I said Dudley, not Rab C; and Kevin, NOT Kelvin

[Serial_Apologist]

Please note the changed times

Sat 6 Aug
5.00 Jazz Record Requests
Alyn Shipton with the full spectrum of jazz requests, introducing the Dave Brubeck Quartet's version of Duke Ellington's theme tune Take the 'A' Train, written by Billy Strayhorn

http://www.alynshipton.co.uk/blog

6.00 Jazz Line-Up
Julian Joseph presents a performance by Pan Jumby, led by steel pan master Dudley Nesbitt, recorded in April at the Jazz Line-Up stage at the 2016 Gateshead International Jazz Festival

I always thought Andy Narell over in 'Frisco was pretty good on the old pans - and lest we forget, our very own Orphy Robinson, eh?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07mvrv3

12.00 Geoffrey Smith's Jazz
A profile of cult Oklahoma-born trumpeter and singer Chet Baker (1929-88), who won acclaim while fighting a lifelong battle with drug addiction

Love his trumpet, but not his voice. I know... I know...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07mvsxx

Mon 8 Aug
11.00 Jazz Now
Live music by the Trio Red and the Kevin MacKenzie Trio from the Edinburgh International Festival

Trio Red in the Blue Room sounds like the Jeremy Corbyn Ragtimers getting a gig in the Henley-on-Thames Conservative Club. On yer shuffleboats, washboard oiks! By the way, does anybody here go to the Edinburgh Fest? I always imagine 3 weeks to be a bit of an imposition on the gude fawks of Edinburrrrrrgh, tourrrrist income nawtwithstanding, or possibly, nawt withstandable.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07jxrgd

With last night's mega gig in London's architectural answer to the Dundee Cake out of the way, there's nothing more on offer for this week. But for good time's sake, here's some youtube of Orpheus & The Undercarriage, aka Black Top at the Oto, in full multicolor b&w:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xwCddJc53E

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Not sure where to put this but another jazz era end (In old Londin Twowwwwn),

"No more Jazz @ The Oxford:
It is with great sadness that I can confirm that the Jazz @ The Oxford night will not be returning in the Autumn. A staple in the North London contemporary jazz and new music scenes for the last twelve to thirteen years (possibly even longer – the opening dates from the LOOP Collective are quite hard to pin down), the night has had a pretty formidable run by the standards of similar ventures, but unfortunately the new management has decided not to continue the gigs." Comp: Richard Williams Blue Moment Blog.


BN...Author of "No Squares for Nightingales", a noir Soho novel of hard drugs, snare drums, cellar dives and Princess Margaret.

[Serial_Apologist]

Not sure where to put this but another jazz era end (In old Londin Twowwwwn),

"No more Jazz @ The Oxford:
It is with great sadness that I can confirm that the Jazz @ The Oxford night will not be returning in the Autumn. A staple in the North London contemporary jazz and new music scenes for the last twelve to thirteen years (possibly even longer – the opening dates from the LOOP Collective are quite hard to pin down), the night has had a pretty formidable run by the standards of similar ventures, but unfortunately the new management has decided not to continue the gigs." Comp: Richard Williams Blue Moment Blog.


BN...Author of "No Squares for Nightingales", a noir Soho novel of hard drugs, snare drums, cellar dives and Princess Margaret.

As a (fairly) regular attender, in receipt of their email/newsletter, I was informed about this last week; but I already knew, as George Crowley who ran it (and the Loop Collective, who've produced some of the finest of the rising generation) announced that would be the last gig there. A great shame, as the Oxford was a lovely comfy friendly venue; but it would have been difficult to maintain with the falling audience numbers, probably as much down to the ever longer hours working culture as anything, since doubling the entry to a tenner saw punter numbers increasing initially. That last gig saw only ten of us in attendance for James Mainwaring's fine Tipping Point with Matthew Bourne on piano, all the way down from Leeds: me and nine others of pensionable age, five of whom went home midway through muttering "Not really out kind of stuff"!

Apart from Ronnie's this basically leaves only The Vortex, whose programme is more often leftfield rock and folk than jazz and gets crowded out when it's jazz (I hate claustrophobic venues and packed out attendance levels), and Cafe Oto round the corner, which, when it rarely these days puts on jazz, is jazz at the avant-garde/improv end of the spectrum, and the 606 in Chelsea, where one is expected to eat. Food and music only go together at home, for me.

Very very sad indeed - and one wonders what will become of all the youngsters who, when faced with the other options of either unfulfilling commercial engagements, playing Beethoven's Fifth for the umpteenth time to conductors' batons or taking up composition in a tradition that seems to have hit the buffers unless one is going way, way out beyond Stockhausen and Birtwistle, go in for teaching (WHO??), presumably.

We've already noted here the growing preponderance of youngsters taking up jazz from middle class backgrounds, thinking all the time, well at least there are more women getting involved, and someone's keeping the flag flying for some future time when jazz can again become the voice of emancipation. Until then it's as Ian Thumwood has been noting, namely kids on music computer programmes in bedrooms. Pretty depressing, really - and not the only thing.

[Rcartes]

....Apart from Ronnie's this basically leaves only The Vortex ....

Don't forget the Bull's Head in Barnes, still going strong though I notice rather too many guitar bands in the lineup recently. Some genius in the Guardian a few weeks ago nominated the guitar as the greatest invention of the 20th century. Spawn of the devil, I say: the damned thing is too easy to play so youngsters don't need any understanding of music that they'd gain from learning, say, the clarinet.

