B-6509

 Dodd/Hodes/Hall - Classics - Volume 1

Released - 1969

Recording and Session Information

probably WMGM Radio Station, NYC, April 7, 1939
Frank Newton, trumpet; J.C. Higginbotham, trombone; Albert Ammons, piano; Teddy Bunn, guitar; Johnny Williams, bass; Sidney Catlett, drums.

GM516-2 Mighty Blues
GM517-1 Rocking The Blues

WOR Studios, NYC, November 29, 1943
Sidney DeParis, trumpet; Vic Dickenson, trombone; Edmond Hall, clarinet; James P. Johnson, piano; Jimmy Shirley, guitar; Israel Crosby, bass; Sidney Catlett, drums.

BN901-3 High Society
BN905-2 Night Shift Blues

NYC, March 18, 1944
Max Kaminsky, trumpet; Ray Conniff, trombone; Rod Cless, clarinet; Art Hodes, piano; Bob Haggart, bass; Danny Alvin, drums.

BN960-0 Maple Leaf Rag

WOR Studios, NYC, June 1, 1944
Max Kaminsky, trumpet; Vic Dickenson, trombone; Edmond Hall, clarinet; Art Hodes, piano; Jimmy Shirley, guitar; Sid Weiss, bass; Danny Alvin, drums.

BN978-0 Squeeze Me
BN980-1 Bugle Call Rag

WOR Studios, NYC, May 17, 1945
Max Kaminsky, trumpet; George Lugg, trombone; Bujie Centobie, clarinet; Art Hodes, piano; Chick Robertson, guitar; Jack Lesberg, bass; Danny Alvin, drums.

BN238-3 I Never Knew What A Gal Could Do

WOR Studios, NYC, May 23, 1945
Max Kaminsky, trumpet; George Lugg, trombone; Bujie Centobie, clarinet; Art Hodes, piano; Chick Robertson, guitar; Jack Lesberg, bass; Danny Alvin, drums.

BN244-3 Willie The Weeper (alternate take)

WOR Studios, NYC, September 14, 1945
Oliver "Rev." Mesheux, trumpet; Omer Simeon, clarinet; Art Hodes, piano; Al Lucas, bass; Fred Moore, drums.

BN259-0 Blues For Jelly (alternate take 1)

WOR Studios, NYC, December 26, 1945
Albert Nicholas, clarinet; Art Hodes, piano; Wellman Beaud, bass; Baby Dodds, drums.

BN272-2 Feelin' At Ease
BN273-4 Careless Love (alternate take)

Track Listing

Side One
Artist	Title	Recording Date
Baby Dodds' Jazz Four	Feelin' At Ease	December 26 1945
Baby Dodds' Jazz Four	Careless Love	December 26 1945
Art Hodes' Back Room Boys	Blues For Jelly	September 14 1945
Art Hodes' Chicagoans	Maple Leaf Rag	March 18 1944
Art Hodes And His Blue Note Jazzmen	Squeeze Me	June 1 1944
Art Hodes And His Blue Note Jazzmen	Bugle Call Rag	June 1 1944
Side Two
Port Of Harlem Six	Mighty Blues	April 7 1939
Port Of Harlem Six	Rocking The Blues	April 7 1939
Edmond Hall's Blue Note Jazzmen	High Society	November 29 1943
Edmond Hall's Blue Note Jazzmen	Night Shift Blues	November 29 1943
Art Hodes' Hot Seven	I Never Knew Just What A Gal Could Do	May 17 1945
Art Hodes' Hot Seven	Willie The Weeper	May 23 1945

Liner Notes

When the revival of interest in traditional jazz began to gather momentum in the mid-'40's, Blue Note Records could well take pride in the not inconsiderable role the label had played in bringing this state of affairs about.

If the trad revival had unfortunate side effects, such as the splitting of the jazz audience into opposing camps with the modernists on the other side of the fence it was in essence a positive development. Much fine music and many great musicians had been forgotten or neglected while swing held the center of the jazz stage, so there was much to rediscover when Bunk Johnson was brought out of obscurity to become the spiritual embodiment of the revival.

Some pioneer jazzmen had more or less retired, while others had become big-band sidemen, adapting to a new musical environment. In either case, they enjoyed the new-found opportunity to reaffirm their roots. Others had carried the torch through all kinds of storms; their faith had now been justified and they could now play with renewed inspiration. Still others who became involved were essentially swing players, at first interested in trying on a different style which offered more individual freedom than big-band work, later, often forced into a "Dixieland" mold when the big bands disappeared and swing work became scarce.

The players on this album fit into all these categories and more. Albert Nicholas, Ed Hall, and Omer Simeon — quite a triumvirate of clarinet power — were New Orleans veterans who'd all played with big swing bands, doubling various kinds of saxophones.

