From the Studio #17 – Many Happy Returns of the Day – My one-man band plays a full arrangement of a celebration song, but as you see below or hear on the recording, it’s not a happy one. Trombone and cornet are the main instruments, and the mutes come to good use (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #16 – Loveless Love – This is also named Careless Love and was composed by W.C. Handy. It’s one of those tunes that is always good to play, simple and basic, and inspiring to the soloist. Many have recorded it. My favorite is Bessie Smith’s version with (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #15 – Glad Rag Doll – Today I play a couple of choruses on a nice tune composed by Jack Yellen, with lyrics by Dan Dougherty and Milton Ager. I do not sing, so you will not hear the lyrics but they are quite sad. Glad Rag Doll means a girl dressed in (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #14 – More Than You Know – Here are a couple of choruses of a lovely, for once positive, love song by Vincent Youmans with lyrics by William Rose and Edward Eliscu. Many have recorded this. My favorites are by Benny Goodman and Billie Holiday (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #13 – Honeymoon Hotel – Today I needed to warm up my clarinet, so I played a couple of choruses on a tune that is not a jazz tune but a song from a 1937 Busby Berkeley musical comedy with Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler. It’s a long sequence (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #12 – Sweet Substitute – This tune has long been a favorite of mine. At the end of his life, Jelly Roll Morton started a publishing company with a friend, and some of the songs that he then wrote are as sad but attractive as this one (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #11 – The Spell of the Blues – I have liked this tune ever since I, as a teenager, heard it in a recording by the Dorsey Brothers, featuring the great Bing Crosby on vocal. I play it as a cornet duet, one muted and one open, with clarinet. Then I added (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #10 – Dinah – Here is a jam on Dinah. The tune is from Akst-Lewis-Young and was published in 1925. Ethel Waters sang it, and Jean Goldkette’s Orchestra made an instrumental record. Other memorable versions are the ones of Bing Crosby with (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #9 – That’s How I Feel About You – came to like this tune. There is no well-known recording of it. Here my new mute came to good use. Last autumn I tried some different ones in a shop in Paris. In the end I bought the one that is still made under the (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #8 – Four or Five Times – Here is a jam on a tune that I think is quite suitable for just that. Often, when we play at parties, we don’t have a list of tunes to choose from, and this one is frequently there. Here I play it in Eb. To get further inspiration there are (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #7 – Through – Today, it became a clarinet and muted cornet duet. After that, a solo with a saxophone background. It’s a nice song, and I could have made a vocal effort, but for once the lyrics don’t appeal to me (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #6 – C’est si bon – C’est si bon was recorded by Yves Montand and had, as far as I know, a moderate success in France, but when Louis Armstrong did his version, “C’est si bon, people say that in France,” (…) read more and listenread more and listen