[Serial_Apologist]

Don't forget the Bull's Head in Barnes, still going strong though I notice rather too many guitar bands in the lineup recently. Some genius in the Guardian a few weeks ago nominated the guitar as the greatest invention of the 20th century. Spawn of the devil, I say: the damned thing is too easy to play* so youngsters don't need any understanding of music that they'd gain from learning, say, the clarinet.

Oh! - I should have included the Bull's Head, having mentioned it elsewhere on the jass thread, earlier today!



Sorreeeee!!!

*Hmm - not sure about the geetah being that easy to play, Rcartes; easy for purposes of strumming chords, but I tried creating lines, I really did, and ended up selling the thing and getting a cheap keyboard instead.

[Rcartes]

Nice edition of JRR this week, despite the Brubeck version of A Train - I can't stand that dreadful Germanic hammering at the keyboard - but lovely to hear the J C Higginbotham track: Red Allen relatively restrained, but great work by J C and the sadly under-rated Charlie Holmes. And so nice to hear Pops Foster's bowed work. The Blind Willie and Fats Waller tracks were good to hear, too.

[Serial_Apologist]

Nice edition of JRR this week, despite the Brubeck version of A Train - I can't stand that dreadful Germanic hammering at the keyboard - but lovely to hear the J C Higginbotham track: Red Allen relatively restrained, but great work by J C and the sadly under-rated Charlie Holmes. And so nice to hear Pops Foster's bowed work. The Blind Willie and Fats Waller tracks were good to hear, too.

Yes one of the best selections for a long time. I'm particularly partial to the duets Tatum recorded with various people towards the end of his life, and hadn't heard the one played today. Charlie Holmes sounded great - a Bechet transferred onto alto, I thought.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I was struck as always by the dexterity and accuracy of Willie Johnson's slide playing. This is not "throw away" stuff but fully worked out. In a different 'blues' context Skip James was the same. I suggest therefore that the guitar is not the devil's work Not when there are fascist banjos still to torch and drive stakes through. And their reptile friends, the piano accordions... "One through the head, two through the chest", as an American jazz collecter once " jokingly" said because I wouldn't sell him a then rare Dexter Gordon record.

BN.

[Rcartes]

I was struck as always by the dexterity and accuracy of Willie Johnson's slide playing. This is not "throw away" stuff but fully worked out. In a different 'blues' context Skip James was the same. I suggest therefore that the guitar is not the devil's work Not when there are fascist banjos still to torch and drive stakes through. And their reptile friends, the piano accordions... "One through the head, two through the chest", as an American jazz collecter once " jokingly" said because I wouldn't sell him a then rare Dexter Gordon record.

BN.

Ah, the piano accordion, which stars in my favourite definition of a gentleman: one who can play the accordion, but doesn't....

[Ian Thumwood]

I like Willie Johnson but find his music so intense that I can only take his work in small doses. His music is bizarre insofar that the slide guitar playing in probably the most evocative of all 1920s blues guitarists but his lyrics are almost entirely religious in nature. The track chosen on JRR is an amazing piece of history as the lyrics actually recount the story of the sinking of the Titanic. I remember reading somewhere that this 1912 tragedy had an amazing impact on the black population in America as it was one of the first instances where they realised that white people were not infallible.

The Higginbotham track was brilliant and I think he was probably Jack Teagarden's most serious rival at that time.

[Serial_Apologist]

Ah, the piano accordion, which stars in my favourite definition of a gentleman: one who can play the accordion, but doesn't....

Ah yes, the Gospel accordion... to St Matthew, St Mark, St Luke, St John...

[Serial_Apologist]

The Higginbotham track was brilliant and I think he was probably Jack Teagarden's most serious rival at that time.

I'll possibly get some stick for this, but imho the trombone was the blowing instrument probably least affected by the Bebop revolution: there were some great trombone players from the Swing era; my memory currently fails me when it comes to names, but I could single out a fair number if I checked.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I'll possibly get some stick for this, but imho the trombone was the blowing instrument probably least affected by the Bebop revolution: there were some great trombone players from the Swing era; my memory currently fails me when it comes to names, but I could single out a fair number if I checked.

Amongst the most kick back, open the wine and just pure enjoy records, are the Bluenote etc. dates by Bennie Green, with more than a big toe in pre bop. Sometimes with Gene Ammons or Billy Mitchell, lovely booting dates, soulful in the true sense. Much neglected.

BN.

[Alyn_Shipton]

Swing era trombonists were pretty numerous - inc McGarity on yesterday's Cootie track, but names that spring to mind (as well as Mr Green) include Vic Dickenson, Eddie Durham, Dickie Wells, Britt Woodman, Lawrence Brown, Trummy Young, Benny Morton, not to mention T Dorsey...
But there were plenty of bebop trombonists: J J Johnson being top of the tree, I think, but Melba Liston, Kai Winding, Frank Rehak, Frank Rosolino...the list goes on.

[Ian Thumwood]

By the 1930s there were plenty of brilliant trombonists who about in most of the big bands at the time (Ted Donnelly of Andy Kirk's band is another) and people like Tricky Sam Nanton with Ellington who were introducing new approaches to the instrument. In the 1920s the instrument seemed to take a while to evolve but you could also add Claude Jones to the list of pioneers as his solos on the recordings made by McKinney's Cotton pickers in 1928 are amongst the first non-tailgate / modern trombone solos on record. The other pioneer not mentioned was Charlie Green.