LOUIS ARMSTRONG – 1952-1953 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1352 (2004) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This 21st chapter in the Classics Louis Armstrong chronology documents the great jazz trumpeter's steady development into a mainstream pop vocalist with recordings made for the Decca label between September 22, 1952, and October 22, 1953. The first four titles are among the most heavily sugared he ever recorded; although Pops could make even "White Christmas" and "Winter Wonderland" sound good, the Gordon Jenkins Orchestra & Chorus had a way of drenching everything in Karo syrup. It's a pity the voices were used on "Listen to the Mockingbird," as Louis sounds marvelous intoning the words to this old-fashioned melody, originally published in 1855 by a Philadelphian Afro-American music instructor named Septimus Winner. On February 23, 1953, Armstrong was in Detroit making records with an orchestra using arrangements by Sy Oliver; his performance of "Your Cheatin' Heart" was waxed only weeks after the sudden death of Hank Williams. During the spring and summer of 1953 Armstrong was able to record with a reasonable number of solid jazz players -- most importantly clarinetist Barney Bigard, trombonist Trummy Young, tenor saxophonist Sam Taylor, pianists Joe Bushkin and Marty Napoleon, bassist Arvell Shaw, and drummer Cozy Cole. Two extra-long performances, "Basin Street Blues" and "Otchi-Tchor-Ni-Ya," were recorded in Los Angeles during June of 1953 for intended inclusion in The Glenn Miller Story, a Universal motion picture starring Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson. Both tracks perk up halfway through with pyrotechnic drumming by Gene Krupa. Although Bigard, Young, Shaw, and Cole were with Armstrong on the session that took place on July 16, 1953, they had to contend with relatively corny material and square arrangements foisted upon the world by the Jack Pleis Orchestra. The following session, featuring a big band billed as Louis Armstrong & the Commanders, resulted in two more Christmas tunes and three perfectly reasonable big-band ballads, the best of which was Armstrong's own composition "Someday You'll Be Sorry." This itinerary is a good illustration of Armstrong's career as it stood in the early '50s, represented by a little bit of jazz surrounded by a whole lot of pop, some of it rather overbearing. While "Someday" is a record of which Armstrong was justifiably proud, "'Zat You, Santa Claus?" typifies the kitschy excesses of the U.S. entertainment industry during the Truman/Eisenhower era. arwulf arwulf       Tracklist + Credits :

GENE KRUPA – 1949-1951 | The Chronogical Classics – 1359 (2004) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

 The 15th installment in the Classics Gene Krupa chronology opens with a big-band arrangement of a "madcap" melody by Soviet composer Dmitri Kabalevsky. The last of Krupa's Columbia records were cut in Los Angeles on May 9, 1949, with sanguine spoken outbursts and wild trumpet solos by Roy Eldridge. There's creamy singing from Bill Black and a stilted group vocal -- a routine borrowed from Tommy Dorsey -- during "Why Fall in Love with a Stranger." Delores Hawkins, heard at her sultriest on "Watch Out!," appears to be emulating Ella Fitzgerald. After more than ten years as a Columbia recording artist, Krupa switched over to Victor in March of 1950. Bassist Don Simpson wrote the arrangements for new versions of six melodies composed by Fats Waller, and for some strange reason known only to arranger George Williams, a big-band adaptation of Gene Autrey's "Dust" opens with a quote from Richard Strauss' tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra. During the spring of 1950, Krupa began alternating his big-band dates with tight little blowing sessions featuring an old-fashioned Eddie Condon-type jazz band. Both bands featured vocalist Bobby Scoots, a lively specimen most appropriately chosen to sing the lyrics to that immortal discourse on the human condition, "Cincinnati Dancing Pig." The only antidote for this is a solid instrumental rendering of "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles," one of the most popular hits of 1919, here given the ham-and-eggs treatment by a band assisting Krupa in returning to his Chicago-style roots. arwulf arwulf
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EDDIE CONDON – 1947-1950 | The Chronogical Classics – 1177 (2001) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

