The record changer (Jan-Dec 1944)

Farewell to Basin Street (Continued from page 9 ) ered in contemporary New Orleans creators of jazz in the primary manner, like the clarinetist George Lewis and the trombonist Jim Robinson, and have recorded them for the Climax, Jazzman, and. Jazz Information labels. Harry Lim, the cat from Java, has explored white New Orleans and has come up with a group that continues the tradition of the Original Dixielanders and the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. Stacked beside these, my search was a failure. But though my stay in Xew Orleans was prolonged, there was too much other than jazz that T needed to learn about. The pioneer clarinetist, Picon, T understand, is weaving his 'lovely melodies now at Dutches Restaurant. As Dutches would be forbidden to me today, so the places where Picon played in 1942 were forbidden too, unless I was willing to passu blanc, which on that sojourn would have jeopardized some of my standing. In spite of the resurrection of more persistent researchers, however, I think that there still is truth ■ in what I sensed in 1942 : that in Xew Orleans the feeling for jazz was nostalgic, commemorative, quite different from the force that sustained the young Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Jimmy Noone, and Johnny Dodds. Bunk Johnson had to go to the coast for a real hearing. New Orleans gave jazz to the world; the world parcelled bits of it back over the turn-table and the air-waves. A friend took me to see a colored Creole family in the housing project that is fringed by Basin Street. But it was far from Basin Street in a sense, for they gave us gorgeous cocoanut cake and ginger ale, and the music from Jimmy Dorsey's orchestra swelled dulcetly from the radio. 1 left New Orleans shortly after on the Southern. As the train picked up speed rumbling "down the line," I saw Lulu White's famed house glimmering there in the dusk, a pale ghost of a place. I found myself wondering if octoroon wraiths were walking elegantly through those dusty halls, and to what delicate pianoplaying . . . LEMME TAKE THIS CHDRUS (Continued from page 50) We get the Record Changer to the printer ten days before the first of the month. Ordinarily it's a three-day job. Since the first of the year, however, Government printing has cut into our schedule, and recently the Record Changer has been mailed as late as 10 days. Hereafter, we will show at the end of the list of advertisers the closing date for all auctions in the issue. It shall be 30 days in advance of the day the Record Changer is actually printed. Oh yes, Orin Blackstone's Index to Jass will be late too. Sometime in December, according to latest information. Now about the postal situation. A very weird state of affairs. Collectors in California receive their copies before some in Virginia, and vice versa. Let us reiterate that no one on our mailing list receives preferential mailing privileges and that all copies sent to your vicinity are mailed at exactly the same time, whether they go to subscribers or retailers. If you receive your copy 20 days after our date of printing, we will extend your subscription one month. I could go on but what's the use. SPIRITUALS and RING SHOUTS (Continued from page 6 ) When ragtime gave way to jazz, jazz turned to the spiritual for inspiration as ragtime had done half a century before. Songs like Nearer My God to Thee, Free as a Bird, Just a Closer Walk With Thee, Just a Little While to Stay Here, Sometimes My Burden Is Hard to Bear, Lord, You're Certainly Good to Me have served as fountainheads of New Orleans jazz from Bolden's time to the present day. From Oliver's Sing On to Haggart's Smokey Mary there runs a straight line of common inspiration. If jazz is to recover from the havoc caused by Broadway tunes and Tin Pan Alley arrangements, it will have to go back once again to the spiritual for inspiration. REFERENCES iGorer: The City of Harlem. Fortnightly Magazine. 2Erich M. von Hornbostel : American Negro Songs. International Review of Missions, Vol. XV, No. 60, October 1926, pp. 46 et scq. 3Mendl: Jazz, p. 31. 4Herskovits: A Social History of the Negro. _ Handbook of Social Psychology, 1935, pp. 2550 257. 51