Jay McShann, like Joe Turner, bridges the world of jazz and blues. The Last of the Blue Devils represents a new Atlantic issue (SO 8800) where he is joined by Paul Ouinichette, Joe Newman, Buddy Tate, John Scofield, Milt Hinton and Jackie Williams. McShann is known as the leader of the big band from which Charlie Parker emerged. Ouinichette a well known tenor player also was associated with McShann. McShann's band was known as a band that played the blues. Recordings in the 1940s with singer Walter Brown were quite popular and led to a limited view of his own talents which hopefully this album will rectify (along with other recent recordings including the wonderful duet album he did with Buddy Tate on Sackville).
This album should win McShann many new fans. It swings with a vengence with lots of bluesy swinging piano that shows slight traces of Art Tatum. McShann takes five persuasive relaxed vocals. He redoes "Confessin' the Blues" which he recorded with vocalist Walter Brown and has since been done by Little Walter, B.B. King and the Rolling Stones. Bird, Brown and McShann composed "Hootie Blues" which features some nice electric piano from him capturing an almost organlike flavor. McShann's singing is quite like bluesman Lowell Fulson and it may be more than coincidental that both come from Oklahoma.
Besides the five blues vocals, there are five instrumentals including one solo piece. McShann is in good company with especially good work from Tate and trumpeter Joe Newman. All told a most wonderful album that any lover of jazz or blues can iII afford to be without. Atlantic may be part of the WEA conglomerate but releases like this show that label founder Ahmet Ertegun still hasn't forgotten the music that the label was built on and we are grateful. Mr. Ertegun, may we have more of the same, please.
This review originally appeared in the Buffalo Jazz Report March 1978 Issue 49. I likely received a review copy from the Buffalo Jazz Report, now Jazz & Blues Report. This may be available on CD used or digital. Here is "Blues Devil Jump" from this album,
Buddy Tate was both a band mate of, and successor to, fellow Texas tenor saxophonist Herschel Evans. Both had played together in Troy Floyd’s Band and when Evans passed away at a young age, Tate was called to replace him in the Count Basie Band. Like Evans, Tate had a big sound drenched in the blues and like Evans, his playing contrasted with Lester Young. His playing was typical of what has become known as the Texas Tenor sound which includes such other masters as Illinois Jacquet and Arnett Cobb. After leaving Basie in 1949, Tate had a lengthy career leading his own Celebrity Club band in Harlem as well as extensively touring Europe. By the time the Sackville album, that Delmark recently reissued “Texas Tenor,” was recorded in 1978, many artists would travel as single artists and hook up with local rhythm sections. In the present case, Tate was hooked up with the terrific rhythm section of pianist Wray Downes, bassist Dave Young and drummer Pete Magadini for a session of ballads and standards.
This is a wonderful date full of swing and some marvelous ballad playing. The opening tunes “June Night” and “Someday Sweetheart” are swinging renditions of numbers that were popular in Tate’s youth. The latter number was recorded by Jelly Roll Morton and King Oliver, although Tate’s version is more modern rhythmically than the versions by those pioneering jazz artists. “If You Could See Me Know” is a wonderful rendition of Tadd Dameron’s ballad displaying the warmth and tenderness generally characteristic of Tate with the rhythm section providing a light touch. The rhythm is hotter on the fine rendition of “I’ll Remember April,” with Downes adding some nice latin accents.
Tate is heard on clarinet on a bluesy take on “Georgia on My Mind,” followed by some somewhat breathy tenor on “Alone Together.” His swinging, nuanced tenor throughly delights on “Bye Bye Blackbird,” where his swinging, nuanced playing thoroughly delights. This Delmark reissue of the Sackville release includes two previously unissued selections, a lovely rendition of the Ellington-Strayhorn collaboration “Isfahan” (Tate evokes later day Ben Webster here), and “Lullaby of the Leaves” which provides another example of his clarinet playing with a woody, bluesy flavor.
Supported by a rhythm section, Tate is terrific throughout the marvelous “Texas Tenor.”
I received my review copy from Delmark. Here is Tate doing the classic ballad "Blue and Sentimental."
COUNT BASIE
Swingin the Blues Masters of American Music EUROARTS DVD Among the recent reissues from the Masters of American Music video series is one Swingin’ the Blues, devoted
to Count Basie, the great big band leader and pianist. Issued
by EuroArts on the Lower 5th imprint, it presents the near
hour appreciation of Count Basie with some choice video
clips and interview recollections by Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison,
Al Grey, Illinois Jacquet, Jay McShann, Buddy Tate, Earle
Warren, Claude Williams, Joe Williams and Albert Murray
(who co-authored Basie’s autobiography), along with a number of interview clips of the Count himself.
