Take 5 With Tommy Ladnier

Tommy Ladnier is a forgotten early jazz trumpeter who participated in a number of notable recording sessions starting with a variety of sessions backing some of the early women blues singers like Ida Cox and Ma Rainey. These recordings were under the leadership of pianist Lovie Austin. Later he was among the Black Americans jazz artists to tour Europe during the 1920s with Sam Wooding among others. He also was a member of the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra for a few years. He also was with Nobel Sissle and later led a group with Sideny Bechet with whom he made the famous New Orleans Feetwarmers recordings. For this edition of Take 5 we can only touch upon a few of the 187 recordings he can be heard on.

We start with one of his accompaniments to Ma Rainey on Paramount Records as part of Lovie Austin and her Blues Serenaders. Jimmy O'Bryant is the clarinet player on "Bo-Weavil Blues."

Next up is Tommy's trumpet featured on Lovie Austin and Her Blues Serenaders recording of "Traveling Blues."

Sam Wooding's Orchestra was recorded during their extensive touring of Europe. Here is "Shanghai Shuffle."

With Fletcher Henderson, Ladnier was featured on the Don Redman arrangement of Jelly Roll Morton's "The Chant." Fats Waller was on organ for this session.

We close this brief appreciation of Ladnier with one of the recordings with Bechet aspart of the New Orleans Feetwarmer, "Sweetie Dear."

Hope you enjoyed this. Bo Lindström and Daniel Vernhettes wrote an incredible biography of Ladnier, Traveling Blues published by JazzEdit. I am not sure of it is still in print, but worth looking for if you have interest in pre-bop jazz history.

St. Louis Blues Times 9

One of W.C. Handy's most celebrated compositions is "St. Blues Blues," which has been recorded countless times and become a blues and jazz standard. At the East Coast Blues Conference in 1988 in Washington DC, Joe Savarin, then Head of the Blues Foundation, stated it was the most recorded song ever, a statement that may or may not be true, but no question it has been done countless times. Here is a number of performances of this classic number.

First, here is W.C. Handy's Band performing this classic number 

While there is a film short of Bessie Smith performing this, 

here is her recording with Louis Armstrong on cornet

Here is Louis Armstrong's 1929 Recording of the song

Bill Williams was a marvelous fingerstyle guitarist who was influenced by Blind Blake 

and did a wonderful rendition 

Here is an early country blues recording by Sylvester Weaver & Walter Beasley

Here is the great Sidney Bechet

Earl 'Fatha' Hines did a wonderful "Boogie on the St. Louis Blues

Johnny Copeland heard doing this classic

Then the tough tenor sax and band of Booker Ervin

And I could found easily another dozen renditions. 

The King Jazz Story

The King Jazz Story
Storyville Records

The Swedish Storyville Records label has issued a 5 CD box set, "The King Jazz Story" which reissues all of the recordings from this fabled late 1940s label associated with clarinet player and reefer supplier to Louis Armstrong, Mezz Mezzrow. The aim of Mezzrow and his associates in the label was to present some 'authentic' jazz and most of these recordings based on blues and classic New Orleans jazz featured the great Sidney Bechet on soprano sax along with Sammy Price on piano on many tracks as well.

The first CD for example opens with 11 very strong blues and boogie woogie piano solos by Sammy Price followed by two vocals by Pleasant Joseph backed by Price. Then there are 11 tracks (including alternate takes) by a group of Mezzrow, Bechet, Price, Hot Lips Page, Pops Foster and Sid Catliff with four vocals by Joseph. Interspersed with the music are tracks where Mezzrow discusses the label and the making of some of these recordings.

The remaining four CDs are full of various configurations of Mezzrow-Bechet groups and showcase the genius of Bechet. The songs are presented in the recorded order so one does get several takes of the same songs together so one may wish to use shuffle when listening to the nearly 6 hours of music and short spoken interludes. There are so many outstanding selections including "Perdido Station Stomp," "The Sheik of Araby," "Ole Miss," "Out of the Gallion," "Tommy's Blues, " and "The Blues and Freud." The booklet accompanying the box contains Chris Albertson's essay on the label, Mezz and the music contained here and for fans of classic jazz it is a real treat for all of these recordings to be available.

