Friday, August 29, 2008

Early Bird...



gets the worm.

Charlie Parker would've been 88 today. This is his first session as a featured sideman. Guitarist Tiny Grimes put together this quintet of 52nd Street players for a Savoy date that was to feature him as a singer. Two vocal sides and two instrumentals. Bird had just arrived in New York after jumping ship from Billy Eckstine's Big Band.

Download:



"I'll Always Love You Just The Same" mp3
by Tiny Grimes Quintet, 1944.
Tiny Grimes, Vocals.
available on The Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes



"Romance Without Finance"
mp3
by Tiny Grimes Quintet, 1944.
Tiny Grimes, Vocals.
available on The Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes



"Red Cross" mp3
by Charlie Parker, 1944.
available on The Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes



"Tiny's Tempo" mp3
Charlie Parker, 1944.
available on The Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Yes We Can




In case any of you out there misconstrued my disparaging remarks about the DNC yesterday, I'd like to clarify my position on the matter. This blog supports Barack Obama and is genuinely excited by the Democratic ticket this year. Folks, we have a candidate and tonite's speech was electrifying. Vote.

Download:

"Yes We Can" mp3
by Lee Dorsey, 1970.
available on Holy Cow!: The Very Best of Lee Dorsey

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

President Day



Tired of the goings on in Denver? Do you feel like you're watching an MTV sponsored high school pep rally? Do you feel like kicking a hole in your TV everytime you hear the pundits on CNN talk about the convention? Do you frequently ask yourself "Is this the best we can do?" Are you mad as hell and can't take it anymore?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, then you may have a soul. In which case, I direct you to immediately listen to today's musical selections.

Lester Young, AKA "The President" or "Pres" or "Prez" would have been 99 years old today. Below we have his first recordings. This is a small group ensemble made up of the core of the Count Basie band. They recorded these under the moniker Jones-Smith Incorporated with John Hammond in 1936 for Vocalion. Lester's legend had been growing for years before these recordings were made, and Hammond after hearing a radio broadcast late one night in Chicago, coming from a bandstand hookup at The Reno Club in Kansas City, sent word to Basie that he wanted to record them. Unfortunately, before he could get there, Dave Kapp, pretending to be acting on Hammond's behalf signed them to record 24 sides with Decca. So, the pseudonym Jones-Smith Inc. was born out of contractual obligations, but Hammond recorded them first. The lyical depth and phrasing of Lester's solos on "Lady Be Good" and "Shoeshine Boy" are landmarks in Jazz and an early look at his genius as an improviser and soloist in a small band. In addition, I've included Lester's signature tune, "Lester Leaps In" and the musical conversation between him and trombonist Dickie Wells, "Dickies Dream". And if that's not enough, two recordings with Billie Holiday from 1939, Lester takes a solo on "The Man I Love" that should move you if you have a pulse. The flip side, Cole Porter's "Night and Day" doesn't have a solo but is so sublimely beautiful that it would criminal not to include it here.

It's time to get the swing states swingin'. You dig?

Download:



"Lady, Be Good"
mp3
by Jones-Smith Incorporated, 1936.
available on The Lester Young Story



"Boogie Woogie" mp3
by Jones-Smith Incorporated, 1936.
Jimmy Rushing, Vocals.
available on The Lester Young Story



"Shoe Shine Swing" (AKA "Shoeshine Boy") mp3
by Jones-Smith Incorporated, 1936.
available on The Lester Young Story

*********************************************



"Lester Leaps In" mp3
by Count Basie and his Orchestra, 1939.
available on The Lester Young Story



"Dickie's Dream" mp3
by Count Basie and his Orchestra, 1939.
available on The Lester Young Story

*********************************************



"The Man I Love" mp3
by Billie Holiday, 1939.
available on The Lady Sings



"Night And Day" mp3
by Billie Holiday, 1939.
available on The Lady Sings

*********************************************

For more of this, tune into WKCR at 89.9 on the FM dial if you are in New York City - or streaming on the web if you are not - and listen to Phil Schaap and his colleagues who are right now in the middle of the annual Lester Young - Charlie Parker Birthday Broadcast - Aug-27-29.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Stormy Weather



