From the Record Shelves #318 - DardanellaFrom 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 #310 - Little Did I KnowFrom the Record Shelves #310 – Little Did I Know – Under the leadership of saxophone player Glenn Gray and with the aid of good management, the Casa Loma Orchestra had success in the 30’s. Here, around the turn of the decade from the 20s, they appear as a mixture of a dance band and (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #284- Riverboat ShuffleFrom the Record Shelves #284 – Riverboat Shuffle – As always when he is present, Bix Beiderbecke, with his cornet, is the protagonist here. There are several facets of his genius, and here on this session with Frankie Trumbauer’s Orchestra in 1927 (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #274 - Davenport BluesFrom the Record Shelves #274 – Davenport Blues – When Adrian Rollini got a contract for a session with the newly started Decca Company in October 1934, he had help from his brother Art, the tenor saxophone player, to get together a really good line-up, including (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #231 - FlashesFrom the Record Shelves #231 – Flashes – As you can expect, there is a display of Bunny Berigan’s virtuosity and talent here, a lot of “take it, Bunny!” where he shows off his skills and power. Impressive as it is, I still prefer the reading of a handful of arrangements (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #216 - ’Taint So, Honey, ’Taint SoFrom the Record Shelves #216 – ’Taint So, Honey, ’Taint So – It was raining like mad, but I was out on my bike. I had a very important business to take care of, which was buying a record. When I came to Leif Anderson he opened the door wearing his bathrobe. Leif was (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #212 - SundayFrom the Record Shelves #212 – Sunday – The Vintage series made compilations of tunes from special years on some albums. I bought them as they came out in chronological reverse order, starting in 1928 and finish with 1926 which is the album that (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #202 - Rose of Washington SquareFrom the Record Shelves #202 – Rose of Washington Square – Milt Gabler had a record shop since 1926 in Manhattan, across the street from the Commodore Hotel. In the thirties, he sold mostly reissues of the jazz classics from the 1920s, and one day he said to (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #193 - GypsyFrom 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 #190 - Strut Miss LizzieFrom 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 #171 - Fidgety FeetFrom the Record Shelves #171 – Fidgety Feet – On this day a hundred years ago, on February 18, 1924, Bix Beiderbecke made his first record. His sound as it came out of a cornet and his musical ideas still fascinate people all over the world, and it is (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #170 - The Co-EdFrom the Record Shelves #170 – The Co-Ed – It’s interesting to reflect over how quickly the musicians and the bands influenced each other within the fast developing early jazz idiom. Here we have a group from New Orleans that under the name Crescent City Jazzers (…) read more and listenread more and listen