Take 5 With Andy Kirk

One of the bands from Kansas City that many remember with fondness with Andy Kirk and the Clouds of Joy. A popular swing band of the thirties into the forties the bands' sound was attributable to the piano and arranging skills of Mary Lou Williams as well as the marvelous tenor sax of Dick Wilson. Balladeer Pha Terrell was also popular with the sides with his vocals selling many copies. This week we sample five choice recordings by this fabled band.

We start with the band's theme, Mary Lou Williams' "Walkin' and Swingin'."

Next up is Williams' arrangement of "Moten Swing," which arguably is the finest version of this song other than the Benny Moten Band's original.

Arguably their biggest hot was "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" with Pha Terrell's memorable crooning.

The band celebrated Williams with "The Lady Who Swings The Band."

We close this Take 5 with a feature for guitarist Floyd Smith, "Floyd's Guitar Blues."

Frank Driggs 1930-2011

On September 18, 2011, the New York Times published an obituary of country singer Wilma Lee Cooper. Accompanying that obituary was a picture of her with her late husband Stoney, with a credit to "Frank Driggs Collection." Ironically Driggs himself passed away a couple days later. As I type this on September 25, all I have seen about the late jazz historian, scholar and archivist has been a somewhat brief AP obituary noting his remarkable collection of jazz, blues and other American music photographs and memorabilia, nothing the book taken from his collection Black Beauty, White Heat: A Pictorial History of Classic Jazz, 1920-1950, and that he won a Grammy for producing the reissue of Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings.

The Wikipedia entry for Driggs and the obituaries note that he became enamored with jazz and swing listening to radio broadcasts in the late 1930s. He graduated Princeton in 1952 and then joined Marshall Stearns at the Rutgers University based Institute of Jazz Studies where he began his documentation of jazz. Later John Hammond recruited him to Columbia Records where he produced a number of important reissues of jazz and blues including the highly influential King of the Delta Blues Singers, the first album compilation of Robert Johnson's recordings and A Study in Frustration, the important box set devoted to the great Big Band leader, arranger, and composer, Fletcher Henderson. He would also produce reissues of Duke Ellington (which according to jazz historian Ashley Kahn was the inspiration for Steely Dan's recording of East St. Louis Toodle-Oo), Billy Holiday and many others and in the 1970s revived the Bluebird label for Victor to reissue their many classic blues, jazz and other music.

His archive of photos, lyric sheets, newspaper clippings and other memorabilia grew to approximately 100,000 items and credits to the Frank Driggs collection can be found in numerous books on jazz, blues and other American musical idioms. On his blog, jazz journalist Chuck Ramsey noted his use of several photos from Driggs' collection in his biography of Paul Desmond. The Driggs collection was the single largest source of such material used for the Ken Burns PBS series on Jazz.

Black Beauty, White Heat is a simply marvelous sampling from his collection. In addition to that volume, he also co-authored with Chuck Haddix, Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop--A History, is the currently definitive study of Kansas City jazz that was so important in the development of jazz and from which Count Basie, Hot Lips Page, Lester Young, Mary Lou Williams, Charlie Parker, and Jay McShann emerged. While Black Beauty, White Heat, is today an out-of-print classic, Kansas City Jazz is still in print. These books, along the recordings he produced and his collection of music memorabilia leave an impressive legacy.


For more on Frank Driggs and the archive, see Jazz Man from the September 2005 issue of Smithsonian Magazine and "… And All That Jazz Memorabilia" from the March 1, 2005 New York Times. And here is the New York Times obituary.

Hot Lips Page Just Roll, Roll, Rolls

This is the second part of my appreciation of Oran “Hot Lips” Page.

Hot Lips Page’s music being so heavily rooted in the blues and Kansas City jazz was able to readily make the transition to jump blues and the post-war rhythm and blues market in the manner of such other swing-based performers as Louis Jordan.His place in post-war blues has been neglected although he was the subject of a memorable story in Whiskey Women and, a late rhythm’n’blues quarterly that many of us still miss. The Spanish El Toro label has issued a compilation of 27 recordings (over 70 minutes of music) for a variety labels, “Roll, Roll, Roll: The R&B Years.”

