Weather Bird
Blues in thirds
Panther rag
Stowaway
Chimes in blues
A Monday date
Caution blues
A Monday date
I ain't got nobody
I wish I could shimmy like my sister
Glad rag roll
Beau koo Jack
Blue nights
Grand piano blues
Deep forest
Angry
Rhythm sundae
Grand terrace shuffle
Piano man
Rosetta
Number 19
Boogie woogie on St Louis Blues
Child of a disordered brain
Tantalizing a cuban
Blues in thirds
Easy rhythm
Up jump the devil
My melancholy baby
On the sunny side of the street
Windy city jive
The earl
Second balcony jump
Stormy Monday blues
Honeysuckle rose
Dark eyes
No good woman blues
Bo legged mama
Spooky boogie
Keyboards kapers
Chicago
Tea for two
Snappy rhythm
Singin' for my French brothers
Fine and dandy
Deed I do
These foolish things
Rosetta
Diane
Honeysuckle rose
Green's corner
The darktown strutter's ball
Naturally we start with Weather
Bird. This French twofer series seems
to be covering some well-trodden ground in
its reissues – every name from Armstrong to
Tatum is a big one – and so it would be wrong
to claim any discographic breakthroughs here,
or indeed any startling advances in restoration
technique. But starting with that still stunning
duet with Armstrong – an epoch making statement
from both men – still makes a wise beginning.
From there we move to the
rather less well recorded 1928 solo sides,
ones that sealed Hines’s name as a forward
thinking, virtuoso "front line"
soloist, whose harmonic sense and technical
bravado were every bit as well developed as
those of his eminent colleagues wielding brass
and wood. The small group he led in 1929 had
a Jelly Roll-ish ring to the personnel – including
cornettist George Mitchell – and indeed amidst
the nonchalant brilliance there are nods from
Hines to the older man’s rather more statuesque
playing. Fortunately we also get the beautiful
trio performance of Beau Koo Jack with
Omer Simeon and Claude Roberts.
Hines’s Orchestra has always
been rather written down. True, the Ellingtonian
voicings of Deep Forest are unmistakeable
but this was a good if occasionally scattershot
band with some excellent soloists. There’s
some booting trombone on Grand Terrace
Shuffle and by the time of the 1940 band
we find Jimmy Mundy writing some of the sophisticated
arrangements. The 1942 band had less striking
names on board but is also too often downplayed.
Along the way we have one
side from Sidney Bechet - Blues in Thirds
– and several with violinist Eddie South.
I wasn’t so familiar with these. They range
from the twee Honeysuckle Rose to the
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto quoting Dark
Eyes. South was a beautiful player but
occasionally wandered off the jazz radar in
jazz contexts. In the later 1940s we run up
against vogue-ish melodrama and generic R
‘n’ B but fortunately there are some Paris
tracks - one with Buck Clayton - to redress
the balance and one where Hines joins the
Armstrong All Stars.
The introductory notes are
rather meagre and the gatefold format doesn’t
run to including catalogue and matrix details
– though it does give exact recording dates.
An enjoyable Hines starter pack, in effect.
Jonathan Woolf
An enjoyable Hines starter
pack ... see Full Review
CD Reviews
LE
CHANT DU MONDE 2741465 [75:34 + 78:03]
