Straight Horning: Sidney Bechet - The New Orleans Feetwarmers

Today I've spent some time hanging with the master takes from Sidney Bechet's Victor Recordings. The New Orleans Feetwarmers from 1932 - with Bechet (ss/cl) Tommy Ladnier (trpt) Teddy Nixon (trb) Hank Duncan (p) Wilson Myers (b/v) Morris Morand (d) and Billy Maxey (v) - is my favorite Bechet. I consider this session essential listening - high energy, so swinging, and a great fat soprano. "I Found a New Baby," "Maple Leaf Rag", "Shag" etc... make sure you check them out!

Across the 3 discs there's plenty fine playing and a few curious numbers too. The overdubbed tracks ("The Sheik of Araby" and "Blues of Bechet") from 1941 feature Bechet playing all the instruments (soprano, clarinet, tenor sax, piano, bass, and drums). Fun stuff.

I still feel Bechet is underrated, and while I'm at it, another interesting recording I've only recently bumped into is The John Reid Collection from the Arkansas Arts Center. I picked this disc up as it features Bechet, unaccompanied, playing "Maple Leaf Rag" (mellower than the '32 recording and "Baby I'd Love to Steal You." Plus there's a recording of him playing along with a recording of Bunk Johnson playing an unaccompanied version of "Weary Blues." Maybe not for the casual fan but fascinating nonetheless.

Listening to the Feetwarmers made me start to think about some other favorites of mine. Just a taste quickly off the top of my head....probably not many surprises there for those of you who know me. Connie Crothers, Richard Tabnik, Hayden Chisholm, and Lenny Popkin deserve a mention too - I need to dedicate some time and write about them - but I'll limit myself to older recordings..... for now.
Billie Holiday: "A Sailboat in the Moonlight," "What a Little Moonlight Can Do," "I'll Get By," "I Can't Give You Anything But Love Baby," "Laughing at Life" and many others.
Lester Young: "Shoe Shine Boy", "Lady Be Good", the Kanas City Sessions, and many more.
Roy Eldridge: "Body and Soul" (normally not much of a fan of double time ballads but here's an exception!), "Sittin' In", "I Surrender Dear"
Charlie Christian: "Swing to Bop", "Ad Lib Blues"
Louis Armstrong: "Hotter that That," "I Can't Give You Anything But Love Baby," "Struttin' with Some BBQ"
Warne Marsh: "Yardbird Suite", "Remember" "The Song is You", "Marshmallow"
Lennie Tristano: "Bud", "Stretch" "Tiger Rag", "Background Music"
Lee Konitz: the early New Jazz/Prestige recordings in particular came to mind immediately.
I'll leave it there before the list gets out of control!

Regarding the beer... it's Mikerphone "Cat's in the Cradle" and I felt the chalice was appropriate glassware while enjoying some Bechet.

End of June Listenings

Gerry Mulligan Meets Johnny Hodges (Verve 1959) with Claude Williamson (p) Buddy Clark (b) Mel Lewis (d) Had this one on while I was preparing dinner. A nice casually swinging session.

Disc 1 from the Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz had a bit of playtime over the week. Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith in particular. "Livery Stable Blues" & "Tiger Rag" from the Original Dixieland Jass Band and Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues" made the playlist too.

Sidney Bechet & Martial Solal Quartet "The Complete Recordings." These are two sessions from 1957.  The first (March) is with Lloyd Thompson (b) and Al Levitt (d). The second (June) has Pierre Michelot (b) and Kenny Clarke (d). While they don't have the fire of earlier sessions, Bechet's soprano tone is well documented on these sessions - the cleanest recordings I have of his by far. The repertoire is interesting - "All The Things You Are", "These Foolish Things", "Embracable You", "All Of Me", "Pennies From Heaven"- none of which I had heard Bechet perform. His playing seems more refined with less bravado.
The last 10 track are from a 1952 trio session with Lil Armstrong (p/v) and Zutty Singleton (d) These didn't get the repeated listenings - the "four-on-the-floor" was a bit overbearing for me. I will give them another chance though.

Steve Lacy Snips: Live at Environ (Jazz Magnet 2000) 2cds recorded at the NYC loft space Environ in 1976. This was Lacy's first solo concert in the USA. The fidelity isn't the greatest but the music more that makes up for it. The Tao suite gets a run through as does "The Four Edges" which I wasn't familiar with. A very nice birthday present.

