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 #193 – Gypsy – There was a time—it seems long ago now—when all the early recordings of jazz were not available. Originals were hard to come by, and the reissues were not plentiful. It was an exciting age in which (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #192 – Mamie’s Blues – Sometime last year, I came into a second-hand record shop and heard this. I’ve heard it many times before, but it was still magic, especially among young people in the present world we live in. I had to have it! (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #191 – Alligator Blues – Today I listen to a 78 rpm record with material from a classic session. Between May 7th and 14th, 1927 Louis Armstrong recorded one masterpiece after another when his studio group had been augmented from (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #190 – Strut Miss Lizzie – On the back of the sleeve of this LP that I bought secondhand there are the autographs of Tony Parenti and Max Kaminsky, and they also wrote the date, October 20, 1968. I have no idea where they played that day (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #189 – I Wonder What’s Become of Joe? – This is happy music. First of all, the aim is to entertain and make people dance. Secondly, it’s made during the Roaring Twenties (1926) when many young people in the US had a good time. Then, thirdly (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #188 – Beedle Um Bum – This is one of the first LPs that I bought in my life, and it is still one of the best. I had seen it in a shop, and when I had saved up the money I went back. This was in the 1960s, and I was naive when I was shocked because (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #187 – Tell Me Cutie – The picture of Natty Dominique on the cover is anything but sharp, and the music is a little bit the same. One of the best numbers is this one, on the B-side of the LP, where Dominique is not present. Instead (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #186 – Bogalousa Strut – I will not even try to put words to the magic of this band from New Orleans. You just have to listen and hear nine people working in the same direction with a perfect tempo. Cornet player Sam Morgan had been leading bands (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #185 – Darkness on the Delta – “By one of the truly outstanding dance orchestras of the big band epoch,” it says on the cover. And I’m quick to agree. But I’m not sure why, because they do things that I normally don’t like. The singers (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #184 – Stompin’ ’em Along Slow – This LP was a shock to me. I had heard Eddie Lang before and liked him a lot, but when I heard Lonnie Johnson’s solo recordings sounding like a one-man band I could hardly believe my ears (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #183 – My Old Kentucky Home – I will not call this recording great, and I don’t think that it was intended to be either. It’s just entertainment for the moment, music to put you in a good mood (and as such it is great!) by some of the guys (…) read more and listenread more and listen
From the Record Shelves #182 – Oh Me! Oh My! – Sometimes a collector or a specialist comes up with recorded evidence that jazz was everywhere, thus debating if New Orleans really was the birthplace of jazz. But in any case, the city had more jazz than anyplace else (…) read more and listenread more and listen