Hot Lips Page was one of the few who could approach the ebullience and inexhaustible musicianship of Louis Jordan, as Dave Penny observes in his liner notes. The proof is in these recordings from the rousing cover of Julia Lee’s “Last Call For Alcohol” as Lips lets us now its the last call with a ripping tenor saxophonist before he blasts some high note joy as a hot jitterbug tempo, which he takes out with some hot playing. This was recorded at a paris Concert and later released on King Records. “They Raided The Joint,” was written by Lips and Joe Eldridge based on an earlier Dan Burley song, and the performance for Continental sports a solid big band ensemble behind Lips fine vocal and trumpet.

“There Ain’t No Flies On Me,” is a nice mix of jive and swing that was recorded for Columbia,” while he covered Louis Jordan’s 1947 hit, “Texas and Pacific” for Apollo, of which an alternate take is presented here here. Nice tenor saxophone on this and Lips blasts through his mute although his vocal is a bit flatter than Jordan’s original. “Walking in a Daze” is a terrific straight blues wonderfully sung with just a bit of gravel in Page’s voice and followed by another terrific blues performance, “Miss Larceny Blues,” showing that Page could stand up to Wyonnie Harris, Eddie Vinson and his other contemporaries able to shout, yet invest a lyric like “every time your wagon breaks down, you come running back to me, I’d like to call you lover, but you are larceny,” with the applicable irony.

Page’s rendition of the Jimmy Preston’s “Roll, Roll, Roll” stomps and rocks as hard as the lyrics suggests. Again more terrific booting tenor sax as well as blistering trumpet. Other highlights include his original recording of “Ashes On My Pillow” which Eddie Vinson had a hit with but King never originally released, his own interpretation of the oft recorded “Open the Door Richard.” Another hot track is “Birmingham Boogie,” a hot jump blues with strong tenor, piano and Lips taking it out on his horn. His Victor recording “I Want to Ride Like the Cowboys Do,” comes across Louis Jordan crossed with the Joe Liggins band with a jive lyric and gutbucket baritone sax in addition to Page. On “The Jungle King,” a take on “The Signifying Monkey” as well as “The Cadillac Song” date from some early fifties sessions for King with a band that included Sam “The Man” Taylor and Harry “Van” Walls. These are terrific idiomatic recordings with a solid, infectious walking rhythm with Taylor terrific on tenor sax as one would expect.

Then their are his duets with Little Sylvia, Mildred Anderson and Pearl Bailey. Page’s duet with Bailey of “Baby Its Cold Outside” paired with “The Hucklebuck” was very popular. While the former was not included, the lively “The Hucklebuck” is. The success of these led to other duets including the salacious “Chocolate Candy Blues,” with the 14 year old Little Sylvia sounding like an attempt to emulate the Johnny Otis recordings with Little Esther with either Mel Walker or The Robins (the use of a vocal chorus) is consistent with this suggestion.

This compilation of Lips also concludes with some live club recordings originally issued on Circle with a band that includes Tyrone Glenn on trombone, Paul Quinichette on tenor sax, Danny Barker on guitar and Sonny Greer on drums with the lively “ Main Street” and “I’ve Got the Upper Hand” being more strong blues. Barker’s playing here will be a revelation for those only familiar with his banjo playing in his latter days back in his hometown while Quinichette’s Lester Young flavored tenor is as home in the blues as Page’s trumpet and vocals. There is a slight bit of noise on these which I assume is from the source recordings.

