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Thursday, March 31, 2011

Jack Nitzsche Part 4.....................


More, more and more............Part 4

A little bit better-Terry Stafford 1964 (JN arr)
A man needs love-Nooney Rickett 1966 (JN pr,arr, horns)
It happens every time-Tim Buckley 1966 (JN arr strings)
It's all in the game-Lesley Gore 1965 (JN pr,arr)
Let the good times roll-Judy Henske 1966 (JN pr,arr)
Let the little girl limbo-Doris Day 1963 (JN arr,cond)
Like someone in love-Bobby Vee 1966 (JN arr,cond)
Like your love-The Explosions 1965 (JN arr-unc)
Little boy-Karen Verros 1965 (JN arr,cond)
Love her-The Walker Brothers 1965 (JN arr)
Love is strange-Ceasar and Cleo (Sonny and Cher) 1964 (JN arr)
Love, look away-Lesley Gore 1965 (JN pr,arr)
Move over darling-Doris Day 1963 (JN arr,cond)
Mr. Soul-Everly Brothers 1984 (JN arr)
Music City-The Pleasures 1964 (JN arr)
My girl-Billy Ford 1964 (JN co-wr,arr)
Needles and pins-Jackie DeShannon 1963 (JN co-wr,arr)
No matter what you do-Lesley Gore 1966 (JN pr,arr)
Nobody but you-Marty Balin 1962 (JN keyboards)
Nobody needs your love more than I do-Tammy Grimes 1966 (JN pr, arr)
Not for me-Bobby Darin 1963
Not the lovin' kind-Dino, Desi and Billy 1965 (JN co-arr)
Off and running-Lesley Gore 1966 (JN cond)
Old devil moon-Hank and Dean 1962 (JN arr,cond)
Old town-Jack Nitzsche 1963
One flew over the cuckoo's nest-Jack Nitzsche 1976  
Only one-The Castells 1962 (JN arr)
Oriental garden-Ramona King and group 1962 (JN arr)
The lonely surfer-Jack Nitzsche 1963
The magnificent seven-Jack Nitzsche 1963


I'm amazed at the number of downloads for this series.....LOVE IT!! These lists are so fun to compile.....I feel like I'm listening to an AM station on my Dad's transistor radio as a really little kid while I'm doing these. Funny, I got an email from someone saying pretty much the same. Isn't it funny that what passes for oldies radio NEVER plays any of these cuts? lol.

Jack Nitzsche list part 4 comin' up......soooo, meanwhile, an all time fave song

Bob Wills-The Presto Transcriptions Vol. 1.........

Take it away, Leon.............. ;)

Ida
Silver bells
Beaumont rag
Gray eagle
This is Southland
The waltz you saved for me
Liberty
Playboy chimes
Tuxedo Junction
Just friends
By an old watermill
Lonesome hearted blues
Talking 'bout you
A heart full of love
Spanish fandango
Whose heart are you breaking
Rosetta
Rubber dolly
Mexicali Rose
Rainbow
In the mood
Sugar moon
Elmer's tune
My life's been a pleasure
Texas home
Dipsy doodle
Just a little lovin'
Sunrise serenade



Luis Russell........Part 1

Luis Russell

Luis Russell (6 August 1902 - 11 December 1963) was a jazz pianist and bandleader.
Luis Carl Russell was born on Careening Cay, near Bocas del Toro, Panama, in a family of Afro-Caribbean ancestry. His father was a music teacher, and young Luis learned to play violin, guitar, trombone, and piano. He began playing professionally accompanying silent film by 1917 and later at a casino in Colón, Panama. In 1919 he won $3000 (USD) in a lottery, and used it to move to the United States with his mother and sister, settling in New Orleans, Louisiana. He began performing with New Orleans bands, and took lessons on New Orleans style jazz piano from Steve Lewis. He played with Albert Nicholas's band, then moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1924.

In Chicago he played with Doc Cook and King Oliver, in addition to occasional jobs under his own name and pick up bands in recording studios. With Oliver's band Russell moved to New York City in May of 1927. In October of that year he left Oliver to start his own band.
Russell's band became one of the top jazz groups in New York. It was borrowed for gigs and recording dates by such jazz notables as Red Allen, Jelly Roll Morton, and Louis Armstrong; Armstrong wound up taking over the band as front man in 1929 although Russell remained the music director.

The band returned to Russell's name while Armstrong played in California and Europe in the early 1930s; Russell and Armstrong were reunited in 1935. They again split paths in 1943 when Russell formed a new band under his own name, which played at the Savoy and Apollo in Manhattan as well as in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Between 1926 and 1934, Russell recorded only 38 sides (mostly using his own name), plus those issued under Henry "Red" Allen (1929) and a handful where Louis Armstrong fronted his band. Of these, his 1929-1930 OKeh sides are considered jazz milestones. A 6 song session for ARC (Melotone, Perfect, Oriole, Banner, Romeo) in 1934 yielded 6 very precise modern recordings (3 featured Sonny Woods' novelty vocals, 1 featured the great, although obscure Palmer Brothers). The two instrumental sides, "Primitive" and "Hokus Pokus" are amazing examples of hot jazz precision.

In 1935 Louis Armstrong took it over the orchestra altogether and for the next eight years they functioned as back-up band for Armstrong with Russell acting as the musical director. Russell led a new band from 1943-48 that played at the Savoy and Apollo and made a few recordings.
In 1948 Russell retired from full time music and opened a notions shop, with irregular band gigs and teaching music on the side. In 1959 he visited Panama where he gave a piano recital of classical music. Luis Russell died in New York City, aged 61.

His daughter, Catherine Russell, is a jazz singer.

This is a nice, HOT 'lil set.....don't miss this one, trust me....... :)

Part 1 and 2 are the hotter lists, IMHO...the earlier bands. Part 3 has some warm spots (the later bands), but sometimes Lee Richardson's vocals on a lot of the selections, though technically good, drag on a bit for me (again, just my opinion)....I wish they'd stuck to more instrumentals in that period. 

