Jazz Focus

Clarence Williams records not released under his name . . The Dixie Washboard Band, Bluegrass Feet Warmers and Seven Gallon Jug Band.  .featuring Ed Allen, Willie "The Lion" Smith, Buster Bailey, Carmelo Jari, Cyrus St. Clair, Floyd Casey, Benny Moten, Jasper Taylor, Arville Harris and others!

Three great mainstream sessions featuring the great Texas/Basie tenor sound of Buddy Tate (and clarinet on one number) with Claude Hopkins and Tommy Flanagan on piano, Emmett Berry, Joe Thomas and Clark Terry on trumpets, Wendell Marshall and Larry Gales on bass, J.C. Heard, Osie Johnson and Art Taylor on drums

Great small group sides made by the New Orleans pianist and entrepreneur Williams featuring many great black Jazz players of the day including Bubber Miley, Ed Allen, Tommy Ladnier and Louis Metcalf (trumpet), Joe Nanton and Charlie Irvis (trombone), Arville Harris, Ben Whitted, Don Redman, Buster Bailey and Coleman Hawkins (reeds), Leroy Harris and Buddy Christian (banjo), Cyrus St. Clair (tuba)...

Drawn from three albums for Delmark and GHB, these records capture this classic trad band at its peak . . originating as a campus band at Purdue in the late 1940's, the Salty Dogs became the Original Salty Dogs by the mid 1950's and were one of the top two or three groups in the genre for decades.  Here, Lew Green (cornet), Jim Snyder (trombone), Kim Cusack (clarinet and alto), John Cooper (piano)...

Recordings by the Clarence Williams Blue Five and Red Onion Jazz Babies featuring Louis Armstrong during the year he spent in New York with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra.  Also involved are Charlie Irvis and Aaron Thompson (tbn), Sidney Bechet, Buster Bailey, Don Redman and Coleman Hawkins (reeds), Lil Armstrong (piano), Buddy Christian (banjo) and Eva Taylor, Alberta Hunter and Clarence Todd o...

Some of the early New Orleans Revival recordings by Kid Ory's band - for Exner and Decca in 1945 and Columbia in 1946.  Featuring Mutt Carey (c), Ory (tbn), Joe Darensbourg and Barney Bigard (clarinet), Buster Wilson (p), Bud Scott (bjo and guitar), Ed Garland (sb), Minor Hall or Alton Redd (d), vocals by Ory, Cecile Ory, Darensbourg and Helen Andrews.

Louis' regular band in Chicago recorded several dates in January and April of 1933 for Victor with tunes he had popularized as well as come new pop material.  In addition to his singing and playing (definitely at a peak, despite reputed chops trouble), we hear Keg Johnson on trombone, Scoville Brown on alto, Budd Johnson on tenor, Teddy Wilson and Charlie Beal on piano, Mike McKendrick on guitar a...

Some sides for Hi-Lo and Dee Gee by the Milt Jackson Quartet at the beginning of the career of the Modern Jazz Quartet followed by the actual group in one of its first recording sessions for Prestige - with Milt Jackson on vibes, John Lewis on piano, Percy Heath and Ray Brown on bass, and Kenny Clarke and Al Jones on drums, standards an originals!

Great series of recordings featuring the legendary trumpet player (also on trombone and vocals) with a seasoned bunch of Southside Chicago jazz players - Omer Simeon, George James, Cassino Simpson, Earl Frazier, Banjo Ikey Robinson, Hayes Alvis and Lawson Buford.  All tunes by Jabbo Smith!

Great and largely forgotten alto player in his first recordings under his own name (for Blue Note) with Horace Silver, Blue Mitchell, Gene Ramey and Art Taylor and live at the Birdland with the Art Blakey Quintet, with Clifford Brown, Silver, Curley Russell and Blakey creating some of the best late period bebop.

Hal Kemp led an excellent student band at the University of North Carolina in the early 1920's that stayed together after graduation, travelling to England in 1925 and making their first recordings.  By late 1927 the band was a professional unit in New York, highly regarded for its precision ensemble work and hot dance stylings - while there were no significant soloists (although trumpeter Bob May...

Two early sessions for the Jazzology/Circle label - the 1949 session was in fact the first for that label, featuring Tony Parenti's New Orleanians, with the New Orleans clarinetist leading Davison on cornet, Jimmy Archey on trombone, Art Hodes on piano, Pops Foster on bass and Art Trappier on drums.  The 1955 session has Davison in charge with Parenti and Foster and joined by Lou McGarity on tromb...