 Eddie was one hard-boiled character. Dour, opinionated, set in his ways, and frankly suspicious of anything that deviated too wildly from the music he knew and loved. Critics and journalists invented a stylistic war between the 'Be Boppers' and the 'Moldy Figs', as progressive innovators and traditional jazz-heads were respectively dubbed. Condon was the archetypal Fig, deeply devoted to old-fashioned ideas of what music was supposed to sound like: melodies you could whistle and rhythms anybody could dance to. We Called It Music is the name of Eddie's excellent, hilarious, insightful, poetic, informative autobiography. It's also the title of a rather burlesque tune recorded in August 1947 by one of Condon's fine traditional jazz bands. While the book contains wonderful eyewitness accounts of hanging out with Bix Beiderbecke and Fats Waller, the song makes fun of musical categories, sneers briefly at "...something called Bleep Bloop," then demonstrates the individual and collective strengths of an authentic Chicago-style jazz band. What makes it work is Jack Teagarden, who could sing anything and make it good. His Texas drawl during the opening 'court room' dialogue might sound like Amos & Andy to those who are not accustomed to hearing this big exaggerated southern fellow acting the clown. Teagarden's other vocals are lovely; who else could sing so convincingly of tulips or sheltering palms? Ruby Braff once referred to 'The Adoration of the Melody'. That's where all of this music is at: each song is cherished and passed around the room. Eddie Condon's NBC Television Orchestra made two recordings for Atlantic in 1949. "Seems Like Old Times" is as beautiful as being alive. "Time Carries On," composed by Condon and arranged by Dick Cary, has a bit of the modernized Benny Goodman about it, particularly during those passages where Peanuts Hucko rides the current. Ralph Sutton is brought in for a couple of whole grain ragtime episodes. If the Dixieland revival wasn't full-blown yet, these records certainly must have helped to jack it up in a hurry. Cherry pie vocalist Jimmy Atkins should have gone on to work for Lawrence Welk after horning in over three otherwise perfectly good Dixieland tunes. Johnny Mercer's golly-gee lyrics to "At the Jazz Band Ball" might make you yearn to compose your own marginally obscene libretto. While we're on that subject: "Jazz Me Blues", which has been called the first X-rated song title to appear on a record (the Wolverines' version of 1924), didn't need lyrics anyway. Moreover: Peggy Ann Ellis sounds like one of them peroxide, lipstick and powder big band vocalists. What a relief when "Yellow Dog Blues" signals a blessed return to instrumental stomps. The band really pounds on it, with Gene Schroeder leading the way. Ralph Sutton assists in the execution of two wonderful relics: "Raggin' the Scale" and James Scott's aptly named "Grace and Beauty Rag." Then Cutty Cutshall takes the trombone out of his mouth and sings "Everybody Loves My Baby." Of course Cutty was no Teagarden but he's easier to take than 'powder and pie' were. And the band swings the hell out of the tune, which is what really matters. arwulf arwulf  
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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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EDDIE CONDON – 1954-1955 | The Chronogical Classics – 1464 (2008) 32-44.1Hz | FLAC (tracks), lossless

