” one of the saddest tales ever put on a disc. (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #108 – It’s Murder. There’s a lot of good jazz with New Orleans roots here, by Johnny Dodds, Red Allen and Lil Armstrong as leaders. And it’s the last mentioned with her “Swing Orchestra” that I choose to listen to today (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #107 – I Like What You Like. Even if her recording career only lasted eight years there is enough material with Annette Hanshaw to fill a pile of LP records. But it’s hard to think that any of them would be better than this one (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #106 – I Must Have That Man. Here we have an album dedicated to a man of the rhythm section namely the tuba player Joe Tarto. Included is a lot of information about his career that spanned over more than six decades (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #105 – Yellow Dog Blues. Number three in the Cotton Club series includes some oddities in the house bands book. W. C. Handy’s blues has been interpreted by many and here in 1928 it gets the early Duke Ellington treatment (…) read more and listenread more and listen

It’s time for the captain to put you on track to a MERRY CHRISTMAS! (…) view videoJingle Bells at the Museum