Bunk Johnson's New Orleans Jazz Band as they were performing at the Stuyvesant Casino in November 1945-January 1946 . . Johnson on trumpet, Jim Robinson on trombone, George Lewis on clarinet, Alton Purnell on piano, Lawrence Marrero on banjo, Slow Drag Pavageau on bass and Baby Dodd on drums recording for Decca, Victor and AFRS.

Great if largely unheralded sax player and arranger whose career stretched from Louis Armstrong through Quincy Jones is here featured on tenor, baritone and soprano on several sessions, including under his own name (with his brother Keg Johnson on trombone), pianist Claude Hopkins (with Bobby Johnson on trumpet and Vic Dickenson on trombone), Jimmy Rushing (with pianist Dave Frishberg and tenor sa...

Live broadcasts of the roaring Calloway band from the Meadowbrook in 1940 (featuring Chu Berry, Dizzy Gillespie, Tyree Glenn, Cozy Cole and Jerry Blake) and the Club Zanzibar in 1944 and 45 (with Jonah Jones, Shad Collins, Tyree Glenn, Hilton Jefferson, Ike Quebeck and J.C. Heard).  Several vocals by the leader, but the focus is definitely on the instrumentals, some of which have extended solos!

Airshots from radio broadcasts and remotes featuring Bunny Berigan and His Orchestra in several different incarnations - with Bob Jenney (tbn), Joe Dixon and Andy Fitzgerald (clt), Georgie Auld, Larry Walsh and Johnny Castaldi (ts), Joe Lippman and Buddy Koss (p), Gail Reese and Danny Richards (v), but the focus is rightly on the leader's majestic trumpet

The Hangover was a popular jazz club in San Francisco in the middle 1950's, specializing in Dixieland and New Orleans Jazz . . the weekly broadcast from the club featured resident bands as well as a solo (intermission) pianist  . . here is a selection of the best!  Fats Pichon, Meade Lux Lewis, Lil Armstrong, Don Ewell and Joe Sullivan accompanied by Smokey Stover (drums) and Truck Parham on bass

The Saturday Night Swing Club was a regular radio show from the middle of 1936 through 1939 and featured a shifting cast of great musicians - the house band which included players like Mannie Klein, Bunny Berigan, Will Bradley, Pete Pumiglio, Dave Harris, Claude Thornhill, Lou Shoobe and Johnny Williams.  Also featured here are Red Allen, Roy Eldridge, Chick Webb, Adrian Rollini, Billy Kyle, Dick...

Great sides for Blue Note and Commodore made in NYC when Bechet was visiting from France - with Jimmy Archey, Ray Diehl and Wilbur DeParis (tbn), Joe Sullivan, Art Hodes and Ralph Sutton (p), Pops Foster, Walter Page and Jack Lesberg (sb), Slick Jones and George Wettling (d)

Some of the first recordings by the well-known pianist, here in trio form with Ron Crotty on bass and Carl Tjader on drums/vibes/percussion.  Mostly standards, these tunes feature highly sophisticated arrangements using humor and extensive classical techniques!

Ivy Anderson was one of the most overlooked singers of the era - great with jazz, novelty, blues and ballads and was one of Ellington's prime tone colors during her decade-long tenure with his band.  Here she sings a mix of Ellington tunes as well as older standards and songs composed for various Cotton Club reviews during the middle 1930's - with the expected excellence from Cootie Williams, Rex...

Great band sides led by the great tenor player early in his career - some while on tour in Europe, some in New York.  With Conte Candoli, Frank Rossolino, Lars Gullin, Lee Konitz, Al Cohn, Art Blakey, Dick Hyman, Jimmy Gourly, Henri Renaud and many others.

Martin Block usually just spun records on his WNEW show, but for a while he was hosting thirty minute jam sessions, several of which have been preserved . . here featuring Charlie Shavers, Charlie Teagarden and Bobby Hackett (trumpet and cornet), Jack Teagarden and Vernon Brown (trombone), Joe Marsala and Pee Wee Russell (clarinet), Dave Matthews (alto sax), Herschel Evans, Kenneth Hollon and Bud...

Thomas led several sessions featuring great jazz contemporaries playing his compositions and arrangements (see previous show) but he also participated in several at the same time led by drummer Cozy Cole and featuring an array of talent - Don Byas, Coleman Hawkins, Hank D'Amico, Emmett Berry, Eddie Barefield, Clyde Hart, Billy Taylor, Budd Johnson and others.

Interesting band led by the great pianist Hines for the first eight or nine months of 1954 - including Gene Redd (trumpet and vibes), Dickie Wells (trombone), Morris Lane and Jerome Richardson (tenor sax), Leroy Harris (clarinet/alto/bari), Carl Pruitt and Paul Binnings (sb), Eddie Burns, Hank Milo (d).  Studio sessions and live dates from the Club Hangover in San Francisco