Bunk Johnson: Last Testament

Bunk Johnson's album from the late 1940's makes the latest entry to The Cannonball Library

http://cannonball76library.blogspot.com/2011/05/6-bunk-johnson-last-testament-of-great.html

Chick Webb: "The Daddy Of Them All"

Rock 'n' roll is really swing with a modern name. It began on the levees and plantations, took in folk songs, and features blues and rhythm. It's the rhythm that gets to the kids - they're starved of music they can dance to, after all those years of crooners.

”

Legendary disc jockey Alan Freed speaking to NME - February 1956

As a guitarist who has been fortunate enough to play live music with some very talented musicians I feel I am in a position to say that the drums, and good drummers, kick ass. Playing a guitar solo knowing that your bottom is being held up (so to speak) by the combination of solid bass and snare drums accompanied by a driving ride cymbal is very comforting. And so it is with great interest that I approach the work of Chick Webb, "the daddy of them all!"

The quote comes from none other than the legendary Buddy Rich, who along with Gene Krupa formed the sum total of my knowledge of jazz drummers, prior to beginning this blog. However it was Webb who was to prove to be one of the catalysts in promoting the drums as a bona fide jazz instrument.

There were of course other jazz drummers prior to Chick Webb, perhaps most notably Baby Dodds and Zutty Singleton, who both played with Joe Oliver and Louis Armstrong in the 1920's. However due to the primitive recording techniques of the time their true mastery could not be heard and the rhythm section of the Hot Five and Seven recordings consisted of rudimentary cymbals and blocks. Advancements in recording technology in the 1930's would allow artists like Chick Webb and Jo Jones to be heard, even down to faint brush strokes.

We are however talking about the early 1930's! The Great Depression was raging and recording jazz artists was not a lucrative business. As such, Chick Webb's recorded output remains slim. What is available is remarkable and you can see how he paved the way for the likes of Krupa, Rich and Max Roach to follow him. He was also a renowned band leader and his reputation at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York was second to none. Friendly "cutting contests" were frequent, where a battle of the bands style scenario saw Chick Webb's band up against the like of The Count Basie Orchestra and Benny Goodman's Orchestra. Webb's band always won. He was also the person who saw the full potential of a young Ella Fitzgerald, who became the singer of the band post 1935 and who was to give them their first hits. Unfortunately, he was to die young as a result of the spinal tuberculosis that he had contracted at a young age, and would not live to see out the decade.

Some of the stuff recorded by Chick Webb and his orchestra is superb. The music is remarkably tight with more than a hint of what was to come out of the rock n roll era twenty years later. (In fact I was struck by the lyrics in the song "Rock It For Me", where Fitzgerald sings "Won't you satisfy my soul with the rock n roll". ) Check out "Harlem Congo". Played at breakneck speed but with a fluid yet mesmeric solo from Webb towards the end. (Taft Jordan's trumpet solo also practically jumps out of the record). Webb's solo never takes away from the song at any time and cements the drums as a legitimate jazz instrument.

Benny Goodman

And so onto Benny Goodman, whom Time magazine saw fit to call "The King of Swing" in 1937. As as per usual with my posts I had better get my preconceptions and ignorance out of the way first!

I had long associated Benny Goodman with the music of Glenn Miller and the kind of style associated with the massive hit "In The Mood". However it has long been debated that Miller's style of music was too commercial and overly practiced to be considered part of the hot jazz/improvisational lineage. Here's a quote from a Time magazine article written in 1942 entitled "Jive for Epicures" -

"U.S jive epicures consider the jazz played by such famous name bands as Tommy Dorsey's or Glenn Miller's a low, commercial product. Their heroes are unsung swingsters who improvise nightly for a favored few in hotspots like Chicago's College Inn, Manhattan Nick's. Their treasured classics are discs made in the '20s by such Chicago immortals as the late Leon ("Bix") Beiderbecke and King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band."

(As an aside it's also interesting to note from the article that the jazz afficionados in 1942 sat rapt in their seats as they considered it "sacrilege" to dance. This is a clear demonstration that jazz had reached a fundamental turning point at this time - from a musical form that encouraged dancing to the more, perhaps snobbish point of view that it was an art form that required serious listening. The definition of jazz even at this stage was becoming extremely blurred)

Goodman's popularity came about at a time when improvisational jazz was out of favour. He had been around the scene since the mid 20's as a session musician alongside his contemporaries Tommy Dorsey and the aforementioned Glenn Miller. His band demoed for a national radio show, NBC's "Let's Dance", a show that showcased a variety of musical styles.

As the Let's Dance show was weekly, Goodman was persuaded by his agent John Hammond to buy a load of "hot" jazz arrangements from Fletcher Henderson. The Goodman Orchestra's style developed and could be compared with the jazz sounds coming out of Kansas City at the time - big band swing with room for musical improvisation. Due to his time-slot on the show of 12.30am eastern, not many people on the East Coast heard Goodman's orchestra. However, the time difference meant that a lot of ears were tuning in in California and this was to prove instrumental in his career.

