September 5 2009

The program opened with "Nobody's Business" played by a Clarence Williams group, the Barrel House Five. This comes from the second of two volumes issued on Frog devoted to Williams' exceptionally rare recordings for QRS. This volume is Frog DGF49. We followed with two V-Disc performances, "Sleepy Time Gal" from mid-July 1945, performed by Technical Sgt. Jack Leonard and his V-Disc Friends, released on V-Disc 527 [78]. Then Roy Eldridge and his V-Disc Little Jazz Band presented "Roy Meets Horn," recorded in later October 1945 and issued on V-Disc 612 [78].

Singer Mary Ann McCall is the subject of a recent collection of her recordings (1939-1950) to appear on Hep CD76. From February 1950, we heard "I Cried For You." More from this CD soon. From 1944, the evening's opening segment finished with Herman Chittison's trio and "My Old Flame," from Classics 1024.

We then turned to Miss Hunter. The Document label has issued a four-CD chronology of her recordings, plus a CD (that I don't have as yet) of alternate takes. The Document series does not include Hunter's 1934 London recordings. As with most Document releases including 1920s rarities, the sound quality varies from execrable to good. In several instances, I relied on an out-of-print Jass CD. (My guess is that Document probably copied several sides from that release for their series, but that's only a guess; I didn't take the time to do an A-B comparison.) "I'm Going Away Just To Wear You Off My Mind" was noisy on Document (both takes), so I turned to a Eubie Blake Music LP, which was marginally cleaner. To those who listened, thanks for putting up with a higher quotient than usual of noisy records.