The first music post for 2024 spotlights Great Britain's finest crooner and a New Orleans trumpet great, both born on the 7th of January. The former, the king of British dance bands, was arguably the biggest star of English popular music through the 1930's and into the 1940's. The latter: the essence of New Orleans jazz and blues.
Who was Al Bowlly, prominently featured vocalist in the Fred Elizalde, Ray Noble, Roy Fox and Lew Stone orchestras? Take a listen.
And another. . .
Indeed, he's very, very good and also a heckuva rhythm guitarist. Admittedly, as a devotee of the later 1950's male vocalist style exemplified by Chet Baker, Mel Torme, Nat King Cole, and, of course, the Capitol Records Sinatra, I did not know that much about Al Bowlly or, for that matter, the astonishing early records of Bing Crosby. Both Bowlly and Bing were already quite advanced in their concept and approach to singing when they began recording in the late 1920's.
Good places to start amassing knowledge about the British big band luminary are his Wikipedia entry, the Al Bowlly biography page, all writings about him by Ray Pallett - and the following BBC Four documentary. Then start delving into the 1200+ songs he recorded!
The fabulous Learn the Legends: Musical Performers of the Early 20th Century by the University of Wisconsin at Madison elaborates. . .
Al Bowlly, one of the most popular singers in Britain in the 1930’s, had quite the diverse background. His father was Greek, his mother was Lebanese, he was born in Mozambique, and he was raised in South Africa. His career started with dance bands in the 1920’s that toured Africa and Asia. He made his first recording in Berlin in 1927, singing Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies.” Bowlly then relocated to London and sang with Fred Elizalde’s orchestra. Bowlly’s song “If I Had You” became one of the first recordings by an English jazz band to find popularity with American audiences.
He found some success performing in New York and again in London, but he died during the bombing of London in World War II. His last recording, “When That Man is Dead and Gone,” an anti-Hitler song, was made two weeks before his death.
It could be said that the guys who developed the art of crooning and set the stage for Sinatra were not "Crosby, Columbo & Vallee" but "Crosby, Columbo and Bowlly!"
Born on January 7, 1908 in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans was the great trumpeter and vocalist Henry "Red" Allen.
Have thought of this master musician recently, as my favorite post of 2023, along with the Johnny Mercer tribute, was the one on singing brass players. Very few musicians not named Louis Armstrong could both solo on the trumpet and sing with the brilliance of Henry Red Allen.
One snapshot of his illustrious and prolific career as bandleader and sideman is the following Henry "Red" Allen discography.
One favorite recording is Ride Red Ride a.k.a. Man On A String.
In closing, just in case the excerpts from The Sound of Jazz CBS 1957 were insufficient to whet the musical appetite, here is the CBS special in its entirety. Not a bad way to celebrate musical birthdays.
Today, this correspondent officially tips a top hat worn by Sidney Bechet to the French Quarter and the great tradition of Louisiana music.
The passing of Allen Toussaint last week compelled Your Correspondent to think of the incredible 20th century music talent that preceded him.
As far as the great music of New Orleans goes, the party started at the end of the 19th century with bandleader Buddy Bolden, joined just a few years later by Freddie Keppard, Bunk Johnson and Buddie Petit.
These Crescent City luminaries would soon be followed by pianist and Mississippi riverboat bandleader Fate Marable, cornetist Joe "King" Oliver, Kid Ory, Clarence Williams and Jelly Roll Morton. When Buddy Bolden fell ill in 1907, trombonist Frankie Dusen kept Bolden's group together for a decade under the name The Eagle Band. The New Orleans sound would, in 1923,
culminate in the momentous recording debut of Louis Armstrong with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Orchestra.
Here's Satchmo, still playing at a high level many decades later, with two versions of the Louis Armstrong All-Stars: one with (from Reserve, LA - about 40 miles west of New Orleans) virtuoso clarinetist Edmond Hall and another featuring Kid Ory.
Satchmo had a favorite drummer who was a lifelong friend. Appearing on several Armstrong recordings, this New Orleans percussionist played brilliantly on Satchmo's Hot Fives and, along with fellow New Orleans drummer Baby Dodds, is very important in the development of multiple 20th century music genres - the great Zutty Singleton.
Baby Dodds, the brother of clarinetist Johnny Dodds, made his name on recordings with Oliver, Armstrong and Chicago clarinetist Jimmie Noone.
The innovative Dodds, playing with Noone, would be an enormous influence on a young Chicagoan who played the drums - Gene Krupa.
With Singleton and Dodds, another percussionist who drove those New Orleans bands as Papa Jo Jones powered Count Basie's "Super Chief" was the legendary Paul Barbarin.
In the pre-television era (as opposed to the Jurassic era), New Orleans music, beloved as it was, as a direct result of the color line in the pre-Sidney Poitier days, did not get its proper due in American movies. Even as late as 1946, when songstress Billie Holiday played a role in the movie New Orleans, she was cast as the maid. That's right, cast as the maid, not as a chanteuse, so while Billie sings. . . well, she sounds great, as usual, but it just doesn't look right with her forced to wear that maid outfit!
Fortunately, since Louis Armstrong also appears in the film as a bandleader, he and Billie get to play together, so in the following two numbers, if nowhere else in the movie, Miss Holiday looks just right.
It is quite stunning for those of us living in 2015, an era in which there are a gazillion TV channels, but, curiously, infinitely less choices readily available, to think that many decades ago, music and entertainment NOT entirely aimed at a very young demographic, including wide-ranging recording artists in diverse genres, as well as veteran stars from vaudeville and the movies - could actually be found on television.
That means programs one could watch in the comfort of your living room on a spiffy General Electric, Admiral or Philco TV set!
While it's true that there such Level 1 mass market pop sounds - Sing Along With Mitch and The Lawrence Welk Show for the oldsters, American Bandstand for the teens - on the air which were popular hits, at the same time, all kinds of music somehow, by hook or by crook, made it onto the airwaves. These included such New Orleans legends as George Lewis and Sidney Bechet.
Yes, once upon a time, dear readers, there was, remarkably, quite a bit of Louisiana music on what Ernie Kovacs called "the orthicon tube" in the 1950's and 1960's.
Of course, American jazz could be found on British and French TV (Henry "Red" Allen and Coleman Hawkins especially) in those days as well.
The 64 million dollar question remains, "why did most music disappear from television programming, banished in an era of 500+ channels?"
Well, one reason, to paraphrase Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire, who owns a mansion and a yacht, the primary reason musical genres - including infinitely less progressive ones than those represented by such 20th century modern recording artists as Igor Stravinsky, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Frank Zappa, Anthony Braxton, Morton Subotnick and Terry Riley - have vanished without a trace from the airwaves would be "insufficient pwoffits".
That said, take heart, New Orleans music lovers. Even though finding most genres of music on any television network (including PBS) remains the equivalent of locating a pin deep in a haystack after drinking a fifth of Jack Daniels, there is the annual New Orleans Film Festival, which frequently includes documentaries spotlighting the music of Louisiana.
Since I just can't get enough with one truncated clip (hey, if you know where the rest of the Teagarden-Allen-Krupa performance is, point me to it - can't find it on YouTube or Daily Motion), here's another one: "Red" Allen's blues-drenched trumpet solo and vocal on St. James Infirmary.
OK, that's not enough. I want more! So here's some ecstatic swing. Red sings Earl Hines' Rosetta, backed by Coleman Hawkins (tenor sax), Pee Wee Russell (clarinet), Vic Dickenson (trombone), Rex Stewart (cornet), Milt Hinton (bass) and Jo Jones (drums).
