FRANKIE TRUMBAUER AND HIS ORCHESTRA – 1928-1929 | The Chronogical Classics – 1216 (2001) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Tracks one through 19 of this second volume in the complete works of Frankie Trumbauer represent the last recordings that "Tram" made in the company of his friend Bix Beiderbecke. For generations each of these performances has been studied and savored primarily for the cornet passages (check that intro to "Borneo"!) and for Trumbauer's gentle handling of the C melody saxophone. During this period, most of Trumbauer's records were decorated with vocal passages of sometimes laughably puerile quality, as heard here on "Lila" and "Our Bungalow of Dreams." This anonymous vocalist, a staunch advocate of the "gee-whiz" style of singing, hid behind the pseudonym of Noel Taylor, used by the OKeh company to camouflage their sometimes questionable talent. Other singers include Scrappy Lambert, a cottony specimen by the name of Charles Gaylord, Smith Ballew, and Trumbauer himself. Be advised that "Bless You! Sister," "Dusky Stevedore," and "Take Your Tomorrow" are each thickly larded with Jim Crow racial stereotyping, as white men in audio-blackface carry on in minstrel show fashion. Ethically speaking, together with Lambert's assessment of "bamboo babies" on "Borneo," this is a low point in the Trumbauer story, even if "Take Your Tomorrow" does contain some measure of humorous theatrical timing. What endears lovers of early jazz to this spotty body of works is the presence of Bix Beiderbecke and guitarist Eddie Lang. Recorded on April 30, 1929, "I Like That," Bix and Tram's last recorded collaboration, is rosy and uplifting. Despite the absence of Bix on the remaining tracks, the positive vibrations continue and before you know it violinist Matty Malneck has been replaced by the inventive Joe Venuti. "What a Day!," "Alabamy Snow," and the zany "Shivery Stomp" are tasty instrumental foxtrots that bear repeated listening. arwulf arwulf  
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BIX BEIDERBECKE WITH PAUL WHITEMAN – 1928-1929 | The Chronogical Classics – 1235 (2002) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This is the fourth volume in the Classics Bix Beiderbecke chronology, and the second volume documenting the recordings he made with society bandleader Paul Whiteman. It traces a timeline from April 23, 1928 to September 13, 1929. Because all of Beiderbecke's "legitimated" jazz recordings as a leader and with Frankie Trumbauer's orchestra were reissued by Classics years prior to the Beiderbecke/Whiteman volumes, this is a highly unusual example of a non-linear progression in the more or less tidily sequential Classics Chronological Series. (Stray tracks have been known to appear out of order in other artists' Classics chronologies, but a deviation of this magnitude is unprecedented). What you get here is a Beiderbecke retrospective that picks up where the old '60s Columbia compilation LP Whiteman Days left off. Beiderbecke didn't exist long enough to leave more than meager recorded evidence of his remarkable artistry, and there's no escaping the fact that some of his oeuvre involves a large pop orchestra sugared over with keening violins and peppered with pretentious pop vocals. Then again, the Whiteman/Beiderbecke recordings sound better than generations of jazz critics have ever cared to admit in public. This charmingly dated popular music is well worth experiencing because of the jazz musicians -- in this case Frankie Trumbauer and Bix Beiderbecke -- who made a living for a little while by signing on with this established bandleader. Then again, Whiteman was well known as an arrogant, egotistical, bigoted boor whose reputation among jazz musicians was permanently tarnished following his notorious brawl in the men's room at the Club Whiteman with percussionist Vic Berton and saxophonist Paul Cartwright, during which Whiteman coldly instructed one of his waiters to bust out Cartwright's teeth with a blackjack. Although this information makes Whiteman appear more repulsive than ever, those who are truly smitten by the cornet artistry of Leon Bix Beiderbecke are encouraged to listen to what he was capable of accomplishing even as a sideman in an artificially sweetened pop orchestra fronted by a bloated, tuxedoed anti-Semite. And now that the Whiteman/Beiderbecke records have been compiled and made available to the public, the only remaining portion of Bix's legacy still waiting to be reissued by the producers of the Classics Chronological Series are the recordings he made with the Jean Goldkette orchestra. arwulf arwulf
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