I purchased this box set. This is one of a number of short reviews I have written for the 2015 Holiday Gift Guide edition of Jazz & Blues Report which is available at jazz-blues.com. Here is Mezz Mezzrow and Sidney Bechet.

Evan Christopher Follows Sidney's Footsteps

Once again nominated in the Jazz Journalists Association’s Awards for clarinet, Evan Christopher has a new release in his Clarinet’s Road series, In Sidney’s Footsteps (STR Digital Records). This edition was recorded in Paris with a band that includes David Blenkhorn on guitar; Julien Brunetaud on piano; Sébastien Girardot on bass and Guillaume Nouaux on drums. As indicated by the title, the music of Sidney Bechet is inspiration for the music here, although not all the performances are of songs recorded by Bechet.

Christopher is brilliant on this recordings from the opening I Got a Right to Sing the Blues through the jaunty rendition of When I Grow Too Old to Dream that closes this recording. His clarinet sings with warmth, bluesy expression, fluidity and melodic invention supported by a fabulous band whose members complement the leader and add their own stamp. Pianist Brunetaud and guitarist Blenkhorn shine on their solos as well as their accompaniments and the rhythm duo get the right groove.

Photo © Ron Weinstock

Delights include Christopher’s driving boogie woogie Cinq Minutes! (Boogie), which allows Brunetaud to display his considerable facility along with some rather hot playing from Christopher and a spotlight on drummer Nouaux as well as Christopher’s lovely and wistful interpretation of Bechet’s famous Petite Fleur, with guitarist Blenkhorn adding embellishments as well as a tasteful solo.

Bechet’s Blues In The Air also displays Christopher and band’s facility with the blues with Brunetaud helping establish the movement with his understated blues playing over which Christopher states the theme and then elaborates. Blenkhorn mixes in single note runs with chords on his own jazzy blues solo. Blenkhorn is also prominent on the delicate and lovely performance of Django Reinhardt’s Manoir De Mes Rêves.

While not as strong a singer as clarinet player, Christopher has a definite charm as he shows on his vocal on James P. Johnson’s Old Fashioned Love, followed by his marvelous clarinet. He and pianist Brunetaud (singing in French) share the vocal on the closing When I Grow Too Old To Dream, with a very lively arrangement of this musical chestnut.

There is a presence to his clarinet and the performances on this wonderfully recorded album that continues to delight after repeated listening. In Sidney’s Footsteps may be Evan Christopher’s most exceptional recording yet. Given the high level of his prior albums, that is saying something.

I purchased this recording. Here is Evan Christopher performing Sidney Bechet's Petite Fleur.

Evan Christopher Remembering Songs On The Clarinet Road

One of two new albums, clarinetist Evan Christopher had issued in 2010, Remembering Song (Arbors), is another exploration in following the clarinet road he has has embarked on the last two decades or so. A 2011 Jazz Journalist Association finalist for clarinet, and a favorite of Nat Hentoff and the late Ahmet Ertegun, Christopher is joined by a fine quartet with legendary Bucky Pizzarelli on acoustic guitar, James Chirillo on electric guitar and bassist Greg Cohen. As quoted in Larry Blumenfeld’s notes, Christopher observes “By not using drums, the texture is more introspective, more subtle.”

After a brief introduction of The Remembering Song, the group launches into Christopher’s original The Wrath of Grapes” inspired by a wine shop-cum-performance space in the Bywater area which has embedded within a quote from Louis Prima’s Sing Sing Sing. Its a lively performance with Christopher’s warm, fluid swooping tone complemented by the band and Chirillo takes a nice horn like solo. Way Down in New Orleans starts at a languid, dreamy tempo with the interplay between Christopher’s warm woody tone accented by Chirillo’s single note responses, before the performance revives a tango section in the original sheet music before transitioning back to the dreamy mood for the lovely close. Christopher’s The River By the Road is inspired by a quote from Sidney Bechet’s autobiography with bassist Cohen taking a solo on a performance that conjures up a picnic on a delightful spring day.

Tommy Ladnier is somewhat forgotten figure these days but he had a close association with Sidney Bechet, and his Mojo Blues is a lovely minor key tune with a bluesy mood and wonderful solos from all four. Bechet is inspiration for You Gotta Treat it Gentle another lovely melody that Christopher develops and caresses. The quartet take what Blumenfeld describes as a deliberate tempo on the rarely performed Jelly Roll Morton ruminative composition, My Home Is a Southern Town followed by the delightfully lazy Serenade. The Remembering Song heard in a full rendition, is an original that sounds so familiar yet new and the performance particularly sings.

