Big T and the Pirates

A serious and youthful Jack Teagarden posing for the photographer in the late 1920s, a time when all jazz players naturally dressed in formal attire. From "Jazz: A Photo History"

A few months ago my son, who has just graduated from college and is camping out at home trying to decide what next to do with his life, suggested we take a day trip over to New Paltz, NY. He'd been there several times before and he said the town had a couple of really good used record stores. "Record stores?" said I, doubtful. "Yeah," said he. "Just like the ones you're always telling me about." This I had to see, so off we went one Saturday to check out the vinyl in this college town near the Shawangunk Mountains.

Jack's Rhythms Records in New Paltz, shown in
funky Google Street View image.

New Paltz is only an hour away from where I live in the Catskills, so we left in the late morning and had lunch at a Thai restaurant on Main Street. Then we strolled over to Jack's Rhythms at 54 Main Street. We walked in and there we were in a record store just like the ones I remember: bins of LPs arranged alphabetically by genre, music posters on the walls and a bespectacled geek behind the counter playing some esoteric rarity over the house stereo system. Most of the records were covered by polyethylene sleeves (these were used records, remember) and most were priced between $8 and $12. There were jazz LPs as well as rock, folk, blues and world recordings. Jack's also had CDs and a healthy selection of music books, but I went to work pawing through the jazz record bins. 

Bins! Just like in the old days.

There were the usual Blue Notes, Impulses and Riversides at reasonable collector prices, but I already have most of those. I was looking for the mistakes that even knowledgeable record dealers make – the Ira Sullivan album filed in the bargain bin, the Claude Thornhill LP stuck in the cheapo Easy Listening section, things like that. Jack's appeared to be more aware than most of the record stores from my past (thanks no doubt to the Internet), but eventually I came across a few boxes in the back that were mark "$1 each." Pay dirt!

I looked through boxes and came up with a number of interesting sides, most in acceptable shape. One I was very pleased to find, even for a collector's price. It was a Jack Teagarden from his early days as a leader on an obscure label – and a 10-incher. The label was Jolly Roger, one of the very first jazz bootleg outfits. 

Started by jazz fan Dante Bollettino in 1950, Jolly Roger featured reissues of unavailable classic jazz and blues sides in the then-modern 10-inch microgroove format. Artists like Benny Goodman, Bessie Smith, Jelly Roll Morton and Sidney Bechet had their music "pirated" by Jolly Roger (get it?). Bollettino even contracted with RCA Victor's pressing plant to produce his sides. It wasn't until Louis Armstrong and Columbia successfully sued Jolly Roger that production ceased and the company was put out of business. But hundreds of sides had been sold and a precedent had been set. Boris Rose would carry on the tradition of pirating in grand style a decade later (see our previous post) .

A sampling of some of the releases on Jolly Roger. Burt Goldblatt, who drew many
of the label's covers, did the Goodman and the Armstrong/Bechet jackets here.
He also did the cover for the Teagarden LP that is this posting's download.

Jack in the early '50s as a member
Louis Armstrong's All-Stars.

So here we have a Jack Teagarden on Jolly Roger. The recording showcases early Brunswick sides that Tea did with a variety of large groups that feature some notable sidemen – Benny Goodman and Jimmy Dorsey the most prominent among them. Jack was working with Paul Whiteman's orchestra at the time, but he had made a name for himself as a vocalist as well as a fine trombone soloist with Ben Pollack's band and he was occasionally contracted to do pop tunes for labels Columbia and Brunswick. These numbers all include Jack's distinctive laid-back vocalizing, undistinguished arrangements and some very fine (if brief) solos. The performances are, without exception, all excellent examples of the trombonist's approach to jazz. I'm not sure they're currently available, but in the early '50s they were certainly rarities. 

So our sojourn to New Paltz was indeed a productive one. As one of the earliest examples of a fan making music available to the greater public after it had been abandoned by its parent company, this LP is a marvelous historical artifact. It's fitting that it should be offered here on Gems because – whaddya know? – we're doing much the same thing. And for a buck, I couldn't pass it up.

The selections were dubbed from the original vinyl as always, with just a little bit of cleaning. The sound is excellent, given the recording's vintage. Note that only the front of the LP is shown because the back is blank (as it is on most Jolly Rogers.)

Jack Teagarden
Jack Teagarden and His Orchestra 
Jolly Roger 5026

Jack Teagarden, tbn, v on all selections.

Orchestra with Jimmy Dorsey, cl; Joe Venuti, vi; Nappy Lamare, v; others.
New York, NY; March 2, 1934
1. Fare-Thee-Well to Harlem
2. Ol’ Pappy

Orchestra with Charlie Teagarden, tp; Benny Goodman, cl; 
Frankie Trumbauer, c-mel; others.
New York, NY; Sept. 18, 1934
3. Stars Fell on Alabama
4. Your Guess Is as Good as Mine

Orchestra as 1, 2.
New York, NY; Nov. 11, 1933
5. I Just Couldn’t Take It Baby
6. Love Me
7. A Hundred Years from Today
8. Blue River

Find it here: https://www.mediafire.com/?jqqfqvhpax0u3d1

Greetings of the Season

Happy holidays to one and all of Gems' visitors. Here's a souvenir from the heyday of swing, given to me by a jazz friend a few decades back. I don't know where he got it, but he knew lots of musicians so I suspect it may have come from one of them. I know most of the 28 signatories (I think there's 28), but I don't know all of them. Who's Sonny Kendis? Or Basil F-something? If you know, fill me in. In the meantime, best wishes for the season, and prosperous New Year to all of you from all of us here at Gems!