Because it taps into two of the best Eddie Condon albums of the 1950s, this installment in the Classics Chronological Series is right up there with the finest entries in the entire Condon discography. The first five tracks come from Jammin' at Condon's, a studio album cut on June 24 and July 1, 1954. Unlike the earlier LP Ringside at Condon's, the selections are not interspersed with applause, cheers, and whistling. What's conveyed here is the essence of the house band at Eddie Condon's, a traditional jazz-oriented nightclub that opened in 1945 at 47 West 3rd Street and moved uptown to East 56th Street in 1957. Recorded under the supervision of producer George Avakian at a studio inside what had previously been a church on 30thStreet, Jammin' at Condon's was Eddie's second album for Columbia. The formidable front line of trumpeter Billy Butterfield, cornetist Wild Bill Davison, trombonists Cutty Cutshall and Lou McGarity, clarinetists Edmond Hall and Peanuts Hucko, and tenor saxophonist Bud Freeman was buoyed by the alto peck horn of Dick Cary. The rhythm section supporting this hard-swinging wind ensemble consisted of pianist Gene Schroeder, bassist Al Hall, drummer Cliff Leeman, and Condon himself, who was a steady rhythm guitarist. What makes Classics 1464 one of the best Chicago-style jazz compilations ever placed before the public is the addition of Condon's next Columbia LP, Bixieland. Obviously a tribute to his friend and idol Bix Beiderbecke, this delightful album is worth tracking down for the sake of Condon's humorous, insightful, and informative liner notes, which include an excerpt from his indispensable autobiography, We Called It Music. The band assembled for the Bix tribute album included some carry-overs from the previous date, in addition to the Condon Mob's ace drummer George Wettling and legendary Kansas City bassist Walter Page, as well as trumpeter Pete Pesci, who was co-manager of the nightclub. Condon also lists Chivas Regal in the credits, along with the "utterly silent" Bud Freeman; although he was not present at the date, Condon wrote that "it's nice to see his name in print, especially for Bud." While Condon emphasizes that these recordings were not made in order to imitate Beiderbecke, he cites Pesci's work during the last chorus of "I'll Be a Friend with Pleasure" as "about as close to Beiderbecke as it's humanly possible for a living man to get." arwulf arwulf  
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ANITA O'DAY – 1950-1952 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1336 (2003) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Compilations abound that center on Anita O'Day's work of the '40s and early '50s, before she set about recording one of the liveliest string of LPs ever seen on the planet (from 1955's This Is Anita to 1962's That Is Anita). With 1950-1952, the seminal Classics label reissued a string of titles that haven't seen light very often, a selection of her recordings for labels including London, Clef, and Norgran (the last two were Verve-associated labels). While they stand nowhere near the twin pinnacles of her career -- her big-band heyday and her solo revival yet to come -- O'Day recorded much wonderful music during these two years. In 1952 alone, she recorded three excellent sessions (the final two-thirds of the program), including a swinging date with her Krupa bandmate Roy Eldridge in New York and a sublime Chicago appearance with Roy Kral. John Bush
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BENNY GOODMAN AND HIS ORCHESTRA – 1941, Vol. 3 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1271 (2002) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Benny Goodman's 21st volume in his portion of the Classics Chronological Series contains all of the red label Columbia records the popular clarinetist and bandleader made in Chicago and New York between August 15 and October 8, 1941. This compilation contains Peggy Lee's very first recordings. Originally known as Norma Egstrom, she was singing at the Windy City's Hotel Ambassador when Goodman heard her while taking a break from his band's run at the Panther Room in the Hotel Sherman. Goodman, who needed a vocalist to fill the gap left by the sudden departure of Helen Forrest, hired her without hesitation. He also continued his struggle against bigotry by including in his band several uncommonly skilled Afro-American musicians -- trumpeter Cootie Williams, bassist John Simmons and drummers Jo Jones and Sid Catlett. Because of hassles with the Musicians' Union, Jones, who can be heard on two recently unearthed "test" takes, almost didn't get to record with Goodman at all on September 25, 1941; five of the tracks cut on that day have no drummer at all. For an interesting listening experience, compare both versions of "The Earl." Take one is powerfully propelled by Jones, who during take two may very well have been egging on the band from the sidelines as he did years later during the Ellington band's notoriously over-the-top performance at the Newport Jazz Festival. Both takes feature the piano of Mel Powell, who composed and arranged this exciting number. Jones was borrowed from Count Basie to fill in for Catlett, who had quarreled with Goodman during an appearance at Meadowbrook in New Jersey and quit shortly afterwards, only to return for the session of October 2. Another test recording that has existed for years in a sort of discographical no-man's-land devoid of matrix numbers is Goodman's two-part jam on Mary Lou Williams' "Roll 'Em." The producers of this series have determined that it belongs in this portion of the Classics Benny Goodman chronology. arwulf arwulf
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BENNY GOODMAN AND HIS ORCHESTRA – 1946 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1375 (2004) FLAC (tracks), lossless

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BOBBY HACKETT – 1948-1954 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1403 (2005) FLAC (tracks), lossless

The third installment in the Classics Bobby Hackett chronology examines the recordings he made between June 22, 1948, and November 7, 1954. The compilation opens with two superb five-minute V-Disc jams introduced by Hackett and Eddie Condon, who organized this and dozens of other traditional jazz get-togethers during the 1940s. The front line of Hackett, Cutty Cutshall, Peanuts Hucko, and Ernie Caceres worked wonders. "You Do Something to Me" is a marvelous trumpet/piano duet with Joe Bushkin recorded during the second AFM recording ban; in their spoken introduction they even mention the organization's president, a Mr. Petrillo. Two quintet sessions for Columbia dating from the late summer and early autumn of 1950 combine Dixieland repertoire with relaxed swing standards; Hackett's rendering of "A Room with a View" is particularly beautiful. An unattributed vocal choir intrudes upon an unissued recording of "Sleepy Head"; this turns out to have been a premonition of production values yet to come, as Hackett's next date as a leader (Capitol Records, May 11,1953) would find him accompanied by a rhythm section augmented with four violas and a cello. This combination actually worked rather well; the fact that Hackett had Lou Stein, Billy Bauer, Arnold Fishkin, and Denzil Best in the group helped to temper the effect of the strings, which in any case were all low key, literally speaking. Hackett sounds as relaxed and sophisticated as ever on the concluding tracks, which were recorded on November 7, 1954. By this time the Capitol studios and conductor Glenn Osser were backing him with French horns, woodwinds (including flute and oboe), and a classical harp wafting away next to the rhythm section. Fortunately, the ensemble is kept under control and Hackett sounds just as happy here as he did with his old cohorts from the Condon Mob. arwulf arwulf  
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