Jazz Focus

New Orleans Rhythm Kings 1922-23

The first series of recordings by the influential, mostly New Orleans band based in Chicago in the early 1920's.  Featuring leader Paul Mares on cornet, George Brunies on trombone, Leon Roppolo on clarinet, Steve Brown on bass with Chicago musicians Ben Pollack on drums, Mel Stitzel on piano and others, these Gennett records were important sources of inspiration for the next generation of Jazz players.

Muggsy Spanier - The Great 16, 1939

The Chicago cornetist Spanier had been playing with Ted Lewis for almost a decade before returning to the small group jazz fold with " . . His Ragtime Band" which played briefly in New York and made four sessions for Victor.  With George Brunies on trombone, Rod Cless on clarinet, George Zack or Joe Bushkin on piano, Pat Pattison on bass, Bob Casey on guitar, Marty Greenberg, Don Carter or Al Sidell on drums and Nick Caiazza, Ray McKinstry or Bernie Billings on tenor sax.

Show - Eddie Miller and The Big Bands

Tenor sax player from New Orleans was most identified with Bob Crosby's Orchestra - here are a few transcriptions and live tracks of that group (including Muggsy Spanier) as well as some others with the Metronome All Stars (with Benny Goodman, Harry James, Bunny Berigan, Jack Teagarden, Ray Bauduc and Jess Stacy) and several of his own, WWII era big band that recorded for Capitol.

Bob Crosby and His Orchestra - arrangements by Matty Matlock, Dean Kincaide and Phil Moore

Great tracks by Bob Crosby and His Orchestra doing arrangements by Matlock, Kincaide and Moore featuring Billy Butterfield and Yank Lawson on trumpets, Warren Smith on trombone, Irving Fazola and Matlock on clarinets, Eddie Miller on tenor sax, Jess Stacy, Joe Sullivan and Bob Zurke on piano, Nappy Lamare on guitar, Bob Haggart on bass and Ray Bauduc on drums

Dizzy Reece - British and American Hard Bop!

Excellent sessions featuring the Jamaican trumpet player with Duke Jordan's band (including Stanley Turrentine) and various large and small British bands led by Victor Feldman and Tony Crombie

Happy Birthday Bunny Berigan!

Selection of the great trumpet player Berigan's best recordings from the 1930's and 40's - with Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, the Dorsey Brothers and Glenn Miller's orchestras as well as his own and also sideman appearances with Mildred Bailey and Billie Holiday.

Happy Birthday Buck Clayton!

Buck Clayton's recordings from the middle 1940's combo years - the Big Four with Scoville Brown, Quintet with Flip Philips, Coleman Hawkins Quintet, Big Eight.
 

Yankee Rhythm Kings - two cornet trad band from Boston

Trombonist Bob Connors led an exceptional two cornet band in the style of Lu Watters' groups in the mid to late 1970's in Boston.  Featuring Dave Whitney and Paul Monat on trumpets, Blair Bettencourt on clarinet and soprano, Don Bennett on piano, Cal Owen on banjo, Stu Gunn on tuba and Ray Smith on drums, the group played standard repertoire and some later jazz as well

The Dirty Bopper - Bruce Turner in England in the 1950's and 60's

Recordings made by the uncategorizable alto and clarinet player Bruce Turner under his own name.  Some are jump band tunes, some small group swing, some trad - all featuring Turner with a variety of British musicians including John Chilton and Terry Brown on trumpet, Colin Bates and Al Mead on piano and Pete Strange on trombone

Miff Mole with the Original Memphis Five (1940's and 50's)

Largely forgotten trombonist who was one of the most influential jazz players of the 1920's, Mole continued his career into the 1940's and 50's, mostly playing dixieland.  Here he is with groups of likeminded musicians from the 1920's and the Swing Era - the first from the late 1940's for Jazzology with Jack Palmer, Lee Castle, Jimmy Lytell, Joe Dixon, Frank Signorelli, Jack Lesberg and Chauncey Morehouse and the second from the 1950's with Billy Butterfield, Lytell, Signorelli, Gene Traxler and Tony Spargo.