Enjoy.....

 Part 1

*unless otherwised noted-LR and his Orch.*

29th and Dearborn-Russell's Hot Six 3-10-1926
African jungle-Jungle Town Stompers 4-15-1929
Broadway rhythm-Lou and his Gingersnaps   9-13-1929
Dirty T.B. blues-Victoria Spivey 10-01-29
Feeling the spirit-9-6-1929
Freakish blues-8-28-1931
Give me your telephone number-J. C. Higginbotham And His Six Hicks 2-5-1930
Goin' to town-LR orch. v=Chick Bullock 8-28-1931
Higginbotham blues-J. C. Higginbotham And His Six Hicks 2-5-1930
High tension-9-5-1930
Hocus pocus-8-8-1934
Honey, that reminds me-12-17-1930
I got rhythm-10-24-1930
It's tight like that-Luis Russell And His Burning Eight 1-15-1929
Jersey lightning-9-6-1929
Louisiana swing-5-29-1930
Moaning the blues-Victoria Spivey 10-01-29
Panama Limited blues-Russell's Hot Six w/ Ada Brown 03-10-26
Plantation Joys-Luis Russell's Heebie Jeebie Stompers 11-17-1926
Poor 'lil me-5-29-1930
Primitive-8-8-1934
Saratoga drag- 12-17-1930
Savoy shout-1-15-1929
Say the word (From the revue "The Third Little Show") -v=Chick Bullock 8-28-1931
Slow as molasses-Jungle Town Stompers 4-15-1929
Sweet mumtaz-Russell's Hot Six 3-10-1926
The call of the freaks-Luis Russell & His Burning Eight 1-15-1929
The new call of the freaks-v=Henry Allen, J.C. Higginbotham & Louis Metcalf 9-6-1929
The way he loves is just too bad-Lou and his Gingersnaps   9-13-1929
Tia Juana Man-Russell's Hot Six w/ Ada Brown  03-10-26


Part 2

At the Darktown strutter's ball-v=Sonny Woods 8-8-1934
Bloodhound blues-Victoria Spivey 10-1-1929
Case on down (orig. mislabel of "Ease on down")-12-17-1930
Doctor blues-12-17-1929
Dolly mine-Luis Russell's Heebie Jeebie Stompers 11-17-1926
Ghost of the freaks-v= Palmer Bros 8-8-1934
Muggin' lightly-9-5-1930
My blue heaven-v= Sonny Woods 8-8-1934
Oh, Daddy blues-Bessie Smith 1923
Ol' man river-v= Sonny Woods 8-8-1934
On revival day-5-29-1930
Panama-9-5-1930
Please don't turn me down-Luis Russell's Heebie Jeebie Stompers 11-17-1926
Saratoga shout-12-17-1929
Song of the Swanee-12-17-1929
Sweet mumtaz-Luis Russell's Heebie Jeebie Stompers 11-17-1926
Telephoning the blues-Victoria Spivey 10-1-1929
You rascal you-v=Henry "Red" Allen   8-28-1931


Part 3

1280 jive-1945
A rainy Sunday-1946
After hour creep-1943
All the things you are-v=Lee Richardson 5-29-1946
Boogie in the basement-1945
Deep six blues-1946
Don't take your love from me-v=Lee Richardson 1946
For you-v=Lee Richardson 1946
Garbage man blues-1943
Gloomy Sunday-v=Lee Richardson 1946
Gone-v=Lee Richardson 1946
I'm in a low down mood-v=Lee Richardson 1945
I'm yours-v=Lee Richardson 1946
I've been a fool again-v=Lee Richardson 1946
I've got a gal (whose love comes COD)-1945
Luke the spook-10-19-1946
My silent love-v=Lee Richardson 1946
Remaining souvenirs-v=Lee Richardson 1946
Sad lover blues-v=Lee Richardson 1945
Sweet memory-v=Lee Richardson 1946
The very thought of you-v=Lee Richardson 1945
Walkin' slow-v=Lee Richardson 1946
You gave me everything but love-v=Lee Richardson 1946
You taught me how to smile-v=Lee Richardson 1945








Tuesday, March 29, 2011

The Complete Charlie Christian Volume 5..........


Volume 5 of 9.............

01 - Royal Garden Blues
02 - Royal Garden Blues
03 - Royal Garden Blues
04 - As Long As I Live
05 - As Long As I Live
06 - Benny's Bugle
07 - Benny's Bugle
08 - Benny's Bugle
09 - Benny's Bugle
10 - Wholly Cats
11 - Honeysuckle Rose
12 - Breakfast Feud
13 - Breakfast Feud
14 - Breakfast Feud
15 - Breakfast Feud
16 - Breakfast Feud


Volume 5 resumes with the Goodman Sextet studio session of November 7, 1940 and continues through to the first part of another on December 19, 1940.
Remainder of the session from November 7, 1940:

*   “Royal Garden Blues”     all takes   (-3 thru -1)
*   “As Long As I Live”     both takes
First time on CD for master take -1.
CC takes his 8-bar solo on the bridge—each is a unique gem.

*   “Benny’s Bugle”     all 6 takes,  but…
Take 5 is missing the trumpet intro and the theme riffs (12 bars)—kind of a relief after hearing it consecutively so many times.
[Released in its entirety in October 2001 on Masters of Jazz MJCD 189, Charlie Christian • Volume 9.]

The three sextet tunes recorded from The Make Believe Ballroom radio show of November 19:

*   “Benny’s Bugle”
*   “Wholly Cats”
*   “Honeysuckle Rose”
CC’s solo on this recording of “Honeysuckle Rose” has a particularly inventive bridge.

The CD concludes with the first tune recorded by the sextet on the December 19th studio session:

*   “Breakfast Feud”     all 5 takes,  but...
The 3rd take is incomplete—it starts with CC’s complete solo but then the conclusion of the 4th take is spliced after his solo. The only part of this take that has ever been released is the 20 bars of Charles’ solo; not even the 4-bar refrain that precedes his solo has seen the light of day.
However, the next track contains the 4th take in its entirety, issued for the first-time-ever complete and unspliced... finally!



