She’s Crying for Me
CD Retrieval RTR 79031
This is the swan song of the fabulous New Orleans Rhythm Kings. On March 26, 1925, a hundred years ago, the band that made it great in Chicago and influenced many white musicians had since long split up, and most of the members had returned to their hometown, New Orleans. Their leader, cornetist Paul Mares, had to reconstruct the orchestra several times when the teams from the big recording companies came to record local talent with portable equipment.
This time when Victor came around they re-recorded “She’s Crying for Me,” a composition attributed to trombone player Santo Pecora but quite similar to Jelly Roll Morton’s “Georgia Swing.”
Compared to the intensity of the earlier version, which is intense and played at a faster tempo, this is more laid-back, New Orleans style. In place of the great but unfortunate clarinet player Leon Roppolo, who was taken mentally ill at the time, we hear his buddy and orchestra companion Charlie Cordilla. The two played saxophone and clarinet alongside each other in the Halfway House Orchestra.