The Penguin Jazz Guide (13 page)

Armstrong’s music is one of the cornerstones of jazz and these, his most famous records, remain a marvel. While we are envious of any who are discovering the likes of ‘Wild Man Blues’ or ‘Tight Like This’ for the first time, we acknowledge that the sound of the records – particularly the earliest, acoustic Hot Five dates – can seem ‘difficult’ to ears raised on digital sound. Considering he was playing with his peers – Ory and Dodds were two of the most respected performers in the field – the group’s basic sound seems unexpectedly rough and unsophisticated. Yet when one focuses on Armstrong himself, that all falls away in the presence of his youthful mastery. Not yet 25 and playing cornet, he is still trying out for greatness, even if his spell with Henderson a year earlier had alerted the jazz community to his incipient brilliance. Earlier pieces like ‘Jazz Lips’ or ‘Cornet Chop Suey’ have a rough-and-ready quality which Armstrong’s burgeoning power either barges past or transcends. There is a degree of vaudeville in the music already – ‘Heebie Jeebies’ – but much of the time he elevates his surroundings by sheer charisma.

By the time of the Hot Sevens, in 1927, with Dodds assuming a second-voice role that has even Armstrong compelled to play his best, the music seems mystical in its poetry and majesty. ‘Potato Head Blues’, with its incredible stop-time solo, the astounding improvisation on ‘Wild Man Blues’ and the glittering blues playing on ‘Willie The Weeper’ are but three examples. By the time of the second Hot Five, with Hines arriving on piano, Armstrong was approaching the stature of a concerto soloist, which makes these final small-group sessions something like a farewell to jazz’s first golden age. Hines is also magnificent on these discs, and notably on the duet showstopper ‘Weather Bird’ the results seem like eavesdropping on great men speaking among themselves. There is nothing in jazz finer than ‘West End Blues’, ‘Beau Koo Jack’ or ‘Muggles’. It goes without saying that these are indispensable.

All of this music has been reissued many times. In other editions of the
Guide
we have tried to pick our way through a swamp of good, less good and some plain bad packages, but here we would prefer to concentrate on this peerless music. Columbia do score heavily with a magnificent book and add a few rare takes and even offer ‘Cornet Chop Suey’ at two different speeds (therefore in different keys). With this music, more is definitely more.

& See also
Louis Armstrong 1947
(1947; p. 112),
Complete New York Town Hall And Boston Symphony Hall Concerts
(1947; p. 112),
California Concerts
(1951–1955; p. 130)

OSCAR ‘PAPA’ CELESTIN

Sometimes given as ‘Celestine’; born 1 January 1884, Napoleonville, Louisiana; died 15 December 1954, New Orleans, Louisiana

Trumpet, voice

SAM MORGAN

Born 18 December 1887, Bertrandville, Louisiana; died 25 February 1936, New Orleans, Louisiana

Cornet

Papa Celestin & Sam Morgan

Azure AZ-CD-12

Celestin; Louis ‘Kid Shots’ Madison, Ricard Alexis, George McCullum, Guy Kelly (c); William Ridgley, August Rousseau, William Matthews, Ernest Kelly (tb); Willard Thoumy, Paul ‘Polo’ Barnes, Earl Pierson, Sid Carriere, Clarence Hall, Oliver Alcorn (reeds); Manual Manetta, Jeanette Salvant (p); John Marrero, Narvin Kimball (bj); Simon Marrero (b, bb); Abby Foster, Josiah Frazier (d); Charles Gills, Ferdinand Joseph (v). January 1925–December 1928.

Morgan; Ike Morgan (c); Jim Robinson (tb); Earl Fouche (as); Andrew Morgan (cl, ts); Tink Baptiste, O. C. Blancher (p); Johnny Davis (bj); Sidney Brown (b); Nolan Williams, Roy Evans (d). April–October 1927.

Retired Washington journalist Mac McCurdy remembered (1982):
‘Celestin played in the Eisenhower White House. It was the year before he died, I think. It was a pretty strange moment, hoo-doo in the Executive Mansion. You didn’t have to be Ralphe Bunche to see the ironies.’

Little enough music was recorded in New Orleans in the ’20s to make any survivals valuable, but the sessions led by Celestin and Morgan would be remarkable anyway. ‘Papa’ is probably now better known for his later ‘voodoo’ classic ‘Marie Laveau’, recorded just before he died. Despite devices imported from dance band trends, particularly in the later tracks, these early tracks sound like no other jazz of the period. Celestin has a fixer on the New Orleans scene, running bands simultaneously in different halls. The first three tracks are by the Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra, which Celestin was leading in the 1910s, with Madison and Celestin in the front line, and the deliriously exciting ‘Original Tuxedo Rag’ is a blazing fusion of ragtime, jazz and dance music that makes one ache to have seen this band in the flesh. The 13 subsequent titles from 1926 to 1928 are less frantic and are occasionally troubled by the mannerisms of the day, weak vocals in particular. But the reed sections manage their curious blend of sentimentality and shrewd, hot playing with surprising finesse; the ensembles are consistently driving; and the two-cornet leads are frequently as subtle and as well-ordered as those of Oliver’s band. An undervalued soloist, Celestin is fine on ‘My Josephine’ and the superb slow piece ‘It’s Jam Up’. Outstanding clear and powerful remastering.

