Milt Buckner in the mid-sixties. Photographer, date and location unidentified.
From the Otto Flückiger collection.
Already a while ago I had uploaded “Milt’s Boogie” as well as “Flying Home” from the mysterious Milt Buckner acetate from Wichita KS Station KAKE. This 12” / 33rpm acetate is one of a series of five KAKE acetates. The other four contain a concert by Lionel Hampton’s Orchestra at the Forum in Wichita, dated 1953. The fifth has five solo piano tracks by Buckner (four on one side, one on the other) and ends with two tracks from the Hampton concert again.
It’s unclear when these were recorded. I can not find a Wichita date in Milt Buckner’s agendas and he was not a member of the Lionel Hampton Orchestra in 1953. I relistened to this music again today in the hope of coming somewhat closer to solving this riddle, but to no avail.
Anyway I thought Milt’s playing on tis acetate is interesting enough that it would justify to present it here in full. I know a good cleaning would probably help to get a better sound. But I will not try anything that might do any damage to the acetate, so you have to live with what there is.
So here is Milt playing “Old Man River”, “Hamp’s Boogie”, “How High the Moon”, “Laura” and then “Flying Home”.
Funny to see that some copies of the LP my friend Hubi and me produced with arkestral legend Marshall Allen and cellist / sarangi player Kash Killion are already selling for around 100 $. Funny because you can still order them direct from us for much less, as a few copies of this limited to 250 pieces LP are still available.
If you never heard about that LP, here is our sweet little promo clip again:
If you want to know more about this record check out my old blog entry here. Or have a look here.
There are bad news though: Because the swiss frank is no longer bound to the euro, we had to raise the prices partly. In Switzerland it’s still 35 Franks. For the rest of the world it’s either 35 Euro or 40 USD. Beware that swiss postal rates are very high, depending on where you are (20 Euro for europe, 36 $ for the rest of the world).
If you’d like to obtain a copy of this – very beautiful we think – record, contact me by writing a comment (which will not be published).
Organist Sam Lazar from St. Louis is a mysterious figure about whom not very much is known. His (very small) fame among jazz fans is based on the fact that guitarist Grant Green’s first recordings were done in groups led by Lazar.
Lazar, who was born around 1933, vanished from the scene at sometime in the early sixties and nobody seems to really know what became of him (and I am 99 percent sure that the – unsourced – stories about his later life in Lazar’s Wikipedia entry are bogus (so I do not link to that entry) – or are they?
Anyway, since I think it’s worth to listen to Lazar also if Green is not part of the proceedings, I decided to make an illustrated discography of Sam Lazar’s recorded works. Some of the entrys are linked to audio files or youtube videos – just in case you want to listen to Lazar while reading about his works.
A while ago I asked in this post whether someone could identify the two people standing next to Eddie Chamblee (left) on this photo:
Now identified: Eddie Chamblee, Dayton Selby, Alford “Al” Griffin,
probably early 1960s. Photographer still unidentified
But I got no responses. Now last friday I went to one of my favourite record shops in town to buy the May 2014 issue of british magazine Blues and Rhythm which carries the story of tenor saxophonist Willene Barton, written by R’n’B researcher Dan Kochakian.
On alto for the cover: Gateway LP 15 from the collection of Armin Büttner.
I had acquired Barton’s LP “There She Blows” a while ago. I knew nothing about Barton then and bought the record purely for the cover. And there is not much about Barton on the Internet, so I was glad to see her featured in one of my favourite magazines. Dan Kochakian is well known for finding out a lot about obscure musicians from the past and if you are interested in Willene Barton, I’d suggest you get the new Blues and Rhythm. Dan’s story features a lot of unknown photographs of Willene Barton and tells a lot about how hard it was in the 1950s for a woman to be recognized as a fine saxophone player. What really got my heart beating faster though was that the picture at the top of this blog post was shown in the article with a caption telling, who these people are. The reason for this photo accompanying Dan’s article is that the man in the middle is organist Dayton Selby, in whose band Barton was playing for some time in the 1950s. On the right is drummer Alford “Al” Griffin who used to play with Milt Buckner for some time in the 1950s (see photo below).
