Red Hot Jazzmen: The Singers

A glance at the list of singers featured on this CD will reveal that almost all are well-known in jazz circles. Two that may be less familiar are Pleasant Joe and Leo Watson.

I must admit to never having heard of Pleasant Joseph (also known, apparently, as Cousin Joe) before this. The album producer, John Petters, who provided the booklet notes as well as the transfers, tells us only that he was “born in 1907 [and] raised on a plantation” and made “a handful of sides” on Mezz Mezzrow’s King Jazz label, “Layin’ My Rules on the Blues” being one of them and on this disc.

Leo Watson (1898-1950), also unfamiliar to me, recorded mainly with the Spirits of Rhythm but made a couple of recordings with the Gene Krupa Orchestra, one of which, “Tutti-Frutti,” is included in this album.

Other vocalists, such as Cab Calloway, Jimmy Rushing, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra, are household names in the jazz world.

Almost all of the other singers were noted as much—or perhaps more—for their playing of an instrument than for their vocals; in some cases, they also led the band or group which accompanied them. Among these is a number of pianists—Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton, Hoagy Carmichael, and Nat King Cole. Slim Gaillard, who frequently plays piano, here plays guitar, however. Jack Teagarden is featured on trombone and a couple of times on vocal. Playing trumpet and vocalizing we find Henry Allen, Roy Eldridge, and, of course, the inimitable Satchmo: Louis Armstrong.

Among the “Red Hot Jazzmen” are such stalwarts as Adrian Rollini, Joe Venuti, Pops Foster, Louis Barbarin, Gene Krupa, Zutty Singleton, Sidney DeParis, and Count Basie, to name just a few.

Several of the songs in the playlist were new to me, such as “My Meadowlark” (Crosby), ”Don’t Forget to Say No Baby” (Carmichael), “Layin’ My Rules in the Blues” (Pleasant Joe) , and “Tutti Frutti” (not that of the same title by Little Richard in the 1950’s; this is by Slim Gaillard, sung by Leo Watson).

The disc opens with three Fats Waller contributions. The first of these, “The Curse of Aching Heart,” he sends up in his familiar mocking style. The second is his own composition “Fats Waller’s Original E Flat Blues,” a respectable blues number, sung by Waller and with no trace of burlesque. The third track has Waller and Jack Teagarden engaging in some comic repartee as they deliver the lyrics for “That’s What I Like about You.”

Teagarden, a respectable bluesman, demonstrates his facility with singing the blues as he delivers “Beale St. Blues,” backed by the Venuti/Lang All Star Orchestra. Other than these two tracks, there are no others featuring Jack Teagarden vocals; perhaps his duet with Louis Armstrong on “Old Rockin’ Chair” is too well known to merit inclusion on this playlist.

Satchmo sings solo on a couple of tracks, “Shoe Shine Boy” and “Basin St. Blues,” and is paired with The Mills Brothers on “Marie” and with Bing Crosby on “Lazy Bones.” On these cuts Armstrong amply shows what jazz singing is all about, with his phrasing, his dancing around the beat, his tone, etc. Just as almost no jazz trumpet player can deny Satchmo’s influence on him/her, so no jazz vocalist, male or female, can refute his vocal influence.

Other jazz singers have more than one slot, each better known for his instrument, perhaps, than his voice, including Jelly Roll Morton and Hoagy Carmichael; but all, although quite diverse, have some jazz element present in their singing. Somewhat surprisingly to me, Frank Sinatra and Jimmy Rushing , whose voices were their only instruments, are given only one item apiece.

Finally, two of the artists that are also present on only a single track each are Slim Gaillard with his “Jumpin’ at the Record Shop” and Cab Calloway with “Minnie the Moocher.” Gaillard’s approach, somewhat like Waller’s, is almost always to parody and in the process is great fun to hear. I could also add “see” as his facial expressions, along with those of his trio, are a hilarious. (They have many entries on YouTube.) And Gaillard was no slouch on piano or guitar. Calloway was enormously popular in his day, but I have to confess he did not rank highly in my pantheon. He played no instrument in the bands he led, only conducted, so all focus is on his singing. To me his vocals were too raucous (and when seen in performance, his singing was accompanied with too much high-energy physical gyrations), which, coupled with his extreme zoot suit outfit and accessories, resulted in my seeing him as a showman rather than a jazzman. But such was not the case for the multitudes who patronized the Cotton Club when he appeared there (and elsewhere) and bought his records.

