April 2024 - Page 2 of 3 - Paul – and some of that Jazz

From the Record Shelves #217 – The Wild Dog – A big department store in the center of town was closing down at the beginning of the 1990s. It was my favorite place to buy records, so it was sad. Now they had made up a plan to get rid of their stock; they lowered the prices (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #216 – ’Taint So, Honey, ’Taint So – It was raining like mad, but I was out on my bike. I had a very important business to take care of, which was buying a record. When I came to Leif Anderson he opened the door wearing his bathrobe. Leif was (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #14 – More Than You Know – Here are a couple of choruses of a lovely, for once positive, love song by Vincent Youmans with lyrics by William Rose and Edward Eliscu. Many have recorded this. My favorites are by Benny Goodman and Billie Holiday (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #215 – Sweetie Pie – Fats Waller and Mezz Mezzrow seem like a very odd couple to me, but here they are on a session together. This not-so-remarkable tune gives a good picture of the actual swing of the group, something that is often overshadowed by (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #214 – Just One of Those Things – I started to listen to 78 rpm records when my uncle found an album for me sometime in the 1960s. It contained mostly modern jazz. I enjoyed some of it but didn’t care much about Buddy DeFranco’s (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #213 – Nobody Knows the Way I Feel Dis’ Mornin’ – Here’s another good Sidney Bechet record in the Vintage series. When he became a leader in the recording studio for the first time in his career, Sidney Bechet used the name New Orleans Feetwarmers (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #13 – Honeymoon Hotel – Today I needed to warm up my clarinet, so I played a couple of choruses on a tune that is not a jazz tune but a song from a 1937 Busby Berkeley musical comedy with Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler. It’s a long sequence (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #212 – Sunday – The Vintage series made compilations of tunes from special years on some albums. I bought them as they came out in chronological reverse order, starting in 1928 and finish with 1926 which is the album that (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #211 – Dip Your Brush in the Sunshine – Ted Lewis (1892–1971) had a long career in the entertainment business, with his top hat and clarinet combined with great charm. In this period, at the beginning of the 1930s, he takes on the task of trying to (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #12 – Sweet Substitute – This tune has long been a favorite of mine. At the end of his life, Jelly Roll Morton started a publishing company with a friend, and some of the songs that he then wrote are as sad but attractive as this one (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #210 – The Midnight Special – This was for me a very important album since it led to the fact that I really got into playing and singing several of these songs. I was in a duet, playing guitar, together with my banjo-playing friend in the 60s. In a way (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #209 – I’m Through, Goodbye – This record is from 1966, when I was sixteen. I was working in the fields in the summer, and half of the earnings went to my mother. For the rest I bought clothes and a few records. Some time ago I met a guy that (…) read more and listenread more and listen