Trumpeters Sidney DeParis and Max Kaminsky had also paid big band dues, and while neither man was a traditionalist in the sense of the clarinetists, both felt most at home in a small band playing a free ensemble style.

Baby Dodds, first of the great jazz percussionists, had remained true to the faith and was in Bunk Johnson's band in 1945. Sid Catlett, considerably younger than Baby, was one of those happy few who could play — and at his best — with any and every kind of jazz band, big or small, trad or bop. He was a true universalist.

Art Hodes, who was brought to Chicago as an infant from his native Russia and had been inspired by the great black jazz and bluesmen of the '20's, had also kept the faith throughout difficult years, not only as a player, but also as a broadcaster and as editor of a fine little magazine, The Jazz Record. Rod Cless, who had also come up musically on Chicago's South Side, was another man who never felt at home in a big band. Bassist Bob Haggart worked for the cause in another fashion and was instrumental, as arranger, composer and bassist, in the Bob Crosby band's successful adaptation of traditional material to big band format.

And the great trombonist Vic Dickenson, who'd never played New Orleans music much in his youth and had done big-band work from the late '20's through the early '40's, developed one of the most effective and unique approaches to the traditional front-line.

All of which goes to prove, once again, that jazz is an infinitely more complex and rich form of music than the history books teach us, and that, as one of the few good jazz historians once said, "you can't put cats into categories."

By the same token, the music on this LP should appeal not only to those of a traditionalist persuasion, but to all lovers of honest jazz well played.

The earliest pair of tracks date from pre-revival 1939, and were among the first things waxed by Blue Note. The personnel is quite unique: the sole common thread is that all men (except, perhaps guitarist Teddy Bunn), at one time or another, worked at Café Society Downtown, one of the most interesting night clubs in the annals of jazz. Chicago boogie woogie specialist Albert Ammons shows that he was much more than that, and not at all uninfluenced by Earl Hines. J. C. Higginbotham, one of the swing era's most popular trombonists shows that he had not forgotten how to play in a small band and feels no need to tamper with his robust, direct, often riff-based style, more than at home with the blues.

Bunn was one of the first (and remained one of the best) of the single-string guitarists, and bassist Johnny Williams fits perfectly with Big Sid Catlett.

The star, however, is trumpeter Frank Newton, one of the unsung giants of the jazz trumpet, and a remarkably original musician and man. His style was perfectly poised (note how he builds his solo on each track) and his sophisticated ear carried him safely into harmonic territory yet uncharted by his contemporaries. This poet of trumpet recorded far too little, and everything he left us is precious, especially since it appears so rarely on LP. Dig him, and then check out his splendid pair of solos on Sidney Bechet Jazz Classics, Vol. 2 (Blue Note BLP 1202).

Night Shift Blues, from the 1943 Ed Hall date, compares interestingly to Mighty Blues, both being slow excursions into the 12-bar truth by swing-oriented players. The underrated Jimmy Shirley plays evocatively, backed superbly by the great James P. Johnson, and the hornmen's solos are enhanced by creative background riffs. Dickenson is outstanding, and also shines on High Society, available in Blue Note's reissue series (B-6504) in several other versions. DeParis' solo is a definition of his lively, skipping style, and Hall masters the classic New Orleans solo, in part a set piece.

Dickenson and Hall also sparkle on the original versions of Art Hodes' Squeeze Me, and Bugle Call Rag (alternate takes can be found on the previously issued LP B-6504 in this series). The breaks in both pieces are masterly, Max Kaminsky's clarion lead lifts the band, and the rhythm section is expert, with Danny Alvin in great form.

Hodes' piano and organizing talent are also much in evidence on the remaining tracks. The relaxed Baby Dodds session with fellow New Orleanians Braud and Nicholas, shows Art's empathy for relaxed, blues-based music making. Dodds is a gas on Careless Love, and Nicholas' liquid and sometimes pleasantly buzzy tone is joy.

Maple Leaf Rag, a classic of jazz composition, is given rousing but never raggedy treatment by one of the most compatible groups ever led by Hodes on record. Cless is marvelous, and those who know Ray Coniff only as a pop arranger or swing trombonist will be surprised at his confident, idiomatic solo and ensemble work. The two tracks from a later session with the same instrumentation and some of the same players are not quite as spectacular, but Kaminsky is in top form, and the then young white New Orleans clarinetist Bujie Centobie is well worth hearing.

Blues for Jelly, finally, is not truly representative of Omer Simeon's stature, while trumpeter Oliver "Rev" Mesheux fails to prove that his obscurity is undeserved. But there is that fine Hodes blues piano to redeem it.

While too many of the great men on this album have left us, it is good to know that more than a few are still around to spread the message. There isn't a dishonest note to be found on this LP.

Dan Morgenstern
Editor, Down Beat