Enjoy my new series with Records from the Shelves
I started out in the 1960s buying vinyl records and some 78’s. Most of the records I bought at any price because I just had to have them. My mother could send me out with money to buy new trousers, but I came back with a record. In the beginning it was mostly the milestones of classic jazz and records by blues artists alone with guitar, because that was the music that I wanted to play myself.
When the CD’s came in the 90s I bought many recordings again since they were more practical to work with, and they often contained transfers of better originals. Furthermore, you could sometimes get everything recorded by a special artist in chronological order. Today I’m back to buying vinyl again most often because I find them cheap, and thus I can take a chance to listen to music that I may or may not like.
I have made many discoveries over the years. Things that may not be as important to me as the cornerstones of classic jazz but are still enjoyable and that gives me a wider spectrum.
Now I’m going to play a record every day and present a tune with a short comment. Early jazz, blues, modern jazz, operatic arias maybe and some bygone popular artist’s recordings. Let’s listen together, and we’ll see what comes up!
From the Record Shelves #95 – Don’t Give Me Sympathy. According to Edmond Hall himself, this nice little song was one that they often sang and played at home when he was small, and it stems from the 1890s. Home was in Reserve, Louisiana but Edmond (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #94 – The Swampland. I remember a quote from Willie the Lion Smith: “The musician never masters music, but learns something new every day”. I agree with that! He was himself one of “The Three” which means one of the three (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #93 – How Many Times. A compilation of more or less well known American dance bands from the 1920s. The usual way for me to use an LP like this is as background music in the morning. Like a ray of sunshine it makes me come in a good mood (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #92 – It’s the Talk of the Town. This is a good example of how I fell in love with a recording by taping it to reel to reel tape from the radio and listen to it in certain situations in my youth. Thus, the tune, the chosen tempo and (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #91 – Move Over . When I saw this record in the shop, a department store, some day back in 1966 the price was over my budget. But I just had to have it, so I swapped etiquettes with a cheaper one. It was the only time, and I’m a bit shamed, but (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #90 – Careless Love. First I must make a bit boring comment on sound and transfers of original 78 rpm records. Once, my girlfriend wanted me to place a bid on an 78 auction because she wanted to have a Bessie Smith Record (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #89 – Brotherly Love. There are several good and interesting and for the most part obscure recordings on this LP. It’s difficult to make a choice of one.But here’s one from September 1926 that contains some seconds that constitutes the high point for me (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #88 – Just You, Just Me. Five minutes of bebop inspired jazz played in front of an enthusiastic audience in Hollywood. The clarinetist that is the centerpiece in Arnold Ross Quartet is the young swede Stan Hasselgard (Åke Hasselgård) (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #87 – The Eel. There is a lot of good music on the LP especially among the 1933 recordings, but I simply can’t pass over Bud Freeman’s “pièce de résistance”. The title is good, if you never saw the action of the slippery creature (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #86 – Blue Blowers Blues. The LP has two contrasting orchestral sounds. On side one there is a lively washboard and kazoo group, but today I chose to put the attention to the other side with Cutis Mosby’s Blue Blowers and (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #85 – Indiana. When I hear this I can’t help thinking about a passus from Eddie Condon’s book We Called It Music. In a chapter called “Young Man with a Cap” it reads: “The next day we got up as the train came into Cleveland (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #84 – Five Pennies. On the record label of this Brunswick 78 rpm we can read the lineup of the group, Red Nichols and his Five Pennies and our ears can easily confirm it. The timpani of Vic Berton starts off this rather peaceful performance (…) read more and listenread more and listen