Dave Penny has a nice essay in the accompanying booklet, but El Toro does not include (because of cost as Dave Penny commented after this review was posted) full discographical and composer information, which is a significant omission. Nonetheless the main attraction on this is the boisterous, exhilarating music of Oran ‘Hot Lips’ Page. This is where the realms of swing jazz and blues meet, and the meeting is such a congenial one. I had this CD on my cd player at work, and I do not know if it was coincidence, but I was in an incredible good mood that day. Its over five and a half decades since Oran Page left this world, yet his music, such as on “Roll, Roll, Roll” has a vitality still today. Like the music of another trumpeter who stood in Louis Armstrong’s shadow, Henry ‘Red’ Allen, he left a body of music that would seem worth excavating by contemporary artists, although one wonders how many contemporary jazz artist would be able to do justice to this material. Perhaps Kermit Ruffins or James Andrews might be recruited for such a project.

I purchased this from bluebeatmusic.com.

After Hours in Harlem With Hot Lips Page

In the liner notes of “After Hours in Harlem” (High Note), a compilation of Hot Lips Page recordings culled from recordings made on a wire recorder in the 1940s by Jerry Newman, Dan Morgenstern declares, “If ever there was a musician who represented the spirit of the jam session, it was Oran Hot Lips Page. It can only be said that Lips was the spirit of the jam session incarnate … .”

Page was from Dallas, Texas and raised on T.O.B.A. theater tours with Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. He later joined the band of his half-brother Walter Page, the legendary Blue Devils which also included the legendary alto saxophonist and arranger, Buster Smith and made a pair of legendary recordings of "Squabblin’” b/w “Blue Devil Blues” for Vocalion that also included vocalist Jimmy Rushing and Count Basie on piano. The Blue Devils however broke up and members of the band including Page, Rushing and Basie found themselves in Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra, and Lips page’s trumpet was an important part of the Moten Band’s celebrated recordings “Moten Swing,” “Lafayette,’ and “Blue Room.”

Page was with Count Basie’s Orchestra at the time when the Band was about to go national, but Joe Glaser, Louis Armstrong’s manager signed him to a solo management contract which turned out to be a commercial mistake. Instead of having the limelight as such legends in the Basie Orchestra as Lester Young, Sweets Edison and Buck Clayton, Page's decision to go solo with Glaser as manager turned out as commercially disastrous for Page. He did make a number of fine recordings as a leader for RCA/Bluebird and later Columbia, before recording for a variety of labels including Commodore, Apollo, Continental, Savoy, Remington and others before passing in 1954 at the age of 46.  Yet he never came close to the profile of Armstrong.

His recordings have been reissued on a number of releases, including several in the low out-of-print Classics label. There is also an excellent collection, “ Shoutin’ the Blues” that compiles Page’s accompaniments to singers Mabel Smith (Big Maybelle), Wyonnie Harris (including Harris’ recording of “Good Rockin’ Tonight”) and Marion Abernathy. I do want to place the spotlight on an excellent new release, “Roll, Roll Roll: The R&B Years” but wish to point out one other release of merit.

The afore-mentioned “ After Hours in Harlem” (HighNote) is a valuable document of the uptown music scene in 1940 and 1941. In includes four lengthy jams from a house party at Jerry Newman’s pad with Page, tenor saxophonist Herbie Fields and pianist Donald Lambert. Lambert was one of the unsung masters of stride piano who did not record that much so his presence on “I Got Rhythm,” “I’m in the Mood For Love,” “Dinah,” and “Tea For Two” is most welcome. Fields can get somewhat vulgar on tenor while LIps is a marvel is his mix of daring blasts mixed with and long swooping lines while Lambert’s piano provides the foundation as well as his rollicking stride as evident on “I Get Rhythm.”

The remainder of this disc was recorded at Minton’s and includes trumpet battles between Lips and Joy Guy. On “ I Found a New Baby,” they are joined by guitarist Tiny Grimes,” whose single note lines are very horn like in construction. Page, playing with a mute, takes the solo after Grimes. The rendition of “Sweet Georgia Brown,” has Thelonious Monk on piano and his playing displays a strong two-handed style that as Morgenstern observes shows that Monk’s piano style developed by artistic choice, not lack of technique. Lips Page follows with choice hot open trumpet. Page scats a bit on “Old Yazoo,” a jive novelty lyric and Rudy Williams is the saxophonist, and this is a pretty strong vocal with Guy, according to Morgenstern, likely the trumpet player. This is followed by “Topsy” with Monk again on piano, and Lips standing out here with his rhythmic attack and interplay with the drummer. “Konk” is a fast Kansas City styled blues that gives Lips Page plenty of space to rip. It ends a recording of considerable importance and not simply because the two tracks with Monk are his earliest recordings. I had this on vinyl and purchased it again on CD and it should be readily available.

