Jazz Focus

Show - Jimmy Rushing in the 1950's - Columbia

Jimmy Rushing in the 1950's. . .these recordings were taken from several albums Mr Five by Five recorded for Columbia in the late 1950's - many have a big band led by Buck Clayton with arrangements by Clayton, Nat Pierce and Jimmy Mundy. Great solos by Coleman Hawkins, Buddy Tate, Clayton, Vic Dickenson, Benny Morton, Dickie Wells, Hilton Jefferson, Claude Hopkins , Ben Webster, Helen Humes, Buster Bailey and Urbie Green.

Wingy Manone in the 1920's

New Orleans trumpet player Manone was well-travelled in the 1920's . . here he is featured with his own groups in New Orleans (with Hal Jordy, Arnold Loyocano and Johnny Miller) and Chicago (with Frank Teschemacher, Wade Foster, Bud Freeman and George Wettling). Also with Barbecue Joe and His Hot Dogs (an almost unknown band with Miff Frink - a very hot trombone player) and Bennie Goodman and His Boys (with Freeman, Joe Sullivan and of course Benny Goodman)

Wild Bill Davison on Commodore 1943-47

Classic Condon-styled dixieland led by cornetist Wild Bill Davison and featuring George Brunies, George Lugg, Lou McGarity, Joe Marsala, Ed Hall, Albert Nicholas, Bill Miles, Gene Schroeder, Joe Sullivan, Dick Cary, Eddie Condon, Jack Lesberg, Bob Casey, George Wettling and Dave Tough. All recorded for Commodore, 1943-47.

Ziggy Elman - Zaggin' With Zig

Zaggin' With Zig - The Ziggy Elman Orchestra Bluebird sides from 1938-39 featuring mostly members of the Benny Goodman Orchestra (Hymie Schertzer, Dave Matthews, Toots Mondello, Noni Bernardi, Jerry Jerome, Babe Russin, Art Rollini, Jess Stacy, Milt Raskin, Johnny Guarnieri, Ben Heller, Al Kendis, Nick Fatool, Artie Bernstein) doing some excellent Jazz as well as pop standards.  Two bonus cuts by Toots Mondello and His Orchestra leading virtually the same band (with Claude Thornhill) for Varsity.  Sorry in advance for some technical glitches on this one - the narration part was slightly compromised by a microphone issue, but the music is fine!

Adrian Rollini's New Yorkers 1927

Adrian Rollini led a band for about a month at the Hotel New Yorker in the fall of 1927 - with Bix Beiderbecke, Frank Trumbauer, Bobby Davis, Pee Wee Russell, Don Murray, Chauncey Morehouse and BIll Rank, it was a who’s who of the white jazz establishment at the time.  Unfortunately, business did not justify the pay scale and the egos of the band got in the way as well.  Fortunately, several recording dates (by Frankie Trumbauer, Red Nichols and the Broadway Bellhops) used the core personnel, so we have some idea how they sounded.

Texas Tenor - John Hardee the sideman

Great Texas tenor John Hardee playing with Billy Kyle's Big Eight with Lem Davis, Trummy Young, Dick Vance, Dicky Wells, Russell Procope's Big Eight with Shorty Baker, and Tiny Grimes' groups

Dixieland for the Jump Label - 1944-47

West Coast label Jump specialized in Dixieland jazz . . here are Charles LaVere's Chicago Loopers (with Billy May, Floyd O'Brien, Matty Matlock, Joe Venuti, Artie Shapiro and Nick Fatool), O'Brien's State Street Seven (Chuck Mackey, O'Brien, Matlock, Joe Rushton, George Van Eps, Shapiro and Fatool), Yukl's Wabash Five (with George Thow, Joe Yukl, Peyton Legare, Stanley Wrightsman,Eddie Serivanek, Fred Whiting and Sam Enevson), Mackey's Michigan Boulevard Gand (O'Brien, Matlock, Skippy Anderson, Shapiro, Richie Cornell) and Bob Anderson's Oshkosh Serenaders (Warren Smith, Rushton, Gil Bowers, Phil Stevens, Fatool).  High level playing and great sounds

Mills Blue Rhythm Band - early 1930's

A great but almost forgotten hot band - the Mills Blue Rhythm Band held sway at the Cotton Club and other venues with Irving Mills' other bands (Ellington, Calloway) were otherwise engaged.  Pianist Edgar Hayes, trombonist Harry "Fatha" White and later reedman Joe Garland did most of the arrangements which also featured Ed Anderson on trumpet, George Washington on trombone, George Morton and Billy Banks on vocals and reedmen Charlie Holmes, Crawford Wethington and Castor McCord

Eddie South Transcriptions - 1930's

These recordings were made for a radio program in Los Angeles in the early 1930's by his "International Orchestra" including Milt Hinton, Antonia Spaulding, Clifford King, George Barnes and Jimmy Bertrand - quite a mix of jazz, tango, rhumba, German, Jewish and Latin music!

Ed Hall and Ralph Sutton - 1954

Great quartet that existed through most of 1954 - studio session with Ed Hall, Ralph Sutton, Walter Page and Cliff Leeman and broadcasts with Hall, Sutton, Page and Charlie Lodice (and Clyde Hurley added on a few!)  - terrific arrangements and fire-y playing all around.