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July 3, 2004

The evening opened with trumpeter Frank Guarente and the small group from the Paul Specht Orchestra known as the Georgians. From May of 1924, we heard "Savannah" from Retrieval RTR 79036. Cally Holdon and his Orchestra recorded "Share Your Love" on the West Coast in 1932. It was pressed up on Victor's "For Personal Use" label. From Renovation 7002, devoted to Richard Himber, we had "Gather Lip Rouge While You May," recorded in October 1933. The Renovation label is available from Worlds Records.

The Eddie Heywood Sextet appeared on AFRS' "Jubilee" program in late January 1945 and played "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone." The entire broadcast is on Jubilee 5011003, a release from Storyville Records. The "Worn Out Papa Blues" was the work of Bessie Smith in 1929, and played from Frog DGF46. From Timeless CBC-049 and June 1928, the Original Memphis Five rendered "My Angeline," a record much perkier than the title might suggest.

Drummer Brooks Tegler has a new CD that includes a number of our best Washington-area musicians, including Chuck and Robert Redd, John Previti, John Jensen, and bassist Tommy Cecil, among them. Several tracks on the collection come from the Artie Shaw Gramercy Five repertoire, but in my estimation, Brooks and his guys have made new versions of some of these that have more starch than the originals. We heard "Scuttlebutt," followed by "Ready for Freddie," "You Turned the Tables on Me" (with a vocal from Lynn McCune), and "It's Been So Long." The CD, MNG888, is available from the producers; send $15 to: Conner/Walecka, 2205 Osborn Drive, Silver Spring, MD 20910. You can also visit www.capitalcombinations.com for additional information.

We then turned to the recent reissue from Columbia of the 1959 album, "Festival Session," which included the three-part Ellington original, "Idiom ‘59." Duke introduced it at Newport in 1959, and that live performance was issued on Emarcy. But, it's a little clumsy, so we heard it as recorded in the studio in early September. The "Festival Session" album is Columbia CK 87044.

The Document label in England has released four CDs comprising a reissue of the Harlem Hamfats series recorded for Decca. "She's Trickin' Me" comes from Volume 1, DOCD-5271.

In recognition of the holiday, we had nonagenarian Rosy McHargue sing "America, I Love You" from a July 1992 session on Stomp Off CD1253. In February 1935, the Casa Loma Orchestra made a recording of "Yankee Doodle Never Went to Town" for Associated transcriptions; it's on Nostalgia Arts NOCD 3003. From 1922, the Ladd's Black Aces presented Gershwin's "Yankee Doodle Blues." A complete reissue of the Ladd's sides is on the two-CD set from Timeless, CBC-077. From an April 1982 concert, cornetist Ruby Braff and Dick Hyman at the organ played a memorable version of George M. Cohan's "Yankee Doodle Boy." The event, originally issued on Concord, has been licensed by, and reissued on Arbors; it's Arbors ARCD 12969, and very highly recommended.

For the balance of the evening, we celebrated the centennial birth of pianist, vocalist and songwriter Seger Ellis; Ellis was born on July 4, 1904. From a jazz standpoint, the Azure release is more vital than is TOM mb-131, but the latter has some extraordinarily nice records. Ellis' vocal records are different from the pack, especially when Ellis himself is playing the piano. And, as we noted, Eddie Lang's presence on many of the vocal titles is a wonderful plus.