The record changer (Mar 1945-Feb 1946)

MEADE "LUX" LEWIS ON THE HARPSICHORD SINCE its inception BLUE NOTE has been convinced that Meade "Lux" Lewis is exceptional among exceptional hot jazz musicians. Hitherto we have striven in piano and celeste recordings to project as rich a testimony of his musical sensibility as possible. The present recordings on harpsichord emerge from Lewis's longstanding interest in that neglected instrument. Lewis neither adapts the harpsichord to his style of playing, nor his style of playing to the harpsichord. He creates an original synthesis, with the result that a remarkable instrument, exclusively identified with the interpretation of 17th and 18th century music, has been revived and its latent possibilities made equivalent to contemporary musical relations. Specifically, Lewis begins with a few typical phrases and cadences of the boogie woogie-style musical language, expands, transforms and qualifies them so that the consequent four 12-inch sides are in the nature of a suite with a collective identity, "Variations on a Theme." The music is subdivided as follows: I. 19 WAYS OF PLAYING A CHORUS. A "first movement" bravura piece. II. SELF-PORTRAIT. A blues of a personal character, at once nostalgic and austere, employing curious musical symbolism suggestive of a carousel. III. SCHOOL OF RHYTHM. Galvanic variations with brilliant climactic choruses. IV. "FEELIN' TOMORROW LIKE I FEEL TODAY . . " A buoyant, singing affirmation of the basic alphabet of the blues. —MAX MARGULIS VARIATIONS NO. 19 I 2 I N C H 1. NINETEEN WAYS OF PLAYING A CHORUS 2. SELF-PORTRAIT ON A THEME NO. 20 I 2 I N C H 3. SCHOOL OF RHYTHM 4. "FEELIN' TOMORROW LIKE I FEEL TODAY.." Marshall, who collaborated with Jop-; lin on Swipesey Cake Walk and Lily Queen, and published Peach Rag, Pepper Rag, Kinklets and Ham An' Rag\ under his own name ; James Reesel Europe, one of the most important, figures in the history of American: Negro music, who composed the Castle House Rag in 1914 ; Johni, Black, who composed Dardanella, published in 1919, the first theme of which was based on what later became' known as a boogie figure ; Tom Delaney, who wrote Jazz Me Blues in; 1920, which, despite its name, was closer to the ragtime than to the blues': tradition; and many others whose i names can be traced in the catalogues [ of the ragtime publishers. But ragtime, however much influenced by the Negro tradition of shifted accents and three-over-four or "secondary rag," was not exclusively a Negro domain. There were such truly original white ragmen as j Clarence Brandon Sr. who travelled in; vaudeville and composed such pioneering rags as his Tenpenny Rag and Domino Rag in 1908 and the famous / Ain't Got Nobody Now in 1910 which; sold 5,000 copies in the first six months; after publication; Clarence Brandon! Jr., perhaps the finest living ragtime pianist and his father's worthy successor ; Jerry Cammack, composer of the Tom and Jerry Rag in 1915 ; Charles i Hunter, who composed Tickled to Death in 1899, Cotton Bolls in 1901,, and numerous other rags of the very! earliest period ; J. Russell Robinson, who composed Sapho Rag in 1909, Shadows of Fame and WhirlwindRag in 1910 ; Charles Humfeld, who wrote Who Left the Crabs Out and Left Hand Rag in 1910; Percy Wenrich, who wrote the Smiler Rag in 1910; Eddie Raye, who published Early Morning Rag in 1912; E. J. Stark of the Stark Publishing Com-j pany who brought out Billiken Rag in 1911; Clarence H. St. John, who wrote Collars and Cuffs Rag and Meddlesome Rag in 1917; B. R. Whitlow, who wrote Shave 'em Dry Rag in I 1914 and Schultzmeyer Rag in 1916; Julius Linzberg — Operatic Rag, 1914 ;r A. L. Klein — Arcadia Rag, 1914 : Ernie Burnett — Steamboat Rag, 1914; George L. Lowry — Florida Rag, 1915; Joe Verges — Don't Leave Me Daddy, 1916; Max Goldman — Ostend Rag, the tune of the "Ostend" dance, popular in 1916; Paul Pratt— Hot House' Rag, 1917; Will Held— Chromatic Rag, 1916; Robert Sterling — Pegasus', Rag, 1918; R. J. Ingraham — Mando Rag, 1920 ; Edward Mellinger — Contagious Rag, 1920, Edward Mellinger Rag, 1922; then there was Joe Fuchs, 1904 to 1907, who played at parties, theatres, dime stores, and in the opin $1.50 F.O.B. New York, Excl. of Fed., State & Local Taxes FOR COMPLETE CATALOG WRITE TO BLUE NOTE RECORDS 767 LEXINGTON AVENUE. NEW YORK CITY