EDDIE CONDON – 1951-1953 | The Chronogical Classics – 1354 (2004) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Oh, yeah! "Ringside At Condon's"! Here come those wonderful long-playing 10" Savoy albums recorded live during the early 1950s at Eddie Condon's nightclub in New York. Each track begins with cheering, applauding and lots of whistling from the uninhibited audience. The music is excellent, with Wild Bill Davison and Edmond Hall out in front playing as hard as they can. The rhythm section is strengthened by pianist Gene Schroeder's interaction with Bob Casey, a forceful bassist whose prodigiously powerful, Pops Foster-like plucking propels the band often even more strongly than Buzzy Drootin's drumming. Casey gets more room for soloing than most traditional jazz bassists were normally granted. "Riverboat Shuffle" fades abruptly during Cutty Cutshall's solo, but he returns immediately for a gorgeous stroll through "Makin' Whoopee." This is the beginning of a medley: Edmond creates a lovely version of "You Made Me Love You" and Wild Bill gently eases into "I Can't Give You Anything but Love," which gradually builds to a smoky climax. The rest of these Savoy recordings are consistently wonderful, particularly those easygoing numbers "The One I Love" and "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams." In November of 1953, Condon's band was heard "Coast to Coast" on a national radio broadcast. Lucky for us, Columbia made an air check and brought out a long-playing record for posterity. The band is larger; Walter Page plays some of the best bass he ever put on record, and the closing blues jam clocks in at ten minutes, more than thrice as long as usual. Two of the performances allow us to eavesdrop on Condon, sounding more than ever like James Cagney, as he gives last minute instructions to the band: "Hold it, George! When we get through the preliminary action for piano, we'll skip into the clarinets. You take that ending, and back to the top. Don't forget: after the tramboon, you got two bars..." Condon sings and strums the guitar, the engineer announces "serial five-oh-three-dash-seven, take five." Condon mutters "Wrong number, call back later! Here we go, ready?" And they steam up "Riverboat Shuffle" as nice as can be. A bit further on, Walter Page moves a horse hair bow over the strings of his bass with resounding force throughout an exquisite medley of ballads. Eddie is heard issuing further instructions before leading the band into a final "Jam Session Blues/Ole Miss." As he nervously spouts last minute advice, Condon comes out with one of his all-time best rhetorical directives: "Let's try to make this as respectable as possible...we might have a chance!" arwulf arwulf  
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