Rockin' Chair

.

Another of the great vocalists, she sang with Paul Whiteman, Frankie Trumbauer, and with her third husband Red Norvo was known as 'Mr. & Mrs. Swing." Mildred Bailey's brother Al Rinker was also a partner of Bing Crosby for years as the Rhythm Boys. +

Tracks

1. Georgia on My Mind
2. Concentratin'
3. Harlem Lullaby
4. Junk Man
5. Ol' Pappy
6. Squeeze Me
7. Downhearted Blues
8. Porter's Love Song to a Chambermaid, A
9. Smoke Dreams
10. Rockin' Chair
11. Moon Got in My Eyes, The
12. It's the Natural Thing to Do
13. Worried Over You
14. Thanks For the Memory
15. More Than Ever
16. Please Be Kind
17. I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart
18. Rock It For Me
19. My Melancholy Baby
20. Lonesome Road, The

Get Out Get Under The Moon

Annette Hanshaw was one of the great jazz singers of the 1920s and 1930s, rivaling other such as Ruth Etting in popularity. Her records featured musicians such as Red Nichols, Miff Mole, Phil Napoleon, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang, Adrian Rollini, Vic Berton, Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey and Jack Teagarden. Like many other artists, her records were often released on other labels under a pseudonym such as Gay Ellis, for example, when the songs were more sentimental. Enjoy. +

Tracks

1. Black Bottom
2. Six Feet of Papa
3. Don't Take That Black Bottom Away
4. Here or There
5. I Gotta Get Somebody to Love
6. Wistful and Blue
7. What Do I Care
8. Nuthin'
9. I'm Somebody's Somebody Now
10. I Like What You Like
11. Ain't That a Grand and Glorious Feeling
12. Who-Oo? You-Oo, That's Who!
13. Under the Moon
14. It Was Only a Sun Shower
15. Who's That Knocking at My Door
16. Song Is Ended, The
17. Thinking of You
18. Mine - (with All Mine)
19. There Must Be Somebody Else
20. Get Out and Get Under the Moon
21. We Love It

Hollywood - Paris

A slight departure from the jazz, I like several of the collections from Chansons Actualités. In a future post I'll share the soundtracks from several of the Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire films. In the meantime, enjoy this collection of American and French tunes mixed in with "news" of the day en français. Groucho Marx's "I'm Against It" from the 1932 film Horsefeathers is fun. +

"I don't know if it's bad or good, but let's have one thing understood,
Whatever it is - I'm against it!"

Tracks

1. Actualites
2. Paris Je T'aime D'amour - Chevalier, Maurice
3. I Used To Be Colour Blind - Rogers, Ginger
4. La Crise Est Finie - Prejean, Albert
5. Paradise - Lamour, Dorothy
6. Avoir Un Bon Copain - Garat, Henri
7. Actualites
8. Over The Rainbow - Garland, Judy
9. Pour Plaire Aux Femmes - Gravey, Fernand
10: I'm Against It - Marx, Groucho
11. Pourquoi M'as Tu Fait Ca - Arletty
12. Got A Bran' New Suit - Powell, Eleanor
13. Actualites
14. Viens Fifine - Gabin, Jean
15. Ich Bin Die Feshe Lola - Dietrich, Marlene
16. Elle Est Epatante - Simon, Michel
17. I Never Knew Heaven Could Speak - Crawford, Joan
18. Barnabe - Fernandel
19. Actualites
20: Premier Rendez-vous Le - Darrieux, Danielle
21. You Made Me Love You - Welles, Orson
22. Santo Domingo - Rosay, Francoise
23. Lazy Moon - Laurel & Hardy
24. Fascination - Florelle

Let's Have A Jubilee

This is a nice collection of Ivie Anderson's work, and she is considered the best of Duke Ellington's vocalists. +

Tracks
1.: It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
2.: I've Got The World On A String
3.: Troubled Waters
4.: My Old Flame
5.: Let's Have A Jubilee
6.: Cotton
7.: Truckin'
8.: Isn't Love The Strangest Thing
9.: Oh Babe Maybe Someday
10.: Shoe Shine Boy
11.: It Was A Sad Night In Harlem
12.: I've Got To Be A Rug Cutter
13.: There's A Lull In My Life
14.: All God's Chillun Got Rhythm
15.: Alabamy Home
16.: I'm Checkin Out Goo'm Bye
17.: Killin' Myself
18.: Me And You
19.: Chocolate Shake
20.: I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
21.: Rocks In My Bed
22.: Hayfoot Strawfoot