The eight titles by Morgan’s band are among the classics of ’20s jazz. They are a very rare example of a New Orleans group recorded in the city during this period, and it’s been claimed that these are the most truthful recordings of how such a band sounded in its prime. Morgan’s music is ensemble-based, solos and breaks threaded into the overall fabric, the playing driven by the gutsy slap-bass of Sidney Brown. Fouche might be the outstanding player, with his mile-wide vibrato, but it’s as a band that these players have endured. There are few more exhilarating records from the period than ‘Steppin’ On The Gas’ or ‘Mobile Stomp’. Together with the Celestin tracks, this makes up one of the most essential reissues of early jazz, in outstandingly fine sound.

EDDIE LANG

Born Edward Langlois, 25 October 1902, New Orleans, Louisiana; died 26 March 1933, New Orleans, Louisiana

Guitar

The Quintessential Eddie Lang 1925–1932

Timeless CBC 1-043

Lang; Bix Beiderbecke, Joe ‘King’ Oliver (c); Tommy Gott, Fuzzy Farrar, Ray Lodwig, Manny Klein, Bill Moore, Louis Armstrong, Harry Goldfield, Leo McConville, Andy Secrest, Bill Margulis (t); Boyce Cullen, Miff Mole, Wilbur Hall, Loyd Turner, Tommy Dorsey, Bill Rank (tb); Arnold Brilhart, Alfie Evans, Harold Sturr, Don Murray, Doc Ryker, Frankie Trumbauer, Andy Sannella, Tony Parenti, Happy Caldwell, Chester Hazlett, Red Mayer, Jimmy Dorsey, Charles Strickfaden, Bernard Daly, Issy Friedman (reeds); Otto Landau, Matty Malnec, Henry Whiteman (vn); Roy Bargy, Clarence Williams, Itzy Riskin, Joe Sullivan, Irving Brodsky, J. C. Johnson, Frank Signorelli, Arthur Schutt, Rube Bloom (p); Hoagy Carmichael (p, cel); Cliff Edwards (uke, v); Harry Reser, Tony Colucci, Mike Pingitore (bj); Lonnie Johnson, Carl Kress (g); Red McKenzie (comb); Dick Slevin (kz); Arthur Campbell, Min Leibrook (tba); Steve Brown, Ward Lay, Joe Tarto, Mike Trafficante (b); Neil Marshall, Vic Berton, Kaiser Marshal, George Marsh, Stan King (d); Justin Ring (perc); Bessie Smith, Ukulele Ike, Noel Taylor, The Rhythm Boys, Bing Crosby (v). January 1925–February 1932.

Martin Taylor says:
‘Eddie Lang is the grandfather of jazz guitar. We owe so much to him and the recordings are still to be marvelled at.’

Eddie Lang was the first guitarist to make a major impact on jazz away from the blues, and even there he took a hand by recording many duets with ‘authentic’ bluesman Lonnie Johnson. Lang’s polished, civilized but swinging art was worked out in dance bands and as an accompanist; Crosby hired him until Eddie succumbed to complications following a tonsillectomy. He was an important member of the white New York school of the period and can be found on records by Beiderbecke, Joe Venuti and the Dorseys; but the sides made under his own name were plentiful and, for all his restraint and good taste, he was a jazzman through and through. His most characteristic playing is as rhythmically driving as it is harmonically deft and inventive.

There are, inevitably a number of compilations available and much to recommend each of them. As a cross-section, the Timeless disc sweeps the board, quite beautifully remastered by John R. T. Davies, and with a shrewd selection of material. Lang’s bell-like tone is immediately identifiable on the early piece by the Mound City Blue Blowers, from 1925, and he turns up elsewhere in dance bands led by Fred Rich, Jean Goldkette, Roger Wolf Kahn and Paul Whiteman, backing Ukulele Ike and Bessie Smith, partnering Lonnie Johnson, sitting in with Armstrong and Oliver, and taking a solo turn on Rachmaninov’s Opus 3
Prelude
. Could any other musician of the era claim such a CV?

