I’m a big fan of jazz, but I find I’m woefully uneducated about anything that happened before about 1955-1960. I know there’s a lot of great, interesting jazz from before that period, but my knowledge is mostly confined to avant-garde and weirder stuff like that, and I want to get ahold of some of that music that sorta suggests “big city nightclubs” rather than the more intellectual late-Coltrane and Ornette Coleman-type stuff I listen to now. But I want to avoid the blander swing that was so popular during this period too. Can anyone tell me about good straight-ahead, older jazz albums that I should know about? “Ascension” is no good for parties.
It’s a big help, too, if you know albums rather than just artists. And if anyone knows much about the different jazz genres of the period and can tell me about them and their histories, I’d be much obliged.
I grew up listening to this - my great-grandfather (Louis Panico) was the trumpet/cornet player for Jones for quite some time, and the album linked above contains several of his personal favorites. It’s a combination of Chicago-style and New Orleans-style jazz/blues, and it’s not only my family pride talking when I say it’s GOOD stuff!
The trouble with suggesting albums is that the 33 1/3 LP, the progenitor of the CD, did not exist as such during the period you are seeking. the prime mode of recording distribution at the time. Columbia Records didn’t introduce the format until 1948. Prior to that, jazz was not considered “serious” music by those in control of production, so it did not often merit the multi-78 “album” format. Most recordings were singles.
So suggesting an album of music from the period is essentially giving the nod to one compiler over another.
I recommend, as I did in a previous Jazz thread, The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz. Your library may have it, and then you can make your own decisions from there.
Also, as I mentioned before, two words: Jimmy. Lunceford.
I second scotandrsn on the Smithsonian collection. Worth checking out, IMHO, are Jelly Roll Morton, the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, Bennie Moten and Fats Waller.
There’s a bunch of folks who will no doubt offer great recommendations.
Ben Webster - King of the Tenors it might’ve been recording in the 50’s - not sure - but Webster is Old School and this is an amazing amazing collection. Equally good for quiet times by yourself, with a lover or for a dinner party. The CD I most consistently get asked about by guests…
What? No mention of the man that almost single-handedly raised jazz to a transcendent art form?
If you do nothing else - if you never, ever listen to another early jazz artist, you must, must, must listen to Louis Armstrong’s Hot Fives and Hot Sevens recordings.
These recordings stand as masterpieces - works of such sheer brilliance that they reach down and influence music made to this very day. And not just modern jazz. Rock and roll, blues, R & B, even rap and hip hop, and sometimes even country. You simply can not listen to modern music without hearing distant echoes of Armstrong, his wife, Dodds, and St. Cyr. It is that important. It’s that glorious.
The man was plugged into the musical mind of the universe. He grew up watching bare black feet stomp out tribal rhythms in Congo Square in New Orleans and playing his cornet to attract business to his father’s cart. He was an absolute genius, and I don’t mean that in the commonly-used shorthand manner that you hear so often - I mean that in the same sense that Beethoven, Mozart, and Brahms were geniuses - like Michelangelo or Newton. He was a towering, shining presence, and his music is breathtaking.
A trifle less sublime, but well worth listening to, is the music done by guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grapelli. I love their shit.
Check out Jelly Roll Morton, whose piano solos are an illustration of how they got from ragtime to jazz. His combo The Red Hot Peppers is also well worth a listen, and jazzier in approach.
The poisonous hooch of the prohibition era helped do Bix in. It was a bad time to be an alcoholic.
I agree with Ogre about the Armstrong Hot Fives and Sevens. This is the place to start on early jazz.
Some others that haven’t been mentioned yet:
Frank Trumbauer - He was an influential early saxophonist who made a lot of great records with Bix. I’m Coming Virginia is one of the best records of the pre-swing era, in my opinion.
Sidney Bechet - This soprano sax player and clarinetist recorded made a huge number of records from the early twenties through the fifties. See if you can find a collection with his rendition of Summertime .
Luis Russell took over a band from King Oliver in 1929 and within a few months transformed the sound. He is one of the creators of the swing band sound. I know you said you’re not interested in bland swing, but there’s nothing bland about Luis Russell’s sound. Armstrong took over Russell’s band in 1934 and from that point on Russell was no longer an innovator. The best Luis Russell collection I know is The Luis Russell Story on the Retrieval label.
Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang were pioneers. Venuti was the first great jazz violinist, and Lang was the first great jazz guitarist (unless you count Lonnie Johnson, who did some jazz at the beginning of his career before he became mainly a blues musician). Venuti and Lang often performed together, as their sounds complemented each other. Venuti made a lot of records under his own name, while Lang was usually not a bandleader. There are a lot of Venuti collections on CD. The best Lang collection I know of is The Quintessial Eddie Lang on the Timeless label.
The Mills Blue Rhythm Band made some of the best records of the swing era. The personnel of the band changed over time, but they stayed fresh and exciting over many years.
McKinney’s Cotton Pickers only recorded from the late twenties through the early thirties. They were one of the best bands of their time, and had one of the best arrangers ever in Don Redman.
I am going to pray… and pray hard… that the gods will forgive you for using the phrase “less sublime” and “Django Reinhardt” in the same sentence- that man was the bastard son of Orpheus himself.
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned my favorite husband wife team of all time, Louis Prima & Keely Smith.
