Hank Jones - In memoriam

Jack Teagarden, Dixie Bailey, Mary Lou Williams, Tadd Dameron, Hank Jones, Dizzy Gillespie, and Milt Orent at Mary Lou Williams' apartment, New York, ca. Aug. 1947. Copyright by William P. Gottlieb.

Baltimore AfroAmerican, September 20, 1947

Milwaukee Sentinel, October 10, 1952

Norwalk Hour, November 1, 1957

Old jazz magazines - record ads [5]

Brunswick hot records ("the greatest hot records ever issued", says the blurb) as advertised by Decca in 1943:

Jazz solidarity [1] - Hot Lips Page memorial (Nov. 1954)

Bernd Lhotzky plays The Lion

"Fading Star" (1939) is one of the most beautiful compositions by Willie 'The Lion' Smith and, for sure, one of his most impressionistic masterpieces. If you concentrate in Lhotzky's brilliant performance of the descending first phrase, played in triplets as most of the A theme, you'll be reminded of the trail left by a falling star. The second theme, developed on the chord progression of the first one, is nothing short of brilliance as well.

The melody of "Morning Air" (1938) sparkled up in The Lion's mind while contemplating the spectacular view of Manhattan from St. Nicholas Park, after he had being partying all night with Jack Teagarden and George Wettling. He quickly ran to his apartment and began modulating the phrase through different keys, developing it into the opening theme.

Let's end this series of Bernd Lhotzky videos with his rendition of "Passionette" (1935), a composition in which the left hand is not expected to play stride patterns except for three measures at the very end of the piece, and instead is used in counterpoint to the right hand.

Teagarden's right to sing the blues - against the cabaret tax

A few days ago, among other little treasures from his extensive collection of Downbeat issues from the 50's and the 60's, my good friend and fellow researcher Fernando Ortiz de Urbina sent me this curious petition to repeal or reduce the "20% cabaret tax", promoted by Jack Teagarden and published in Downbeat, August 20, 1959.

Some research through the New York Times digital archives brings these two articles, published on December 4, 1917 and August 9, 1918, where the purpose and the method of calculation of this tax, that first went into effect on November 1, 1917, are explained.

Old jazz magazines - record ads [2]

After my initial post displaying several record advertisements from old jazz magazines, Michael Steinman commented very appropriately in his Jazz Lives blog (nice title for a post: "Swing Archaeology") about the old 78 rpm discs as a very different way of having access and listening to our beloved jazz music:

“(...) If you don’t know the music represented here, these ads might seem charmingly archaic but no more meaningful than drawings of old-time detergent boxes or tubes of toothpaste.

But if you do know what it must have meant to buy the new Art Hodes session on Signature, these ads are tender artifacts of a time when “a record” was a two-sided 78 rpm disk, highly breakable, costing anywhere from thirty-five cents to a dollar, and it was something to treasure. We who collect jazz now and are able to buy every record Fats Waller made (for example) on twenty-four compact discs, should stop a minute and recall such pleasures, even if they had vanished before we were born (...)”.

For his (and I hope others') delight, here’s a new batch of record ads, extracted from Jazz Session magazine and published from May 1945 to July 1946. All single 10" or 12" 78 rpm discs and albums with three 78 rpm discs are represented here, labels being Asch, Blue Note, Disc, Jazz Information, Session, Keynote, Capitol and H.R.S.

Projected Jack Teagarden Museum in Vernon

Jack Teagarden’s birth town Vernon, Texas, contemplates establishing a museum dedicated to the trombonist. The basis of this project, promoted by Mark Finn, rests with a Teagarden archive developed in Canada by the late Joe Showler – 40 years’ worth of devoted collecting, including recordings and motion pictures, magazine and newspaper coverage and a chronology that traces Teagarden’s progress in astonishing detail.

Joe Showler wanted to bring the collection to Vernon and turn it into a museum, but his death thwarted that plan. Mark Finn has reactivated it, and the Showler collection will find its way to Vernon upon the completion of a $175,000 fund-raising campaign. A tenth of that sum will cover the transplanting of the archive from Toronto to the Texas Plains. A historic-property earmark has provided the real estate, and a $50,000 matching-funds promise from Vernon’s tourism agency has lent momentum.

Contributors to the Teagarden museum project can get in touch with Finn via e-mail at MarkFinn@texas.net or by telephone at 940-839-7873.

More details at Fort Worth Business Press.

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La ciudad natal de Jack Teagarden, Vernon (Texas), planea crear un museo dedicado al trombonista. El proyecto, promocionado por Mark Finn, se desarrollará a partir del archivo recopilado en Canadá por el fallecido Joe Showler, tras cuarenta años de dedicado coleccionismo, incluyendo discos, películas, periódicos y revistas y una cronología muy detallada.

Joe Showler tenía intención de llevar la colección a Vernon y convertirla en un museo, pero su muerte frustró ese plan. Mark Finn ha reactivado el proyecto, y la colección Showler irá a Vernon si se consigue completar una campaña de recogida de fondos por 175.000 dólares, de los que una décima parte serán necesarios para cubrir el transporte del archivo desde Toronto hasta Texas.

Para hacer donaciones, se puede contactar con Mark Finn por e-mail (MarkFinn@texas.net) o por teléfono (940-839-7873)

Más detalles en Fort Worth Business Press.

Old jazz magazines - record ads [1]

Old magazines are always an invaluable source for any kind of jazz research. Club listings, reviews, interviews, articles, ads, listings of new releases... You can obtain that precious piece of information you've been looking for years in any of those worn pages.

But they can also be highly regarded treasures by themselves, kind of a mysterious jewel you can enjoy in your nightly jazz temple at home...

I have always been fascinated by those old black and white records ads, with their somehow naive hyperboles ("get the sensational new Henry Red Allen record on RCA Victor", "the best in hot jazz", "the real New Orleans Music"...). Here's a good sample, extracted from several issues of the H.R.S. Society Rag (1938-1941).

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Las revistas antiguas de jazz son siempre una valiosa fuente de información en cualquier investigación jazzística. Listados de clubs y conciertos, reseñas, entrevistas, artículos de fondo, anuncios, listados de nuevas ediciones... Puede que tengas suerte y encuentres esa preciada información que llevas años buscando ahí mismo, en cualquiera de esas arrugadas páginas.

Pero esas revistas también pueden constituir un valioso tesoro en sí mismas, una especie de misteriosa joya que disfrutas en tu templo nocturno de jazz en casa...

Siempre me han encantado esos viejos anuncios que acompañaban las ediciones de discos de jazz, con sus ingenuas hipérboles ("compre el sensacional nuevo disco de Henry Red Allen en RCA Victor", "lo mejor en el hot jazz", "la auténtica música de Nueva Orleans"). Esta una selección de esos anuncios, que fueron publicados en la revista H.R.S. Society Rag entre 1938 y 1941.