The record changer (Mar-Dec 1947)

DIXIELAND PIANO (Continued from Page 8) able to put across a lot of innuendo." Together with Ray Turk, Robinson teamed up to write "Sweet Man 0' Mine," the song which brought Florence to Broadway's attention. "While I was playing with the ODJB at nights, I took the job of professional manager for W. C. Handy during the daytime. I put over "A Good Man Nowadays Is Hard To Find," and was instrumental in having his music recorded, both on rolls and records. I wrote the words for 'Memphis Blues,' when the original copyright was returned to Handy, and wrote lyrics for his song called '01' Miss' . . . which is what they used to call the trains in the South. I've gotten a steady stream of royalties for the part I played in writing 'There Never Will Be A Melody Like the St. Louis Blues,' and 'Ghost of the St. Louis Blues.' Handy could play a little piano, but he was never able to make his music sound rhythmic, jazzy or raggy, but he sure loved to hear me play. "I've co-written with a number of colored composers, among which were Noble Sissle, Spencer Williams, W. C. Handy, Andy Razaf, and Mercer Cook, with whom I wrote 'Is I In Love I Is,' and the currently popular '1947.' "I remember when 'Margie' was at its height, I built a home for my parents in Indianapolis and would stay there whenever I was in town. Song writers would come to me with their songs for advice and help. Hoagy Carmichael was more bashful than the others, and would leave songs he wrote under the door, where I'd find them in the morning. Needless to say, 'Stardust' wasn't among those he left with me. "In all these years I've never failed to lend a helping hand to struggling composers and song writers, and I've helped a bunch of them get into ASCAP. "I've never refused to meet any players and compete with them, and I'm still willing to meet any and all piano players and give them a run for their money." (J. Russel Robinson has been actively associated with American music for fifty years in the capacity of performer, writer and composer. At the present time, he is writing exclusively with his newest collaborator, Rex Terrell.) RECORDS NOTED: (Continued from Page 10) forth, which are usually called "documentary" and thus implicitly dated. Esquire's album' really does date — even the one superb Louis Armstrong side, Sugar, which is Louis treating that tune as he treated Exactly Like You, Blue Again, When Your Lover Has Gone, and all the rest of the pops he moved in on after the days of the Hot Five and Hot Seven. Here we have Ellington's unblue harmonies, the vulgar bubbling of Coleman Hawkins, the repressed Buck Clayton trumpet, the Lionel Hampton "vibes" jingling like mad, the Benny Goodman Quintet's "light, tasty stuff at a perfect tempo for the floating Wilson piano style," ("Down Beat," May 21). By documentary I mean that here are eight remarkable samples of the compromises, distortions and experiments that resulted from the suppression of New Orleans jazz. I agree that musicians had to play something to stay alive. I don't agree that either their clever or often superficially attractive methods should be termed extensions of the jazz idiom. MEZZ MEZZROW Really the Blues (Parts I & II) King Jazz 146 The "King Jazz" records, especially this new Really the Blues, prove among other things that Mezz is a master as composer, orchestral organizer and conductor, and as a functional inspiration in jazz. Really the Blues is what he was saying all through his book of the same name — that the "feeling" of the blues is Negroid, that it can only be transmitted by means of the traditional blues scale and harmonies, that both can be assimilated in no other way than by intellectual or physical identification with the life of the American Negro. Really the Blues has got that environmental influence in every detail of its construction. It's a faithful blues. That's Mezz as composer. The earlier King Jazz records omitted trombone. Really the Blues omits trombone and trumpet — evidence that Mezz doesn't bind himself rigidly to the instrumentation of the blues and that he believes it possible to organize a blues group on a narrow melodic base. He does just that in Really the Blues, employing his own clarinet and Sidney Bechet on clarinet (one chorus) arid soprano sax (five choruses) — backed by rhythm of Sox Wilson (piano), Willman Braud (bass), Baby Dodds (drums) — to achieve a pattern of melodic and