Month: October 2024

From the Record Shelves #309 – Love for Sale – Several things stand out as different or special on this recording, the song and its subject and the arrangement. It’s not one of the bands most happy contributions to the roaring twenties, but now we have reached 1930 and the depression. The band (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #64 – On Treasure Island – The book by Robert Louis Stevenson was published in 1883 and was “a story for boys.” So, as a boy, like many other boys and maybe a few girls, I read and enjoyed it. The song is from 1935 and is inspiring to play and to jam on. It has a characteristic minor (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #308 – The Gal from Joe’s/Riding on a Blue Note – I had the chance to hear Cootie Williams in Copenhagen sometime at the end of the 70s. He and Russell Procope were playing with a Danish group, including the fine tenor sax man Jesper Thilo (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #307 – I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise – The main attraction on this Paul Whiteman LP is the outstanding recording of Rhapsody in Blue. But there are also some early successes, including Whispering, the real big one from 1920 (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #63 – Love Is Here to Stay – I just have to sing this wonderful George Gershwin tune. And it’s got to be very slow. And then I had to play a cornet solo after that. The lyrics are not too bad either, here they are: It’s very clear, our love is here to stay (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #306 – Just Too Soon – The pianist as a solo instrument should imitate an orchestra, said Jelly Roll Morton, and his follower Earl Hines is surely one of these one-man bands. The tempo and the timing on a number like this are bound to (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #62 – You’ve Got to See Mamma Ev’ry Night – This tune has, if not nine lives, at least two. Like many other ones. It was popular by recordings of singers and early bands like The Georgians and Ladd’s Black Aces around 1923, then disappeared (…) read more and listenread more and listen