The Mule's 10 random CD picks (3)

* Henry Red Allen - 1929-1933 (Classics 540)
* Spike Hughes And His Negro Orchestra – 1933: The Complete Set (Retrieval RTR79005)
* Allan Vaché & Antti Sarpila – Swing Is Here (Nagel-Heyer CD-026)
* Dick Hyman - Plays Duke Ellington (Reference Recordings RR-50CD)
* Scott Robinson - Plays C-Melody Saxophone: Melody From The Sky (Arbors ARCD 19212)
* Olivier Lancelot - Lancelot Et Ses Chevaliers (DJAZ DJ 715-2)
* Jon-Erik Kellso - Blue Roof: A Love Letter To New Orleans (Arbors ARCD 19346)
* Stephanie Trick - Hear That Rhythm! (self-produced)
* Wild Bill Davison - Lady Of The Evening (Jazzology JCD-143)
* The Gene Harris/Scott Hamilton Quintet – At Last (Concord CCD-4434)

Condon's Town Hall 11apr42 concert ad

Oh, those Eddie Condon's Town Hall concerts for less than a dollar, or a dollar and a few cents at most: James P., Hot Lips Page, Red Allen, Bud Freeman, Benny Morton, Sandy Williams, Zutty Singleton...

Published in the NYTimes (April 5, 1942)

Jam session at Jimmy Ryan's: only for your eyes!

Here's a small treasure for all those who love this kind of jazz and would kill to have been present: a flier for a series of 52nd Street jam session at Jimmy Ryan's, starting on September 27, 1942. Click on it and you'll discover a who's who of jazz in the early 1940s:

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

Jabbo Smith - Juan-les-Pins, 1979

Cladys 'Jabbo' Smith was one of the three members in the trumpet triumvirate of the late 1920s (Louis Armstrong -OKeh-, Henry 'Red' Allen -Victor- and himself -Brunswick-) but, in the 1930s, he moved to Milwaukee, which would be his home for many years, alternating with several returns to New York and the musical scene. Back in Milwaukee in the last 1940s, he married and raised two children while playing local gigs as a musician and working for Avis Rent-a-Car during the day.

Rehearsal recordings with Marty Grosz from Jun 3, 1961 were issued as Hidden Treasure on Jazz Art TR-520699/700 (and recently reissued on CD by Lone Hill Jazz), but his real comeback started in the late 1960s, when musicians, fans and record collectors were surprised to learn that the star of those great 1920s recordings was still alive. Smith successfully played with bands and shows in New York, New Orleans, Louisiana, London and France through the 1970s and into the 1980s. He appeared at the 1974 Newport Jazz Festival and four years later at the Village Gate and on tour with the off-Broadway show One Mo' Time.

Here's Jabbo Smith's band at the 1979 Juan-les-Pines Jazz Festival in France with Orange Kellin on clarinet, Waldren 'Frog' Joseph on trombone, Danny Barker on guitar, Lars Edegram on piano, Frank Fields on bass and John Robichaux on drums. This group had previously recorded on December 12, 1978, the album being issued as Jabbo! (Memories ME03). While, obviously, Jabbo is not at the height of his trumpet and vocal powers, he still can take the lead very solidly and play some real hot solos.

Leonard Feather on Louis Armstrong

This profile of Louis Armstrong was written by Leonard Feather and published in the New York Times on October 26, 1941.

[Click on image to see full size version]

Johnny Windhurst

Trumpeter Johnny Windhurst is one of those excellent second-line jazz musicians who never was in the spotlight and just deserved a few lines in the most complete jazz encyclopaedias –no mention of him in 90% of the jazz history books densely populating my shelves-. A self-taught musician, his golden tone was mainly influenced by Bix Beiderbecke white followers such as Bobby Hackett.

From left to right: Johnny Windhurst, Milt Gabler, Jack Crystal, Eddie Condon and Henry "Red" Allen

Born in Bronx, New York, in November 5, 1926, at age 15 he was sitting in at Nick’s and by 1945 he replaced Bunk Johnson in Sidney Bechet’s band playing at the Savoy Café in Boston. He played at the Jazz at Town Hall concert in September 1946 and at the World’s Greatest Jazz Concert #2 on April 26, 1947, worked in Chicago for a time and then moved to California, where he played with clarinettist Edmond Hall. Other employers around this time included Louis Armstrong and Nappy Lamare. He also led his own band in Ohio and Boston, and was a latter day associate of Eddie Condon, playing and recording with the guitarist in the early '50s and back again in 1967. He recorded with singers Lee Wiley (1952) and Barbara Lea (1955-1957) and with trombonist Jack Teagarden (1955).

His only leader recording session, for the Transition label, took place on April 22, 1956, backed by Jimmy Andrews on piano, Buell Neidlinger on bass and Walt Gifford on drums. Bud Blacklock replaced Andrews on “When You’re Smiling”, where Hamilton Carson joined on tenor sax. The disc was called Jazz At Columbus Avenue (Transition TRLP-2).

Here’s Johnny Windhurst in 1958, leading an ensemble during one of those Art Ford Jazz Parties and waving though “Pennies From Heaven”. Roland Hanna is on piano, Mary Osborne on guitar, Mark Goldberg on bass and Morey Feld on drums.

When Chopin turned to swing

Jazz music heard at the Carnegie Hall, April 23, 1941.

Henry Red Allen - Obituary

As published in The New York Times, April 19, 1967.

Man, this is the end of an era

a.k.a. "Last Blues For Milton".

No additional words needed.

Henry Red Allen's epitaph

“I have no fears about the future of jazz. This music can’t die out while there are always new generations of musicians trying new things. I only hope that they also combine their innovations with listening to some of the players who have gone before them.”

[Henry Red Allen, as quoted in Jazz Masters of New Orleans by Martin Williams]

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“No temo por el futuro del jazz. Esta música no morirá mientras haya nuevas generaciones de músicos probando cosas nuevas. Sólo espero que combinen sus innovaciones con la escucha de algunos de los músicos anteriores a ellos.”

[Henry Red Allen, citado en Jazz Masters of New Orleans, de Martin Williams]