Year: 2024

From the Studio #28 – My Blue Heaven – Here’s a tune to make people happy. It’s a good one to start or finish a concert with. Walter Donaldson composed it in 1927, and George Whiting wrote the lyrics. It can be arranged or, as in this version, just (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #250 – Ory’s Creole Trombone – Kid Ory recorded his composition as early as 1922 in Los Angeles and again in Chicago in 1927 with an exuberant Louis Armstrong. But this version, again from the West Coast, recorded in Hollywood in 1945 (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #249 – The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise – This is more a demonstration of skills than jazz, but when it is as good as this, I can take it in a small portion. Especially since I know that those musicians can do a lot more than that, which the fine Swaggie LP (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #248 – Out of Nowhere – Some time ago, I felt the tide of history when we went for a walk with our friend Phillippe Baudoin, a professor of jazz, in his neighborhood, which is Pigalle in Paris. He showed us some places in this illustrious pleasure district (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #27 – Oh! Miss Hannah – I have a 78 rpm disc with this 1924 song by Deppen-Hollingsworth, with the vocal by the group The Revellers. But the most well-known is the version by Paul Whiteman, where Bix Beiderbecke plays his last (probably) solo in that orchestra (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #247 – Troubled Waters – When this LP just came out in the middle of the 1960s, I borrowed it from a friend and recorded it on reel-to-reel tape. Now I have a well-kept copy that used to belong to the American Library at Stockholm University (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #246 – When You and I Were Young Maggie – You have the feeling that they do nothing special, just play an old tune together, like they always do. And still, it’s a magical moment in 1938.  “Together” is the key word here. None is taking down (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #26 – Tea for Two – Vincent Youmans’ ingenious tune with clever words by Irving Caesar has been interpreted by many. I like, among others, a well-arranged version by Don Redman’s Orchestra from the thirties. The changes are a bit too difficult to (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #245 – Tangerine – Maybe you are familiar with this French clarinet player called Maurice Meunier. I wasn’t until I found this record about ten years ago. It doesn’t come as a surprise that there are good ones in France because the French influence is (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #244 – Alone with My Dreams – This is a rather recent CD production. It’s well produced and comes with a booklet full of well researched and interesting information that let’s you know all you need (and more!) about the protagonist (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #243 – Winin’ Boy Blues – Today I’m back with the classic LP’s of likewise classic jazz. Jelly Roll Morton must have been happy, or at least content when, after some miserable years, musically speaking, he entered the studio to front a band with (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #25 – Go Back Where You Stayed Last Night – This tune with a long title also has a very long sequence with the same tonic chord, which can be a challenge when you make an instrumental version like I attempted. The song was written by (…) read more and listenread more and listen