The record changer (Mar 1946-Feb 1947)

JAZZ ON RECORDS By William Purcell The classification of jazz styles under labels such as New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City or beboporenee has become not only unnecessary but harmful for the real understanding of the music. As I begin a record review column in the Record Changer, I want to state emphatically that I believe in only one important distinction: There is good jazz music and bad jazz music. A musician who has great creative gifts and is endowed with the right feeling for the language typical to jazz will produce, under favorable circumstances, music that is good no matter what style he plays in. Some listeners reduce their interest to one type of jazz only. Take, for instance, the New Orleans expert. He will prefer a bad musician playing in his favorite style to a good musician who is a follower, say, of 52nd Street music. This reveals only one thing : a lack of musical education. The same applies to the thoroughly -Ulanovized student of so-called "advanced" music who is exhilarated by the imitations of a screaming horse which somehow emerge from the tenor of an Illinois Jacquet, but is incapable of appreciating the genius of a Jimmie Yancey or a Kid Ory. A musician should be judged only by the richness of his ideas (inspiration, imagination), by the perfection of his technique, by his feeling for jazz and his sense of rhythm. These will be the only criteria used in this column. RUBBERLEGS WILLIAMS That's the Blues What's the Matter Now 4-F Blues I Want Every Bit of It Continental 6013, 6020 The label says "Clyde Hart's All Stars," but the only remarkable thing about these records js the presence of a blues-shouter previously unknown to me, Rubberlegs Williams. Whoever supervised this session had the opportunity to make really good blues sides. All Rubberlegs needed behind him 14 was a good beat, for he is a rough, powerful vocalist in the old vaudeville tradition (much superior as a singer, incidentally, to the more publicized "Pigmeat" Alamo Markham). Instead, he was furnished with the worst possible accompaniment to his vigorous shouting. Dizzy Gillespie, Trummie Young, Don Byas and Charlie Parker could have spent the afternoon more profitably by inventing a few new chord changes somewhere else, and Rubberlegs could have recorded his songs peacefully and well. The singer and the band contradict each other. But still, listen to That's the Blues (the best among these sides) and the extraordinary breaks of Rubberlegs at the beginning of the record. The rhythm section provides a good beat on this side (it drags on / Want Every Bit of It) and in spite of the interference, Rubberlegs defines the blues with undeniable authority. He gets sympathetic backing from Mike Bryan's guitar only. On 4-F Blues Dizzy has a solo which must have been for him a great discouragement ; you can actually count the number of notes he plays. In fact, it's quite a good bebop chorus, but completely out of place here. THE CAT LOUIS ARMSTRONG No Variety Blues Whatta Ya Gonna Do Victor 20-1891 Louis has made records like this one by the hundreds for over fifteen,, years. His band here is certainly no r better and perhaps no worse than his , former bands ; his playing and his singing have not changed to any ap-ij. preciable degree. The formula is al-,i; ways the same: The tunes chosen an uniformly insignificant* the band per1 .i forms indifferently, Louis sings thflt trite lyrics wonderfully, and plays th( insipid melody with admirable serenjL ity. The way he transforms the mel ody of a silly tune like Whatta Yt Gonna Do into a beautiful solo i:|. something his faithful listeners havi.U marvelled at for many years. He sim ; i plifies the melody and with much sub |: tlety introduces so many ideas of hi I" own that he makes us forget the pov erty of the material he is Workinj'r with. Because of his incredible talen Louis has become a master at thi sort of mystification. No Variet Blues is a comedy blues complete witf; dialogue, exclamations and bursts o X* r. '■ "Geezl Ain't it lucky it was just this old worn out one!" THE RECORD CHANGER