Jimmie Noone bio-discography - long overdue!

Jimmie Noone - Jazz Clarinet Pioneer, the new bio-discography of the great clarinetist by James K. Williams, is available from the author at tubawhip@comcast.net for $20 US per copy plus packaging and postage ($4 US in US, $4.50 US to Canada and $8 US to overseas destinations).

This book has 120 pages and includes extensive photographs from the Frank Driggs and Duncan Schiedt collections, Chicago Defender advert art and several historic Noone documents. A long overdue tribute!

Jazz on the River - 1947

With Sidney Bechet (would he double on soprano sax, that he was mostly playing those days?) and Albert Nicholas on clarinet, Danny Barker on guitar, James P. Johnson on piano, Pops Foster on bass and Baby Dodds on drums, this must have been a trip to jazz heaven!

Line-up is very similar to those of the "This Is Jazz" broadcasts from May 31, 1947 (remove Sidney Bechet, add Wild Bill Davison on cornet, George Brunies on trombone and Blue Lu Barker on vocals, and put Joe Sullivan instead of James P. Johnson) and June 7, 1947 (remove Sidney Bechet, add Wild Bill Davison on cornet and put Freddie Moore instead of Baby Dodds), so the remaining -and not listed in the New York Times article- musicians might be Wild Bill Davison on cornet and Jimmy Archey ("This Is Jazz" broadcasts from June 14 and June 21) or George Brunies on trombone.

Any help from moldy figs and other dried fruits is much appreciated!

Baby Dodds footage

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on December 24, 1898, Warren Baby Dodds, brother of clarinettist Johnny Dodds, was one of first great drummers of jazz. Listing just three of the groups he recorded with is like a “who’s who” on classic New Orleans Chicago-recorded jazz: King Oliver’s Creole Band, Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers and Louis Armstrong & His Hot Seven.

Here’s Baby Dodds in what must be the first instructional jazz movie ever (1946) and, as far as I know, the only existing footage of him, doing his trademark press roll and soloing on tom-tom with some foot muffle over a rhythmically simplified background piano statement of the “Tea For Two” theme.

Old jazz magazines - record ads [3]

Here's the third installment of my series on old record advertisements from vintage jazz magazines. This time the source is Needle (from June 1944 to December 1944) and labels are Asch, Apollo, Blue Note, Savoy and the very rare S.D.