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 #328 – The Things That Were Made for Love – ”Hot dance music,” such as this, means approximately three minutes of an attractive melody played in a good dance rhythm and blended with or at least spiced with improvised jazz. One can only wish that such a mixture in popular music (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #327 – A Bag O’ Blues – Jack Pettis Orchestra was really something! It was drawn as a smaller unit out of Ben Bernie’s dance orchestra with the purpose of recording more hot numbers. The musicians were top class. Normally I prefer a session that includes this number (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #326 – Speak Now Or Hereafter Hold Your Peace – In the 1990s this series came with a new approach to releasing, and on the other end, listening to jazz music, presenting in chronological order everything recorded, including alternative takes and surviving live (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #325 – I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate – Here’s a tune that can be and has been interpreted in many ways, especially before the revival. The early ”fives” and the Georgians had their versions, and Clarence Willams provided a more bluesy approach (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #324 – If I Should Lose You – The trumpet player Booker Little (1938–1961) had a short life but left a strong impression behind in his playing, as is witnessed by his recordings. In his ultimate session, the sextette is full of youthful energy, and the music is beautiful (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #323 – The Sidewalks of New York – There is much music from Raymond Burke on the CD, and I love that, but there are also a couple of numbers from a for me less known clarinet player. Irvine “Pinky” Vidacovich can be heard on the classic recordings of New Orleans Owls (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #322 – Dear Old Southland – Here we have a clarinet duet by the great Albert Nicholas and his disciple John Defferary. I met John about 15 years ago when we happened to play alongside each other in a parade at a jazz festival. He faintly remembered that we had also played (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #321 – I’m Coming Virginia – Johnny Hyman, better known as Johnny Wiggs (1899–1977), started to play cornet at an early age and became professional playing in different bands in his hometown New Orleans after 1925. He chose, however to become a teacher of other things (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #320 – It Was So Beautiful – Sometime around the shift of millenniums, the sound engineer Ted Kendall made new and good transfers of Django Reinhardt recordings for the British label JSP. Here we have volume four in the series containing, among others, a session from September 1935 (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #319 – Stomp Your Stuff – State Street Ramblers had recorded with Roy Palmer on trombone and Darnell Howard on clarinet, but here they have to do without them, and if you can trust Rust “Jazz Records” discography, it’s just the trio of the rhythm section that we hear (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #318 – Dardanella – Coinciding with WW1, let’s say between 1915 and 1920, oriental types of songs were popular, and this is one of them, published by Fred Fisher in 1919. He also wrote the lyrics, but they are seldom used. When Paul Whiteman took it up about ten years later, he assigned it (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #317 – Nobody but My Baby – It says “Louis Armstrong’s Original Washboard Beaters” on the label. So, what was going on here? Did they try to capitalize on Armstrong’s growing fame in Europe? Was it no mistake, just a way of selling more copies? Well, it might have been the (…) read more and listenread more and listen