Sweets Jazz Library TODAY! 1600hrs!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Harry Sweets Edison ... playlist

i just love the 50s sessions with Billie Holiday

jazz.library@bbc.co.uk

is the email to tell Alyn how disgruntled we are that the prog has been shunted to the graveyard slot

[Serial_Apologist]

Chronology seems to leap all over the place in the playlist. Still I suppose it'll make sense in the light of the interview.

[Ian Thumwood]

A brilliant play-list.

I love Sweet's trumpet and have been listening to him quite a bit in my car of late. Tracks by Basie and MBRB - what more could you ask for although the seminal "Back to back" with Hodges and Ellington is not on the play-list. An odd omission as this is simply one of the top 5 post-war small group jazz records made post-War. I never fail to be impressed by this record - Jo Jones on drums too.

[Alyn_Shipton]

S-A, is there a rule it has to be chronological? I'm not aware of one....
And looks like Ian's already made his suggestion for the next feedback show before this one's even gone out!

[Serial_Apologist]

S-A, is there a rule it has to be chronological? I'm not aware of one....
And looks like Ian's already made his suggestion for the next feedback show before this one's even gone out!

It's just I always prefer things in chronological order. Silly - I know

[Ian Thumwood]

Good to hear the earlier MBRB records as I had not been familiar with these tracks before. "Ev'ry tub" is a favourite track of mine and I thought the record with Ben Webster from the "Sweets" album is sublime. This is the disc I've been playing of late. Curious to be reacquainted with the "Just an old manuscript" recording as this is the first record I can ever recollect being performed by the original Basie band. Curious to hear how the band had managed to latch on to more contemporary jazz ideas by the mid-late forties without sacrificing it's identity. Equally odd to discover that the chart was by pioneer arranger Don Redman although I have heard recordings of his late 40's band performing Tadd Dameron's "For European's only" which suggest that he had remarkably open ears for a musician of his generation.

There is a wealth of quality playing by Edison who must have performed on literally hundreds of records including the likes of more contemporary musicians like James Carter. Setting aside the obviously "modern" players of the time, for me Edison epitomises the sound of the trumpet in the 1950's / mainstream field. There are ample choices to select from without any there being any diminution in quality even if he was prone to re-use favourite licks from time to time. Easily my favourite "swing era" trumpeter and an enjoyable programme.

[Serial_Apologist]

I think mine would be Buck Clayton

Fine programme, thanks, Alyn - (and you were right, of course!)

[hackneyvi]

Tracks by ... MBRB

I beg your collective pardons but who are MBRB?

[Serial_Apologist]

I beg your collective pardons but who are MBRB?

Municipal Borough of Romford Bruv

[burning dog]

Mills Blue Rhythm Band

One of the regular bands at the Cotton Club in the 30s, but not as high profile those led by Cab Calloway or Duke Ellington. Irving Mills was a promoter rather than a musician.


MBRB

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mills_Blue_Rhythm_Band

Irving Mills

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Mills

I'm no expert but the latter wiki entry seems to paint an over flattering portrait of the man

Great to hear a programme devoted to Edison!

[Ian Thumwood]

SA

Agree that Buck Clayton was also an exceptionally fine trumpeter from the era. I think there was an abundance of talent in the generation but Edison's economy of style probably ensured that he was capable of being dove-tailed into a wider variety of settings. Edison always reminded me of a kind of Swing Era Miles Davis - although the solos he took with the original Basie band have a wild, recklessness about them which must have made this band extremely exciting in a live situation. Edison was the icing on the cake with this band when considering the other soloists like Young, Clayton and Evans.

It was quite interesting to listen to the other trumpeters featured on JL yesterday too. I was amazed at the first track where big band veteran Shorty Sherrock (more only thought of as a studio musician) sounded really up for it. Ordered that CD as a birthday present on the strength of that clip. The MBRB had a pretty strong trumpet section too judging by the tracks chosen - I've always been fascinated by this band which, although very much part of it's time, deserved a much greater reputation. I think there is the suggestion that Mills didn't push it quite as much as he could. Great to hear the wonderful Tab Smith soloing on one of the tracks chosen. I love his playing, whether with MBRB, Basie or Millinder. I think it was Smith who wrote the chart "Harvard Blues" for Basie's band which is a terrific chart with a great vocal by Jimmy Rushing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_aT7eOI_7A

Picking up on Burning Dog's comments about Mills, I think he was shrewd business man and brought a lot of commercial success to many black artists in the 30's which might have otherwise been denied them. I think the only band he couldn't do anything for was Fletcher Henderson's which, by that decade, was a bit of a hopeless case because of the leader's lack of motivation and interest in bandleading if you believe the biography.

[Alyn_Shipton]

I have long been fascinated by Irving Mills, and Adam Clayton Powell's description of him as a kind of intellectual property 'sharecropper' is quite some way from the truth. My books on Jimmy McHugh and Cab Calloway both deal in detail with Mills and his background, and there is even more in Harvey Cohen's Duke Ellington's America. Put the three together, and you begin to build up the portrait of the first media mogul of modern times... And Ian's right about Henderson. It was because of Henderson's inability to come to terms with Mills's methods of management that Cab rather than Henderson came to Britain after Ellington in the 30s.

[Alyn_Shipton]

Oh, and I have to disagree with Ian about trumpeters. Buck was vastly the more technically proficient and imaginative. We will be playing the charts he gave me (re-edited by Matthias Seuffert) at the London Jazz Festival with the Clayton Legacy Band (more or less the same line-up as on JLU in April from Gateshead).

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

... Edison spoke as he played, laconic but on the nail ... for a somewhat less than virtuoso trumpeter he sure made the grade in the best contexts ... so the music in the programme was all delightful and hearing him a joy ...thanks Alyn great programme ..

struck in the Tatum group how Edison surrounded by some of the fleetest players ever to have lived, adopted the Webster solution with Tatum, play notes, sound good and swing ... ...

i'm a fan of Buddy Tate, great player and arranger and an interesting contributor to the jazz scene ... lovely solo on Out of Nowhere ...


first really got hold os 'Sweets' in my early teens when i bought this, a second hand lp ... still treasure this music

from about 8' 50" Edison plays a series of single notes that are primordial, he could as easily be James Brown wailing and growling, the man had a deep soul feeling ... to my mind one of his best solos ever [but i've not listened to them all]

[burning dog]

My knowledge of Mills comes from books on Ellington but I haven't read Alyns books. He appears to be man who was after a fast buck who had a very good instinct for talent, look at the cast of Stormy Weather**, but not always for good taste (in tunes). Because of the instinct for talent he served jazz very well but I doubt he was bothered one way or the other about this. I don't think he was villain in the annuls of jazz, I just thought from my limited knowledge that wiki put a good "spin" on his life story.

I enjoy Edison's playing as much as Buck Clayton's but there's no doubt the latter was more versatile.

** Although he's not listed as producer I thought he was more or less the 'fixer' for the musicians on this movie.

PS. When I say "I haven't read Alyn's books" I mean the two he mentioned in this thread

PPS

Shavers and Clayton 58