The record changer (Jan-Dec 1949)

19 Graeme Bell I'm a Little Blackbird The Aztec Princess Big Bad Banksia Man JENNY'S BALL I could never get reallv excited about Graeme Bell and yet he hands out a better brand of Dixieland than I've heard around New York in many a year. In fact his gang sound a little like the boys in those two spots below 14th Street if someone were to sneak up behind them and hit them over the side of the head with a sock full of fresh air. If this is a distinction that eludes you, let me try to put it a better way — Graeme Bell and his lads always sound as though they hadn't played the number they are recording for at least forty-eight hours, while the boys below the street mentioned above always sound to me as though they had played it six times in the last fourteen minutes, and God how they hated to play it again ! Be that as it may, this stuff is all right. The Blackbird side is pretty familiar to most of you from the old Eva Taylor vocal with Clarence Williams and his Blue Five, along with a young cornet player name of L. Armstrong. The Aztec Princess and Big Bad Banksia sides are originals by Roger Bell, who plays horn in the band. The latter is a quartet number, a grouping I like, by the way, better than the full band, and the reverse, that old Jenny's Ball number that Mamie Smith did so well, really made me sit up and take notice. Play it in good spirit. (Rampart 9 & 10) (B.M.) THE SIX HOTTENTOTS Melancholy Charlie Hurricane No Red Nichols fan he — the he being me — still, every now and then they sound pretty good. This, for me at least, is one of the better ones, though not the best, and there are a few familiar names listed among the personnel. And if Mr. Nichols plays all the breaks of another man, and pretty much as though he had sat up nights late in front of a mirror and practiced them, that other guy was a pretty good man with a horn. Let's be frank about all this, pal. If you are a Nichols fan you will eat these up without cream or sugar. If you aren't, you won't want any part of them. If you are neither, I would suggest you play them and make un your own mind, which really isn't bad advice on any record. If you want to go on my recommendation I'd say B-plus Nichols and B-minus for the general run, which isn't bad. (Mouldye-Fygge 103) (B.M.) Blue Rhythm Orchestra & Nashville Jazzers Hold 'Er Deacon St. Louis Blues I sometimes think that Mouldie-Fygge puts out records like this just to run people like me crazy. However, just as soon as I get this review written the family— all five of us — are going to grab the first thing rolling in search of a cooler clime and something erroneously referred to as a vacation. I .am listening to a double header by the Dodgers with my other ear, so, if anyone thinks I am going to decipher this booby trap loosely referred to as "unknown personnel" they got another think coming. The Blue Rhythm Orchestra is not the Blue Rhythm band, I know that much, and I guess it to be the same band that put out sides for the dime store trade in the twenties. This is a pretty good free swinging bunch and I like the record. The other side has me baffled and I hope' it will have you baffled too. I can't recall hearing anything quite like it, though there are men on it* I know I have heard before. Who? Unh unh, Buster, you figure that out and if you want to tell me don't bother, because I'll be off somewhere in Wisconsin fishing. (Mouldie Fygge 102) (B. M.) jelly roll to bop (Continued from Page 13) Stewart's bass as well as the nebulous nowheres achieved by the high men of the trumpet team. I cannot see how the most extreme of this music can get across its own aridly patterned Sahara to the mirage over there behind the anchorites in the clump of withered palm trees. The old prospectors, more grizzled in their wisdom, carried bread and water. At any rate, it is a mistake to think that bop, with its musical know-how, is the only direction for jazz to take. For this is not necessarily so. Jelly Roll's music was on the verge of discoveries that might have helped get jazzmen off the section gang. Not Jelly, for we have already noted how his road was blocked, but the New Orleans ensemble approach to jazz may hold the answer. It is like the old preacher said: we need to be regenerated. It is time for Buddy Bolden to be "Callin' his chillun home." (T,his is the second part of a two-part article ) Sutptmit Record Company proudly announces the issue of six exciting sides by THE DUTCH SWING COLLEGE ORCHESTRA An original session recorded in The Hague, December 28, 1948 1002 — Fidgety Feet/Panama Rag 1003 — Tiger Rag (No Gin Rag) /Absent Minded Blues *1004 — Jazzin' Babies Blues/ Viper Mad Summit pressings on flexible break resistant records 10-INCH RECORDS— $1.05 EACH Usual discount to Dealers POSTPAID SHIPPING— 25c PER PACKAGE No C. O. D.'s, please! Order today for immediate shipment from Summit Record Company 1623 St. Paul Street BALTIMORE 2. MARYLAND * "To Be Released About September I, 1949" all you fCATSl in the hollywood and SA;i IERNaIDQ VALKSY area; you're invited to marie and gene" deitch's ro^ular FRIDAY NIGHT recordcoffee lash-ups now in the valley 8792 tilden ave "panorama city" in van nuys leave a message at our telephone exchange : Hollywood 9-8241 For Finest Stock of Jazz Records visit or send for our catalogue JAZZ RECORD CORNER 782 Eighth Avenue (at 48th Street — 1 Block west of Broadway) NEW YORK CITY We carry all labels mentioned in the Changer PLAZA 7-7426 Hours 10 to 7