Danny Barker New Orleans Jazz Man and Raconteur

Danny Barker
New Orleans Jazz Man and Raconteur
GHB Records

As Trevor Richards observes in his opening comments to this two-disc retrospective of Danny Barker's recordings, "Danny Barker was a Renaissance man, a man of many unexpected facets."He was a rhythm guitarist or banjo player, musical entertainer or vocalist, composer of notable songs, a raconteur, and even a movie actor. Barker was also a jazz researcher and historian, and even a university lecturer.

He left his native New Orleans for New York, where he made an initial switch to guitar from banjo, and his fat chords made him in demand as he worked for Lucky Millinder, Benny Carter, and most famously Cab Calloway. He was on numerous Calloway recordings. He also recorded with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Bostic, and bunk Johnson as well as helped launch the recording career of his wife, Bu Lu Barker. Barker would serve as the guitarist for Rudi Blesh's weekly radio broadcasts, "This Is Jazz." It was around this time resumed playing the banjo, buy playing a 6-string guitar-banjo.

Barker formed a record label King Zulu to make recordings of Mardi Gras music to sell to bars, but his timing was unfortunate as recordings issued on 78s came out with the transition to 45s in full force. In the mid-sixties, he returned to the Crescent City to become assistant curator of the New Orleans Jazz Museum. He would also write extensively, including his own "A Life in Jazz," written with Alan Shipton, and available in a superb new edition from the New Orleans Historic Collection. Barker would also form the Fairview Baptist Church Christian Band that linked the Brass Bands' heritage, such as that of his uncle Paul Barbarin's Onward Brass Band. It served as a launching pad for many celebrated New Orleans musicians of today and such Brass Bands as The Dirty dozen and Rebirth.

While the two CDs contain a generous sampling of 34 songs and two interviews, they do not cover the entire spectrum of recordings Barker was on. In fact, on many of these, he is often a band member contributing his percussive guitar and/or banjo along with an occasional vocal. The music spans a Jonah Jones session with members of Calloway's orchestra to "Palm Court Strut" with an unidentified New Orleans band that he sang on. There are two selections with Nick and His Creole Serenaders, a group led by clarinetist Albert Nicholas, with pianist James P. Johnson, that Barker sang in Creole French. There are 13 selections from the "This Is Jazz" radio program, including a guitar-bass duet with Pops Foster. Other tracks include him as part of a band that included Muggsy Spanier, Wild bill Davidson, Albert Nicholas, George Brunies, James P. Johnson, Art Hodes, Ralph Sutton, Pops Foster, and Baby Dodds. Selections of note include "Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans," with Louis Armstrong, "Sweet Lorraine" with Sidney Bechet, and "Some of These Days" with vocalist Chippier Hill.

Barker is more prominent as a vocalist on the second disc, including the exuberant Mardi Gras number, "Tootie Ma Is a Big Fine Thing" that he issued on his King Zulu label. There are boisterous performances by Paul Barbarin's Jazz Band of "The Second Line" and "Royal Garden Blues." Barker's humorous songwriting is evident on "Save the Bones For Henry Jones," while he leads the backing behind Blue Lu Barker's rendition of "Gulf Coast Blues." He provides a delightful performance of 'Eh La Bas" and charming interpretations of "Heart of My Heart" and "Hard Hearted Hannah." Even more outstanding is a rendition of "Saint James Infirmary," full of his vibrant personality that displays his storytelling ability.

The two interview tracks provide insights into the differences between white and black New Orleans jazz as well as his early days and his moving to New York. There are several previously unissued performances included as well. These two discs make available several excellent traditional jazz performances. While this might not be an essential release, for fans of traditional (especially New Orleans) jazz, this is a very welcome collection.

I purchased this. Here is Danny Barker in performance.

Take 5 With St. James Infirmary

One of the best-known jazz & blues songs associated with the City of New Orleans, St. James Infirmary has been subject to many recordings and interpretations for decades. Artists such as Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Chris Thomas King, and many others have recorded it. Also, it has been subject to scholarly study by Robert W. Harwood (and I recommend this volume) going through its origins and its history. Here is a link with more information about this book. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4758997-i-went-down-to-st-james-infirmary

Today's Take 5 is a short playlist of renditions of this classic tune. And I could easily have included another dozen renditions.

We start today's playlist with the great Louis Armstrong. This was not the first recording. That was by Fess Williams under the title of "Gambler's Blues."  This recording is from 1928 and includes the great Earl Hines on piano.

Next, we turn to the great Cab Calloway who recorded it originally in 1930 but also did a 'soundie' of the tune.

Bobby Bland made one of my favorite recordings of this song. It was the flip side of his No. 2 R&B hit "Don't Cry No More." I have included the original recording and not a live performance as he performed an abbreviated version on the videos available. I note that soul-blues singer Geater Davis also did a recording that was modeled on Bland's version.

Chris Thomas King, son of Baton Rouge blues legend Tabby Thomas, is a highly underrated blues performer and so much more. His moving rendition was included as part of 'Rise," his post-Katrina recording. Here he performs it at The Beeches Jazz Festival in Toronto.

We conclude this with a performance by Shamarr Allen who recorded this for his 'Meet Me on Frenchman Street" album.

