Give Me Your Telephone Number
78 rpm Parlophone R 2799
According to the label, J. C. Higginbotham, an extraordinary trombone player, is also the composer of this nice 32-bar conventional popular tune with an additional likewise conventional 16-bar verse. It’s a good melody, and harmonically it’s an appetizer for improvisation.
Charlie Holmes takes the opportunity on alto sax, and after warming up with the verse, Red Allen enters with his trumpet, doing his usual frenetic thing by playing with the rhythm. In between there is the leader of the session, Higgy himself, urgent to speak through his trombone. And it is also he who gets the last word with a high note underpinned by banjo player Will Johnson’s tremolo.
But the most striking thing about this recording may be the bass playing by Pops Foster, who is driving the band with a steady hand, and it is a pleasure to hear him close on a good copy of a 78 rpm record.
All musicians were normally members of Louis Russell’s orchestra, and the year was 1930.