Back in the early days of this blog, I did a post on Harold Arlen and his contribution to the American Songbook. In it, I included his version of "Stormy Weather" with Leo Reisman's Orchestra as well as one of my favorites by The Reigning Sound. After I posted it somebody pointed me to a link at the WFMU blog that contained a zip file with another 70+ versions. Here's a few of those as well as an unusually jaunty and swingin' version by Dave Bartholomew that I picked up recently. There must be hundreds of versions of this song. A standard is a standard and there's a reason for this. Anyone can get behind it and make it their own. While I was listening to the great Lena Horne version, I remembered one of my favorite episodes of Sanford and Son, where Fred bum rushes Lena's dressing room on an NBC studio tour. In their dressing room conversation Fred tells her "I saw your movie Stormy Weather thirty-eight times" to which she replies, "You mean to tell me you paid to see Stormy Weather thirty-eight times?" Fred comes back and says "No, I only paid once. I went in on a Saturday and came out on a Wednesday evening."

Hopefully your Monday isn't a stormy one.

Download:



"Stormy Weather" mp3
by Dave Bartholomew, 1951.
available on The King Sides

"Stormy Weather" mp3
by The Spaniels, 1958.
available on The Doo Wop Box, Vol. 2

"Stormy Weather" mp3
by The Reigning Sound, 2002.
available on Time Bomb High School



"Stormy Weather" mp3
by Harold Arlen with Leo Reisman's Orchestra, 1933.
available on Song Is Harold Arlen




"Stormy Weather" mp3
by Lena Horne, 1943.
available on Stormy Weather

"Stormy Weather" mp3
by Billie Holiday, 1952.
available on The Complete Billie Holiday On Verve, 1945-1959

"Stormy Weather" mp3
by Duke Ellington Orchestra, 1953.
available on Capitol Sessions 1953-1955

"Stormy Weather" mp3
by Eric Dolphy, 1960.
available on Candid Dolphy



Saturday, August 16, 2008

Elvis Does Dylan Does Elvis Does




"When I first heard Elvis's voice, I just knew that I wasn't going to work for anybody, and nobody was going to be my boss ... Hearing him for the first time was like busting out of jail. I thank God for Elvis Presley."
-Bob Dylan

"My mouth feels like Bob Dylan's been sleeping in it."
-Elvis Presley


Today is the thirty-first anniversary of the King's rise from his throne to brighter pastures. Unfortunately, it was (allegedly) the proverbial porcelain throne that Elvis was crowning when he left this world. He had become a bloated parody of himself, living in insular isolation, and protected from the outside world. As I was compiling this post, of Elvis and Dylan, I tried to think of what these two artists - radically different - shared in common. They shared a lot actually. The two most influential singular performers to come along in the twentieth century, they both had to protect themselves from the hysteria of a hyper-fame. Elvis as the King, and Dylan as "the voice of a generation." What a burden it must been for them. Dylan was befuddled, disgusted, and probably genuinely frightened by the pressures foisted on him by the media and rabid fans. Enough so, that he had to retreat from public eye while still in his twenties. Elvis had a team of protectors - Colonel Tom Parker and later The Memphis Mafia. Elvis died relatively young. Bob still takes his show in the road a couple hundred times a year. I guess Elvis would be doing the same had he survived. Maybe not, but he didn't survive. It's been suggested that they shared a mutual admiration for one another. Dylan certainly admired Elvis, but more than likely Elvis had more disdain and envy for Dylan. Dylan wrote "Went to See The Gypsy" about going to meet Elvis at a hotel in Minnesota. Ironically, today and for the last few decades, Dylan is the Gypsy. The song is probably fictional. Either way, it doesn't matter. They made these recordings, and we shall listen to them.