Milt Buckner, Danny Turner and Alford Griffin, probably 1956 in Cleveland Ohio. From the Otto Flückiger Collection
Dan dated the photo of Chamblee, Selby and Griffin to “late 1950s”, but this is to be doubted, since exactly this “Dayton Selby Trio”, as Dan calls it, recorded the LP The Rockin’ Tenor Sax of Eddie Chamblee under Chamblee’s name on February 27, 1964. And I do not think that the band had been together for five years then. John D. Monroe in his liner notes to Prestige LP7321 calls this “Eddie’s new group”.
Prestige LP7321 from the collection of Armin Büttner
So here is some music for your pleasure: First Willene Barton featured with the Dayton Selby Trio playing Barton’s Blues, recorded 1956 in Cincinnati and originally released on Gateway LP15 There She Blows:
Gateway was a budget label “selling to the masses”. So unfortunately the band never gets to stretch out and you can not really hear what Barton was able to do since everything runs under three minutes here and has the obligatory back beat (people say she was able to do a lot).
And here is the Chamblee/Selby/Griffin Trio playing George Gershwin’s Skang! in February 1964 as released on Prestige LP7321.
Since Prestige was a hardcore jazz label, everything is a little wilder here. And Chamblee is someone who should be known among more people. If you ever heard three or four Chamblee solos in a row, you will recognize his sound forever: definitively out of Ben Webster, but highly individual, rooted in the blues but not afraid of modernism – and always with a touch of humor in his playing. If you are into mainstream jazz with an edge, you should try to get hold of his two LPs for Emarcy/Mercury.
As vaguely announced at the end of this post, my friend Hubi and me along with sound engineer Dario went to Poschiavo in summer 2012 to see the Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Maestro Marshall Allen and make a recording of Allen to be released on a limited edition vinyl LP.
Crown Propeller’s blog announces that this record, “Two Stars in The Universe”, featuring duets by Marshall Allen with masterful cellist, bolon/bolong and sarangi player Kash Killion, will now be released as Little Rocket Records LP001 on May 22nd!
So what does it sound like? Have a glimpse at our little promotion video to get an idea:
Note though, that the sound on all video clips in this blog post is directly from the camera’s microphone. The LP sounds much better. A short mp3 excerpt from the original master can be had on request.
Little Rocket LP 001 will be released on May 22nd, 2014
So how did this come to happen? My friend Hubi and me are long time devotees of that cosmic being called Sun Ra. And we both developed a deep love for the idiosyncratic sound of alto saxophonist and now Arkestra leader Marshall Allen.
So when in spring of 2012 we heard that the Arkestra will be accompanying two theatrical productions during three days at the Uncool Festival in Poschiavo (at the the south-eastern end of Switzerland), we had the idea to record Allen playing solo, since we wanted to capture his sound pure and unaccompanied. Since we both are also what you would call vinyl junkies it was decided there and then that we will be trying to release a limited edition vinyl LP and found a little record company that will exist until the copies are sold out.
Marshall Allen and Kash Killion in Poschiavo, June 21, 2012
We decided to try to reach Marshall via Cornelia Müller who runs the Uncool Festival. Finally a week before the Poschiavo event, Marshall let us know through Cornelia that he was ready and willing. Cornelia promised to get a room organized for thursday, June 21. So Hubi, me and our engineer Dario on wednesday made the six hour car ride to see the Arkestra’s evening show and record Marshall the next day.
On the way to Poschiavo in the beautiful Poschiavo valley
I had become sick a day right before our trip and had a bad fever when we arrived in Poschiavo and were told by Cornelia that it was hard to organize a room and that maybe we should ask around the small village for a room to record in on the next morning. I thought: ok, this is the end of our little adventure, as I could not imagine knocking at unsuspecting people’s doors and asking them if we could maybe record some free jazz in there barn or their living room. Nonetheless I managed to enjoy the three hour Arkestra gig that evening. Marshall – at that time 88 years old – was blowing, directing the band, singing, dancing all evening through without ever sitting down for a minute – clearly music is his fuel. Excerpts from that concert can be found here.
