Evening star., 1940-05-12
Popular Music

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before they fall to the ranks of
ancient history, the following space
is dedicated for better or worse to
an assortment of recorded music
representing virtually every genre
save that of bathtub troubadouring.
The quintet of the Hot Club OF
France merits prime mention for its
conception of I'm the Still of the
Night" and Georgia on My Mind"
(victoD. This is the best quintet
Offering to date: Django Reinhardt,
Stephane Grappelly and the rest
work wonders with their incompa-
rable "hot" ensemble playing made
all the more assertive here by its
very composure and reserve. Fur
thermore. you can't beat this guitar
virtuosity. Under two Royale num-
bers, Richard Himber's Orchestra,
still unsettled as to fixed style,
plays CLEAR Out Of This World" a
wholesome tune from the 1910
Worlds Fair musicale, and "Tennes-
see Fish Fry" Bonnie Baker. still
open for business at the Orrin Tuck
er bandstand, purveys a hideously
cute mot Yet" Dick Jurgens lapses
into an Indifferent scoring of Prom
Another World and AL Donahue
offers a snappy version of This Is
the Beginning of the End Fabian
Andre and orchestra display keen
percussion work in the melodious
rhumba 1.-The Man Who Came to
Rhumba." The reverse Of this Co.
lumbia disc, Waltz Night at the
Savoy" presents spectacle of
rhythmic and instrumental hash
that at best parallels the musi-
cal art of a carnival merry
go-round. Ben Bernie's band has
a well-drawn arrangement of Where
Was l." but on another Vocation re-
lease, Little Curly Hair in a High
chair" does a complete fade-out
with Ben speaking the lyrics.
Peering into the amen" corner
you will detect several men with
trumpets deep in the throes of jazz
that sizzles. Louis Armstrong,
"Satchel-Mouth" to the jazz elite.
blasts his band through Swing That
Music" one of the fastest, hottest
| renditions with selection to match
to visit the phonograph in months.
Armstrong converts Harlem Stomp"
into a tone cyclone as well on an
other slab. Erskine Hawkins, the
twentieth Century Gabriel" runs
Louis close second, however, in
Gabriel Meets the Duke" The
warm tone and restrained attack of
Bobby Hackett in Jazz Me Blues"
is chicken by comparison, while
Harry James "Boog-It" and Muggsy
Spanier's 'Dinah" are entirely out
of the Armstrong Hawkins class.
Gene Krupa and men present the
most frenIed Tiger Rag" within
recollection; Jack Teagarden proves
his steadiest in recent months with
Red Wing" Count Basie's orches-
ira, spiced by muted trumpet and a
tasteful Basic piano chore, has a
subtle Easy Does It." Red Nichols
and his Five Pennies show of their
classically compact jazz style well
in "She Shall Have Music" Lou
Breese and band plunge headlong
into Swamp Fire." emerge with a
muddy, raucous specimen. In $50
nata by L. van Beethoven" an out
ragged Beethoven leaps screaming
from the grooves through Jimmie
Lunceford's medium. Borrowed"
from the Sonata Pathetique,"
Lunceford's opus resembles nothing
in this world; amounts to so much
incoherent raving. Rex Irving's
group lifts q theme from, of all
things, Herolds Tampa" overture
and alters it to tolerable swing en-
titled Overture Begins at Forte"
That Alec Templeton is clever"
has been quite firmly established
by now. As q point of information,
however, Victor's set-of- three serves
further to drive home the fact
with such Templeton classics as
Mozart Matriculates," an operatic
transcription of South Of the Bor-
der" and several lesser ones. The
Globe Trotters' BELL Polka" reveals
much Of the old German beer gar
den 'putsch" Cor "oom-pha," as
Hollywood might express IT.. John
Pineapple and his Native Islanders
twang and strum "Kalua Skies"