Stardust

Stardust, by Hoagy Carmichael is one of the most famous songs ever written or recorded. He wrote the tune in 1927 and lyrics weren't added until four years later by Mitchell Parrish. Contrary to some popular belief, Bing Crosby did not record the first vocal pressing - that honor goes to Chick Bullock who recorded it with the Mills Blue Rhythm Band on May 1, 1931. The flip side was Poor Minnie the Moocher (also sung by Bullock). At least one of the cuts of Minnie the Moocher is credited to Bullock in this collection, but it is incorrect. Because I lent my cd to someone and haven't received it back yet I can't tell which one! The Classics Chronological series has been great about providing good liner notes, and which 78s they take their sides from, but they got their info wrong on a few here and there. Oh, well. It's still great music - and this is the very first vocal recording of Stardust from another out-of-print edition. Good luck finding the original, all I've managed is a V+ copy (Oriole 2265). As much as I like Stardust, I also like the first two sides here. Probably because they're so corny. Enjoy. +

Tracks

1. They Satisfy
2. Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone
3. Straddle the Fence
4. Levee Low Down
5. Moanin'
6. Blues in My Heart
7. Minnie the Moocher
8. Minnie the Moocher
9. Blue Rhythm
10. Blue Flame
11. Red Devil
12. Stardust
13. Poor Minnie the Moocher
14. Black and Tan Fantasy
15. Sugar Blues
16. Low Down on the Bayou
17. Futuristic Jungleism
18. Moanin'
19. I Can't Get Along Without My Baby
20. Moanin'

Green Eyes

Chick Bullock was a very popular singer in the 1930s, however due to a disfiguring eye ailment he limited his performances to the studio. As he was "the" studio singer for the American Record Corporation, he was called on to record with just about everyone. Don Azpiazu brought his Cuban band to Broadway in 1930 and commenced the the Cuban rumba craze in the US. His original "Peanut Vendor" is well-known, as is the tune "Green Eyes" which is the lone Chick Bullock vocal in this collection.

Over the span of his career Bullock recorded over 700 sides, so in order to avoid glutting the market with his name, labels marketed him under a wide variety of names. I'll go into more of them in a future post, but for me the funniest is the one he used with Don Azpiazu's band - Chiquito Bullo. How that was supposed to fool people, I'll never know. I'm not completely sure how people would be adverse to buying a song with a Chick Bullock vocal listing, but still willing to pick up a copy that used a pseudonym. After all, the recordings are identical and only the label had been changed. Prices varied from label to labe, but it was still the same exact recording.

Anyway, there is some really good music to be had here and I recommend that you pick up a copy before it goes out of print. You can still find it at Worlds Records Music. I've bought a lot of great jazz music from this company over the years, and never had a problem. In the meantime .... +

Tracks

1. El Manisero (The Peanut Vendor)
2. A Penny For Your Thoughts
3. Wanna Lot Of Love
4. Marianna
5. African Lament
6. Me Odias
7. La Guajira
8. El Panquelero
9. The Voodoo
10. Green Eyes
11. Lament To Borinqueno
12. Amor Sincero
13. La Cachimba De San Juan
14. Be Careful With Those Eyes
15. With My Guitar And You
16. La Mulata Rumbera
17. Adela -El Manisero
18. Siboney
19. El Manisero - Me Odias
20. The Voodoo
21. La Runidera
22. El Ritmo De La Rumba

Man With A Horn Goes Beserk

If you listen to much old jazz, you've probably heard Buster Bailey but don't know much about him. I picked up this collection on a lark merely because of the date range and it remains one of my favorites. Except for four titles from 1959 and an obscure 1958 LP, everything Bailey recorded as a band leader is here. The first two cuts are scratchy, but hey - when you're dealing with 78s you take what you can find, and thankfully some dedicated engineers and fans work so hard to keep the music alive for the rest of us. This collection includes a virtual who's who of talent: Benny Carter, Fletcher Henderson, Charlie Shavers, Frankie Newton, Henry "Red" Allen, J.C. Higginbotham, John Kirby, Zutty Singleton and more. Enjoy. +