The only item missing from the time period covered by this volume is an unissued We the People CBS aircheck of the sextet playing “Flying Home” said to have been recorded on December 10, 1940.

ENJOY :)

Red Nichols 3

It's about time....finally....Part 3 of Red Nichols

After you've gone-Charleston Chasers 1-4-1927
Ain't misbehavin' (from "Connie's Hot Chocolates") -Charleston Chasers 6-28-1929
Basin Street blues-Charleston Chasers 2-9-1931
Beale Street blues--Charleston Chasers 2-9-1931
Cinderella Brown-Charleston Chasers 2-20-1930
Delerium-Charleston Chasers 5-18-1927
Farewell blues-Charleston Chasers 2-25-1927
Feelin' no pain-Charleston Chasers 9-8-1927
Five Pennies-Charleston Chasers 9-6-1927
Here comes Emily Brown-Charleston Chasers 5-26-1930
Imagination-Charleston Chasers 9-8-1927
Loveable and sweet-Charleston Chasers 7-24-1929
Loving you the way I do-Charleston Chasers 9-30-1930
Mississippi mud-Charleston Chasers 3-7-1928
Moanin' low (from "The little show")-Charleston Chasers 6-28-1929 v=Eva Taylor
My gal Sal-Charleston Chasers 5-18-1927
Red hair and freckles-Charleston Chasers 7-24-1929
Shim me sha wabble-RN and his 5 Pennies 7-3-1930
Shine-Red Nichols' Songcopators 6-18-1934
Slippin' around-Red and Miff's Stompers 10-12-1927
Smiles-RN and his Five Pennies 9-9-1929
Some of these days-RN and his Five Pennies v=Scrappy Lambert 6-7-1929
Somebody to love me-RN and his Five Pennies  10-22-1929 v=Scrappy Lambert
Someday sweetheart-Charleston Chasers 1-4-1927
Sometimes I'm happy-RN and his Five Pennies  1-24-1930
Soon-RN and his Five Pennies. 1-17-1930 v=Wes Vaughn
Strike up the band-RN and his Five Pennies. 1-17-1930 v=Chester Gaylord
Sugarfoot strut-Charleston Chasers 9-6-1927
Sweet Georgia Brown-RN and his Five Pennies 7-2-1930
Tea for two-RN and his Five Pennies 2-14-1930
That's no Bargain -Arkansas Travelers 1-4-1927
That's no Bargain -RN and his Five Pennies 12-8-1926
There'll come a time (wait and see)-RN and his Five Pennies 5-29-1928
There's something in the air-RN and his Orch. 1936

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=O8E4V7AS

I keep finding more stuff=more lists...go figure!!..lol

Monday, March 28, 2011

RIP "Suckzilla".............

A simple 15% water change in my aquarium. I've never had a problem with it. All water chem tests were fine. Yet, I somehow managed to kill an entire aquarium of fish, save for one Honey Gourami, who is doing fine.  Five Convict Cichlids dead, and worst of all....my favourite fish in the entire world is dead. Suckzilla was a 3 foot long Albino Channel Catfish. Not your typical aquarium pet, Suckzilla would've been quite the prize for a sport fisherman....quite the meal, I imagine. He had quite the quirky personality, too. He actually knew me well enough to surface and occasionally let me touch the top of his head, believe it or not. One hellova fish. He'll be missed. I think the day officially sucks right now...........RIP Suckzilla.

Adrian Rollini..........Part 1

Adrian Rollini

Adrian Francis Rollini (June 28, 1903 - May 15, 1956) was a multi-instrumentalist best known for his jazz music. He played the bass saxophone, piano, xylophone, and many other instruments. Rollini is also known for introducing the goofus in jazz music. His major recordings included "You've Got Everything" (1933) on Banner, "A Thousand Good Nights" (1934) on Vocalion, "Davenport Blues" (1934) on Decca, "Nothing But Notes", "Tap Room Swing", "Jitters", "Riverboat Shuffle" (1934) on Decca, and "Small Fry" (1938) on CBS.

Rollini was born June 28, 1903 to Ferdinand Rollini and Adele Augenti Rollini. (Some sources will date 1904, but his brother Arthur, as well as social security records will attest to the earlier date.) He was born in New York and was the eldest of several children. Arthur played tenor saxophone with Benny Goodman from 1934 to 1939, and later with Will Bradley). Growing up in Larchmont, New York, he showed musical ability early on, and began to take piano lessons on a miniature piano, at the age of two. At the age of four, he played a fifteen minute recital at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Among the selections played were Chopin's Minute Waltz—he was hailed as a child prodigy and was billed as "Professor Adrian Rollini."
Rollini continued with music and by age 14 he was leading his own group composed of neighborhood boys, in which he doubled on piano and xylophone. His interest in music was far greater than his interest in school, and Rollini left high school in his third year. Adrian also cut several piano rolls for the Aeolian company on their Mel-O-Dee label, and the Republic brand in Philadelphia - these rolls are quite rare and very few of these have survived. He gigged around and finally made his break when he was 16, and began playing in Arthur Hand's California Ramblers. Rollini was equally skilled at piano, drums, xylophone, and bass saxophone, which gained him the respect of Hand, who transferred the band to Rollini when he later retired from the music field.
How Rollini came to play the bass saxophone is somewhat of a mystery. Some argue that the Ramblers' manager, Ed Kirkeby suggested the instrument to Rollini as a possible tuba double. Others say that it was suggested to him by the banjo player, who saw one in a music store. In either case, Adrian, who could tackle just about anything that came his way, would go on to become the star player of the instrument, a true maestro. His brother Arthur recalls in his book "Thirty Years with the Big Bands" that he just came home with it one day and went to work and within two weeks he was recording on it.

