Year: 2024
From the Record Shelves #295 – I’d Rather Be a Beggar with You – I have a weakness for sentimental songs, under the condition that they are delivered with a reasonably high grade of honesty. Fortunately, there were a handful of singers that could do that in the (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Studio #55 – Malinda’s Wedding Day I play and I record in my home studio, and I do just what I like. This time it became a wedding between a song that I’ve heard on record with Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra and a sound that I associate with (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #294 – On Treasure Island – Around 1970, Teddy Wilson performed solo in a bar only a stone’s throw away from where I lived here in Malmö, Sweden. I also heard him play with an all-star band in Spain a couple of years later. How his playing was (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Studio #54 – Cheerful Little Earful The three saxophones got a role in this little play with an uplifting tune from the otherwise critical year of 1930. It was composed by Harry Warren, and the lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Billy Rose are quite witty and positive (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #293 – The Sheik of Araby – More from Eddie Condon today! This LP contains 1944 recordings for World, a company that offered specially recorded music to radio stations. On the two LPs we get, in addition to the released takes, unissued ones (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #292 – Panama – This is probably one of the best Dixieland sessions ever made. Four tunes were recorded on November 27, 1943, and this is one of them. The group was called “Wild Bill” Davison and his Commodores. Extatic, exiting (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Studio #53 – Stairway to the Stars Out of my home studio comes this: a couple of choruses on a tune that I’ve never had the chance to play in public. Behind it are two musicians of great fame from the 1920s: violinist Matty Malneck and pianist Frank Signorelli (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #291 – Then I’ll Be Happy – The LP starts with 1923 and Fletcher Henderson had a good and interesting orchestra already. The brass instrumentalists play with conviction and feeling and the saxophone team of Don Redman and (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Studio #52 – Waiting at the End of the Road I saw the King Vidor 1930 film Hallelujah on TV once. It must have been in the 1960s or early 70s. Irving Berlin composed wonderful music for this early talkie, and the theme that goes through it is (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #290 – I Love a Piano – This double LP with more or less well-known tunes from the great Irving Berlin contains a rarity. It is very unpretentious, and that is the point here. Just a man with a piano love song (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #289 – She’s Just My Size – I was lucky to be able to hear the two most famous big bands in the world when I was very young. Duke Ellington and Count Basie had in common total control over their orchestras (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Studio #51 – Bill Bailey Now, this time I just wanted to give some air to my instruments and play a simple (nothing is simple in jazz, let’s rather say uncomplicated) tune to see what it makes. If someone wants to learn and practice playing traditional jazz with solos and (…) read more and listenread more and listen