Hottest jazz ever recorded?

[clive heath]

This is all very old hat as you can read here

"In 1934, the English critic and composer Constant Lambert claimed that he knew of "nothing in Ravel so dextrous in treatment as the varied solos in the middle" of Ellington's 1928 "Hot and Bothered," nor anything in Stravinsky "more dynamic than the final section." At around the same time, the European-based Australian composer Percy Grainger placed Ellington alongside Bach and Delius in his pantheon of composers."

.........and of course you can find it on my site (1st track on Duke 4)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.cliveheathmusic.co.uk/transcriptions_02.php

but also I recommend "Old Man Blues", last track on Duke 6, and if you haven't heard Cab Calloway going OTT on "Doin' the New Lowdown", it's in the same selection.

I've just got re-going today on the 78 lark after a long summer layoff and one of the first tracks I used to re-familiarise myself with my equipment was "Happy Feet" by Horace Henderson and his Orchestra including Henry "Red" Allen and Benny Carter. "You" can "tube" it here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP1VCxnPT0I

I think that like the other selections above it is as hot as you could wish for even with a weird whole-tone chord sequence just before the final chord.

Constant Lambert is an interesting fellow. Just the other day I was returned a CD, loaned many years ago, of his Choral work " Summer's Last Will and Testament" and have enjoyed re-listening to it. My site has his take on Liszt's Dante Sonata which he re-imagined for a Ballet score created by Frederick Ashton and premiered by the Birmingham Ballet in 1942 with Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes in the leading roles.

p.s. and guess what? Ellington's own "Running Wild" is on Duke 5 and is as hot as any of my previous suggestions.

[Ian Thumwood]

Lucky Millinder's "Apollo Jump":-

[Serial_Apologist]

Constant Lambert was probably the most jazz-orientated of English/British composers of the late '20s, including his friend Walton, whose "Facade" lyrics (the first example of rap?) he recited at its premiere in '23 (I think it was). He rescored Walton's Plymouth Point overture and iirc did a rescoring of Stravinsky's "Rite" all in 4/4!!! There's a lot more one could write about Lambert - in his 1934 book "Music Ho" he predicted Sibelius to be the bigggest influence on future music - 40 years before Sir Peter Maxwell Davies cottoned onto the Finnish master, who by then was considered old hat by most of the post-Webern generation.

Just thought I'd mention that...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

....... thanks as far as Sibelius is concerned that chap was on to something .... but Ravel is hotter than any of that krassikal krowd

now Art he was hot ...

[Dave2002]

Caldonia, Woody Herman, never heard a version that was less than piping hot.

Gary Moore's version is hotter than some.
Louis Prima's is "old style". Then of course there's Louis Jordan - somewhere in between.

[Rcartes]

This is all very old hat as you can read here

"In 1934, the English critic and composer Constant Lambert claimed that he knew of "nothing in Ravel so dextrous in treatment as the varied solos in the middle" of Ellington's 1928 "Hot and Bothered," nor anything in Stravinsky "more dynamic than the final section." At around the same time, the European-based Australian composer Percy Grainger placed Ellington alongside Bach and Delius in his pantheon of composers."

.........and of course you can find it on my site (1st track on Duke 4)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.cliveheathmusic.co.uk/transcriptions_02.php

but also I recommend "Old Man Blues", last track on Duke 6, and if you haven't heard Cab Calloway going OTT on "Doin' the New Lowdown", it's in the same selection.

I've just got re-going today on the 78 lark after a long summer layoff and one of the first tracks I used to re-familiarise myself with my equipment was "Happy Feet" by Horace Henderson and his Orchestra including Henry "Red" Allen and Benny Carter. "You" can "tube" it here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP1VCxnPT0I

I think that like the other selections above it is as hot as you could wish for even with a weird whole-tone chord sequence just before the final chord.

Constant Lambert is an interesting fellow. Just the other day I was returned a CD, loaned many years ago, of his Choral work " Summer's Last Will and Testament" and have enjoyed re-listening to it. My site has his take on Liszt's Dante Sonata which he re-imagined for a Ballet score created by Frederick Ashton and premiered by the Birmingham Ballet in 1942 with Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes in the leading roles.

p.s. and guess what? Ellington's own "Running Wild" is on Duke 5 and is as hot as any of my previous suggestions.

OK, interesting, but why is "all very old hat"? That's the kind of would-be superior comment that can irritate...

[Rcartes]

Caldonia, Woody Herman, never heard a version that was less than piping hot.

The best version (for me) is the First Herd's, with what I would vote as the greatest ever rhythm section: Ralph Burns, Billy Bauer, Chubby Jackson and Davey Tough.

[clive heath]

.......wasn't meant to irritate...partly self-mocking.......partly suggesting the idea of the "hottest" Jazz record has a long history (and none the worse for all that).

nevertheless I hope you sampled my proposed hot records.

