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 #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 Record Shelves #242 – In the Evening – I made my first trip to Paris in 1969 and came back with an LP featuring one of my idols. It starts with this tune by Leroy Carr. I put it on the turntable, and the outstanding vocal performance, the guitar playing, and (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #241 – Without a Song – In December 1969, Freddie Hubbard (1938–2008) was in Europe, as this live recording proves. That year on July 21, I came home from work, and some relatives had gathered to celebrate my 20th birthday. They were in front of (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #240 – Close Fit Blues – In Clarence Williams rich output of records between 1927 and the Depression, there are two distinct kinds: the washboard bands and the ones with a tuba, and this LP has material from the latter category. The aim with which (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #239 – Barbara Surrenders – Today’s soundtrack to my breakfast is not happy—not a very positive one. And how could it be when Johnny Mandel’s great jazz score was written for a dramatic and tragic, reality based film in which Susan Hayward (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #238 – Sing On – Today I will not say much myself; instead I give the word to Richard Hadlock, who wrote the liner notes in 1986: “New Orleans jazz, music which strikes many listeners as ingenuously blithe and sportive, is, for its players, a life and (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #237 – Here Comes My Ball and Chain – I treasure this RCA Vintage Series LP record. The Coon-Sanders Nighthawk Orchestra from Kansas City became famous through national radio broadcasts, starting in 1922. A couple of years later they moved (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #236 – Farewell Blues – I have a faint memory of seeing his name as a piano accompanist to a striptease act here in Malmö, Sweden, in the 1960s. I was too young to be allowed into that venue. Claude Hopkins (1903–1984) had a long career (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #235 – What’s New – When I started to buy records I did not have much money, and the records were expensive. I may remember it wrong, but in my mind the price of a record in the 1960s was about the same as a pair of jeans. I had to concentrate on (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #234 – Melancholy – There’s a special atmosphere in this fine recording featuring Johnny Dodds and Louis Armstrong. This is April 1927, and the couple plus drummer Baby Dodds recorded the tune again only a few weeks later (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #233 – Careless Love – In the 1970s when cassette radios came about, I sometimes recorded our gigs. One of the guys I played with got extremely nervous, so I had to hide the machine in a bag and put it near the loudspeakers. This live recording (…) read more and listenread more and listen