Claim OwnershipJazz Focus
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© john clark
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A focused look at some specific moments in recorded Jazz history Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/john-clark49/support
503 Episodes
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1This focus is on two albums recorded by Big Joe Turner in the late 50's for Atlantic. Coming off his success as a senior rock and roll singer ("Shake Rattle and Roll was 1954), Turner returned to his KC roots to sing blues and standards with two all star groups including Coleman Hawkins, Lawrence Brown, Pete Brown, Pete Johnson, Freddie Green, Walter Page, Ernie Royal and Vic Dickenson.
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Today we listen to some of the jazzier sides recorded by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, mostly in the 1930's. "Western Swing" as a term didn't come into use until the middle 1940's - these players considered themselves jazz musicians and their playing on standards like "Lady Be Good," "White Heat," "Wang Wang Blues," "Who Walks In When I Walk Out" and others demonstrate this very well. The most impressive soloists are Jesse Ashlock on violin and Leon McAuliffe on steel and electric guitar, but acoustic guitarist Eldon Shamblin, pianist Al Stricklin, trumpeters Everett Stover and Tubby Lewis, sax/clarinet players Ray DeGeer, Charles Laughton and Wayne Johnson should not be overlooked either!
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Hilton Jefferson was known to musicians more than the public - as lead alto for Fletcher Henderson, Claude Hopkins, Cab Calloway and many others, he was often featured on ballads to show off his gorgeous sound, but here we are featuring him on more rhythmic tunes from some all star swing combos of the middle 1940's with a few ballads thrown in besides. Jonah Jones, Joe Thomas, Tyree Glenn, Ike Quebec, Jerry Jerome, Bernie Leighton, Eddie Barefield, Coleman Hawkins, Milt Hinton, Cozy Cole and Panama Francis are just a few of the notables featured here, but the focus is really on Jefferson, whose playing is a model of consistency, musicality and some innovation as well.
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The TD Clambake Seven recording for radio transcriptions in 1936 . . Max Kaminsky, TD, Joe Dixon, Edythe Wright and Dave Tough playing some standards ("Jada", "Somebody Stole My Gal" "How Come You Do Me Like You Do?" "My Honey's Lovin' Arms") as well as contemporary tunes ("Cabin In the Sky" "I'll Bet You Tell That To All The Girls") . .some great jazz.
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The records Louis Armstrong made with Maggie Jones in 1924 were ones he singled out as favorites of his later in his life. Here she is featured on four numbers with him (including the very special "Does Anyone Here Want to Try My Cabbage?") one with Charlie Green, and several with Fletcher Henderson units, members of the Original Indiana Five, and an Elmer Snowden group.
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The 1976-78 recordings by the Anachronic Jazz Band were both traditional and innovative. By taking tunes by Bebop and later composers (Clifford Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane) and filtering them through a 1920's sensibility they showed the continuity of the Jazz tradition with great arrangements of and solos on tunes like "Round Midnight," "Yardbird Suite," "Giant Steps" and "Joy Spring."
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Mary Lou Williams was one of the finest pianists of the 1920's and 30's . . . she was also a very under-appreciated arranger and composer. Her work here on the early Andy Kirk and His Clouds Of Joy recordings as well as a couple of earlier sides with her then-husband, reedman John Williams show a fine combination of playing, composing and arranging. Kirk's band was also one of the hottest and most interesting groups in Kansas City at that point.
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This is a look at the sessions Dizzy Gillespie led in 1945 -46 without Charlie Parker. The Diz and Bird sides have received a lot of attention, but the recording dates that Parker wasn't hired (or just didn't show up) for are fascinating as well. Gillespie leads and is heavily featured on tunes with Don Byas, Lucky Thompson, Dexter Gordon, Trummy Young, Clyde Hart, Al Haig and someone who may or may not be Thelonious Monk.
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An examination of the duet recordings made by Classic Blues singer Bessie Smith and stride pianist James P. Johnson in October 1929.