harmonic variation that is astounding. The playing of Bechet stands out purposefully. His one clarinet chorus concludes the first side and he plays five succeeding twelvebar sections in Part II. But I have no doubt that Mezz "makes" the record. After an opening duet he takes two sombre beautifully phrased solos leading into a Sox Wilson chorus and then begins prompting Bechet with as delicately placed and maneuvered obbligato passages as I have ever heard, while the rhythm stays clear and steady throughout. When I say Mezz "makes" the record I mean to compare his contribution to that of men such as Kid Ory, Jelly Roll, Fats Waller, Armstrong, to the various groups which each in his time has inspired on recording dat^s. FINAL NOTES Capitol has opened up an "Americana" category that so far seems to be a home for hillbillies. Maybe things will get better however, since the release of Sonny Terry's Whoopin' the Blues and All Alone Blues, two excellent sides that are dominated by Terry's gusty harmonica. All Alone also has a vocal which Terry sings in a manner that is warm and plaintive. On Victor there's a good blues coupling by Tampa Red (vocal and guitar), accompanied by Big Maceo on piano and Alfred Elkins (bass) on Please Be Careful and by Maceo and Chick Sanders (drums) on Play Proof Woman. Tampa's voice hasn't much range, but his habit of dropping into "talk" is unaffected and thus gives the lyrics a persuasiveness such idle inventions usually go without. KNOCKY-KNOCKY! (Continued from Page 11) came into the auditorium to extend him a compliment and introduce herself. At the private interview and audition which followed, the great harpsichordist decided to take the untutored Knocky as a pupil (she takes only two pupils a year which, of course, are chosen from hundreds of talented, advanced piano students). Knocky said that later, after he got to know her well, he played blues and stomps after lessons for her on the harpsichord and piano — and that she genuinely and emphatically liked jazz. She seems to be interested in jazz as a return to the improvisational nature of 18th Century and earlier music. In spite of his classical experiences, Knocky identifies himself with jazz. Along with Don Ewell and Johnny Wittwer, he represents the best of the young, jazz pianists. These formidable three all admire the late Jelly Roll Morton more than any other musician, yet each has developed a style of his own. When Knocky was in Hollywood, he and Wittwer became friends. They used to jam together on one keyboard. Their "Coney Island Washboard" is still talked about. Last October, Zutty Singleton opened at Los Angeles' Cobra Club with a quartet consisting of himself on drums, Albert Nicholas, clarinet, Vic Dickenson, trombone, and Knocky on piano. Those few who are lucky enough to have heard them say that the music they played was wonderful ; two major record companies wanted to record them. But the Cobra Club clientele wanted Be-Bop and Zutty and his New Orleans Style Quartet bowed out after a few nights. Before they could get a better spot from the booking agency, Zutty went to work in the picture "New Orleans" with Kid Ory and Louis Armstrong, and Albert Nicholas got a job in New York. Nicholas is very enthusiastic about Knocky's playing. When interviewed on a network broadcast from New York, he was asked what he heard in Hollywood that he considered the best jazz. His quick answer was, "Kid Ory and Knocky Parker." Zutty shares Nick's enthusiasm : "A lot of those young cats try to use Jelly's riffs and just throw 'em around and not know where to put 'em or what to do with 'em, but Ole Knocky would get 'em in there right every time." In his teaching experience. Knocky has the insurance he feels all musicians need for hard times and old age. He is going to teach English at Columbia University this summer and try to get booked at one of the 52nd Street or Village jazz joints. Agents have tended to get Knocky solo jobs. He objects to this because— "They want you to be clever and cute, play 'Siboney' and sing 'Stop that Dancing Up There'— I'm sure old Hersal Thomas didn't do anything cute, did he?" PARADOX RECORDS announce a series of fine jazz records featuring artists such aa KING OLIVER, JELLY BOLL MORTON, JOHNNY DODDS, CLARENCE WILLIAMS, and the sensational WANDERERS. WRITE FOR OUR RELEASE SHEET USUAL DISCOUNT TO DEALERS GLOBE AGENCIES 55 WEST 42 STREET— NEW YORK 18, N. V. AUGUST, 1947 15