OCR Text |
Show r !: The Rhythm .v.n i; j Des Sfiwfrs j by Ralph J. Gleason j At long last Decca Records has opened up its vaults an dbegun a series of reissues from its great stores of material. It is a welcome decision and one jazz record cohi :tors have been longing for. "I hope to put out every damn side we have in the Decca-Bruns-wick-Vocalion and' Champion catacombs," said Milt Gabler, the Decca executive who is responsible for the program. "I am thrilled that the company is doing it," Gabler went on. "We do not expect to make a lot of money out of this, but I do hope we do a little better than break even." "It will be hard to satisfy all the collectors right off," Gabler says. "However, I shall try to put out varied or balanced releases with the programming of each artist chronologically. There will be no multiple record sets but some artists will have 3, 4, or even 5 volumes depending on the extent and importance im-portance of their work." The first albums in -the series it's called "Jazz Heritage" are "South Side Swing," Earl Hines (Decca DL 9221); Chick Webb, "A Legend," (Decca DL 9222) ; Chick Webb, "King of the Savoy," Sa-voy," (Decca DL 9223) ; Duke Ellington, "The Beginning" Be-ginning" (Decca DL 9224) ; Louis Armstrong, "Rare Items" (Decca D L9225) ; Kansas City Piano Pi-ano (Decct DL 9226) ; and Woody Herman, "The Turning Point" (Decca DL 9229) . Here is a quick rundown on the Decca reissues: EARL HINES. A collection of 16 big band sides from 1934-35. They are first rate big band swing, but the outstanding feature (now as then) is the Hines piano which is simply startling. CHICK WEBB. Vol. 1 includes the years 1929-36 1929-36 and one vocal by Ella Fitzgerald. The band was a loosely swinging one which is remarkable for Taft Jordan's trumpet solos. Vol. 2, "King of the Savoy," Sa-voy," includes sides from 1937-39 and is much more interesting. Ella sings four numbers, including "A Tisket A-Tasket." DUKE ELLINGTON. This LP is taken from his 1926-7-8 recordings and is amazing. Bubber Miley on "Yellow Dog Blues" blows a trumpet chorus that is as modern and as exciting as if it had been played ten seconds ago. Harry Carney's baritone bari-tone on "Doin' the Frog" sounds like the beginning of all the bebop revolution of 20 years later. "Black Beauty" (with another trumpet gem) and many others introduce the sounds now mellow but revolutionary revolu-tionary then. "Black and Tan Fantasy" is a masterpiece master-piece by any standards. It was, I believe, the first recording of this number (April 1927) and it sounds like a hi-fi product. Ellington was the first composer to understand the recording studio and it shows here. The performance is superb; the musicians mus-icians positively glowing with the fire of creation. In "Yellow Dog Blues," incidentally, Wellman Braud predated a generation of bass players with his performance. What an avant garde the Ellington Elling-ton old guard has always been. Duke has been so I far ahead of his time so long that it comes as a posi- I tive shock to realize the extent of his pioneering. j j LOUIS ARMSTRONG. Most of these are big !j band sides from 1935-1941 when Decca, thank j heavens, had Louis covering all the pop songs. At jl the time, many Armstrong collectors did not like ! his big band sides. How wrong they were is demonstrated demon-strated in this LP. Louis plays with the inevitable logic of the pure artist. His solos are classic in the sparsity of their design and it is fascinating to hear ' how the band sounds. ; KANSAS CITY PIANO. This offers piano- j plus-rhythm-section efforts by Count Basie, Mary : Lou Williams, Pete Johnson and Jay McShann and ' I ought to be a standard text for young roclc musicians music-ians interested in the blues. j WOODY HERMAN. The LP is catted "The Turning Point" and it contains sides cut Ittoxv ! 1943-4 when the Herman band was departing from its Ellington era and beginning its wild bebop ex- plosion. This is an interesting view of a band caught 1 in mid-passage. ' Liner Notes: Eddie Condon's night club in New f York was closed after 22 years . . . bassist Wyatt "Bull" Reuther, who played with Enroll Garner and George Shearing has joined pianist Teddy Wilson's Wil-son's unit . . . Bill Yancey is out of the Duke Ellington Elling-ton band. A permanent replacement on bass will be set shortly . . . new singers with the Harry Bela- i fonte show are Esther Marrow (who sang in Ell- ington's Sacred Concert at Grace Cathedral) and Milt Grayson (who toured with Ellington for several sev-eral years) . . . trumpeter Wild Bill Davidson has recovered from his pneumonia and is now touring England . . . Jack McVey, who played tenor and i led a small jazz group all thrgh the 40s and had ! the hit disc, "Open the Door, Richard," is now j playing clarinet in dixieland bands and recently j played Disneyland . . . Handerson Chambers, who j ; played trombone in many big bands including Ray J : Charles and Count Basie, died in New York last month from a heart attack. ... Copyright 1967 Chronicle i Features Syndicate j |