He cut many sides under the California Ramblers and formed two subgroups—The Little Ramblers (starting in 1924) and the Goofus Five (most prominently 1926-1927). It was during his work with these groups that he developed his distinctive style of saxophone playing. Rollini's swing and impetus are quite evident; "Clementine (From New Orleans)", "Vo-Do-Do-De-O Blues", and "And Then I Forget" are among some of the best recordings that not only typify the era but showcase the prominence and power that Rollini brought to the table. During this time, he managed to lay down hundreds of sessions with names like Annette Hanshaw, Cliff Edwards (Ukelele Ike), Joe Venuti and his Blue Four, The University Six, Miff Mole, and Red Nichols to name a few. Some of his best work appears on the sides he cut with Bix Biederbecke (scattered throughout the 1920s, Rollini's great bass sax solos were on scores of records, and were usually outstanding.) He also recorded and worked with Roger Wolfe Kahn, Frank Trumbauer, and Red Nichols.
1927 was a landmark year for jazz and Rollini, as not only did he participate in numerous sides, but he also got the job heading up the talent roster for the opening of the Club New Yorker. It was a short-lived organization, a who's-who of 1920s jazz, including Bix Beiderbecke, Eddie Lang, Joe Venuti, Frank Signorelli and Frank Trumbauer. Sadly, salary demands began to rise, and the club had its own shortcomings, which proved a bad combination in the end, and the arrangement only lasted for some 3 weeks.it was not long until other talent would be seeking his name. From across the pond, a young England-based band leader by the name of Fred Elizalde was leading a band in London at the Savoy Ballroom, and he was looking for the best American jazzmen to spice up his already hot sound. He found Rollini, as well as Chelsea Quealey, Bobby Davis, Tommy Felline and Jack Russin. Rollini submitted his resignation to the Ramblers (where he was replaced by bass saxist Spencer Clark and later by bassist-tubist Ward Lay), and agreed to join Elizalde, along with fellow-Ramblers Quealey, Felline, Russin, and (later) Davis, in 1927, and stayed until September 1928.
Once he returned to America he also began to write, working with Robbins Music Corporation—some of his compositions would include "Preparation", "On Edge", "Nonchalance", "Lightly and Politely", "Gliding Ghost", and "Au Revoir".
He continued to work, recording with such artists as Bert Lown, Lee Morse, The Dorsey Brothers, Ben Selvin and Jack Teagarden on into the depression and the 30s. However, the 1930s saw a shift in musical idea—away from the "hot", two-beat feel and towards a more staid, conservative sound, and Rollini adapted. In 1932-'33 he was part of a short-lived experiment with the Bert Lown band using two bass saxophones, Spencer Clark in the rhythm section and Rollini himself as fourth sax in the reed team. In 1933 as well he formed the Adrian Rollini Orchestra (a studio group assembled for recording), which appeared on Perfect, Vocalion, Melotone, Banner, and Romeo labels. While Rollini did manage to assemble some great talent (for example Bunny Berigan, Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden), these records fall flat in comparison to his earlier work. There are a few examples that stand out, but on the whole the records suffer from a lack of excitement. At this time Rollini also appeared as vibraphonist with Richard Himber's radio orchestra, playing a strictly secondary role in the large, string-oriented ensemble.
His other groups would include the Adrian Rollini Quintette, The Adrian Rollini Trio (primarily late 1930s) and Adrian and his Tap Room Gang which was based in the Hotel President at 234 West 48th Street in New York City. Rollini reportedly managed the club inside of the hotel for a short while as well as leading the orchestra. He also had the Whitby Grill on West 45th St. Both of these were indicative of his inseparability of professional and social life. His clientele in each club were for the most part musicians on a holiday. Rollini could also be found on the radio working with artists like Kate Smith. As if he didn't have enough going for him he turned once again to another phase of musical venture, and opened a store for sale and repair of musical instruments, known as White Way Musical Products which was located at 1587 Broadway. It had long been his belief that the artist playing the instrument knows more about it than the maker concerned only with the mechanics. The shop was a hot spot for autograph hounds who trolled the shop in search of famous band leaders. He was also making excursions between the Georgian Room and the Piccadilly Circus Bar, both in the Piccadilly Hotel. He also began recording for Master and Muzak.
During this time, a gradual shift occurs in Adrian's focus from the bass sax to the vibraphone. This is not so much that Rollini was giving up on the bass saxophone or his abilities, as that popular tastes had rendered the instrument unmarketable after the hot jazz era of the 20s. Rollini recorded on bass sax for the last time in 1938. He continued to be active with vibraphone and chimes, but sadly, when he gave up his role as a bass saxophonist, his role in jazz went with it.
He went on to play hotels, as well as arranging and writing songs behind the scenes, collaborating with such names as Vaughan Monroe but he never did any big recording once the big band era really got underway- his trio pretty much represents the last of his great work. After these, he faded from the scene, appearing here and there and participating in jam sessions. He can be seen in a 1938 short entitled "For Auld lang Syne" starring James Cagney, as well as "Himber Harmonics" (1938) where he appears with the trio, and "Melody Masters: Swing Style" (1939). He also did a brief tour in the late 1940s in which he came to the Majestic Theater in downtown Dallas, as well as other cities.
In his spare time Rollini considered himself a "waterbug," and proud of it. He owned a 21-foot Chris Craft speedboat and a Chris Craft cruiser, sleeping four. After an exhaustive career he made his last recording with his trio in the early 50s, and then turned his attention fully to the hotel business. He later relocated to Florida, and opened the Eden Roc Hotel in September 1955. He also ran the Driftwood Inn at Tavernier Key. Rollini loved sport-fishing, and his Driftwood offered deep-sea fishing charters. After Rollini's death, it appears his wife Dixie left Florida. The remains of the old Driftwood Inn were completely destroyed in a hurricane that rocked the Florida keys in 1960.
He died May 15, 1956 at the age of 52. Jazz collector and scholar Brian Rust presented a memorial program in BBC Light program's "World of Jazz" on June 8. Rollini's death for a long time was somewhat of a mystery. In a brief article from England's Melody Maker, it says Adrian's brother, Arthur is "trying to solve the mystery surrounding Adrian's death. He was sent to the hospital following a severe trauma to his ankle (apparently from an auto-related accident) in the parking lot of the Green Turtle Inn at the Islamorada Key). According to the Melody Maker he was found lying in a blood-splattered car, and one of his feet was almost severed. The article also says he died of a heart attack and lung collapse. The hospital he was sent to was the James Archer Smith Hospital in Homestead, Florida. He died after an 18 day stay in the hospital. According to the recent book, Jazz and Death: Medical Profiles of Jazz Greats, the author, M.D. Frederick J. Spencer (also a coroner) went back and analyzed Rollini's death along with many other jazz greats, and discovered Rollini truly died of mercury poisoning. While in his 18 day stay, he had developed a resistance to feeding and so a glass tube had been inserted into his stomach. The tube was weighted with mercury and somehow the tube broke, exposing Rollini to mercury poisoning. He was survived by his wife, Dorothy (Dixie).
In 1998, Adrian Rollini was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.


