2010-08-29

Cotton Club programs on ebay (2)

One would expect that, when offering a significant piece of jazz history with a steep starting bid such as USD 250,00, the seller would do some research to give basical background on it or, at least, provide the most essential data right. Well, not always!

This Cotton Club program is offered as from "circa 1929-1933" and, obviously, it is not from that timeframe, but from 1938, as the title of the revue (Cotton Club Parade, Fourth Edition) would lead you if consulting a few volumes of the vast Duke Ellington bibligraphy. Taking a simple look at John Edward Hasse's Ellington biography, Beyond Category. The Life And Genius Of Duke Ellington (Da Capo Press, 1993), on page 213, would be enough.

Although usually listed as having started on March 10, the program actually opened at midnight, March 9, and it ran probably through June 9 (according to Billboard, June 11, 1938, the show "closed last Thursday"). Two additional points: on one hand, for the first time since Blackberries of 1930, Ellington wrote the score; on the other, this would be his final appearance at the Cotton Club, which would close in June 1940.








2010-08-25

The Mule's 10 random CD picks (2)

* Coleman Hawkins - 1943-1944 (Classics 807)
* Duke Ellington - The Great Chicago Concerts (Music Masters 65110-2)
* Cat Anderson - The Definitive Black & Blue Sessions: Cat Speaks (Black & Blue BB 971.2)
* Luckey Roberts & Willie ‘The Lion’ Smith - Luckey & The Lion: Harlem Piano Solos (Good Time Jazz 10035)
* Rossano Sportiello - Rossano. In The Dark (Blue Swing 002 / Sackville SKCD 2-2070)
* Bennie Wallace - Disorder At The Border. The Music Of Coleman Hawkins (Enja ENJ-9506 2)
* Sarah Vaughan - 1951-1952 (Classics 1296)
* Gene Ammons & Sonny Stitt - God Bless Jug And Sonny (Prestige PRCD-11019-2)
* Wild Bill Davison - Pretty Wild and With Strings Attached (Arbors ARCD 19175)
* Various Artists - The Jazz Piano (Mosaic Singles MCD-1012)

2010-08-17

The Mule's 10 random CD picks (1)

* James P. Johnson - 1942-1945: Piano Solos (Smithsonian Folkways SF CD 40812)
* Willie The Lion Smith - 1938-1940 (Classics 692)
* Marian McPartland - The Single Petal Of A Rose (Concord CCD-4895-2)
* Kenny Davern & Dick Wellstood - Never In A Million Years (Challenge CHR 70019)
* Ben Webster - At The Renaissance (Contemporary/OJC 00025218639026)
* Earl Hines - Four Jazz Giants (Solo Art SACD 111/112)
* Coleman Hawkins - Wrapped Tight (GRP/Impulse! GRD-109)
* Bobby Henderson - Handful Of Keys (Vanguard VMD-8511)
* Lionel Hampton And His Orchestra And Quintet - Jazz Flamenco (RCA 74321364002)
* Various Artists - Prestige First Sessions, Vol. 1 (Prestige PCD-24114-2)