Sweet Ella May
Everybody Loves My Baby
Blue Nights
A Monday Date
Chicago Rhythm
Good Little, Bad Little You
Beau Koo Jack
Jungle Crawl
Dixieland Doin's
Cathedral Blues
Black Cat Moan
Nervous Tension
Ozark Mountain Blues
Market Street Stomp
You Ain't the One
The Boy in the Boat
African Jungle
Slow as Molasses
Happy Rhythm
Honeycomb Harmony
Earl Hines and his Orchestra; Charlie Johnson's Paradise Ten; Charlie
Johnson and his Paradise Band; The Missourians; Tiny Parham and his
Musicians; Jungle Town Stompers; Musical Stevedores
rec. 1928-30
The exciting news about this selection from Hermes –
it’s not hot off the press by the way – is that the transfers use vinyl
pressings, not commercial 78s. This means clarity for these 1928-30
sides.
The selection begins with seven sides by Earl Hines’s
orchestra. Hear how Hines elbows vocalist (and trombonist) William Franklin
out of the way in Sweet Ella May when his solo comes around –
not surprisingly considering the cod-ballad vocalising of the dire Franklin.
Hines, like Ellington, seems to have had a high sufferance level for
appalling band vocalists. At this stage the band was still a bit lumbering
with even so fine a brass bass player as Hayes Alvin unable to move
things along. Hines’s solo on Everybody Loves My Baby is a feast
for cognoscenti as is his scat singing. A Monday Date is naturally
here but you can also hear how well worked out the ensemble playing
is, especially the two trumpet section work on Beau Koo Jack
– Shirley Clay and George Mitchell, the latter from Jelly Roll Morton’s
Red Hot Peppers.
Tiny Parham’s band essays Jungle Crawl which sounds
Ellingtonian, rather like The Mooche in fact. Cornet man
Roy Hobson’s quavering hesitant playing contrasts with the more confident
trombone playing of Charles Lawson. Elliott Washington takes a good
violin part. Later recordings by the band see Punch Miller in the trumpet
chair and he preaches bluesily on Black Cat Moan. The arrangement
is interesting and the sonorities – percussion, soprano saxophone –
add variety.
The Missourians were a good, hard-hitting band. Ozark
Mountain Blues is a Tiger Rag workout. Their trumpeter R.Q.
Dickerson emulates Armstrong throughout but especially on Market
Street Stomp with its wailing clarinet choir. Charlie Johnson’s
great Harlem bands were all star affairs – Benny Carter, Jabbo Smith,
Benny Waters, Jimmy Harrison, Sidney de Paris and others – and they
also featured the not-at-all-bad vocals of Monette Moore. Try the arrangement
of The Boy in the Boat for glamorous flair and excitement. The
Jungle Town Stompers and Musical Stevedores were more sedate though
they had great players on board such as Charlie Holmes, Freddy Jenkins,
Louis Metcalf, Luis Russell and the banjoist Elmer Snowden. Even in
this fast company don’t overlook the splendid clarinet solo in African
Jungle or Metcalf’s blues playing.
The fold-open booklet has full matrix, recording date
and issue information as well as full personnels. A word too in favour
of Norman Field’s excellent notes. Really good stuff all round.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
HERMES
HRM 6004 [63:05]