Classic Witherspoon With MacShann

Jimmy Witherspoon is among my favorite singers in the blues and jazz realms, who was able to sound good in a variety of settings. His earliest recordings were made on the West Coast with Jay McShann in strong little big band combos while in latter years his recordings with Robben Ford impressed in their own vein. Few could handle material made famous by his hero Big Joe Turner as well as that of Jimmy Reed with equal conviction. The following review appeared in the April 2007 Jazz & Blues Report (issue 292).

Among the most recent releases in the Mosaic Singles series this classic 1957 recording by Jimmy Witherspoon with Jay McShann and His Band, Goin' to Kansas City Blues. Originally on RCA, I believe this has been on CD but undoubtedly deleted. Mosaic has made available the entire album with three other recordings from the sessions that had been issued on a French vinyl reissue.


Opening up with Jumpin’ the Blues from the pen of McShann and Charlie Parker, Witherspoon handles other McShann classics as Hootie Blues and Confessin’ the Blues, along with Until the Real Thing Comes Along, the classic ballad made famous by Andy Kirk’s Clouds of Joy along with the Joe Turner-Pete Johnson Piney Brown Blues. Witherspoon contributed a couple of originals, Rain is Such a Lonesome Sound and Blue Monday. He shines throughout backed by the swinging big little band McShann led. Others on the session included Kenny Burrell on guitar, Hilton Jefferson on alto sax, Seldon Powell on tenor sax, Al Sears or Hayward Henry on baritone sax, Emmett Berry or Ray Copeland on trumpet, J.C. Higginbotham on trombone, Gene Ramey on bass and Mousey Alexander on drums. Stereo masters were found for all but two of the thirteen songs heard here.


This is a most welcome reissue and available directly from mosaic at http://www.mosaicrecords.com/.

Witherspoon Goes TO KC

Mosaic Records has a well deserved reputation for superb boxed sets of many different giants of jazz. In recent years they have started new series of reissues including Mosaic Select, three CD sets by various artists (often underlooked) and most recently Mosaic Singles that makes available out-of-print classic albums.
Among the most recent releases in the Mosaic Singles series is a classic 1957 recording by Jimmy Witherspoon with Jay McShann and His Band, Goin’ to Kansas City Blues. Originally on RCA, I believe this has been on CD but undoubtedly deleted. Mosaic has made available the entire album with three other recordings from the sessions that had been issued on a French vinyl reissue. Opening up with Jumpin’ the Blues from the pen of McShann and Charlie Parker, Witherspoon handles other McShann classics as Hootie Blues and Confessin’ the Blues, along with Until the Real Thing Comes Along, the classic ballad made famous by Andy Kirk’s Clouds of Joy and the immortal celebration of a legend of KC night life by Joe Turner-Pete Johnson, Piney Brown Blues. Witherspoon contributed a couple of originals, Rain is Such a Lonesome Sound and Blue Monday. He shines throughout backed by the swinging big little band McShann led. Others on the session included Kenny Burrell on guitar, Hilton Jefferson on alto sax, Seldon Powell on tenor sax, Al Sears or Hayward Henry on baritone sax, Emmett Berry or Ray Copeland on trumpet, J.C. Higginbotham on trombone, Gene Ramey on bass and Mousey Alexander on drums. Stereo masters were found for all but two of the thirteen songs heard here. This is a most welcome reissue and available directly from Mosaic at http://www.mosaicrecords.com.

This is an edited version of my review that first appeared in Jazz & Blues Report. www.jazz-blues.com.