Let's Dance was cancelled midway through 1935 and Goodman was forced to take the band on the road. Their kind of music was not going down successfully with many audiences as they bused across the country. As the tour bombed they became progressively more broke and very dispirited as they reached California by mid summer. They had landed a three week gig at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles. Probably to ensure that they were able to see out the three weeks they began their first engagement by playing cautiously - stock pop tunes which to their surprise met with a very lukewarm response from the audience. As they were the ones tuning in to the Let's Dance show they were expecting the same music. It's widely regarded that it was Gene Krupa, Goodman's extraordinary drummer, who said to him - "if we're gonna die, let's die playing our own thing". The result caused mass hysteria and so it was that the events at the Palomar have been described as the moment when the Swing Era really took off.

Goodman's career spanned the next five decades. Many have remarked on his personality and temperament - mainly in a negative sense. To me this is perhaps not surprising given the times he was living in trying to maintain a large and expensive orchestra. He is widely regarded as being colour blind in terms of the musicians he chose. His trio and quartet work with Lionel Hampton and Teddy Wilson were the first examples of a fully open and integrated band. He was probably very demanding of his musicians but this appears to be the trait required of a successful big band leader.

To my ear his music can come across in a wide spectrum - from dated swing era tunes to absolutely extraordinary stuff. His clarinet style is very precise but soulful (though he doesn't push the envelope like Bechet). He had a plethora of hits from 1935 to the beginning of World War II and I have chosen one of my favourites to demonstrate his sound. This is "Bugle Call Rag"( originally recorded by The New Orleans Rhythm Kings in 1922). Goodman's orchestra takes a New Orleans style standard and records it with sleek big band precision.

Sidney Bechet, Tommy Ladnier & The New Orleans Feetwarmers

Before delving back into the Swing Era, I’d like to take a look at some of the work of one of jazz’s most important figures - Sidney Bechet. Bechet was one of the people that I highlighted somewhere around the beginning of this blog, a pivotal figure in bringing the original New Orleans sound to the industrial cities in the north. He was, at the time, the only guy who could hold a candle to the solos and improvisations of Louis Armstrong in the 1920’s. When I spoke of him last he had finished up some recordings with Clarence Williams (including some great stuff with Armstrong) and had taken to the road in Europe never to set foot into the recording studio for the rest of the decade. Click the link above for a refresher.

The 1930’s were, however, to prove lean times for Bechet. He hooked up with The Noble Sissle Orchestra on his travels, playing with them through Europe and later in the States. The songs he played on with that band are not strictly jazz, they were more in keeping with the sweet pop tunes of the time. However the work provided a steady enough pay packet for him during the difficult times of the Great Depression.

More notably for us was the collaboration with his friend and fellow New Orleanian, Tommy Ladnier, in forming The New Orleans Feet Warmers. Together they produced an absolutely scintillating set of tunes during a recorded session in 1932.

Sidney Bechet:

Tommy Ladnier:

Here is the highlight of those sessions – “Shag”.

Raucus, freewheeling, uninhibited and showcasing the spectacular improvisational talents of Sidney Bechet, this has to be one of the most important songs in jazz history. It is obviously rooted in the New Orleans and Chicago styles that each of the band members would have all been very familiar with. But the song clearly utilises the new jazz rhythm section that was coming out of Kansas City (for example, a piano solo recorded in the 1920's would have had to be recorded in isolation, here the solo is augmented with bass and drums). Also prevelant is Wilson Myers' superb scat singing, highlighting the influence Louis Armstrong was having over practically all vocal styles post the Hot 5 & 7 recordings. The width of Bechet’s vibrato on the soprano sax is truly extraordinary. His solos mercilessly soar in, out, above and over the track. Check it out. True jazz.

Unfortunately the band was to be shortlived as they weren't received well commercially. Ladnier and Bechet turned their hand to opening a tailor shop in Harlem. Unsurprisingly it wasn't a success (perhaps due to the proprieters' propensity to indulge in all night jam sessions..).

Jazz In The Swing Era

By the mid 1930’s the old guard of the New Orleans and the 1920’s Chicago sound were having mixed fortunes. Buddy Bolden had died in the same insane asylum in which he was put way back in 1908. Jelly Roll Morton had lost his recording contract. Joe “King” Oliver had lost his band and died penniless. Sidney Bechet at one time had given up on music and opened a tailor’s shop in New York. Louis Armstrong was still as popular as ever though – especially amongst the mob bosses fighting over his contract!



In Europe they were gearing up for another war. In America millions were still out of work. One industry that didn’t feel the effects of the Great Depression however was radio. As soon as radios and jukeboxes began playing swing, record sales increased exponentially. The embryonic big band sound first heard being played by the orchestras of Fletcher Henderson and Paul Whiteman was now reaching maturity by the mid 1930’s – and a lot of ears. As the music became more popular so too did the demand for more material. More compositions were being written down and sold. (This had the side effect though of frustrating a lot of musicians who became tired of playing the same things night after night.) People were saving their pennies to hear the bands that were criss-crossing the countries on one night stands. And they wanted to dance. Big bands were now becoming household names – names like Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Harry James and Glenn Miller.

