St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1951-01-26
r ATTN 9 THE
r Z C. Q r D s
BY J. Henry Randall
RECORDED JAZZ GEMS

ldIl Dl Te-lsSulIlS u COleClOu OF
Is waxings which have weathered
the test of time and popularity,
and which were recorded by some
of the great names in the jazz
idiom.
The collection is an adjunct to
the discery's Red Seal category
entitled "a Treasury of Immortal
Performances" Broken down into
six albums of three discs each,
the tunes are for the first time on
the revolutionary As and 33ls
rpm speeds.
Lest there be any confusion or
hesitance about smoking these
over, let's run through the titles
and personages in each packet.
First, there is the one entitled
Theme Songs" the signature
tunes so closely associated with a
band or musical group. In this
division, there are Artie Shaw's
Nightmare, Lionel Hampton's
Flying Home, Duke Ellington's
Take The "a" Train, Benny Good
mans Goodbye, Charlie Barnett's
Cherokee, and Louis Armstrong;
When It's Sleepy Time Down
South.
With the exception of Shaw's
opus, these melodies were not
originally conceived as themes
nor were they written by the
bandleader who made it a byword
in jazz annals. For example, the
composer of the Ellingtonian
theme is not Duke as is commonly
thought but Billy Strayhorn, the
bands top-notch arranger and
Dukes fellow-composer. "Chero-
kee," of course, is the Ray Noble
composition; Goodman's theme
was written by an unknown COM
poser-arranger in those days. His
name is Gordon Jenkins, now a
bandleader in his own right.
Flying Home" was a joint eff
fort of Hampton and Goodman,
while "Satchmo" used the Leon
and Otis Rene-Clarence Muse
Dixielandish opus. Satch first re-
corded the tune in 1881, and the
version in the album dates from
December, 1882. Shaw disdained
the use of his best seller Begin
the Beguine" for his own exciting
and weird composition, Might
mare"
Under Dance Band Hits" are
Tommy Dorsey's BoOgie Woogie,
which featured Charlie Spivak
and Buddy Morrow (the latter
known then as Moe Zudekoff);
Larry Clinton on Martha, with
Bea Wynn chirping the vocal re-
frain; Ted Weems and his Laten-
lied styling of Heartaches, ac-
companied by the distinctive
whistling of Elmo Tanner and
Hal Kemp's popular staccato
treatment of Got A Date With An
Angel, which had Skinney Ennis
(now bandleader) on lyrics.
Also in this album are the late
Glenn Miller's treatment of Song
OF The VOlga BOatmen and the
Ellington Cseveral times record
ed Mood Indigo. This is the
authentic 1880 version, display
ing the tonal hues of the Dukes
aggregation of that period. At
least one other version had the
late Ivy Anderson on vocal.
No collection would be complete
without examples of Small Com
DO Hits, the third album in the
series. Sides are Stomping At
The Savoy, Benny Goodman
Quartet (The Goodman, Hampton,
Wilson and Krupa clique); Smoke
Gets In Your Eyes, Artie Shaw
and his Grammercy Five; House
Of Morgan, Lionel Hampton with
the Cole Trio; the Blk Beiderbeck
immortal In A Mist by the late
Bunny Berigan and his Men; and
Johnny Green's Body and Soul. a
superb Interpretation given by
tenor sax ace Coleman Hawkins.
The sixth side is a Dixieland or
rather "ragtime" excursion on
Blues. Called a jam Session at
Victor" it features Tommy Dor
sey and George Wettling, and the
late Fats" Waller, Bunny Beri-
gan and Dick McDonough.
For the Keyboard Kings of
Jazz, there are Meade LUX"
Lewis doing his classic version of
HOnky Tonk Train; the team of
Pete Johnson and the late Albert
Ammons on WalISin' the BOogie;
Fats Walters classically inter
preted Honey SuckIe Rose; trig-
ger fingered Count Basic betting
away on Swinging the Blues,
which has the lusty sounds Of
"Jumpin' at the Woodside" and
others of that ilk; and Duke FL
HngtOns alluring mood painting
of Solitude. Earl "Fatha'" Hines
Chicago style jazz appears in his
brilliant arrangement of w. c.
Handy's "St. Louis Blues" en-
titled BOOgie WOOgie on the st.
Louis Blues. We might add here
that the recorded exhortation TO
Hines to play till 1851" should be
moved up another 100 years, at
least.