Hmmmm, I wanted to do this list for while. It's a collection that spans some of his work with many different bands (and on different instruments). Just a bit of exposure to him as a musician..........enjoy. 

A hundred years from today-Adrian Rollini and his orch. v=Chick Bullock 2-26-1934
Alabamy bound-The Goofus Five 1-14-1925
At the jazz band ball-Bix Beiderbecke and his Gang 10-5-1927
Bill -Adrian Rollini and his orch.1-7-1938
Bouncing in rhythm-Adrian and his Tap Room Gang 6-14-1935
Bugle call rag-1937

Cheese and crackers-Joe Venuti & His Blue Four 9-13-1927

Clementine (from New Orleans) -Goofus Five (California Ramblers) v-Beth Challis 8-10-1927
Crazy quilt-Goofus Five (California Ramblers) 9-15-1926
Davenport blues-Adrian Rollini and his orch.10-23-1934
Diga diga do-Adrian Rollini Trio 9-28-1939
Girl with the light blue hair-Adrian Rollini Trio 5-7-1940
Got a need for you-Adrian and his Tap Room Gang 6-14-1935
Honeysuckle Rose-Adrian and his Tap Room Gang 6-14-1935
I left my sugar standing in the rain-Goofus Five (California Ramblers) v-Beth Challis 8-12-1927
If I had a million dollars-Richard Himber And His Orchestra 1934 v=Joey Nash
It had to be you- Adrian Rollini Orch. v= Ella Logan 1934?
Jazz me blues-Adrian Rollini Trio 1953?
Jazz O'Jazz-Adrian and his Tap Room Gang 6-14-1935 v=Jeanne Burns
Just one of those things-Richard Himber And His Orchestra 1935 v=Stuart Allen
Krazy Kat (tone poem in slow rhythm)-Frrankie Trumbauer and his orch. 09-30-1927
Lazy weather-Goofus Five (California Ramblers) -Goofus Five (California Ramblers)
Lessons in love-Adrian Rollini and his orch. 3-17-1936
Limehouse blues- Adrian Rollini Trio 1953?


http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LKJQKKJI



Some interesting trade ads....1940s

Just a few interesting trade ads from managers, and from companies that I uncovered....fun stuff. 

Saturday, March 26, 2011

בייַ מיר ביסטו שיין,....please let me explain (fine, I'll explain.....Bei mir bist du shein!!) :)

!Bella Bella.......indeed!!

Bei mir bist du schein...........by

Budapest Klezmer Band
Leo Marjana und Orchester
Janis Siegel
Al Bowlly
Ella Fitzgerald
Andrews Sisters
Zarah Leander
Mieczysław Fogg /Henryk Wars Orchestra
Adrian Rollini
Benny Goodman Quartet 1937 w/ Martha Tilton
Belle Baker & Gene Kardos Orchestra
Benny Goodman Orch. w/ Martha Tilton (Jan. 16,  1938)
The Barry Sisters

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QVW3Z7PC







In anticipation of the Adrian Rollini list.........

Awwwww........dig that Bari Sax (well, Joe, Rube, Adrian, Eddie...everything about it, actually...lol)...a$$kickin schweetness!!

And.....because he really is great...one of the best

http://www.joelmabus.com/index.htm

And, just for fun...........

'Cuz I've been a big fan of both Joel and Ray for many. many years..............

To put a little bit of heat into your Saturday afternoon.....yeah, and of course it's an upcoming list ;)



Text from harryoakley's YouTube upload:  Trumpeter Sylvester Ahola was a keen filmer and began his hobby in the 1920's when amateur filming was still a novelty. Ahola filmed much that interested him but we have selected the footage which shows a number of his fellow musicians from different bands of which he was a member. Alas, with only a few exceptions, we have been unable to identify these men and we invite everybody to help us find out who they are. Ahola himself can be seen a few times; rowing a boat, with his camera in his hand (obviously filmed by someone else with another camera although it is possible that he owned two), playing his trumpet, doing a short dance and with an elderly couple, probably his parents. In the scenes with the guys in striped jackets we have identified Adrian Rollini and Tommy Felline - both from the California Ramblers of which Ahola was, very briefly, a member. This footage was shot on the roof of the Newark Branford Theater in March 1927. After leaving the California Ramblers Ahola joined Bert Lowe and his Orchestra (not to be confused with Bert Lown), and several members of this band were also filmed. We have added an appropriate soundtrack; a long version of "The Pay Off", played by the California Ramblers in 1927.

Another...'cuz, like potato chips....one is never enough..... ;)

Comin' up...some recordings with Adrian Rollini............

Friday, March 25, 2011

By request from Adrian....W.C. Handy

W.C. Handy

William Christopher Handy (November 16, 1873 – March 28, 1958) was a blues composer and musician. He was widely known as the "Father of the Blues".