Tracks

1. Papa De-Da-Da
2. Squeeze Me
3. Call of the Delta
4. Shanghai Shuffle
5. The Bed Song
6. So You Won't Sing
7. Afternoon in Africa
8. Dizzy Debutante
9. Planter's Punch
10. Slow Jam Fizz
11. Chained to a Dream
12. Light Up
13. Man With a Horn Goes Berserk
14. Should I?
15. The Blue Room
16. April in Paris
17. Am I Blue
18. Seems Like a Month of Sundays (Since I Saw You Saturday Night)
19. The Fable of the Rose
20. Pinetop's Boogie Woogie
21. Eccentric Rag

Wild Man Blues

What can be said about Louis Armstrong that hasn't been said before? Seriously. The man could blow a horn.

(from Amazon) Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives and Sevens existed only as recording bands, with the members working regularly in other groups, but they created music that will endure as long as people listen to jazz. The sessions on volume 2 of the Columbia series come from 1926 and 1927, with the first eight tracks continuing the work of the Hot Five and the final eight showing the beginnings of the expanded Hot Seven. The varied sessions demonstrate Armstrong's broadening confidence and musical invention, ranging from the clarion trumpet of "Wild Man Blues" to the bawdy vocal on "Big Butter and Egg Man." Raucous but well arranged, this is cornerstone ensemble music with enormous energy and bright, spirited blasts. --Stuart Broomer

+ (256) ..... Tell 'em Volstead sent you.

Tracks

1. Lonesome Blues
2. Sweet Little Papa
3. Jazz Lips
4. Skid-Dat-De-Dat
5. Big Butter And Egg Man
6. Sunset Cafe Stomp
7. You Made Me Love You
8. Irish Black Bottom
9. Willie The Weeper
10. Wild Man Blues
11. Alligator Crawl
12. Potato Head Blues
13. Melancholy
14. Weary Blues
15. Twelfth Street Rag
16. Keyhole Blues

Whispering Jack Smith

(from Wikipedia) Jack Smith (31 May 1898, The Bronx, New York City – 13 May 1950, New York City) was known as "Whispering" Jack Smith and was a popular baritone singer in the 1920s and 1930s who made a brief come-back in the late 1940s. He was a popular radio and recording artist who occasionally appeared in films. +

Tracks

1. There Ain't No "Maybe" in My Baby's Eyes
2. Cecilia
3. Some Other Bird Whistled a Tune
4. (I "Wanna" Go Where You Go-Do What You Do) Then I'll Be Happy
5. "Gimme" a Little Kiss (Will "Ya" Huh?)
6. Don't Be a Fool, You Fool
7. Poor Papa (He's Got Nothin' at All)
8. Tonight's My Night With Baby
9. When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along
10. Baby Face
11. I'm on My Way Home
12. My Sunday Girl
13. Me and My Shadow
14. Clap Yo' Hands
15. Sunshine
16. My Blue Heaven
17. All by Yourself in the Moonlight
18. Blue Skies
19. I Kiss Your Hand, Madame
20. That's My Weakness Now
21. The Best Things in Life Are Free
22. You May Not Like It (But It's a Great Idea)
23. Little Girl
24. Pardon Me, Pretty Baby
25. A Slave to Love
26. 'Leven-Thirty Saturday Night

Don't You Make Me High

Another one out of print and getting harder to find, this contains all of Blue Lu Barker's pre-war recordings. Blue Lu was born, raised and buried in New Orleans and her funeral even turned into a popular video broadcast spotlighting the town's jazz funeral traditions. Some of the great jazz players are here - Chu Berry, Buster Bailey, Henry "Red" Allen, and Blu Lu's husband Danny Barker, among others. Billie Holiday cited her as her biggest influence. Enjoy. +



