Jazz Focus

Reuben "River" Reeves . . groomed to be a competitor to Louis Armstrong, Reeves never achieved the notoriety or public exposure he might have. Nevertheless, his recordings in the 1920's with his River Boys (including Omer Simeon, William Barbee and others) were excellent jazz features, while his solos with the Cab Calloway and Fess Williams bands show him to have been an underrated trumpet player of the time.

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.

. Milton Brown and His Brownies! Western Swing in the 1930's - great jazz by a string group and a superb vocalist!  This group was more jazz than country and featured one of the first electric guitarists to be be recorded - Bob Dunn, as well as an excellent barrelhouse piano player named Fred "Papa" Calhoun.

  Pee Wee Russell 1938 - two sessions . .the Pee Wee Russell Rhythm Makers with James P. Johnson, Freddie, Greene, Walter Page, Zutty Singleton and Dickie Wells and the Rhythm Cats transcriptions with Bobby Hackett, Brad Gowans and Ernie Caceres  .. .

This focus is on two albums recorded by Big Joe Turner in the late 50's for Atlantic.  Coming off his success as a senior rock and roll singer ("Shake Rattle and Roll was 1954), Turner returned to his KC roots to sing blues and standards with two all star groups including Coleman Hawkins, Lawrence Brown, Pete Brown, Pete Johnson, Freddie Green, Walter Page, Ernie Royal and Vic Dickenson.

Kid Ory's Creole Jazz Band was one of the most consistently popular group in the New Orleans/Dixieland Jazz Revival from the middle 1940's through the mid 1960's.  For this version of the band, Ory hired the great trumpeter Red Allen for a European tour in the fall of 1959.  Prior to this, they recorded an album for Verve also featuring Bob McCracken on clarinet, Cedric Haywood on piano and Alton Redd on drums and vocals.  Tracks from the album and a live date in Berlin are the focus of this podcast.

Today we listen to some of the jazzier sides recorded by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, mostly in the 1930's.  "Western Swing" as a term didn't come into use until the middle 1940's - these players considered themselves jazz musicians and their playing on standards like "Lady Be Good," "White Heat," "Wang Wang Blues," "Who Walks In When I Walk Out" and others demonstrate this very well.  The most impressive soloists are Jesse Ashlock on violin and Leon McAuliffe on steel and electric guitar, but acoustic guitarist Eldon Shamblin, pianist Al Stricklin, trumpeters Everett Stover and Tubby Lewis, sax/clarinet players Ray DeGeer, Charles Laughton and Wayne Johnson should not be overlooked either!

The great clarinet player Omer Simeon was known for his recordings with Jelly Roll Morton in the 1920's, Earl Hines in the 1930's, Jimmy Lunceford and Kid Ory in the 1940's and Wilbur DeParis in the 1950's . . .here are a series of small group dates from 1929 on which he is featured with Reuben "River" Reeves, Jabbo Smith, Richard M. Jones and the Dixie Rhythm Kings, featuring members of the Earl Hines band.  The two small group recordings Simeon did under his own name (one including Hines himself) are included here as well.

Hilton Jefferson was known to musicians more than the public - as lead alto for Fletcher Henderson, Claude Hopkins, Cab Calloway and many others, he was often featured on ballads to show off his gorgeous sound, but here we are featuring him on more rhythmic tunes from some all star swing combos of the middle 1940's with a few ballads thrown in besides.  Jonah Jones, Joe Thomas, Tyree Glenn, Ike Quebec, Jerry Jerome, Bernie Leighton, Eddie Barefield, Coleman Hawkins, Milt Hinton, Cozy Cole and Panama Francis are just a few of the notables featured here, but the focus is really on Jefferson, whose playing is a model of consistency, musicality and some innovation as well.

The TD Clambake Seven recording for radio transcriptions in 1936 . . Max Kaminsky, TD, Joe Dixon, Edythe Wright and Dave Tough playing some standards ("Jada", "Somebody Stole My Gal" "How Come You Do Me Like You Do?" "My Honey's Lovin' Arms") as well as contemporary tunes ("Cabin In the Sky" "I'll Bet You Tell That To All The Girls") . .some great jazz.