BG Goes Modern

The guitarist from Oklahoma seems momentarily stunned as BG whistles the melody of a Jerome Kern tune. Photo from Metronome magazine, oddly attributed to one "S. Kierkegaard."

The first time I heard Charlie Christian was when I bought an Everest budget LP at the Harvard Coop in Cambridge. It contained disc recordings made by Columbia student Jerry Newman at Minton's Playhouse on 118th St. in Harlem back in 1941. But I didn't know that then, and nothing about the recording's genesis appeared on its cover. I just was amazed by the playing.

Back in those days (the hoary '70s), there was very little by Charlie Christian available. The Everest and several other companion volumes on that label were pretty much it. But bootlegs – fan-made LPs made from tapes and radio airchecks – were around if you looked. Many of them came from the endless reels of radio broadcasts recorded by recluse and legend Boris Rose, but many others were of unknown origin. If you went to specialty record stores in any of the big jazz cities, you could find them. In New York I found one that featured rare performances by Charlie Christian.

On these bootleg recordings (a few of which are seen left) there was often little or no discographical information. There was just the music – magnificent, mysterious and maddeningly obscure. The Charlie Christian LP I found featured the guitarist with big band leader Benny Goodman – Charlie's employer for nearly all of his professional career. Any time you heard Christian on the radio back in 1939, '40 or '41, you heard him as part of the BG Sextet. And that's the case here. I didn't know it until much later, but these recordings also featured some superb guest artists. Like Mary Lou Williams and Red Norvo.

But there's more. Charlie Christian was the featured artist with Benny Goodman on the first side of the bootleg. On Side 2, it was modernist tenor player Wardell Gray who soloed with The Ray. When I bought the record back in 1974, I'd never heard of Wardell. I was looking for Charlie because I was learning to play guitar and wanted the cop some licks (ha!). But the smooth, fluid stylings of the tenor player, below, on the second side caught my ear right away. And Goodman's ensemble sounded nothing like it did on the 78-rpm discs my Dad had – this was modern music. Bop!

So here are Charlie Christian and Wardell Gray performing as members of various Benny Goodman units, and lending a distinctly modern sound to the clarinetist's music. The arrangements on many of the Wardell tunes are by the visionary Mary Lou Williams and tenorist Georgie Auld is featured on the Christian sides. You'll see the album's cover has a nonsensical title with incorrect tune titles in some cases, replete with Swedish translations. This sort of malarkey was typical of bootlegs from that period. Also, there's no image of the back cover because it was blank.

A blog note: I might do a series of these bootleg records in upcoming months. I have an interview with Charlie Parker by Marshall Stearns that I think you'd enjoy (I don't believe it's available anywhere else on the web). And Boris Rose, the source for much of the '70s bootleg material, has a certain fascination for amateur hoarders like myself.

BG Goes Modern • With Charlie Christian & Wardell Gray
(“Tribute from Sweden” bootleg; Fran Staterna Stereo)

Benny Goodman, cl; Lionel Hampton, vbs; Fletcher Henderson, p; Charlie Christian, g;
Artie Bernstein, b; Nick Fatool, d. Aircheck, New York, NY; November 22, 1939
1. Soft Winds
Benny Goodman Orchestra w/Charlie Christian; Jimmy Mundy, arr. Aircheck, New York, NY; April 7, 1941
2. Air Mail Special
Benny Goodman, cl; Cootie Williams, tp; Georgie Auld, ts; Johnny Guarnieri, p;
Charlie Christian, g; Artie Bernstein, b; Dave Tough, d. Aircheck, New York, NY; April 14, 1941
3. Song of the Islands
Personnel as 2; Aircheck, New York, NY; Feb.-April, 1941
4. My Daddy Rocks Me
Personnel as 2, add Red Norvo, xyl; Aircheck, New York, NY; Feb.-April, 1941
5. Flying Home
Personnel as 5; Aircheck, New York, NY; Feb.-April, 1941
6. Wholly Cats
Personnel as 2; Aircheck, New York, NY; Feb.-April, 1941
7. Breakfast Feud
Personnel as 2; Aircheck, New York, NY; February 24, 1941
8. Gone with What Draft?
Benny Goodman, cl; Wardell Gray, ts; others unk; unk. location, 1948(?)
9. Wardell’s Riff
10. Jumpin’ at the Woodside
Benny Goodman, Stan Hasselgard, cl; Wardell Gray, ts; Mary Lou Williams, p, arr; Billy Bauer, g; Clyde Lombardi, b; Mel Zelnick, d. Aircheck, White Plains, NY; June 26, 1948
11. Indiana (Donna Lee)
Personnel as 11; Aircheck, White Plains, NY; July 3, 1948
12. Bye, Bye Blues
13. Blue View (Blues form Sweden)
Personnel as 11; Aircheck, White Plains, NY; June 26, 1948
14. Mary’s Idea (Stompin’ Slow)
15. Swedish Pastry (Swedish Sweets)

Find it here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/a89w1mvdk21b91i/BG_Goes_Modern.rar