Download:

"Tomorrow Is A Long Time" mp3
by Elvis Presley, 1966.
available on From Nashville to Memphis: The Essential 60's Masters

"Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" mp3
by Elvis Presley, 1973.
available on Walk a Mile in My Shoes: The Essential 70's Masters

"I Shall Be Released" mp3
by Elvis Presley.
available on Walk a Mile in My Shoes: The Essential 70's Masters

****************************

"That's All Right" take 1 mp3
by Bob Dylan, 1962.
from The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan Outtakes
bootleg

"That's All Right" take 2 mp3
by Bob Dylan, 1962.
from The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan Outtakes
bootleg

"Lawdy Miss Clawdy" mp3
by Bob Dylan, 1994.
from Fourth Time Around: Genuine Bootleg Series Vol. 4
bootleg

"Money Honey" take 1 mp3
by Bob Dylan, 1994.
Fourth Time Around: Genuine Bootleg Series Vol. 4
bootleg

"Money Honey" take 2 mp3
by Bob Dylan, 1994.
Fourth Time Around: Genuine Bootleg Series Vol. 4
bootleg

"Anyway You Want Me" mp3
by Bob Dylan, 1994.
Fourth Time Around: Genuine Bootleg Series Vol. 4
bootleg

***********************************************

"Went To See The Gypsy" mp3
by Bob Dylan, 1970.
available on New Morning

"Tomorrow Is A Long Time" (publishing demo) mp3
by Bob Dylan, 1962.
from The Witmark Years
bootleg

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Let Us Now Praise Famous Women



by Laura Cantrell

Folks, if you know me, you’ve heard this rant before. There is one fact that bothers me to death - the dearth of female artists in the Country Music Hall of Fame. I worked at the Hall of Fame and Museum as a tour guide right before I went to college. It's the place where my interest in country music shifted from a casual familiarity with the sounds of my home town (Nashville born and bred I am) to a more meaningful consideration of the people, history, and evolving styles of country music.

On quieter days when there were few tourists, I would walk through the hushed Hall of Fame room and read the plaques for its members. It dawned on me then how few women there were, at that time a very small number, Patsy Cline, Maybelle and Sarah Carter, Kitty Wells and Minnie Pearl may have been the only women members in the mid 1980's. Presently there are 14 female members out of a roster of 105, and two of those women are not artists, but businesswomen who promoted commercial country music. It still smarts to look at those numbers in black and white, I cannot accept that of all the great artists of Country Music history, only 13% are women.

A long time ago I wrote a letter to Nick Tosches praising his book Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock and Roll, and asked him why there weren’t any female artists in his book. He wrote me a very respectful reply that concluded, “Write your own book.” While I have yet to do that, I have moved beyond whining about the Hall of Fame and its limitations and tried to address what I feel is a general gender bias that minimizes female artists contributions throughout music history. Another music writer whom I admire called the women of the classic blues and their music “the bygone finery of another era.” Bessie Smith, the "Empress of the Blues," sang “Give me a pigfoot and a bottle of beer …” and died in a car accident while on the grueling Deep South chitlin circuit. She deserves for her music to be better remembered and understood than just antique finery. It's powerful stuff. Sure, the records are scratchy, but that doesn’t keep people from loving Charlie Patton's music. You get my drift?

I started playing records on the radio at WKCR while at Columbia University and continued with the Radio Thrift Shop on WFMU in the mid 1990's. When I started I just wanted to be a female version of the Hound, who played all kinds of greasy, scary, and great American Music, but I knew that I would always have to give more space to women artists great and small - the superstars and those who’d been passed over by the history writers and taste makers. Singers like Mildred Bailey, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Memphis Minnie, Lilly May Ledford, Molly O’Day, Jean Shepard, Skeeter Davis, Melba Montgomery, Ola Belle Reed, and Connie Smith. This list could go on forever. I believe these now lesser known artists (some of whom were very commercially successful in their day) are a greatly significant part of the connective tissue of the music itself. They are the threads in the fabric, the nurturers, the caretakers, the teachers and the muses. Many artists had careers limited by family obligations, the lack of recording opportunities or commercial prospects, and social conventions. Even if they just made a record or two, why not remember them and honor their contributions?

I could go on and on about this topic. It has been a rant of mine for a long time, and woe to the unsuspecting party guest or band member trapped with me on a long distance drive. I’ll save some for the next time we meet, but I'll give you folks a few things you might want to take a listen to. If you like them, pursue a little further. Go buy a record, or a download, and enjoy the music.


