The record changer (Jan-Feb 1945)

JelljJ'Tloll to TUght The future of jazz is assured and New Orleans music will not die after all. The National Jazz Foundation is going to take care of everything. With the wellknown impresario, John Hammond, Jr., at the helm it began its activities in the best possible manner : by bringing back to the cradle of jazz one of its wandering children, an obscure young musician named Benjamin Goodman. Mr. Goodman and his accompanist, Mr. Theodore Wilson, are according to all reports extremely talented and deserve all the financial aid they were able to obtain from the National Jazz Foundation. This aid will make it possible for them to pursue their musical educations. Messrs. Goodman and Wilson appeared at the first concert organized by the Foundation and performed new and highly original interpretations of New Orleans music, characterized by great imaginative powers and enriched by the admirable tendency of always forgetting the. tune that was being played. In appreciation of his great gifts Mr. Goodman was presented with a check said to be in the neighborhood of fifteen hundred dollars. The nationally renowned clarinetist and bandleader, George Lewis, also happened to be in New Orleans at the time. Lewis, who has made fabulous sums of money during his illustrious career, and who had just finished a picture at MGM, was happy to publicize the event and assure its success. He revived a quaint old custom, put his band on a truck and drove through the city, playing at certain key intersections. Through his generous efforts a huge audience was present at the concert. The National Jazz Foundation then heroically decided to make a symbolic gesture and offered George Lewis four dollars. * * * Flying back, from Montreal was a hectic experience for a group of New Yorkjazzmen who had just given an audience of amiable Canadians a taste of the real stuff. There was more fog in the air than saliva in Pee Wee's clarinet. Russell, well aware of this state of things, tried at a partici^arlv enervating moment to say a few words of wisdom. All that came out, however, was a basso profundo squeak, curiously similar to the "dirty" sonorities his followers at Nick's have admired for years. * * * America for the Americans ! Jazzo Brown is fed up with all these foreigners who become jazz critics at the drop of a California Ramblers record. As if the English Deuce, the old -Frenchman, the rodent-specialist Belgian, the jive-loving Dane and the eminent Javanese composer-critic were not enough, a certain Turkish pseudo-expert, familiar to some readers of the Changer, is beginning to throw his 110 pounds around. American critics arise! * * * Not to be outdone by Panassie, Paul Eduard proudly published his all-time titan selections on each instrument. Hugues, the old master, forgot to mention several important names. So, in our opinion, has P. E. He lists these eight as the great piano players : Wilson, Zurke, Waller, Guarnieri, Jelly-Roll, Tatum, Mary Lou, and the Earl. How could he forget Eddie Duchin and Tony Jackson? * * * Leonard and Phil are two birds of a Featheringill. Which one of the two will win the nomination of King of the Riffs? Leonard is represented by Hawkins and Tatum, but Phil is not far behind with Richard M. Jones. * * * About two years ago Kid Ory was playing bass and doubling on trombone (on very special occasions) in a jump and jive band in Los Angeles. Zutty Singleton was drumming in the same band. One night an old friend of Zutty's, a jazz collector from New York, came to see for himself how a band with two such famous musicians could produce such horrible music. Our collector was introduced as a person of some note by Zutty to the bandleader, who was a sharp cat if ever there was one. After a generous dose of jive-talk the bandleader asked our collector what tune he would like to hear. He requested Muskrat Rumble. The bandleader was taken aback by this strange request. He confessed he had never heard of that one before. He asked Zuttv 9