Saturday Jazz Performance! "Wild Cat Blues" - Chris Barber Jazz Band!

Wild Cat Blues was written by Thomas "Fats" Waller when he was in his early twenties. Clarence Williams who published the music in 1923 is also credited as a composer, however, this was a standard practice with some publishers and Williams seems to have been notorious for giving himself credit as a composer on other peoples tunes. He may have edited the work or contributed, but we are talking about Fats Waller here and I doubt Williams had to do anything apart from publish it. This was however one of Waller's earliest compositions to be published, so he probably would have gone along with any type of arrangement just to get published.

Clarence Williams' Blue Five was the first band to record the tune the same year the music was published in New York on July 30th.

In this jazz performance trombonist Chris Barber and his Jazz Band plays Wild Cat Blues on apparently October 6, 1985.

Chris Barber in 2010.

Donald Christopher Barber was born in Hertfordshire, England on April 17, 1930. It was in the 1950s that Barber began his rise to fame when he and Monty Sunshine formed a band in 1953 featuring trumpeter Ken Colyer. In April of that year they debuted in Copenhagen, Denmark and made their first recordings while there.

After Colyer's departure from the group in 1954 the name was changed to the Chris Barber Jazz Band. They had a hit with their recording of Petit Fleur in 1959 which made it to No. 3 on the UK Charts during a 24 week reign on the UK Singles Charts. The group ultimately awarded a gold disc for this recording. During this year they toured the United States.

Barber expanding his musical interests arranged tours of many famous American Blues musician to the United Kingdom and eventually added blues guitarist John Slaughter to his bands line-up in 1964.

In 2008 Chris Barber, Eric Clapton as well as others formed co-operative record company, Blues Legacy. As of 2018 Chris Barber is still musically active.

The band is still in operation. In this 1985 performance the band is comprised of leader Chris Barber on trombone with a special appearance on the bass, both Ian Wheeler and John Crocker on clarinets, Pat Halcox on trumpet; Norman Emberson, on drums; Vic Pitt on bass;  Johnny McCallum on banjo; and Roger Hill on guitar.

The Chris Barber Jazz Band

Here now is the first recording of Wild Cat Blues by Clarence Williams' band featuring Sidney Bechet...

Clarence Williams' Blue Five, Wild Cat Blues, July 30, 1923.

Jazz Performance Saturday! "On the Sunny Side of the Street" - Downtown Dixieland Jazz Band of Canada

For this jazz performance we travel by way of video to Toronto, Canada 2013! The Downtown Dixieland Jazz Band plays their rendition of  On the Sunny Side of the Street was composed by Jimmy McHugh with lyrics by Dorothy Fields. The tune was first introduced to the public in 1930 during Lew Leslie's International Revue.

Not much is known about the Downtown Dixieland Jazz Band apart from the fact that in 1988 they played at the first Beaches International Jazz Festival in Toronto in 1988. It is not known whether the band is still performing.

In this video Myrna Van Weerdenburg vocalizes, Nick Van Weerdenburg is on clarinet, Al Cox plays trumpet, Harris Mark Lusher is on guitar, Ron Johnston is on bass, Jim Nevins plays the trombone, and it appears to be Lenny Van Bruggen on drums. Garry J. Asseltine was the videographer.

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Toronto, 2013 Video by Garry J. Asseltine.

Jazz Performance Saturday! - The Preservation Hall Jazz Band - "Tailgate Ramble"

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band was formed by tuba player Allan Jaffe around 1961 in New Orleans. The band is still in operation. In this performance from about June 2010 the band is comprised of Mark Braud on trumpet; Charlie Gabriel on clarinet, Ben Jaffe on tuba; Joe Lastie on drums;  Freddie Lonzo on trombone; Clint Maedgen on tenor-sax; Rickie Monie on piano and Walter Payton on string bass.

Tailgate Ramble was composed by Wingy Manone and Johnny Mercer. It was published in 1944 and has been played by the Trad Jazz crowd ever since.

 

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band on Facebook.

Jazz Performance Saturday - "Everybody Loves My Baby" - Calacas Jazz Band

The Calacas Jazz Band of Mexico performs Everybody Loves My Baby in this music video style film from 2013.

Everybody Loves My Baby was written by Spencer Williams (1889-1969) and Jack Palmer (1899-1976) and published in 1924. The extended title is Everybody Loves My Baby (But My Baby Don't Love Nobody But Me). It became a hit after Aileen Stanley's recording was released on record on September 19th of that year.  

Later in 1924, both the Clarence Williams and Fletcher Henderson bands recorded the tune.It is now consider a jazz standard.

The Calacas Jazz Band was founded in 2006 by four members while studying at a music school in Mexico City. They formed originally for a class project on Sweet Substitute by Jelly Roll Morton, and eventually continued playing together. The name of the band in the beginning was Calaveritas de Azúcar which eventually changed to their current one.

They first played on the streets but by 2010 they had recorded their first album featuring music of the 1920s and '30s.

At present the band consists of Christian Merino Terreros who plays guitar, banjo and ukulele; singer Maria Arellano; Jazmin Luna who plays saxophone; Alejandro Hernandez who plays the washboard and anything else he can get his hands on; and Alonso López on bass.

So let's watch and listen to the Calacas Jazz Band's music video for Everybody Loves My Baby!

Frankie Teschemacher Born Today!

Frank Teschemacher a.k.a. "Tesch" and "Frankie" Teschemacher was born this day March 13th in 1906 in Kansas City, Missouri to Charles and Charlotte (McCorkell) Teschemacher. However, six years later the family moved to the Chicago area.

Frankie Teschemacher was a great, self taught, jazz clarinetist who was influenced by the styles of cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, and clarenetists Johnny Dodds and Pee-Wee Russel. He took piano lessons as a child, then he took an interest in banjo and began studying the violin when he was ten.

Before entering Austin High School he took up the alto-saxophone. At school he befriended some of the future great Chicago jazz musicians including Jimmy McPartland, Jim Lanigan and Bud Freeman. They formed a band and their musical associations would last for years.

His career playing professionally began in 1925. He played all around the mid-West but mainly around the Chicago area.

In 1928 he made some recordings under his own name. He joined Jan Garber's band and toured with them in 1931. Interestingly, he also played violin during his time with Garber.  He then later beccame a member of "Wild Bill" Davison's big band.

Teschemacher tragically died after an auto accident during the early morning hours of March 1, 1932, when the car he was riding in, driven by jazz musician "Wild Bill" Davison, was sideswiped by a taxi cab which was driving without lights on. He died from a fractured skull about four hours later at Ravenswood Hospital in Chicago. Although Davison was driving with what would now be considered a high blood alcohol level, he was cleared of any charges at the time.

He was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois.

Here is Wailing Blues recorded  in Chicago, on January 24, 1930. The record was released as being played by the Cellar Boys. The group consisted of Wingy Mannone, Frank Teschemacher, Bud Freeman, Frank Melrose, Charles Melrose,  and George Wettling