"Swing music was an electrifying development in American popular culture. It... unleashed forces that, I think, people didn't know existed. There had been dance bands, sweet bands, sentimental bands. But when Benny Goodman reached those kids at the Palomar ballroom in California, it was like 20 years later with rock and roll... he was playing a swinging rough music that had been played in black communities for years. Ellington, you know, wrote It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got that Swing three years earlier and Chick Webb's band was doing it and Fletcher Henderson's... it swept the country. It was, it unleashed some kind of pent up...excitement and, and, and physicality that I think nobody was quite prepared for... And, also, this was the Depression. It was not an easy period. And this was a music that was just pure pleasure. Pure physical pleasure."
Gary Giddins.

The sound of jazz music was changing. Vocalists were coming to the fore. It was at this time that renowned vocalists like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald were becoming noticed. The music was becoming more refined and the solos employed were infinitely more expressive and colourful. The catalogue of talented musicians that emanated from this period is impressive. Their instruments were evolving and providing a rich palette from which they could express themselves – the drum was no longer a simple time keeper – Gene Krupa, Chick Webb and Buddy Rich saw to that. Trumpet players were mixing the influences of Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke to create their own sounds. The guitar was now becoming electrified and added another element to the developing sounds. Finally, the saxophone, once a novelty instrument was becoming the dominant one in the hands of Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges, Chu Berry and Lester Young.

I personally have mixed feelings about the music from this time. Some of the stuff that I’ve listened to and will expand on further in the blog is sublime. However for me 1930’s swing doesn’t tick all the boxes. Some of it hasn’t stood the test of time and there is a sense that some of it is rather corny. Like the films that came out of that era – you could watch some of them over and over again, whereas others haven’t aged well at all. The big band sound can, on its own, seem rather stuffy. However, on the up side, it did find a great home with vocalists, in my opinion. The Rat Pack sound of Las Vegas obviously finds its roots here and the likes of Sammy Davis Jr and Frank Sinatra optimised the big band feel in a way that their songs actually get better over time.

This was the period though that jazz was becoming truly adventurous.

Count Basie

By 1935, Swing was king. It was around this time right up until the end of WWII that jazz was (for the only time in its history) the pop music of the day. Sweet jazz standards were becoming old fashioned and the Depression ravaged country was crying out for the foot tapping tunes that were being developed in the all night bars of Kansas City. Of course the notions of swing and groove in jazz were not new. Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington had been pioneers of this form of jazz since the early 1920’s. However the USA was still a deeply segregated country and it took people like Benny Goodman to give jazz an “acceptable” white face – perhaps in much the same way that Elvis Presley and Bill Haley did for rock n roll twenty years later. Which is not to take away from the talents of these men, of course.

The sound of jazz was becoming a lot more sophisticated. The string rhythm section was being abandoned in favour of the more polished sound of walking bass and ride cymbal drums. The tenor sax and the piano were coming more to the fore. The heavy handed stride piano style was now out of vogue in favour of a more airy style – perhaps best demonstrated by Count Basie.

From New Jersey, he was there during the Harlem Renaissance days in the 1920’s and was influenced by many of the famous acts of the time – especially piano players like Willie “The Lion” Smith and James P Johnson. He toured the country in the late 20’s and hooked up with bassist Walter Page and vocalist Jimmy Rushing and became the pianist in Bennie Moten’s band in Kansas City. The Count Basie Orchestra began to take shape around the mid 1930’s with the valuable addition of tenor saxophonist, Lester Young. One late night improv session in Kansas City gave rise to his signature tune, One O’Clock Jump.

There is no doubt that Basie's sound was heavily blues based. The seeds of rock n roll were truly planted at the time his orchestra was becoming prominent in the late 1930's. His band were very talented individuals who made full use of the "head arrangement" style - from guitarist Freddie Greene and drummer Jo Jones to Sonny Payne and Roy Eldridge, later.

As a band leader, Basie’s career spanned from the 1930’s to the 1980’s. He was associated with a veritable who’s who of music in that time, from Duke Ellington to Ella Fitzgerald. His music was an obvious pre cursor for the Las Vegas Rat Pack sound that was to launch the careers of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. His music defines what was cool about pre war swing and jazz.

Here are some of Count Basie’s albums to look out for. (Again this is a mere sample of the good stuff. Basie’s recording career spanned many decades)

The Complete Atomic Basie (1958)

Count Basie At Newport (1957)

Chairman Of the Board (1959)

First Time! The Count Meets The Duke (1961)

April In Paris (1956)

The Cannonball Jazz Library 4.

The cornet of Bix Beiderbecke is the fourth album chosen for the canon.