Handy remains among the most influential of American songwriters. Though he was one of many musicians who played the distinctively American form of music known as the blues, he is credited with giving it its contemporary form. While Handy was not the first to publish music in the blues form, he took the blues from a not very well-known regional music style to one of the dominant forces in American music.

Handy was an educated musician who used folk material in his compositions. He was scrupulous in documenting the sources of his works, which frequently combined stylistic influences from several performers. He loved this folk musical form and brought his own transforming touch to it.

Handy was born in Florence, Alabama, to the pastor of a small church in Guntersville, another small town in northeast central Alabama. Handy wrote in his 1941 autobiography, Father of the Blues, that he was born in the log cabin built by his grandfather William Wise Handy, who became an African Methodist Episcopal minister after emancipation. The log cabin of Handy's birth has been saved and preserved in downtown Florence.

Handy was a deeply religious man, whose influences in his musical style were found in the church music he sang and played as a youth, and in the sounds of nature in Florence.

He cited the sounds of nature, such as "whippoorwills, bats and hoot owls and their outlandish noises", the sounds of Cypress Creek washing on the fringes of the woodland, and "the music of every songbird and all the symphonies of their unpremeditated art" as inspiration.

Growing up he apprenticed in carpentry, shoemaking and plastering. He bought his first guitar which he had seen in a local shop window and had secretly saved for by picking berries, nuts and making lye soap, without his parents' permission. His father, dismayed at his actions, asked him, "What possessed you to bring a sinful thing like that into our Christian home?" Ordering Handy to "Take it back where it came from", his father quickly enrolled him in organ lessons. Handy's days as an organ student were short lived, and he moved on to learn the cornet. Handy joined a local band as a teenager, but he kept this fact a secret from his parents. He purchased a cornet from a fellow band member and spent every free minute practicing it.

While in Florence he belonged to a "shovel brigade" at the McNabb furnace, and described the music made by the workers as they beat shovels, altering the tone while thrusting and withdrawing the metal part against the iron buggies to pass the time while waiting for the overfilled furnace to digest its ore, "With a dozen men participating, the effect was sometimes remarkable...It was better to us than the music of a martial drum corps, and our rhythms were far more complicated."   He would note that "Southern Negroes sang about everything...They accompany themselves on anything from which they can extract a musical sound or rhythmical effect..." He would later reflect that, "In this way, and from these materials, they set the mood for what we now call blues".
 
In September 1892, Handy traveled to Birmingham, Alabama to take a teaching exam, which he passed easily. He obtained a teaching job in Birmingham but soon learned that the teaching profession paid poorly. He quit the position and found work at a pipe works plant in nearby Bessemer.

During his off-time, he organized a small string orchestra and taught musicians how to read notes. Later, Handy organized the Lauzetta Quartet. When the group read about the upcoming World's Fair in Chicago, they decided to attend. The trip to Chicago was long and arduous. To pay their way, group members performed at odd jobs along the way. They finally arrived in Chicago only to learn that the World's Fair had been postponed for a year. The group then headed to St. Louis but working conditions there proved to be very bad. The Lauzetta Quartet disbanded and Handy subsequently left St. Louis for Evansville, Indiana. He was one of the people who spread the blues through the United States of America.

In Evansville, Handy's luck changed dramatically. He joined a successful band which performed throughout the neighboring cities and states. While performing at a barbecue in Henderson, Kentucky, he met Elizabeth Price. They married shortly afterwards on July 19, 1896.

His musical endeavors were varied, and he sang first tenor in a minstrel show, moved from Alabama and worked as a band director, choral director, cornetist and trumpeter. At age 23, he was band master of Mahara's Colored Minstrels.

As a young man, he played cornet in the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, and in 1902 he traveled throughout Mississippi listening to various musical styles played by ordinary Negroes. The instruments most often used in many of those songs were the guitar, banjo and to a much lesser extent, the piano. His remarkable memory served him well, and he was able to recall and transcribe the music he heard in his travels. In particular, he noted in his autobiography a blues-like guitarist he heard in Tutwiler, Mississippi.

Shortly after his marriage to Elizabeth Price in 1896, he was invited to join a minstrel group called "Mahara's Minstrels". In their three-year tour, they traveled to Chicago, throughout Texas and Oklahoma, through Tennessee, Georgia and Florida on to Cuba, and Handy was paid a salary of $6 per week. Upon their return from their Cuban engagements, they traveled north through Alabama, and stopped to perform in Huntsville, Alabama. Growing weary from life on the road, it was there he and his wife decided to stay with relatives in his nearby hometown of Florence.

On June 29, 1900 in Florence, Elizabeth gave birth to the first of their six children, a daughter, Lucille. Around that time, William Hooper Councill, President of Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes (AAMC) (today named Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University) in Normal, Alabama, approached Handy about teaching music. At the time, AAMC and Tuskegee Institute were the only colleges for Negroes in Alabama. Handy accepted Councill's offer and became a faculty member that September. He taught music there from 1900 to 1902.

An important factor in his musical development and in music history, was his enthusiasm for the distinctive style of uniquely American music, then often considered inferior to European classical music. He was soon disheartened to discover that American music was often cast aside by the college and instead it emphasized foreign music considered to be "classical". Handy felt he was underpaid and felt he could make more money touring with a minstrel group. After a dispute with AAMC President Councill, he resigned his teaching position to rejoin the Mahara Minstrels to tour the Midwest and Pacific Northwest. In 1903 he was offered the opportunity to direct a black band named the Knights of Pythias, located in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Handy accepted and remained there six years.

In 1903 while waiting for a train in Tutwiler, in the Mississippi Delta, Handy had the following experience. "A lean loose-jointed Negro had commenced plunking a guitar beside me while I slept... As he played, he pressed a knife on the strings of the guitar in a manner popularized by Hawaiian guitarists who used steel bars....The singer repeated the line three times, accompanying himself on the guitar with the weirdest music I had ever heard."