Take 5 with Cab Calloway

A video of Cab Calloway and His Big Band featuring the Nicholas Brothers from the legendary movie Stormy Weather recently was the subject of several posts on Facebook. While a good portion of the reaction focused on the incredible dance routine of the two brothers, one which Fred Astaire is reported to have called the greatest dance sequence on film. The Nicholas Brothers are astonishing, but also one might overlook the terrific playing of Cab Calloway's big band along with some of the greatest scat singing on film. We kick off this salute to Cab Calloway with Jumpin' Jive.

He also recorded one of the most famous renditions of St. James Infirmary.

His band had some incredible musicians including tenor saxophonist Chu Berry, trumpeters Doc Cheatham and Dizzy Gillespie, bassist Milt Hinton, drummer Cozy Cole, and guitarist Danny Barker. Chu Berry and Dizzy Gillespie are featured on Boo-Wah Boo-Wah.

With the success of Minnie the Moocher, Cab became known as the Hi De Ho Man. Here is a 1934 film with some of his hits from that time.

Finally, here he is heard on the song he is most identified with, Minnie the Moocher. This is not his original recording but a classic one.

Alyn Shipton Ably Tells Cab Calloway's Story

British jazz critic and historian Alyn Shipton has authored a marvelous biography, "Hi-De-Ho: The Life of Cab Calloway," that should lead to a reevaluation of the remarkable career of a person who most only will know from his iconic personality. Some will only know Calloway from his performance of "Minnie the Moocher," in the movie "The Blues Brothers," while others will remember him from his performances on Broadway and others will have heard some of his recordings and think of him as a popular vocalist.

Shipton traces his early years in Rochester and Baltimore, to Chicago where he was influenced by his older sister Blanche, through his linking up with the Alabamians who would become the Missourians and eventually his Orchestra. He gets engagements at the mob-connected Connie's Inn and the Cotton Club, and linked with Irving Mills, also Duke Ellington's manager at the time, and with Mills connections and these performances develops into a pioneering scat singer (second perhaps to Armstrong) while leading a disciplined and terrific jazz big band that had excellent musicians and soloists in addition to his remarkable singing.

There is the discussion of the many musicians who were part of the Calloway Band such as Ben Webster, Milt Hinton, Danny Barker, Doc Cheatham, Jonah Jones, Dizzy Gillespie and Chu Berry and how Calloway was constantly improving the band, trying to get strong sections as well as soloists. It is interesting that after Chu Berry replaced Ben Webster, instrumental features for the band become much more frequent and Cab featured a small band within his Orchestra as well. And the stories of life on the road and the friction sometimes between Cab and members of his band, such as the infamous incident when he accused Dizzy Gillespie of throwing spitballs and Dizzy coming after him with a knife.

And the body of recordings that Calloway produced over his life is examined in the context of his career as Shipton recounts the tours, his appearances in film (including the Betty Boop cartoons and the unique process that was used to animate his dancing style (that Shipton observes presages Michael Jackson's "Moon Walk'). Shipton takes us through his remarkable early recording of "St. Louis Blues," that was far removed from Louis Armstrong's big band recording, to the immortal "Minnie the Moocher," and the musical elements that were so original here and in its various sequels. Shipton discusses the music clearly and cogently without the use of detailed technical musical analysis so this book will be of interest to general readers.

Calloway, like his other contemporaries, suffered from the decline of the big bands but Shipton details how he started working with small groups, and then how his performance as "Sportin' Life" in a revival of Porgy & Bess re-established him as a leading performer and entertainer as well as on other productions such as the All Balck cast of "Hello Dolly," as well in the touring cast of "Bubbling Brown Sugar." I did not remember he was a featured performer on The Ed Sullivan Show for one of the broadcasts that also featured The Beatles. It was a rich musical life that continued until shortly before he passed away.

Shipton discusses the stresses of leading the band with its substantial touring inflicted on Calloway's personal life. How he had a lengthy estranged relationship with his first wife, and how hiss second wife forced him to give up his race track gambling habit while he tried to do his best as a father to his children.

As Alyn Shipton observes in his introduction, prior to this project he had scant awareness of the full and impressive range of Cab Calloway's accomplishments. After reading "Hi-De-Ho", the reader will have a full awareness of Cab Calloway's remarkable life and music.

I received my review copy of this book as a reviewer for Amazon.Com’s Vine Program and I initially posted this review on amazon.com.

Milt Hinton's marvelous life

I just finished this morning reading Playing the Changes: Milt Hinton’s Life in Stories and Photographs, by Milt Hinton, David G. Berger & Holly Maxson (Vanderbilt University) and while I still have a more formal review to write wanted to spread the word about this remarkable book. The late Milt Hinton was one of the most venerated jazz musicians. In addition to his bass playing, he also was an accomplished photographer. Some twenty years ago, Hinton and Berger authored The Bass Line which the present volume updates and serves as a pictorial autobiography as it includes family photos and others from the Hinton family collection in addition to over 100 new photos by Hinton that was added to this upgraded addition. And there are phots of everyobe from Coltrane, Ellington, In addition to recounting his days with Cab Calloway or the New York recording studios, he also has several pages discussing his photography, how Keg Johnson convinced him to get a Leica (his first camera was an Argus) and later purchasing a Canon (I believe one with a trigger). There is also a CD of interview segments with the late jazz master and the book’s dimensions are of a coffee table book. This is not a book to casually lug around, rather one to sit back, kick one’s shoes off and savor.