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The roots of Western Swing - Roy Newman and His Boys - string band with piano and clarinet playing Jazz
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A look at the Gold Coast Jazz Band of Chicago, circa 1960 featuring Ted Butterman, Kim Cusack, John Cooper, Art Gronwall, Peter Niegaard, Bob Sundstrom, Mike Walbridge, Ransom Knowling, Wayne Jones and Booker T Washington
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Survey of the mid to late 1940's recordings of trumpeter Buck Clayton - his own Big Four and Big Eight recording for HRS along with sideman appearances with Benny Carter, Ike Quebec, Charlie Ventura, Teddy Wilson, Don Byas, Coleman Hawkins, J.C. Heard, Sir Charles Thompson and Earl Hines
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Classic sessions by Muggsy Spanier's Ragtime Band for Bluebird in 1939 - cornetist Spanier, George Brunies on trombone and vocal, Rod Cless on piano, George Zack and Joe Bushkin on piano, Bob Casey on Bass, Don Carter and Al Sidell on drums . . influential trad jazz!
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Small group sides led by the great tenor saxophonist Lester Young after his departure from the Basie band. All were done in the middle 1940's on the West Coast and feature Nat "King" Cole, Joe Albany, Irving Ashby, Frank Lacy, Red Callendar, Henry Tucker, Chico Hamilton, Howard McGhee, Vic Dickenson, Willie Smith and others.
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Connie (later Connee) Boswell was the central member of the Boswell Sisters trio in the 1920's and 30's although she had a series of solo recordings at the same time - here we will hear a few things from the 30's and early 40's (with Ben Pollack, John Scott Trotter and Frank Sigorelli) as well as the results of two Design lps in the middle 1950's featuring her with a large band doing Rodgers and Hart and Irving Berlin tunes as well as jazz album from the same period where she is backed by the Original Memphis Five (Billy Butterfield, Miff Mole, Jimmy Lytell, Signorelli, Gene Ramey and Tony Spargo).
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The Chicago cornetist Spanier was known primarily for playing in small groups, but for about two years he led a big band modeled on the example of Bob Crosby's Orchestra. These studio dates for Decca and live airshots from the Arcadia Ballroom feature the leader, trombonist Vernon Brown, clarinetists Irving Fazola and Tony Martell, tenor sax Nick Caiazza, pianist Dave Bowman and drummer Don Carter . .great big band swing centered on New Orleans style!
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New Orleans tenor sax player in featured recordings with Bob Crosby (transcriptions and live, with Yank Lawson, Muggsy Spanier, Matty Matlock, Hank D'Amico, Jess Stacy, Bob Zurke), the All-Star Band (Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden, Bunny Berigan, Jess Stacy, Sonny Dunham, Gene Krupa), and his own bands recording for Capitol during the WWII years
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Great live shots of the Artie Shaw band featuring Bernie Privin, Chuck Peterson and John Best on trumpets, George Arus on trombone, Ronnie Perry or Georgie Auld on tenor sax, Bob Kitsis on piano, Al Avola on guitar, Sid Weiss on bass and George Wettling or Buddy Rich on drums with Helen Forrest and Tony Pastor on vocals. The real star is the leader, whose clarinet work here he never surpassed,
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A selection of recordings made by Jelly Roll Morton as part of an archival/folklore project by Alan Lomax at the LOC in 1938 . . Something like six hours of recordings were made of Morton playing, singing, talking and reminiscing about his career and the early days of jazz . . here we have blues, spirituals, ragtime, semi-classical pieces and pop tunes along with Morton's own compositions
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Bob Crosby and His Orchestra carved a pretty unique career for itself in the Swing Era - specializing in tunes from the previous decade done up in swing clothes, the chief arrangers were clarinetist Matty Matlock and bassist Bob Haggart. Here is a selection of Haggart's arrangements featuring Yank Lawson, Sterling Bose and Billy Butterfield on trumpets, Warren Smith, Buddy Morrow and Floyd O'Brien on trombones, Irving Fazola and Matty Matlock on clarinets, Eddie Miller on tenor sax, Bob Zurke, Joe Sullivan and Jess Stacy on pianos, Nappy Lamare on guitar, Ray Bauduc on drums and himself on bass! 1936-42.
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