Partway through the evening, while playing a dance in Cleveland, Mississippi (circa 1905 [1]), Handy was given a note that asked for “our native music”. After playing an old-time Southern melody, Handy was asked if he would object if a local colored band played a few numbers. Three young men with a battered guitar, mandolin, and a worn out bass took the stage. (In recounting the same story to Dorthy Scarborough circa 1925, Handy remembered a banjo, guitar, and fiddle.) “They struck up one of those over and over strains that seem to have no beginning and certainly no ending at all. The strumming attained a disturbing monotony, but on and on it went, a kind of stuff associated with cane rows and levee camps. Thump-thump-thump went their feet on the floor. It was not really annoying or unpleasant. Perhaps “haunting” is the better word.”

Handy also noted square dancing by Negroes in Mississippi with "one of their own calling the figures, and crooning all of his calls in the key of G." He would later recall this experience when deciding on the key for "St Louis Blues". "It was the memory of that old gent who called figures for the Kentucky breakdown-the one who everlastingly pitched his tones in the key of G and moaned the calls like a presiding elder preaching at a revival meeting. Ah, there was my key – I'd do the song in G."

In describing "blind singers and footloose bards" around Clarksdale, Handy wrote, "surrounded by crowds of country folks, they would pour their hearts out in song ... They earned their living by selling their own songs – "ballets," as they called them-and I'm ready to say in their behalf that seldom did their creations lack imagination."

In 1909 he and his band moved to Memphis, Tennessee and established their presence on Beale Street. The genesis of his "Memphis Blues" was as a campaign tune originally entitled as "Mr. Crump" which he had written for Edward Crump, a successful Memphis, Tennessee mayoral candidate in 1909 (and future "boss"). He later rewrote the tune and changed the name to "Memphis Blues."

The 1912 publication of his "Memphis Blues" sheet music introduced his style of 12-bar blues to many households and was credited as the inspiration for the invention of the foxtrot dance step by Vernon and Irene Castle, a New York–based dance team. Some consider it to be the first blues song. He sold the rights to the song for US$100. By 1914, when Handy was at the age of 40, his musical style was asserted, his popularity increased significantly, and he composed prolifically.

Handy wrote the following regarding his use of what he heard in folk song. "The primitive southern Negro, as he sang, was sure to bear down on the third and seventh tone of the scale, slurring between major and minor. Whether in the cotton field of the Delta or on the Levee up St. Louis way, it was always the same. Till then, however, I had never heard this slur used by a more sophisticated Negro, or by any white man. I tried to convey this effect... by introducing flat thirds and sevenths (now called blue notes) into my song, although its prevailing key was major..., and I carried this device into my melody as well... This was a distinct departure, but as it turned out, it touched the spot."

Again referring to "what have since become known as "blue notes"", Handy states that "the transitional flat thirds and seventh in my melody" were his attempt "to suggest the typical slurs of the Negro voice". "The three-line structure I employed in my lyric was suggested by a song I heard Phil Jones sing in Evansville ... While I took the three-line stanza as a model for my lyric, I found its repetition too monotonous ... Consequently I adopted the style of making a statement, repeating the statement in the second line, and then telling in the third line why the statement was made."

Regarding the "three-chord basic harmonic structure" of the blues, Handy wrote that the "(tonic, subdominant, dominant seventh) was that already used by Negro roustabouts, honky-tonk piano players, wanderers and others of the underprivileged but undaunted class".

Another detail was noted: "In the folk blues the singer fills up occasional gaps with words like 'Oh, lawdy' or 'Oh, baby' and the like. This meant that in writing a melody to be sung in the blues manner one would have to provide gaps or waits."

Handy detailed the sources for his creations in his autobiography, as described above, and wrote that "it should be clear by now that my blues are built around or suggested by, rather than constructed of, the snatches, phrases, cries and idioms such as I have illustrated.” 

Writing about the first time St Louis Blues was played (1914), Handy wrote that "The one-step and other dances had been done to the tempo of Memphis Blues ... When St Louis Blues was written the tango was in vogue. I tricked the dancers by arranging a tango introduction, breaking abruptly into a low-down blues. My eyes swept the floor anxiously, then suddenly I saw lightning strike. The dancers seemed electrified. Something within them came suddenly to life. An instinct that wanted so much to live, to fling its arms to spread joy, took them by the heels."

Because of the difficulty of getting his works published, he published many of his own works. In 1917, he and his business moved to New York City where he had offices in the Gaiety Theatre office building in Times Square. By the end of that year, his most successful songs: "Memphis Blues", "Beale Street Blues", and "St. Louis Blues", had been published. That year the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, a white New Orleans jazz ensemble, had recorded the very first jazz record and introduced jazz music to a wide segment of the American public. Handy initially had little fondness for this new "jazz" music, but bands dove into the repertoire of W. C. Handy compositions with enthusiasm, making many of them jazz standards.

While trying to establish his Memphis band, Handy complained to his Aunt Matt Jordan that other bands made mistakes while his men played "perfect". His Aunt remarked, "Honey, white folks like to hear colored folks make some mistakes." "In this one remark", wrote Handy, "can be hidden the source or secret of jazz."

Handy's foray into publishing was noteworthy for several reasons. Not only were his works groundbreaking because of his ethnicity, but he was among the first blacks who were successful because of it. He self-published his works. In 1912, Handy met Harry H. Pace at the Solvent Savings Bank in Memphis. Pace was valedictorian of his graduating class at Atlanta University and student of W. E. B. Du Bois. By the time of their meeting, Pace had already demonstrated a strong understanding of business. He earned his reputation by recreating failing businesses. Handy liked him, and Pace later became manager of Pace and Handy Sheet Music.
Sometime during his association with Pace, Handy recounted the following experience with racism, one of many during his lifetime. "One morning, while passing the square on Beale Street that bears my name, I noticed a crowd of Negroes gathered around a skull. The day before, that skull had belonged to a pleasant, easy-going young fellow named Tom Smith. Now it was severed from his body. The eyes had been burned out with red hot irons. A rural mob, not satisfied with burying his body, had brought the skull back to town and tossed it into a crowd of Negroes to humiliate and intimidate them... All the brutal, savage acts I had seen wrecked against unfortunate human beings came back to torment me-particularly those in which the luckless one came near being myself." 