Laura Cantrell’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Women
Tuesday, August, 19, 2008 10:00 PM

Featuring: Megan Hickey, Fiona McBain, Theresa Andersson,

Jenny Scheinman and Rodney Crowell

The Spiegeltent
Pier 17, South Street Seaport
South Street & Beekman Street

New York, NY 212.279.4200



Download:

the aforementioned Bessie Smith...



"Careless Love Blues" mp3
by Bessie Smith, 1925.
available on 1924-1925

My dad got a Hoagy Carmichael collection on 8 track tape and would play it every day as he drove us to school in his Pontiac Phoenix. I loved Mildred Bailey's soft delivery which seemed to swing effortlessly. From Tacoma, Washington, she gave a break to her brother Al Rinker and his singing partner Bing Crosby in the late 1920's, was a popular nightclub act and recording artist and after marrying jazz musician Red Norvo, was known as Mrs. Swing.


"Rockin' Chair" (take 1) mp3
by Mildred Bailey, 1937.
available on 1937-1938

Sister Rosetta Tharpe played and sang as confidently and joyfully as anyone could. Her music was a hybrid, gospel with prominent guitar solos and swing band accompaniment. There is such an authority in her presence, it isn't hard to be a believer when you're in her hands.



"Strange Things Happening Every Day" mp3
by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, 1944.
available on The Gospel of Blues

I don't know of any family group that made a more joyful racket than the Maddox Brothers and Rose. Rose was the soulful and sweet center who balanced the raucus hillbilly energy of her brothers. Perhaps the fact that her body of work is split between rough hewn recordings with her family and the more produced sides she made for Capitol in the 1950's, has made her hard to categorize. But she deserves recognition for being a strong female voice in the years when hillbilly and blues music were about to begat rock and roll.



"Move It On Over" mp3
by The Maddox Brothers and Rose, 1947.
available on America's Most Colorful Hillbilly Band

Molly O'Day has been an endlessly fascinating artist for me. She was one of the first successful "front women" with her group the Cumberland Mountain Folks in the late 1940s, and made some great records including the first covers of Hank Williams material. After a nervous breakdown in the 1950s when her strong religious beliefs made her reconsider the life of a rising country star, she quit the music business and performed only as a gospel artist on regional radio. A favorite among her peers -- even Bill Monroe once asked her to favor him with a song -- she remains a touchstone artist for fans of old time country music.

"Poor Ellen Smith" mp3
by Molly O' Day, 1949.
available on Molly O'Day and the Cumberland Mountain Folks

How long can we wait until Jean Shepard goes to the Hall of Fame? Besides being a pioneering female voice starting in the early 1950's when she was barely out of her teens, she weathered the personal tragedy of the death of her Opry star husband, Hawkshaw Hawkins in the same plane crash that took the life of Patsy Cline in 1963. She is still to be found onstage at the Opry.


"He's My Baby" mp3
by Jean Shepard, 1958.
available on Honky Tonk Heroine: Classic Capitol Recordings, 1952-1964

Skeeter Davis is one of my favorite singers of all time. From the tragic end of the teen duo the Davis Sisters, when her best friend Betty Jack Davis was killed in a car accident, to her 1960s pop crossover hits, she was a singer of rare emotion. There is an edge to her voice, an urgency, something sharp and sweet. She was once married to the famous DJ Ralph Emery, who is now a member of that Hall of Fame I was talking about, but I'll tell you this, there was only one artist in that family, and we honor her here.

"The One You Slip Around With" mp3
by Skeeter Davis
available on The Essential Skeeter Davis

Ola Belle Reed was the vibrant and grounded center of a musical family from North Carolina. In addition to being a gifted instrumentalist, Ola Belle wrote many songs and recorded them on her own record label, New River Records. She became more widely known after she released two albums for Rounder Records in the early 1970s.



"High On A Mountain" mp3
by Ola Belle Reed
available on The Real Music Box: 25 Years of Rounder Records

top photo: Ola Belle Reed and Friends