Evan Christopher is a thoughtful person who continues to mine what some would consider traditional byways of jazz, yet brings a contemporary approach along with substantial lyricism and soulfulness to his music. Remembering Song is simply amongst the latest recording of his sublime playing and music.

I purchased this recording

Evan Christopher's musical meeting of Django and Sidney Bechet

Evan Christopher has established himself as amongst the premiere clarinet players in jazz today. While associated with more traditional forms of jazz, Christopher has displayed a healthy catholicism in the range of music he plays whether traditional Sidney Bechet numbers or a medley of Ornette Coleman compositions. After Hurricane Katrina, he was briefly based in Paris at the invitation of the French government. Among his various groups is Django à la Créole, which is his effort to bridge the gypsy swing of the legendary guitarist Django Reinhardt and the New Orleans creole tradition. In 2008, they issued their original album Django à la Créole and in 2010 issued their second recording, Finesse (Frémeaux & Associés).

Django à la Créole is comprised of Christopher on clarinet, David Blenkhorn on lead guitar, Dave Kelbie on rhythm guitar and Sébatien Giradot on bass. As the drummer less instrumentation suggests, there is perhaps a bit more intimacy and chamber music quality to the performances similar to that of Reinhardt’s own recordings. While Reinhardt and Bechet lived in Paris for several years and likely their paths crossed, they never recorded, although Bechet recorded Nuages. 12 days after the guitarist passed. A couple of Bechet compositions bookend the eleven performances here, starting with the West Indian flavored Tropical Moon, where Blenkhorn’s guitar weaves single notes and chords around Christopher’s entrancing clarinet lead as the other two deliver a swinging rhythm. The closing Passaporte Ao Paraiso (Passport to Paradise), which is treated as a Brazilian Choro, and again displays Christopher’s warm, woody tone.

The title track was by bassist Billy Taylor and was originally recorded in a trio with Duke Ellington and clarinetist Barney Bigard. Several months later, it was recorded in Europe by Reinhardt in the company of Taylor, Bigard and Ellington trumpeter, Rex Stewart. On this, Blenkhorn states the theme before Christopher enters with a slight touch of vibrato (perhaps a bit more Bechet style on this) followed by a lovely electric guitar solo. A brisk Riverboat Shuffle features some delightful interplay between Blenkhorn and Christopher again, with Christopher’s clarinet evoking some of the charm and heat of Bix Beiderbecke’s cornet, with Blenkhorn particularly nice here.

Christopher’s Django à la Créole, is an original based on Reinhardt’s Improvisation #3 which Christopher says he arranged in the manner of the spanish tinge compositions of Jelly Roll Morton such as The Crave. The guitar accompaniment adds a flamenco accent to the performance. Solid Old Man is a charming performance of a Rex Stewart blues that was originally recorded at the same Paris session as Finesse, and displays Christopher’s warmth, tone and phrasing in his marvelous blues playing.

Evan Christopher at Louisiana Music Factory

Song d'Automne (Autumn Dream) by English composer Archibald Joyce is a waltz transformed into a lively samba and followed by Hoagy Charmichael’s Jubilee that Louis Armstrong introduced in a Mae West film. Armstrong was one of Reinhardt’s idols and in addition to Christopher’s thrilling playing, guitarist Blenkhorn interpolates quotes from Armstrong’s recordings of St. Louis Blues and the famous introduction of Mahogany Hall Stomp, in his delightful playing. Other strong performances include the delightful performance of Louis Moreau Gottschalk Creole Eyes, originally composed for solo piano, and the rendition here  highlights some of the Cuban influences in this 19th Century composition. Féerie is an usual hot tempo Reinhardt original with precise, warp speed playing followed by a lovely gypsy-creole distillation of the Ellington class Mood Indigo which Barney Bigard claimed he was authored the second theme with more lovely clarinet.

The originality and invention that Evan Christopher and his associates bring is thoroughly captivating. I had been waiting for several months for Finesse to be available in the United States and the wait was well worth it. Highly recommended, this is available from www.lousianamusicfactory.com and other sources.

This was a purchase.