While in New York City, Handy wrote: "I was under the impression that these Negro musicians would jump at the chance to patronize one of their own publishers. They didn't... The Negro musicians simply played the hits of the day...They followed the parade. Many white bands and orchestra leaders, on the other hand, were on the alert for novelties. They were therefore the ones most ready to introduce our numbers." But, "Negro vaudeville artists...wanted songs that would not conflict with white acts on the bill. The result was that these performers became our most effective pluggers."

Handy associated with individuals such as Al Bernard, "a young white man" with a "soft Southern accent" who "could sing all my Blues". Handy sent Bernard to Thomas Edison to be recorded, which resulted in "an impressive series of successes for the young artist, successes in which we proudly shared". Handy also published the original "Shake Rattle and Roll" and "Saxophone Blues", both written by Bernard. "Two young white ladies from Selma, Alabama (Madelyn Sheppard and Annelu Burns) contributed the songs "Pickaninny Rose" and "O Saroo", with the music published by Handy's company. These numbers, plus our blues, gave us a reputation as publishers of Negro music."

Expecting to make only "another hundred or so" on a third recordng of his "Yellow Dog Blues" (originally titled "Yellow Dog Rag"), Handy signed a deal with the Victor company. The Joe Smith recording of this song (1919) became the best-selling recording of Handy's music to date.

Attempts "to introduce colored girls for recording our blues" were initially unsuccessful. "We were making too much money evidently." In 1920 however, Perry Bradford was able to get Mamie Smith to record two non blues songs written by himself, and published by Handy accompanied by a white band: "That Thing Called Love" and "You Can't Keep a Good Man Down". When Bradford's "Crazy Blues" became a hit as recorded by Smith, "Colored blues singers, being in great demand, were contracted forthwith." With the bitterness of sharp competition, "Our business began to fall away as steadily as it had grown."

In 1920 Pace amicably dissolved his long-standing partnership with Handy, with whom he also collaborated as lyricist. As Handy wrote: "To add to my woes, my partner withdrew from the business. He disagreed with some of my business methods, but no harsh words were involved. He simply chose this time to sever connection with our firm in order that he might organize Pace Phonograph Company, issuing Black Swan Records and making a serious bid for the Negro market. . . . With Pace went a large number of our employees. . . . Still more confusion and anguish grew out of the fact that people did not generally know that I had no stake in the Black Swan Record Company."

Although Handy's partnership with Pace was dissolved, he continued to operate the publishing company as a family-owned business. He published works of other black composers as well as his own, which included more than 150 sacred compositions and folk song arrangements and about sixty blues compositions. In the 1920s, he founded the Handy Record Company in New York City.

Bessie Smith's January 14, 1925, Columbia Records recording of "St. Louis Blues" with Louis Armstrong is considered by many to be one of the finest recordings of the 1920s.
In 1926 Handy authored and edited a work entitled Blues: An Anthology—Complete Words and Music of 53 Great Songs. It is probably the first work that attempted to record, analyze and describe the blues as an integral part of the U.S. South and the history of the United States.
So successful was Handy's "St. Louis Blues" that in 1929, he and director Kenneth W. Adams collaborated on a RCA motion picture project of the same name, which was to be shown before the main attraction. Handy suggested blues singer Bessie Smith have the starring role, since she had gained widespread popularity with that tune. The picture was shot in June and was shown in movie houses throughout the United States from 1929 to 1932.

The genre of the blues was a hallmark of American society and culture in the 1920s and 1930s. So great was its influence, and so much was it recognized as Handy's hallmark, that author F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in his novel The Great Gatsby that "All night the saxophones wailed the hopeless comment of the "Beale Street Blues" while a hundred pairs of golden and silver slippers shuffled the shining dust. At the gray tea hour there were always rooms that throbbed incessantly with this low, sweet fever, while fresh faces drifted here and there like rose petals blown by the sad horns around the floor."

Following publication of his autobiography, Handy published a book on African-American musicians entitled Unsung Americans Sing (1944). He wrote a total of five books:
  1. Blues: An Anthology: Complete Words and Music of 53 Great Songs
  2. Book of Negro Spirituals
  3. Father of the Blues: An Autobiography
  4. Unsung Americans Sing
  5. Negro Authors and Composers of the United States
During this time, he lived on Strivers' Row in Harlem. He became blind following an accidental fall from a subway platform in 1943. After the death of his first wife, he remarried in 1954, at age 80. His new bride was his secretary Irma Louise Logan, whom he frequently said had become his eyes.

In 1955 Handy suffered a stroke, following which he began to use a wheelchair. Over 800 people attended his 84th birthday party at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
On March 28, 1958 he died of bronchial pneumonia at Sydenham Hospital in New york City.[29] Over 25,000 people attended his funeral in Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church. Over 150,000 people gathered in the streets near the church to pay their respects. He was buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, New York.


Soooo, this is what I have...mostly just the earlier stuff, not recordings from the later period. Not much of a big list, but maybe some that you have, some that you may not have. Hope this works for ya. :)


A Bunch o blues -9-24-1917
Farewell blues -5-1923
Fuzzy wuzzy rag 9-21-1917
Gulf coast blues 5-1923
Hooking cow blues 9-24-1917
Livery stable blues 9-25-1917
Loveless love 12-26-1939
Memphis blues 6-4-1923
Moonlight blues 9-22-1917
Muscle shoals blues 3-1922
Ole Miss rag 9-22-1917
She's a mean job blues 3-1922
Snaky blues  9-22-1917
St. Louis blues 1-1922
Sweet child (introducing "Pallet on the floor") 9-25-1917
That jazz dance (The Jazz dance everybody is crazy 'bout) 9-22-1917
The old town pump 9-22-1917
Yellow dog blues 1-1922


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