Closing the disc are two selections by Nat King Cole, both taken at moderate tempos: “Frim Fram Sauce” with the trio, and “Orange Colored Sky” at a slightly faster tempo, accompanied by the Stan Kenton Orchestra. Cole headed up an excellent jazz trio on piano, as the “Frim Fram Sauce” track illustrates, but as the popularity of his vocals grew, appearances with his trio diminished, and eventually we found Cole recording only with big bands and usually only on vocals. While I have always enjoyed King’s singing, I have always also regretted the loss of his trio to the jazz world.

This CD that will appeal to most readers of The Syncopated Times. It presents some seventy-plus minutes of vocal and instrumental music. Although a few of these tracks I might hesitate to call “jazz,” (the term is a slippery one) all, however, I rate at least “enjoyable,” and the majority will fit most folks’ definition of “jazz,” as they do mine. Like all Upbeat CD’s, it is available on the Upbeat Recordings web site www.upbeat.co.uk as well as on-line from Amazon and from some record stores.

Red Hot Jazzmen: The Singers
Various Artists
Upbeat URCD349
Playing time: 70m. 53s.

1. The Curse of an Aching Heart – Fats Waller

2. Fats Waller’s Original E Flat Blues – Fats Waller

3. That’s What I Like about You – Fats Waller & Jack Teagarden

4. Beale St Blues – Jack Teagarden

5. Lazy Bones – Louis Armstrong & Bing Crosby

6. Marie – Louis Armstrong & The Mills Brothers

7. Shoe Shine Boy – Louis Armstrong

8. Basin St Blues – Louis Armstrong

9. I Ain’t Got Nobody – Bing Crosby

10. Mr Meadowlark – Bing Crosby & Johnny Mercer

11. Maimie’s Blues – Jelly Roll Morton

12. Ballin’ the Jack – Jelly Roll Morton

13. Minnie the Moocher – Cab Calloway

14. You’re Gonna Lose Your Gal – Henry Red Allen

15. Knock Me a Kiss – Roy Eldridge

16. Don’t Forget to Say No Baby – Hoagy Carmichael

17. The Old Music Master – Hoagy Carmichael

18. Good Morning Blues – Jimmy Rushing

19. Layin’ My Rules on the Blues – Pleasant Joe

20. Tutti Frutti – Leo Watson

21. Jumpin’ at the Record Shop – Slim Gaillard

22. Sweet Lorraine – Frank Sinatra

23. Frim Fram Sauce – Nat King Cole

24. Orange-Colored Sky – Nat King Cole

All place and date information of the recordings is given in the booklet. The recordings date from 1931 to 1950.

Bert Thompson

Web

Born in Dundee, Scotland, Bert Thompson came to the U.S. in 1956. After a two-year stint playing drums with the 101 st Airborne Division Band and making a number of parachute drops, he returned to civilian life in San Francisco, matriculating at San Francisco State University where he earned a B.A. and an M.A. He went on to matriculate at University of Oregon, where he earned a D.A. and a Ph.D., all of his degrees in English. Now retired, he is a professor emeritus of English at City College of San Francisco. He is also a retired traditional jazz drummer, having played with a number of San Francisco Bay Area bands, including And That’s Jazz, Professor Plum’s Jazz, the Jelly Roll Jazz Band, Mission Gold Jazz Band, and the Zenith New Orleans Parade band; he also played with some further afield, including Gremoli (Long Beach, CA) and the Phoenix Jazzers (Vancouver, B.C.) Today he reviews traditional jazz CDs and writes occasional articles for several publications.