Marshall Allen fronting the Arkestra in Poschiavo, June 20, 2012.
Marshall Allen on stage in Poschiavo, June 20, 2012.
I had a sleepless, fevery night and on the next morning Dario, our italian speaking and good looking sound engineer, talked a hotel maid into letting us use the Hotel’s diner room. But then on our way to breakfast we met Cornelia again who told us that she managed to get a room anyway and Marshall would be ready to meet us at 12 o’ clock.
Lo Spazio in Poschiavo
The room turned out to be Cornelia’s living room in her house and artists’ space “Lo Spazio”. The room had very beautiful acoustics – so we were happy. But then Marshall appeared and told us he really was not in the mood for playing solo since he needs (an)other person(s) to react to: “I am a band musician”. So this again sounded like the end of it – but we had the idea to ask Marshall if there is someone in the band he’d like to record in a duo context with. Marshall said that yes, he’d like to record with Kash Killion who is playing cello with the Arkestra on and off since 1991. This sounded very promising to us, so we gathered some more cash together to be able to pay Kash something as well.
Sound engineer “Il Nuovo Presidente” Dario and Marshall Allen
We phoned Kash who was ready to come over from his hotel at once and brought along his cello, a Sarangi – the queen of indian instruments because it is so close to the human voice (Killion has studied the instrument with the great indian master Ali Akbar Khan) – as well as a Bolong (also spelled Bolon) – a harp from west africa that also functions as a percussive instrument when you hit the neck and the gourd.
Setting up: Dario, Marshall Allen and Kash Killion in Poschiavo, June 21, 2012.
Marshall and Kash played beautiful improvised music for two and a half hours without ever talking about what to play next and visibly having fun all the while. We just sat there in awe not daring to interfere or make any suggestions like true producers are supposed to do (or are they?).
Off we go: Marshall Allen and Kash Killion at the Little Rocket Records
recording session, Poschiavo, June 21, 2012.
Here’s a little view into the recording session, Marshall Allen on flute and Kash Killion on Sarangi playing an improvisation they later titled “India Reflections”:
It’s done: Marshall Allen, Armin Büttner, Hubi Horst and Kash Killion,
Poschiavo, June 21, 2012.
¨After the session: Marshall Allen, Dario and Kash Killion
Apart from choosing the tracks for release we did not do any editing or massive post production. We just choose complete tracks as Dario recorded all of this so perfectly – standing in a half bowed, body devastating position in front of the musicians all this time, a little digital recorder in his hands.
“Two Stars in The Universe” as the LP was titled by Marshall and Kash is a beautiful, surprisingly quiet and moody but also very joyful record of many colors. Besides alto saxophone and flute Marshall also plays one of those old small Casio keyboards. I always think he is channeling messages from Sun Ra with it. If you listen to his Casio playing on “Cosmic Blues-Life Of Two”: Hearing the rattling sound of it’s keys struck by Marshall, you’ll notice that he uses the same fluttering up and down hand movements that he uses when producing the freaky alto sounds he is known for. Here is an excerpt from “Cosmo Blues-Life of Two”:
I had to be back at the office the next day, so we had to return. But after I told my girlfriend about the experience, she went down to Poschiavo for the last Arkestra show a day later. After the – again very long concert – Marshall and Kash Killion sat down stage front after most people had already left and played kora and bolon for a while. You can see again that they really enjoy playing together:
(Video courtesy of The Sun Ra Arkestra)
All 250 copies of the 180 gram vinyl LP “Two Stars In The Universe” have handprinted (silk-screened) covers. Some are printed in gold on black, some in silver, blue, or white, we think it came out very nice. Here is a little clip from the silk-screening process. Music for this video is an excerpt from an unreleased track, recorded with a photo camera after session for the LP had already ended.
Beautifully designed (thanks, M.!!!) and freshly silk-screened
Unfortunately this did not make the thing cheap. This beauty will cost 35 Dollars (postage – which is high – not included). This will hopefully allow us to get back our expenses if nothing more.
