Jazz Focus

Three sessions for the new Decca record label featuring the Earl Hines Orchestra that was playing at the Grand Terrace in Chicago.  Walter Fuller, George Dixon and Trummy Young in the brass section, Omer Simeon, Darnell Howard and Cecil Irwin in the reeds .. . Jimmy Mundy and Quinn Wilson doing arrangements and Wallace Bishop on drums . . great band, great jazz solos!

Three groups of chamber jazz . . the Bechet-Spanier Big Four with Sidney Bechet, Muggsy Spanier, Carmen Mastren, Wellman Braud. .. The Delta Four with Roy Eldridge, Joe Marsala, Carmen Mastren, Sid Weiss and Rex Stewart's Feetwarmers with Rex Stewart, Barney Bigard, Django Reinhardt and Billy Taylor.  All 1935-40!

The Rhythmic Eight - a subset of the Bert Firman Orchestra, recording in London from 1927-30.  Some excellent British musicians (Arthur Lally, Johnny Helfer, Bert Read, Norman Payne) joined by some travelling Yanks (Perley Breed, Sylvester Ahola, Frank Guarente, Danny Polo, Joe Brannelly) to record stocks and special arrangements of contemporary pop tunes.

Knocky Parker - the amazingly versatile pianist whose career went from Texas Blues (he learned from Blind Lemon Jefferson), Western Swing (The Light Crust Doughboys) and traditional Jazz (Doc Evans, Carol Leigh and Yank Lawson/Bob Haggart) . . he does some fantastic versions of Joe Sullivan showpieces

Roy Eldridge - the first Roy Eldridge Orchestra (an octet including his brother Joe, Teddy Cole and Zutty Singleton) live from the Three Deuces in New York in 1937; another version of a similar group doing 1943 transcriptions (a nonet with Joe, Ike Quebec, Tom Archia and Harold West), and a band (another nonet with Franz Jackson, Clyde Hart and gteat clarinet by Prince Robinson) captured live at the Arcadia Ballroom in Chicago in 1939. Some of the best Swing trumpet ever recorded!

The John Kirby Sextet - transcription recordings for Lang Worth in 1940 and 41 . . great playing by Charlie Shavers, Buster Bailey, Russell Procope, Billy Kyle, John Kirby, O'Neil Spencer and especially Maxine Sullivan - doing a number of charts they did not record commercially.  The "Biggest Little Band In The Land" featured incredibly sophisticated arrangements, immaculate playing and great solos in addition to the stylish vocals of Sullivan.

Herman Chittison . .the great African American pianist who recorded solos and accompaniments in France as well as piano trios (a la Art Tatum) in the US . . also some vocal accompaniments for Ethel Waters and Thelma Carpenter.

The Light Crust Doughboys are on the air . . .a tribute to a superb Western Swing band featuring excellent soloists - Kenneth Pitts, Marvin Montgomery, Leon Huff, Kermit Whalin, Zeke Campbell and especially Knocky Parker on piano!

WETF show on TNT -Jack and Charlie Teagarden and Frank Trumbauer recording with members of the Whiteman band in the iddle 1930's.  Cameos by Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Johnny Mince and Casper Reardon (on harp!)

This was quite an anomaly - a free blowing jazz session in the heart of the depression with an integrated band!  Red Allen, Pee Wee Russell, Fats Waller, Joe Sullivan, Eddie Condon, Gene Krupa, Zutty Singleton, Pops Foster, Tommy Dorsey, Happy Caldwell and the indescribable vocalist Billy Banks!