[Rcartes]

.......wasn't meant to irritate...partly self-mocking.......partly suggesting the idea of the "hottest" Jazz record has a long history (and none the worse for all that).

nevertheless I hope you sampled my proposed hot records.

Fair enough! And I have listened to some of the material on the website, I was especially pleased to see some of the Spike Hughes tracks there, some of my favourites (especially Fanfare) as well as the Jelly Roll Mortons, one favourite of which is missing: Sidewalk Blues ("You're so dumb, you should be the president of the Deaf and Dumb Society"!!).

And although I listen to the Shelly Manne lives sessions a lot (mainly for the peerless Richie Kamuca), I'd never noticed the reversal of the channels...

[Serial_Apologist]

Fair enough! And I have listened to some of the material on the website, I was especially pleased to see some of the Spike Hughes tracks there, some of my favourites (especially Fanfare) as well as the Jelly Roll Mortons, one favourite of which is missing: Sidewalk Blues ("You're so dumb, you should be the president of the Deaf and Dumb Society"!!).

And although I listen to the Shelly Manne lives sessions a lot (mainly for the peerless Richie Kamuca), I'd never noticed the reversal of the channels...

Very old hat though....

[Ian Thumwood]

I think that the choice of Sidney Bechet as the hot jazz musician par excellence is an interesting idea. I'm not sure how you could actually grade his many recordings by degree of "hotness" albeit a track like "Spreading joy" could make an excellent benchmark to measure a musician's ability to swing. I've always been taken by the recording he made of "Black stick" which was issued under composer Noble Sissle's name. It was a source of disappointment that nothing else recorded by Sissle seemed to be similar and when I investigated him further you find that his heyday was in the teens of the century.

I would have thought there would have been some more suggestions and I'm a bit staggered at the lack of suggestion for Louis or even someone like Henry "Red " Allen whose approach always seemed to be positively steaming. Track like "Ride, Red, Ride" always notch up the temperature. One of my absolute favourite bands from the 1920's is McKinney's Cotton pickers and for pure heat a number like "Rocky Road" has a blazing shout chorus. You could choose a good number of their recordings as excellent examples of "hot music" and yet it is curious to learn that the inspired John Lewis, surely one of the coolest musicians in jazz, to follow a musical path.

To my ears, the notion of "hot" is epitomised by the likes of Luis Russell, MKCP, Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, MBRB or Bennie Moten. It is almost as if jazz was truly "hottest" before about 1938 even if the "hot" approach has always continued. The most "primitive" jazz I have in my collection is Freddie Keppard and some of the stuff he produced is considerably less sophisticated than either Armstrong or Morton. However, listening to the tracks with the likes of Carroll Dickenson or Erskine Tate, you cannot help but noticing that it is the "hot" element in this music which really separates it from everything else that came before.

If I had to fall on the side of either "hot" or "cool" I would have to choose "hot." For me, some of the most tedious jazz recorded would have to have been the "cool" jazz musicians on the 1950's. It's a harder task to pull off playing "cool" music as the actual structure of the music needs to be interesting to counter the lack of timbre and excitement. It can work both ways, of course. Some of the tenor chase stuff of the late forties or Lionel Hampton's rent-a-jam session work quickly palls yet some of the most players I have found to be the most insipid have all be cool players. I would throw the likes of Paul Desmond, Oscar Peterson, Stan Getz, Chet Baker , etc, in this mix. At worse, it seems like the kind of music you used to get when they had the test card on TV. The best "cool" players are maestros of investion whether you are talking about Lenny Tristano, Lee Konitz, early Miles, Paul Bley or someone like Palle Mikkelborg. Take an instrument like the guitar and I would suggest that the only "cool" musician of merit would be the great Jim Hall. Listen to the stuff from the 1950's and the cool, single line approach of the likes of Raney or Farlow seems pretty tedious. Thank goodness Jimi Hendrix rescued the electric guitar from aural tedium.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

not got round to trumpets or soprano sax or clarinets yet

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

not got round to trumpets or soprano sax or clarinets yet

What, no "insipid" Clifford Brown?

Mingus...Ysabel's Table Dance

Blakey...Free for all

Roy Montrell. ..That Mellow Saxophone (N.O. r&b)

BN.

AND...Anna Karina dancing the Madison in Godard's "Band a Part". Gets me hot everytime.

[Tenor Freak]

Just back from a journey through the Grand Duchy of Bluesnik last weekend - off again this Saturday to Sunny (sic) Swansea. Lovely place although they charged me a sick squid to get in.

Anyway I give you: "Softly as in a morning sunrise" played by Larry Young, et al. Rudy's microphones still bear the scars from Elvin's drum fills.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

The "ugly lovely town"

Watch out for Cerys...shes all Dylan T'd this week.

BN.

When I was "on the road" in my on the road Beat yoof I once slept in a broken down signal box on Swansea seafront...the rats, the rats...big as Max Boyce...Neil Kinnock...Glenys...