Ted Brown Shades of Brown (Steeplechase 2007) Ted Brown (ts) Steve LaMattina (g) Dennis Irwin (b) Ted Brown has been on my radar since I first heard the "Intiuition" disc released under Lennie Tristano & Warne Marsh's name (it compiles Tristano's Capitol sides with a Marsh Quintet session from the mid 50's).  Since then, I have picked up his discs when I can. When I feel like listening to melodic, swinging improvisations, Brown is one of my go to players. I am particularly fond of this album - wonderfully intimate and relaxed sound to it. His tone is full of nuance and subtle inflections that I feel is missing in many players conception of tone. It's been wonderful to see him get some well over due attention in recent years.
He has recently released a couple of discs but I haven't got them yet.

Billie Holiday's version of "Miss Brown To You" has been getting plenty listens.  Does anyone know a "straight" version of this tune? Clarinetist Ron Hockett plays the melody pretty straight on Larry Eanet's album "Sunset Stomp" (Arbors Jazz 1999). I'd like to find a vocal version that sticks close to home base.

Maple Leaf Rag

Earlier in the week I was reading about the early history of jazz. Ragtime was the subject and Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" was the given example. This led me to listening to the few versions that I have.

First up was "King of Ragtime Writers: from classic piano rolls." Nice hearing it in a very straight forward way even if it was a bit stiff and lacking the human touch.

Following that was Alan Lomax's 1938 recording of Jelly Roll Morton demonstrating how he would take a tune and make it his own - "In my estimation there's a vast difference." This is available of the Library of Congress Recordings - Fascinating stuff, I urge you to check it out (have a bit of time on your hands it's 8 CDs). It's a shame there aren't more recordings of the masters talking about and demonstrating their music.

Up next was Ran Blake exploring "Maple Leaf Rag" over four takes from his solo piano albums Painted Rhythms Vol. 1 & 2. (GM Recordings 1985). Just as Morton made it his own, so too does Blake - tempo shifts, sparse and light, dense and dramatic. He shows there's plenty of mileage left for improvisers to explore on the old classics.

Then I leapt back to 1932 with the New Orleans Feetwarmers ( Sidney Bechet (soprano sax) Henry Duncan (p) Tommy Ladnier (trpt) Tommy Nixon (trb) Ernest Meyers (b/vocal) Morris Morland (d) ). Bechet really wails here (his reed almost explodes around 2 min 30 mark) and the band steams along.  This recording has a great atmosphere (shouts of encouragement during the piano feature add to it). Note to self: More Sidney Bechet.


And that exhausted my collection. Perhaps I'll jump on Spotify and look for some more.

listening june

It has been refreshing to listen to a number of alternate takes from the Billie Holiday Columbia box set. This led me to give back to back listens of Lester Young's solo on the two takes of "Back In Your Own Backyard." Lester's solo on "Easy Does It" with the Basie Orchestra had a few spins too.

Steve Lacy is still getting plenty of airtime. The Holy La (Free Lance) - a solid trio outing from the late 90's with Jean-Jacques Avenel (bass & kalimba) John Betsch (d) There's plenty of variety throughout the album (old and new tunes plus one from Monk). The addition of Irene Aebi's vocals the group expands to a quartet for two of the nine tracks. On 'Cliches', Avenel puts down the bass to play kalimba (thumb piano). Lacy had very solid rhythm sections over the years - Buell Neidlinger/Dennis Charles, Kent Carter/Oliver Johnson or Avenel/Betsch - they may not have got the acclaim of other bass & drum pairings but they were vital in bringing Lacy's music to life.

It had been some time since I listened to Weal & Woe (Emanem). I skipped the first half of the disc (it's part of the "Avignon and After" reissue that I've listened to a bit lately) and jumped straight to the four pieces that make up "The Woe" by Lacy (ss) Steve Potts (as) Irene Aebi (cello/voice) Kent Carter (b) Oliver Johnson (d) from 1973.  I believe the last time I heard it was when my friend John lent me the album - six or seven years ago. I had forgotten about the recordings of gun fire and explosions. Full on.

I've been looking back to my jazz soprano roots and that means Sidney Bechet has shared some of my time this week. While I can't say I'm into the vibrato, his tone is so bold and distinctive. I don't have that much of his work, just one disc on which he plays soprano as well as clarinet. I would like to get some more where his focus is purely on the soprano. Any suggestions?

A few different recordings of Bela Bartok's String Quartet #1 have been on throughout the week. A nice way to break up the jazz.