Jazz in the Public Domain

Mac

Loren McMurray (saxophone) with the orchestras of Eddie Kuhn (1920): You’re Just Like a Rose. Mike Markel (1921): I Wonder If You Still Care For Me, I Wonder Who You’re Calling Sweetheart, Say Persianna Say!, Idola, Blue Eyes Blues, Alabama Blues, Two Wooden Shoes. The Virginians (1922): I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate. Bailey’s Lucky Seven: Homesick. Lanin’s Southern Serenaders: Doo Dah Blues, Shake It and Break It, Eddie Leonard Blues. Eddie Davis: Hot Lips. Mike Markel (1922): Lonesome Mama Blues. This starts in 1920 with a KC band where Mac got his launch. Seven tunes from Markel is maybe a slog but interesting and well recorded for 1921 from a talented society orchestra, McMurray being featured. In the second half the jazz tunes from 1922 pick up the pace. That’s Cliff Edwards eefing on Doo Dah Blues, a sample of what would become widespread two years later. McMurray expanded the paradigm for the alto as the dominant melodic instrument plus low register slap tongue. McMurray had a busy recording career for about three years 1920-1922 and then he was gone at age 25, leaving the legacy of the alto as a star melodic lead. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Eine kleine Morton

Bucktown Blues, New Orleans Joys, Big Foot Ham, Kansas City Stomp, Tom Cat Blues, Frog-I-Moore Rag, London Blues, Original Jelly Roll Blues, Mamanita, Milenberg Joys (with NORK),Perfect Rag/Sporting House Rag, Shreveport Stomp, Stratford Hunch, 35th St Blues, London Blues (with band), The Pearls, Tia Juana, Wolverine Blues, Grandpa's Spells, King Porter Stomp, Mr. Jelly Lord (with NORK). The soft touch here, the high keys plink and sustain. Morton’s approach seemingly not jazz highlights the beauty of the touch and sound. Morton’s father was a bricklayer and he understood meticulous crafts. His tunes are indestructible regardless of the skill level, they sound good if the players play the notes. Here the piano gives the composer’s world and is complete by itself. These are definitive performances by the composer, not piano rolls. Morton put a lot of music into every tune. As with Heraclitus or the Mississippi, never the same river twice. The tunes meander through different strains so that they do not lend themselves to memory as does a theme and variations form. In the woods of notes there opens from time to time the clearing of an iconic strain, King Porter Stomp being an example. Lots of space in a tune and you feel it when it is taken away as in Grandpa’s Spells, as torrid background music to a silent slapstick, or the Perfect Rag or Shreveport Stomp. America post-Emancipation was the environment for this free expression, the national musical expression made possible under Lady Liberty. May the torch stay lit. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Bessie Smith

Sing Sing Prison Blues, Dying Gambler's Blues, Hateful Blues, House Rent Blues, Moonshine Blues, Pinchbacks Take Em Away, Frankie Blues, Ticket Agent Easy Your Window Down, Sorrowful Blues, Weeping Willow Blues, Work House Blues, Easy Come Easy Go Blues, Sinful Blues, Follow the Deal on Down. Here is the great presence of Bessie Smith as leading tragedienne in these music dramas on the operatic side whereas Ma Rainey seemed more about summoning transcendent experiences and Clara Smith was just letting you in on what’s happening. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Morton/Oliver mix

Popular tunes from Morton and Oliver in 1923 ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.