"Body & Soul" is one of the most iconic standards in jazz that has been recorded countless times since Louis Armstrong among others recorded it. Per Wikipedia" "Body and Soul" was written in New York City for the British actress and singer Gertrude Lawrence, who introduced it to London audiences. Published in England, it was first performed in the United States by Libby Holman in the 1930 Broadway revue Three's a Crowd. In Britain the orchestras of Jack Hylton and Ambrose recorded the ballad first in the same week in February 1930. by the end of 1930 at least 11 American bands had recorded it with Louis Armstrong having recorded the first jazz version. After Coleman Hawkins made his famous recordings, it has become a requirement, to paraphrase Dexter Gordon, for all tenor saxophonists to play and/or record it. This will be the first of my Take 5 blog posts devoted to this standard. I will focus on performances that predate Hawkins.
First up is Louis Armstrong's 1930 recording.
The highly underrated trumpeter Henry 'Red' Allen recorded it in 1934 with a band that included Dickie wells and Chu Berry.
The Benny Goodman Trio with Teddy Wilson on piano and Gene Krupa did a version in 1935.
Chu Berry with Roy Eldridge in his band recorded it in 1938.
Finally, we have the great Art Tatum from 1938.
This sets us up for next week when we will start with the classic Coleman Hawkins recording.
This is a second short playlist of versions of the classic American song, "St. James Infirmary," to follow up on the initial list presented last Saturday.
We start with a version from George E. Lee & His Orchestra. Lee was the older brother of Julia Lee who became quite popular as a pianist and vocalist.
One of the great New Orleans trumpeters to come out of New Orleans after Louis Armstrong, Henry 'Red' Allen performed this song while touring England with the Alex Welsh band. Incidentally, Allen was with King Oliver's Band when this was recorded in 1930 under Oliver's name.
There have been so many great recordings from this from the likes of Eric Burdon, Lou Rawls, and Van Morrison. In this vein we have Tom Jones and Rhiannon Giddens singing it.
Next up is the great James Booker.
There are so many other choices I could have chosen including solo acoustic renditions from Josh White Snooks Eaglin, Doc Watson or Dave Van Ronk. Other versions I might have selected include those Trombone Shorty at the White House, various Brass Bands, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Dee Dee Bridgewater, or Cassandra Wilson. To end this playlist though I have selected Jon Batiste & Stay Human from the 2018 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
Today's edition of Take 5 is a short playlist of Fletcher Henderson's Big Band. There are so many excellent tunes one might select, but I just want to give a brief sense of how great this band was. To delve more deeply you might want to check out "A Study in Frustration," an import CD set of the original 4 LP reissue. While Louis Armstrong's time with Fletcher Henderson was a brief one, it had a definite impact on not only the musicians in Henderson's Band and others. Here is the Fletcher Henderson Band when Armstrong was a member performing "Sugarfoot Stomp." This is an orchestral arrangement of King Oliver's "Dippermouth Blues" that King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band recorded with Armstrong on second cornet." The arranger was Don Redman who also played alto sax in the band at the time. Redman would be a very influential bandleader and arranger.
Next up is a rendition of "The Stampede," which was recorded shortly after Armstrong had left Henderson. The cornetist on this is Rex Stewart who was with Henderson for several years. Stewart is best remembered for his time with Duke Ellington, starting in 1934. also in the band from the 1920s is Coleman Hawkins (he is on "Sugarfoot Stomp").
One of Henderson's most famous recordings was "New King Porter's Stomp." Rex Stewart opens up with his muted cornet with Coleman Hawkins also featured. Henderson's arrangement would reach even more ears when Benny Goodman used it.
Later, Henry 'Red' Allen' joined Henderson's Band. Among the numbers Henderson recorded while Allen was in the band, was the futuristic sounding "Queer Notions," with solos by Coleman Hawkins and Allen
For the last Henderson recording, we will listen to a selection after Hawkins and Allen had left the band. Among their replacements were Roy Eldridge and Chu Berry. Here the band performs a favorite during the swing era, "Blue Lou."
One of my favorite jazz trumpeters of the swing era is Henry 'Red' Allen. Son of a legendary Brass Band leader, he first came to notice as part of Luis Russell's Band with whom he made some memorable recordings. He was also in Fletcher Henderson's Big Band in the thirties and later formed a small group similar to Louis Jordan. In the fifties, until his passing in 1967, he played predominantly in a trad jazz vein.
Here he is with Luis Russell's Big band where he is featured on trumpet on "Jersey Lightning." Pops Foster is on bass and J.C. Higginbotham on trombone.
Here is a fabulous recording with Red Allen's trumpet the highlight along with Coleman Hawkins in "Queer Notions" from Fletcher Henderson.
Later in the Mills Rhythm Band, they recorded this feature for Red Allen, "Ride Red Ride," which he would record numerous times including with Coleman Hawkins on a 1957 RCA Victor album.
The first time I heard Red Allen was listening to Phil Schaap over WKCR on Saturday Nights when he opened with "The Crawl." This was simply a stunning jump blues and we have a soundie of them performing this.
Finally, we find him in a swing-trad vein from the classic television show "The Sound of Jazz" performing "Rosetta." Besides Coleman Hawkins and Pee Wee Russell, there is Vic Dickenson on trombone, Rex Stewart on cornet, Jo Jones on drums, Danny Barker on guitar, Milt Hinton on bass and Nat Pierce on piano.
I could easily have chosen many more tunes by him. There is such joy in Red Allen's playing and his music is well worth sampling.
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