CD1
1 San Sue Strut
2 Cat’s Head
3 Muskrat Ramble
4 Wailing Blues
5 Shake That Thing!
6 Tar Paper Stomp
7 Strange Blues
8 Never Had No Lovin’
9 Panama
10 Tin Roof Blues
11 Sensation Rag
12 The Blues Have Got Me
13 Nickel In The Slot
14 Breeze, Blow My Baby Back To Me
15 About A Quarter To Nine
16 Love Is Just Around The Corner
17 You’re An Angel
18 The Isle Of Capri
19 I’m In Love All Over Again
20 I Believe In Miracles
21 Let’s Spill The Beans
22 Sliphorn Sam
23 Bouncin’ In Rhythm
24 A Smile Will Go A Long, Long Way
25 I’ve Got A Feelin’ You’re Foolin’
26 I’ve Got A Note
27 The Broken Record
CD2
1 Please Believe Me
2 You Started Me Dreaming
3 Goody, Goody!
4 Dallas Blues
5 Tormented
6 Swingin’ At The Hickory House
7 Limehouse Blues
8 Blue Lou
9 Rhythm On The River
10 Dinner For The Duchess
11 Memphis Blues
12 The Tailgate Ramble
13 If I Could Be With You One Hour Tonight
14 Shake The Blues Away
15 At The Jazz Band Ball
16 Box Car Blues
17 Real Gone
18 The Sweetheart Of Sigma Chi
19 Burlecue
20 Trumpet On The Wing
21 Corrine, Corrina
22 The Isle Of Capri
23 Pawn Shop Blues
24 The Birth Of The Blues
25 ’Way Down Yonder In New Orleans
26 Mississippi Mud
27 Sidewalks Of New York
28 Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?
Wingy Manone with various orchestras
Recorded 1924-64
[79:37 +79:01]
Joseph Matthews ‘Wingy’ Manone (1900-1982) – so-named because of the youthful loss of his right arm – has always held an affectionate place in the hearts
of lovers of New Orleans born musicians. A contemporary of Louis Armstrong, Manone was a man on the move, tracing a journey from his home city to Chicago,
thence to New York, to Mobile, St Louis and then another roundabout journey taking in several of the mentioned cities until a move to the West Coast where
he was to die at a good age.
The trumpeter’s journey is reflected in this twofer which contains 55 tracks from his first, made in St Louis acoustically in late 1924 to the 1962 sides
for Imperial, made in Los Angeles with a pick-up band of still-anonymous musicians. The first band was the Arcadian Serenaders playing the trumpeter’s own
composition San Sue Strut and the 1927 Cat’s Head – recorded electrically in New Orleans – is another of his own pieces. Manone was soon
swimming in fast seas, having been chosen by Benny Goodman for a 1929 session alongside the likes of Bud Freeman and Joe Sullivan. If he’d been able to
read music – he was largely a head man – then a trumpet chair in Goodman’s band would have been his for the taking. As it was he played in small ensembles,
many of which he led, playing a punchy attractive lead, drenched in Blues phraseology. Hi famous 1930 recording of Tar Paper Stomp was to become
better known some years later as In the Mood. A mark of his status can be measured in the 1934 recording of Never Had No Lovin’ where in
an all-star band consisting of luminaries such as Jelly Roll Morton, Dicky Wells, Artie Shaw, Freeman, John Kirby and Kaiser Marshall, Manone is still
allowed a vocal.
One of the most successful of all his bands was the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, 1934 vintage where George Brunies and articulate clarinettist Sidney Arodin
shared the front line. Not too far behind were the orchestral recordings he made with his own orchestra the following year. With Matty Matlock, Eddie
Miller, Nappy Lamare and others on board this was a fine band but on no account overlook the fine piano stylist Gil Bowers. Wingy’s vocal and instrumental
hero was Louis Armstrong, in much the same way that Muggsy Spanier’s hero had been Armstrong’s mentor, King Oliver. This is reflected in the differing
styles of the two white brass players, who occupied distinctly different though in some ways complementary traditions. Wingy’s hard-driving uncomplicated
lead is always a pleasure to hear, as is his Louis inspired vocalising, and fun is never far from the surface of these 1930s tracks in particular.
Incidentally I think there’s been a slip-up in the recording chosen of I’ve Got a Note, which implies that this is the ‘drunk’ version – copious
booze was taken at the session – during which Jack Teagarden came off worse than his confreres. Actually, however, this sounds like the sober remake, made
a week later.
Manone’s bands could be earthy, indeed raucous but with high spirits like Ray Baduc on board that was no surprise – Baduc gets salty on Swingin’ at the Hickory House, for instance. But Manone was musically perceptive enough to include such players as Chu Berry and Buster Bailey and
Berry’s bustling solo on Limehouse Blues raises the blood pressure significantly. Such passing fashions as trombone choirs can also be heard, Bing
Crosby makes an appearance, as indeed does Kay Starr, and then we pass on to the later 1950s where a backbeaty rhythm announces the Decca sides of 1957.
These are rather lazily conceived, in the main, but in compensation it’s good to hear Hank D’Amico’s clarinet playing. Manone‘s lead was still quite fiery
into his late 50s but things began to wind down in the early 60s. There was still time for an album in which linking dialogue, a kind of travelogue spoken
by Manone that introduced a new generation to his patter and personality accompanied by his New Orleans Dixieland Jazzband. In format this is a little like
Louis’ Musical Autobiography album, revisiting old friends, though at a very much lower level, of course.
But with thoughtful notes from Digby Fairweather and well transferred tracks this is an assiduously prepared tribute to a fine trumpeter, ebullient singer
and splendid personality.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
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RETROSPECTIVE RTS 4267