Tracks

1. Your Going To Leave The Old Home Jim
2. New Orleans Blues
3. He Caught That B & O
4. Don't You Make Me High
5. I Got Ways Like The Devil
6. That Made Him Mad
7. Scat Skunk
8. Nix On Those Lush Heads
9. Georgia Grind
10. You Ain't Had No Blues
11. Marked Woman
12. Midnight Blues
13. Down In The Dumps
14. Blue Deep Sea Blues
15. Never Brag About Your Man
16. He's So Good
17. I Don't Dig You Jack
18. Handy Andy
19. Jitterbug Blues
20. You Been Holding Out Too Long
21. Lu's Blues

My Blue Heaven

Although I really like Artie Shaw's swinging version, Gene Austin's original is one of my favorite tunes. I have a pretty clean 78 of it and it sounds real nice on the Victrola.

When Whippoorwills call, And evening is nigh We'll hurry to My Blue Heaven...

Tell 'em Volstead sent you. +

Tracks
1. The Voice of the Southland
2. My Blue Heaven
3. When My Sugar Walks Down the Street
4. My Bundle of Love
5. Sweet Child, I'm Wild About You
6. Ya Gotta Know How to Love
7. Ev'rything's Made for Love
8. Ain't She Sweet
9. The Lonesome Road
10. The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi
11. Girl of My Dreams
12. Just Like a Melody Out of the Sky
13. Carolina Moon
14. I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling
15. How Am I to Know?
16. Rollin' Down the River
17. When Your Lover Has Gone
18. Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone
19. Without That Gal!
20. Love Letters in the Sand
21. I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You
22. Everything I Have Is Yours
23. I Cried for You
24. When I'm with You
25. Ramona

Back Home Again In Indiana

While the last post included some of the first Chick Bullock tunes I managed to find on CD, Bullock had been recording for nearly two years by then (August, 1931). The Bill Coleman collection here (which really jumps about for something "chronological") includes the final two recording sessions by Chick Bullock. Both listed as Chick Bullock and His All Star Orchestra, these were recorded on December 6, 1940 (tracks 3-6) and February 12, 1941 (tracks 7-10). "All star" is an understatement, as that was the norm with Bullock recordings. On these tracks we hear Benny Morton, Bud Freeman, Teddy Wilson and of course, Bill Coleman - each a legend in their own right. My favorite tune from this set is the title of the post. Oh, How I Hate To Get Up in the Morning strikes a chord because I hate to get up in the morning, and because yesterday was Veteran's Day TCM ran a film in which Irving Berlin sang his own song on stage. The review below suggests these cuts may have been Bullock's best recordings, yet I suggest that the reviewer hasn't heard many of his other fine sides. His sides with Mezz Mezzrow (with Arte Karle & His Boys), as well as some of his bluesier tunes from earlier in the 1930s. Lastly, it wouldn't be fair to suggest than the Bill Coleman sides sans Bullock are anything less than very good listening. Enjoy. +

From All Music Guide

This second volume of the complete recordings of Bill Coleman presented in chronological order opens with ten vocal tracks of surprising warmth and intimacy. Remember those marvelous records that Coleman made with Fats Waller and his Rhythm in the middle 1930s? These rare and pleasant performances from 1940 and '41 are faintly reminiscent of those "Rhythm" sides, although naturally neither of the vocalists heard here comes anywhere near Waller's candid charm and effervescence. Eddy Howard does sound remarkably cozy with his two little love songs, and Chick Bullock (said to have been the most heavily recorded vocalist of the 1930s) turns in what might well be his best performances on record. What really makes these pretty pop tunes sparkle and glow is the combination of great instrumentalists. Collectively speaking, trombonist Benny Morton, clarinetists Edmond Hall and Jimmy Hamilton, saxophonists Bud Freeman and George James, electric guitarist Charlie Christian and pianist Teddy Wilson tu...rn each of these songs into relatively substantial jazz. Even "Oh How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning"once Irving Berlin's famous kvetching lyrics are out of the wayswings with abandon largely thanks to the presence of master percussionist J.C. Heard. The Bill Coleman chronology leaps rather abruptly to a pair of swingtobop blowing sessions involving tenor saxophonist Don Byas recorded in Paris on January 4th and 5th 1949. Coleman sings his own "Bill's Brother's Blues" and wields his horn magnificently alongside Byas, particularly on "Liza", "What Is This Thing Called Love" and the "St. Louis Blues". This portion of the Bill Coleman story ends with a session led by pianist Jack Dieval and featuring smoky tenor saxophonist Paul Vernon. Coleman sings again, this time on "I Can't Get Started" and a briskly rendered "Tea For Two". - arwulf arwulf, All Music Guide