The record will be officially released at the Arkestra concert in Zurich on May 22nd, Sun Ra’s 100th Arrival-on-Earth-Jubilee. Since there is no real distribution, the way to go is contact me directly if one wants to obtain a copy. Please use the comment section of this post to get in contact.
Some of the early LPs of bassist and arranger Johnny Pate are quite rare because they appeared on small or tiny labels from Chicago (or in one case Evanston, Illinois) that did not last long. So some years ago I was quite happy to acquire a rather beaten up copy of “Johnnie Pate at the Blue Note” on the Stepheny label – so I was able to fill in the details into my discography of Johnny Pate’s early works as a leader.
Up to now, Stepheny MF4005 which was released in 1958 was supposed to be a straight reissue of Salem LP2, an LP probably recorded in 1956 but released only in 1957 on Salem. And in all standard discographies the personnel is given as : Johnnie Pate (b, ldr); Wilbur Wynne (g); Floyd Morris (p); Johnny Whited (dr). Since I really do love that LP (a lot of my friends say it’s too soft, I’d call it subtle), I was always hoping to acquire a better copy with enjoyable sound. So when the original Salem pressing turned up a few weeks ago on ebay, I managed to buy it for less than I had thought. Much to my surprise I found that the Stepheny LP is not quite a straight reissue of the Salem LP. Continue reading →
As already mentioned I love those french 10 inch records from the fifties on the Vogue and Swing labels. Now two weeks ago I discovered this beauty in a local record store:
Swing M 33.330 was released sometime in the early fifties. Although I already have all the music on this LP (on a CD as well as on really badly stereofied LP on the Period label), i could not resist the beautiful design so I had to buy it. I wonder if Charles Delaunay designed this one? The owner of the Swing label was the son of artists, and some of the covers of Vogue and Swing 10 inch LPs were designed by him.
So here’s some some music to go with the art, taken directly from the above copy of M 33.330: “September Song” (yes, I know it’s May right now). And please excuse the rough start!
According to Tom Lord’s Jazz Discography, this was recorded at a”Surprise-Partie” at the Studio Montparnasse of the Radio Diffusion Francais in Paris, France, on November 8 or 13, 1947 with the following people involved:
Gerard Leveque (cl), Eugene Vees (g), Django Reinhardt (g) Emmanuel Soudieux (b) Andre Jourdan (d).
When ever I enter a record shop the first thing I do, is to look if they might have any 10 inch LPs on the french labels Vogue and Swing. I simply love their charming design, especially if the covers were drawn by french artist Pierre Merlin. As a rule, the more “traditional” the music is on a given Vogue or Swing 10 inch LP (i.e. Sidney Bechet – obviously a good seller – or Willie “The Lion” Smith), the cheaper it will be. The more “modern”, the more you have to pay (like for Clifford Brown or James Moody). A good overlook of Vogue record’s repertoire can be found here: http://jazzcollector.com/jazz-vinyl/a-comprehensive-guide-to-french-vogue/. And a nice collection of Pierre Merlin covers can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/pmeziatster/PochettesPierreMerlin.
Now two weeks ago on my monthly trip to the local record stores I happened to find this beauty – which was really just a little too expensive for my budget.
Nonetheless I decided to pull the record from it’s sleeve to check its condition when I saw this seal on the label of Side 1 – my decision was made:
I have added some information to all three parts of my Milt Buckner discography. There are some new photos, some old photos in better copies than before, as well as information about some previously known and some previously unknown recordings from broadcasts as well as from records or notes in Milt Buckner’s diaries. For example, there is this entry:
which led to this LP (details are in the discography):
I have also added an unreleased 1947 session for Don Gabor’s Continental Records, featuring a Lionel Hampton small group with Arnett Cobb and others, but without Hampton.
Does anyone have an idea who might have the masters for these Continental tracks– if any do still exist?
I have also made discographical – and photographical – additions to part 2 and part 3. So it’s worth having a look there. I have noted the last changes on top of each part.
I made a little movie to the music of Milt Buckner playing “Hamp’s Boogie” at an unknown date. The music comes from a mysterious bunch of acetates from the Otto Flückiger collection.
Crownpropeller's Blog 