Additionally, there are a number of performance clips
from Basie himself from several periods of his career which
feature Joe Williams, Jimmy Rushing, Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis,
and Lester Young. The sources range from the soundies (an
amusing Rushing performance of Take Me Bake Baby, a
film short (the clip of Young is from the classic film The
Blues), and television (Basie with Judy Garland).
The mix of recollections and oral history with the clips
helps us understand the development of the Basie sound as
Basie remembers how he came to Kansas City and gradually put together his own band and Jay McShann remembers Basie and his band and the impact they had. Earle Warren, Edison, Williams and Tate recall there time with the band
(Williams ironically recalling that John Hammond had him
let go from Basie at a time when Claude was highly regarded
as a guitarist) and the personalities including Lester Young,
and Buck Clayton as well as how Basie could set the tenor of
a number with just one note, the use of the two tenors, and
the All American rhythm section. Murray adds his own perspective on Basie’s place in the music.
This documentary then traces how Basie had to disband
the big band for a sextet before gradually bringing back the
big band and the new personnel and sounds with arrange-
ments from the likes of Neal Hefti, Frank Wess and Frank
Foster and numerous new legendary soloists like Lockjaw
Davis and Al Grey.
Joe Williams recalls how Basie asked him to join the
band, which he agreed to so long as he did not to do any of
Jimmy Rushing’s material. And he brought Basie an old
Memphis Slim tune, Everyday I Have the Blues, that helped
reignite Basie’s profile. And that led to more commercial
successes as well as partnerships with Frank Sinatra, Sammy
Davis, Jr., and others.
Like others in the Masters of Modern American Music
series, the program on Count Basie; Swingin’ the Blues, fleshes out a musical icon in a most entertaining and informative manner. This review originally appeared in the June 2010 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 326). I received my review copy from the publication. Here is a classic video of Basie with Buck Clayton on trumpet.
Avid Jazz is one of several European Public Domain reissue labels that have compiled reissues of vintage jazz albums primarily from the 1950s and among recent reissues is Four Classic Albums Plus by Jimmy Rushing. Rushing is best known as a vocalist with the classic Count Basie Band of the swing era. His career of course started prior to that and his first recording was made with the legendary Blue Devils. Later he was associated with the Bennie Moten Orchestra which after the leader's death eventually morphed into The Count Basie Band. While more than simply a blues singer, his vocals on such songs as Boogie Woogie, Good Morning Blues, Goin' To Chicago, Sent For You Yesterday, and Don't You Miss Your Baby, led him to be cast as a blues singer. Of course he did sing more than just blues as exemplified by the Hoagie Carmichael classic New Orleans, with Moten as well as such pop tunes and novelties as as Exactly Like You, Boo Hoo, Georgiana, and Mama Don't Want No Peas 'N' Rice 'N' Coconut Oil. Like his blues vocals, he always swung hard with his phrasing and his full-throated and ebullient delivery.
By the 1950s he had established himself as a single artist. He had recorded for Vanguard Records under John Hammond's direction in the early 1950s with members of the Count Basie band and boogie woogie legends like Pete Johnson and Sammy Price. Subsequently he recorded a number of albums for Columbia of which four are featured on this Avid Jazz compilation: Jimmy Rushing and the Smith Gals, Little Jimmy and The Big Brass, Brubeck & Rushing and The Jazz Odyssey of James Rushing Esq. In addition to the music from those albums, these reissues also include a performance from the legendary TV show The Sound of Jazz and a rare British EP, The Way I Feel.
Altogether there are 49 songs over the two CDs included here so there is plenty of music. Some of the recordings are familiar to me from a Columbia vinyl reissue of the 1970s, but many of these specific recorded performances are fresh to the ears. On much of the recordings he is backed by some of the cream of the swing era musicians including Basie veterans like Walter Page, Buck Clayton, Dickey Wells, Sweet sEdison, Jo Jones, Vic Dickenson, and Buddy Tate, along with such other legends like Coleman Hawkins, Budd Johnson, Hank Jones, Milt Hinton, Hilton Jefferson, Doc Cheatham, Danny Barker and Zutty Singleton. And of course one of the albums included here had Rushing backed by Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Eugene Wright and Joe Morello.
From the opening moments of Arkansas Blues to the closing The Way I Feel, one is treated to some wonderful renditions of blues and classic pop songs that are sung with heart and humor. He can sound world weary on the blues like Down Hearted Blues, and Jimmy's Blues, yet wink about the fact Somebody Stole My Gal. He provides his own personal signature on classic blues like T'aint Nobody's Biz-ness If I Do, and I'm Gonna Move To The Outskirts of Town as well as interpretations of Louis Jordan's hit, Knock Me a Kiss, and the classic Earl Hines tune Rosetta. And we should not neglect to mention the welcome reissue of the rare EP with the terrific blues Go Get Some More.