Tracks

1. Old Fashioned Love
2. Exactly Like You
3. Smiles
4. It Had to Be You
5. My Melancholy Baby
6. (Back Home Again In) Indiana
7. Dolores
8. Amapola
9. Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning
10. There'll Be Some Changes Made
11. Just You, Just Me
12. Bill's Brothers Blues
13. Idaho
14. B.C. Blues
15. What Is This Thing Called Love?
16. St. Louis Blues
17. Lover Man
18. Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)
19. Blues at Noon
20. I Can't Get Started
21. Jumpin' in C
22. Man I Love
23. Tea for Two
24. Blue Skies

Goin' To Town

One of the first cd's I found with Chick Bullock on it was this collection of Luis Russell and His Orchestra. Several times I've bid on the original 78 rpm disc, but someone else always wants it more than me I guess. That's another way of saying I can't afford $50 for just one 78. Maybe some day. Anyway, here's the collection. Chick Bullock is the vocalist on cuts 16 and 17. I know this cd is now out of print because the only available copy I located was listed for $212 (used). Yikes! Good thing I bought it years ago, I think I paid 10 francs for a used copy in 1995.

"Luis Russell led one of the great early big bands, an orchestra that during 1929-1931 could hold its own with nearly all of its competitors. Unfortunately, his period in the spotlight was fairly brief and, ironically, Russell fell into obscurity just as the big band era really took hold. Russell studied guitar, violin, and piano in his native Panama. After winning 3,000 dollars in a lottery, he moved with his mother and sister to the United States where he began to make a living as a pianist in New Orleans. In 1925 Russell moved to Chicago to join Doc Cook's Orchestra and then became the pianist in King Oliver's band. He was with Oliver when the cornetist relocated to New York before leading his own band at the Nest Club in 1927. Russell had recorded seven songs at two sessions as a leader in 1926 with his Hot Six and Heebie Jeebie Stompers. By 1929 his ten-piece band (which included several former Oliver sidemen) boasted four major soloists in trumpeter Red Allen, trombonist J.C. Higginbotham, altoist Charlie Holmes, and clarinetist Albert Nicholas; the other trumpeter, Bill Coleman, ended up leaving because of the lack of solo space. In addition, Russell, a decent but not particularly distinctive pianist, was part of one of the top rhythm sections of the era along with guitarist Will Johnson, the powerful bassist Pops Foster, and drummer Paul Barbarin. During the next couple of years Luis Russell's band recorded a couple dozen sides that (thanks to the leader's arrangements) combined the solos and drive of New Orleans jazz with the riffs and ensembles of swing; some of these performances are now considered classics. The band also backed Louis Armstrong on a few of his early orchestra recordings. But after a few commercial sides in 1931, Luis Russell only had one more opportunity to record his band (a so-so session in 1934) before Louis Armstrong took it over altogether in 1935. For eight years, the nucleus of Russell's orchestra primarily functioned as background for the great trumpeter/vocalist, a role that robbed it of its personality and significance. From 1943-1948, Russell led a new band that played the Savoy and made a few obscure recordings for Apollo before quietly breaking up. He spent his last 15 years, before dying of cancer in 1963, largely outside of music, running at first a candy shop and then a toy store. Fortunately most of Russell's early recordings have been made available on CD by European labels." (Allmusic.com) Enjoy! +

Tracks

1. Saratoga Shout

2. Song of the Swannee

3. Give Me Your Telephone Number

4. Higginbotham Blues

5. Louisiana Swing

6. Poor Li'l Me

7. On Revival Day

8. Muggin' Lightly

9. Panama

10. High Tension

11. I Got Rhythm

12. Saratoga Drag

13. Ease on Down

14. Honey, That Reminds Me

15. You Rascal, You

16. Goin' to Town

17. Say the Word

18. Freakish Blues

19. Darktown Strutters' Ball

20. My Blue Heaven