JOHNNY DODDS

Born 12 April 1892, Waveland, Mississippi; died 8 August 1940, Chicago, Illinois

Clarinet, alto saxophone

Johnny Dodds 1926

Classics 589

Dodds; Freddie Keppard, George Mitchell (c); Kid Ory, Eddie Vincent (tb); Junie Cobb (cl); Joe Clark (as); Lockwood Lewis (as, v); Lil Hardin Armstrong, Jimmy Blythe, Arthur Campbell, Tiny Parham (p); Curtis Hayes, Cal Smith, Freddy Smith (bj); Eustern Woodfork, Johnny St Cyr (bj, v); Clifford Hayes (vn); W. E. Burton (wbd, v); Earl McDonald (jug, v); Jimmy Bertrand, Jasper Taylor (d, perc); Papa Charlie Jackson, Trixie Smith (v). May–December 1926.

Jimmy Giuffre said (1987):
‘I liked that low, warm, thoughtful sound he got. He spoke through the clarinet rather than making it scream. It’s much more idiomatic than some of the jazz guys on the instrument.’

Johnny Dodds was the model professional musician. He rehearsed his men, frowned on alcohol and drugs, and watched the cents. In 1922, he was a member of King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band at Lincoln’s Garden in Chicago, the band that included Louis Armstrong, Lil Hardin Armstrong, trombonist Honoré Dutrey, and Dodds’s younger brother, ‘Baby’. The clarinettist left in 1924, after a quarrel about money, and set out on a highly successful recording career of his own that faltered only with the beginnings of the swing boom.

His tone was intense and sometimes fierce, rather removed from the soft introspections of Jimmie Noone or George Lewis’s folksy wobble. He favoured the lower – chalumeau – register of the instrument over the piercing
coloratura
. He doubles briefly on alto saxophone on the July 1926 cuts with Jimmy Blythe, perhaps to get some change out of Paramount’s insensitive microphones; unlike Sidney Bechet, Dodds never seriously considered a full turn to the saxophones.

Though much of his most renowned work was with Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and Seven, the series of Classics compilations are the essential Dodds documents, though needless to say this out-of-copyright material is available in a number of forms. The Classics discs contain work for Brunswick, Columbia, Gennet, the ropey Paramount, Victor and Vocalion. The real classics are the cuts made for Columbia with the New Orleans Wanderers/Bootblacks, a line-up that included George Mitchell, Kid Ory, Joe Clark, Johnny St Cyr and Lil Hardin Armstrong. There are fine clarinet duets with Junie Cobb (and without brass) from 26 August 1926 which have been rather overlooked in the rush of enthusiasm for the Wanderers/Bootblacks performances of the previous month. Inevitably, very little matches up to these classics, but Dodds’s reconciliation with King Oliver in September for a single track (‘Someday Sweetheart’) underlines the great might-have-been of their interrupted association. Dodds by this time was making too much regular money at Burt Kelly’s Stables on the South Side to consider a longer recruitment. A pity, because there’s a definite falling-off after 1926.

JELLY ROLL MORTON
^&

Born Ferdinand Joseph Lemott (or La Mott, or La Menthe), 20 October 1890, New Orleans, Louisiana; died 10 July 1941, Los Angeles, California

Piano, voice

Jelly Roll Morton 1926–1928

Classics 612

Morton; Ward Pinkett (t); George Mitchell (c); Kid Ory, Gerald Reeves, Geechie Fields (tb); Omer Simeon, Johnny Dodds (cl); Stump Evans (as); Bud Scott, Johnny St Cyr (g); Lee Blair (bj); Bill Benford, Quinn Wilson (tba); John Lindsay (b); Andrew Hilaire, Tommy Benford, Baby Dodds (d). December 1926–June 1928.

Pianist Dave Burrell, who recorded
The Jelly Roll Joys
in 1991, says:
‘It is an amazing body of work. Almost every song has something individual about it, even sometimes a little freakish, but there are no places in the whole work book where the music seems to be formulaic or routine.’

The 1926–7 dates here were a summary of what jazz had achieved up to that time: as a development out of the New Orleans tradition, it eschewed the soloistic grandeur that Armstrong was establishing and preferred an almost classical poise and shapeliness. If a few other voices (Ellington, Redman) were already looking towards a more modern kind of group jazz, Morton was distilling what he considered to be the heart of hot music, ‘sweet, soft, plenty rhythm’, as he later put it.

The previous volume in the Classics series which this is part of ended with a 1926 date that allegedly featured King Oliver. The series then goes into the Victor sequence, which continues into the following 1928–1929 volume.

Morton’s recordings for Victor are a magnificent body of work which has been done splendid but frustratingly mixed justice by various reissues stretching back to the start of the LP era. His Red Hot Peppers band sides, particularly those cut at the three incredible sessions of 1926, are masterpieces which have endured as well as anything by Armstrong, Parker or any comparable figure at the top end of the jazz pantheon. Morton seemed to know exactly what he wanted: as he had honed and orchestrated compositions like ‘Grandpa’s Spells’ at the piano for many years, his realization of the music for a band was flawless and brimful of jubilation at his getting the music down on record. Mitchell, Simeon and the others all took crackling solos, but it was the way they were contextualized by the leader that makes the music so close to perfection.