While most of the recording has him with big band (or little big band in some cases), the album with Brubeck has its own charm with a bit more intimacy in the setting and the somewhat lighter backing provided on a revival of Evenin', one of the songs he recorded with Basie, Fats Waller's Ain't Misbehavin', and the torch song Am I Blue. There is a definite appeal to Brubeck's understated piano and Desmond's dry martini alto sound and if Brubeck may have been skeptical when Rushing first suggested they collaborate, the result was another stellar showcase of a vocalist who touched many years ago and whose singing still sounds fresh today.
Like other similar reissues, the liner notes are reproduced in the accompanying booklet (although in some cases only portions are). The music also sounds good to these deafening ears. There is not a solid overview of Rushing's Columbia recordings available on CD. This makes this reissue even more valuable in addition to the wonderful music contained here.
This was a purchase. Here Jimmy sings I Left My Baby, from the legendary TV show, The Sound Of Jazz.
The following review has been written for Jazz & Blues Report and hopefully will appear in the December issue. I certaainly think this book (with an included CD) would make for a terrific present for the jazz lover in your family or a gift for yourself. This lists for $75 but amazon has it for a bit over $50 as I post this.
The Ghosts of Harlem Hank O’Neal Vanderbilt University Press
At one time Harlem was the center of the Jazz World with such bands and performers as Duke Ellington, the Savoy Sultans, Chick Webb and others playing as part of shows at such legendary places as The Cotton Club, Connie’s Inn, the Savoy Ballroom, the Lafayette Theatre and the Apollo Theatre along with other places such as Monroe’s and Minton's. In “The Ghosts of Harlem,” Hank O’Neal provides a brief history of Harlem’s jazz scene from its heyday to its decline after World War 11, as well as provides interviews of 42 artists who were part of Harlem’s vibrant scene and get their memories as well as views on what led to the decline.
Its not a dry oral history either as author O’Neal is a gifted and noted photographer. While some may know him as the principal person behind the Chiaroscuro Records label, he was at one time on duty for the Central Intelligence Agency, before his more known musical activities which also included producing the Floating Jazz Festivals, the source of the various jazz, blues and other themed music cruises of today. Also he is well respected as a photographer and author having compiled “The Eddie Condon Scrapbook of Jazz,” “Gay Day: The Golden Age of the Christopher Day Parade,” and “Berenice Abbott”, about his friend, the noted photographer. His talents as a writer, interviewer, photographer and record producer are all given effect in this handsome coffee table volume that is richly illustrated with both his own portraits, mostly taken with a view camera, as well as archival photos from various sources. This updates the original version which was published in France in 1997).
The early chapters set the table as he explores some of the that made Harlem, contrasting his contemporary photos with historical photos as he discusses the venue, who played there and lets us see how its now a church, an apartment building or a few clubs still exist and feature live entertainment, including some jazz. The bulk of the book is devoted to the interviews of The Ghosts of Harlem. They are Ghosts only in a figurative sense, as O’Neal has common themes in the interviews including some basic biographical information, when and how they first came to Harlem, what memories they had of the places they played and what performers they remember as outstanding as well as thoughts or observations on the decline in jazz and any recent visits or experiences they had.
The persons interviewed range from such prominent jazz figures as Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Carter, Cab Calloway, Milt Hinton, Clark Terry, Benny Carter, Illinois Jacquet, and Joe Williams, along with such important persons, if not as widely known among the general public, as Andy Kirk, Eddie Durham, Sammy Price, Buddy Tate, Danny Barker and Sy Oliver. The recollections are fascinating as O’Neal is a gifted interviewer (some of his Chiaroscuro CDs included jazz speak tracks with the performers recollections included), and his contemporary portraits are mixed in with historical photo as well as label shots of 78s that the artist was featured or performed on.
Added to the interviews is a compact disc with eleven performances from the Chiarascuro catalog featuring 17 of the Ghosts of Harlem including Illinois Jacquet, Buddy Tate, Milt Hinton, Jonah Jones, Doc Cheatham, Eddie Barefield, Red Richards, Al Casey, Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie, Danny Barker, Frank Wess, Harry Edison, Major Holley, Benny Carter, Clark Terry, and Joe Williams, and a bit of Jazz Speak with Eddie Barefield, Cab Calloway, Eddie Barefield and Milt Hinton recollecting about the times together in Cab’s great band as they joke about whether Cab had his Studebaker or Lincoln in the Pullman Car they traveled in while touring.
This is a large and heavy book. 432 pages with 475 b&w photographs and the CD with over an hour of music and talk. Its is fascinating and by its very nature invites one to delve back into it again and again. “The Ghosts of Harlem have come to life in this superb book. Something to keep in mind when looking for a gift for a jazz lover in your circle of friends or family.
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