The record changer (Jan-Dec 1944)

The Record Changer, October 1944 LEMME take this chorus Beginning with the August issue of the Record Changer, we have attempted to separate the magazine into two sections — advertising and reading material. Now, by unfastening the staples and removing the advertising in the center you have two separate and distinct booklets which lend themselves more readily to filing or binding. The quality of the writing appearing in the Record Changer is out of all proportion to the humble finances of the publication. The success of our venture is due in most part to the efforts of Eugene Williams, William Russell, Ernest Borneman, Ralph Gleason, Roy Carew, Nesuhi Ertegun, Fred Ramsey and the many others who, in knocking out a constant stream of informative and intelligent articles, have received little more for their pains than loud words and extravagent promises. Little money, if any, has changed hands. If you like the Record Changer, these are the men to tell it to. * * * This month we have commercial accounts with Blue Note Records and the Columbia Recording Corp. (center spread). Give these people your business. Even if you can't use what they've got to sell, write to them and tell them why. Incidentally, it would be no waste of time to write Columbia and tell them what records you want reissued. If YOU don't tell them, nobody else will. And they have barely touched the best of the jazz on the old Okeh and Columbia labels. Bob Franklin, chief of the advertising department, will forward your letters to the interested parties. Their address is Bridgeport, Conn. Think of those Oliver Okehs, those New Orleans Bootblacks . . . *• * * CORRECTION: Bunk Johnson did not record for Decca, as Mr. Rosenberg reported last month. He recorded for Decca's affiliated World Broadcasting System transcriptions, and the sides will not be released on records. * * * From George Montgomery, Los Angeles: "In honor of the late Jimmy Noone, the local Musicians Congress sponsored a memorial program which was held here at the Trocadero on August 13. As a whole, the affair was very successful, both as a tribute to Noone, and as an aid to his family. The speakers who told the story of Jimmie's life and of his music did not seem too familiar with their subject, but were adequate. "The entertainment began with some good Dixieland by a band which included Nappy Lamare, Matty Matlock and Eddie Miller; Joe Sullivan carried on with a couple of good solos, and then Wingy Manone's band played Riverside Blues and a knocked out version of the Muskrat Ramble. The musical low point of the afternoon was some jive by Re -c Stewart and Sidney Catlett and a we£v clarinet solo by Barney Bigard with rhythm accompaniment. "The climax of the program was furnished by the great New Orleans band with which Noone played on the radio just prior to his passing, and which could pay the only proper respects to Jimmy's music. Carey, Scott, Ory, Bigard, Garland, Wilson, and Singleton got together and played Jimmy's Blues High Society, That's a Plenty, Savoy Blues and' The Blues Jumped a Rabbit. The music was wonderful, and Ory's solo on Savoy was one of the best I've ever heard." George Montgomery also writes that The Capitol (house organ for Capitol records) carries an account of the record date Zutty Singleton's Creole Jazz Band made for that label; It is stated that this was the same band featured for six months on Orson Welles' radio show. However, Zutty's band did not include Mutt Carey and Kid Ory who played every show and who probably contributed more to the success of Welles' program than any others. Of Orson Welles' CBS series, Dave Dexter, editor of The Capitol, says, "Musicians of the caliber of Bigard^ Singleton, Scott, Wilson and Garland racked up an enviable mark despite the trumpet and trombone they were forced to work with. Kid Ory and Mutt Carey, aged and unsure, nevertheless gave "the Wellies Creole group the musty 'New Orleans' atmosphere which warped wax collectors demand." Everybody's a warped wax collector but me, see? 78