Year: 2024

From the Record Shelves #328 – The Things That Were Made for Love – ”Hot dance music,” such as this, means approximately three minutes of an attractive melody played in a good dance rhythm and blended with or at least spiced with improvised jazz. One can only wish that such a mixture in popular music (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #327 – A Bag O’ Blues – Jack Pettis Orchestra was really something! It was drawn as a smaller unit out of Ben Bernie’s dance orchestra with the purpose of recording more hot numbers. The musicians were top class. Normally I prefer a session that includes this number (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #73 – Changes – This is another tune by the very productive songwriter Walter Donaldson, with some tricky changes of key in the middle. It’s well illustrated on the sheet music cover. If you want to hear the classic version with a full orchestra, look out for Paul Whiteman’s (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #326 – Speak Now Or Hereafter Hold Your Peace – In the 1990s this series came with a new approach to releasing, and on the other end, listening to jazz music, presenting in chronological order everything recorded, including alternative takes and surviving live (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #325 – I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate – Here’s a tune that can be and has been interpreted in many ways, especially before the revival. The early ”fives” and the Georgians had their versions, and Clarence Willams provided a more bluesy approach (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #72 – Sunday – TI rather quickly sketched an arrangement on this lovely tune with just verse and chorus and a cornet solo. For once, I dusted off my saxophones. Maybe I will sing it another time because the lyrics are quite nice: All week long the world, Seems, oh, so blue (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #324 – If I Should Lose You – The trumpet player Booker Little (1938–1961) had a short life but left a strong impression behind in his playing, as is witnessed by his recordings. In his ultimate session, the sextette is full of youthful energy, and the music is beautiful (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #323 – The Sidewalks of New York – There is much music from Raymond Burke on the CD, and I love that, but there are also a couple of numbers from a for me less known clarinet player. Irvine “Pinky” Vidacovich can be heard on the classic recordings of New Orleans Owls (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #71 – Embraceable You – Today I felt like reviving another one of my favorite tunes. There are so many recordings of this George Gershwin classic to be inspired by—too many to mention, and I thought it was enough for now to just do a vocal and a cornet chorus (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #322 – Dear Old Southland – Here we have a clarinet duet by the great Albert Nicholas and his disciple John Defferary. I met John about 15 years ago when we happened to play alongside each other in a parade at a jazz festival. He faintly remembered that we had also played (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #70 – Sing You Sinners – This song was composed by W. Franke Harling, with lyrics by Sam Coslow in 1930. As you see on the sheet cover, it was also featured in a movie later called “I’ll Cry Tomorrow.” (The film has a fine original jazz score beside this.) It has a rather dramatic verse (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #321 – I’m Coming Virginia – Johnny Hyman, better known as Johnny Wiggs (1899–1977), started to play cornet at an early age and became professional playing in different bands in his hometown New Orleans after 1925. He chose, however to become a teacher of other things (…) read more and listenread more and listen