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 #112 – My Baby Came Home. It’s not a generally agreed upon judgement, but to my ears and taste Red McKenzie had a wonderful voice and his expression of sentiments is fine with me. On this compilation of singers from the jazz age (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #111 – Love Sick Blues. Georgia White was a native of the state with the same name. She was born in Macon, Georgia 1903 and began her recording career 1933 when most of the classic, female blues singers had lost their popularity (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #110 – After You’ve Gone. During the pandemic Ate Van Delden’s biography of Adrian Rollini made good company, and he is also involved in this CD release with 26 well-preserved tracks from 1924-27. During this period (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #109 – I Ain’t Got Nobody. This volume three in the complete output on records by the blues singer Ida Cox has a lot of good music. There are the duets with Papa Charlie Jackson and also “Coffin Blues” one of the saddest tales ever put on a disc. (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #108 – It’s Murder. There’s a lot of good jazz with New Orleans roots here, by Johnny Dodds, Red Allen and Lil Armstrong as leaders. And it’s the last mentioned with her “Swing Orchestra” that I choose to listen to today (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #107 – I Like What You Like. Even if her recording career only lasted eight years there is enough material with Annette Hanshaw to fill a pile of LP records. But it’s hard to think that any of them would be better than this one (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #106 – I Must Have That Man. Here we have an album dedicated to a man of the rhythm section namely the tuba player Joe Tarto. Included is a lot of information about his career that spanned over more than six decades (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #105 – Yellow Dog Blues. Number three in the Cotton Club series includes some oddities in the house bands book. W. C. Handy’s blues has been interpreted by many and here in 1928 it gets the early Duke Ellington treatment (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #104 – He Wouldn’t Stop Doing It. Ikey Robinson was born in Dublin, Virginia in 1904 and became a professional musician at 14. He is worth an LP under his own name and here he’s got one. But five of the eighteen number (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #103 – Let’s Get Friendly. Today I listen to a Ben Selvin record for breakfast, which puts me in a good mood. Good sound thanks to transfers by Chris Ellis, good work at the original recording studios in New York and (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #102 – Have Your Chill, I’ll Be Here When Your Fever Rises. I think that this was the first record with Louis Armstrong that I bought. Meanwhile, you could turn on the radio and hear his hit Hello Dolly. But it was this early version (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #101 – Say ’Yes’ Today. Roger Wolfe loved music and played several instruments, and he was also the son of millionaire Otto Kahn, so with the aid of his father he could put together a dance band that was sometimes (…) read more and listenread more and listen