1944 - May 5

Edmond Hall's Swingtet – May 5 1944 

Blue Note 36 Brochure 

THE well-known BLUE NOTE artists Edmond Hall and Sidney Catlett participate here in an ensemble which includes the trombonist, Benny Morton, the pianist, Don Frye. the guitarist Everett Barksdale, and two members of Duke Ellington's Orchestra, namely, The baritone saxophonist, Harry Carney, and the bassist, Alvin Raglin. In the selections listed, the diverse musical personalities of the soloists coordinate in a novel, collective unity. Big City Blues, for example. is richly complex with Morton's lyrical trombone utterances, with Hall's penetrating clarinet ideas, and with Carney's dark-toned baritone sax playing. Frye's piano background, an eloquent blues figure, is a pervasive motif. On the other hand, Steamin’ and Beamin', a more rapid number, based on a twelve-bar chorus, has the soloists expertly maintaining and continuing a vivid melodic pattern. with a texture of highly varied timbres, or qualities. 

 

Downbeat Magazine Review Volume 12 Issue 8 April 15 1945 

Benny Morton leads off Big City with a blues trombone that easily matches that by Dickenson on Page's Lady, the highest compliment I can pay at the moment. Hall plays superbly, as he ever does on the blues, attacking vigorously yet almost surrendering to them at times. Carney's taste is a model or all aspiring baritone saxists, if such there are, and his jazz ideas are more than any of his imitators can ever hope to tie! The closing ensemble is pure blues, and great, as gutty as you can find, as triumphant yet poignant as you would want. Carney introduces Steamin' and announces the mood at once, less capricious than determined. Barksdale's guitar scarcely warrants the wonderful bass backing it receives from Alvin Raglin. Then the ensemble licks through like mad, giving way abruptly to some of the most rolling and rollicking baritone Harry’s ever cut. Hall comes in beautifully and stays long enough to say a-plenty, then moves out of the way for Morton's booming and booting tram. The final all-out ride-out is — there's still no other word for it—amazing! 

Pic Magazine – April 1945 – Volume 17 Issue 8 

The foot-wide Blue Note, Big City Blues—Steamin' and Beamin', by Edmond Hall's Swingtet (36). Has Benny Morton on trombone; Harry Carney, baritone sax: Don Frye, piano, Everett Barksdale. guitar; Alvin Raglin, bass: and Sidney Catlett. drums. On the Blues side, Morton, opening in conversation with the piano, has a deep, ringing tone, original ideas and great feeling. Edmond comes riding in with his usual elegant style, assured, clean, harsh and bold, then gentle and smooth. Carney, with a tone way down in the cellar, is agile, inventive and technically superb on his cumbersome instrument, and the rhythm section provides a solid basis for this improvised blues. Steamin' opens fast on then goes into some light, fancy, gay stuff on the non-electrocuted guitar, followed by a slightly brawling ensemble which Carney breaks up with some amazing. gutty exercises. Edmond carries on with that great swing  of his, and there's some incisive leaping around on piano behind him. A three-way play between sax, trombone and clarinet makes a really exciting ride-out.

Eric Thacker – The Complete Edmond Hall/James P. Johnson/Sidney DeParis/Vic Dickenson Blue Note Sessions 

In the first IT'S BEEN SO LONG Hall's recitation is restrained, standing out less vividly against a rather plodding rhythm which eases up later and for the second take. [Harry] Carney hacks happily away at this 32-bar vehicle, showing that he too had learned rhythmic and melodic tricks from [Coleman] Hawkins, and also how rich and satisfying his baritone sound had always been. Frye, a lesser-known disciple of Waller and Tatum, is not so accomplished a soloist, but he gives tuneful backing, and effects some healthy rolling in BIG CITY BLUES.  
 
Carney, adroit and affective, introduces the tune of I CAN'T BELIEVE halving the beat of the deceptive prologue; and he contrives, in later solo, to make his instrument sound like a tenor. Something of what revivalist clarinetists were, surprisingly, to emulate in Hall's style is demonstrated in his solo. Morton, lustier, for the most part, than his fellow Basie-ite, Dickenson, clearly betrays and admiration for Jack Teagarden. All ends with decent, if slightly perfunctory collectivizing. The solo work is what stands out, and its excellence is kept up in the second attempt. BIG CITY BLUES is similarly graced by the individuals' expressive flair. Carney is impressive, while the collective episdodes surprise with a fresh character achieved by the trombone's chief guidance—an unusual turn of events.  
 
Back comes IT'S BEEN SO LONG, Hall glancing across the theme, and Carney being urged by Catlett towards riffy insistances. Morton follows some guitar interplay with sixteen bars which sidle in the direction of Dickenson's puckishness. In the final chorus, everyone tipping in and Morton once more prominent, power is sustained rather than built.  
 
With Gerry Mulligan's later and greater fame as a baritone stylist, it is sobering to hear how agile Carney sounds in comparison to Mulligan's early essays. The veteran leads in STEAMIN’ AND BEAMIN’, and later goes at it for several 12-bar sequences. There are some choruses of exhilarating freedom-for-all — the form and spirit of the jam session at its best.  
 
Hall is unassuming as a leader, giving larger rations of space to his other frontliners, yet vivacity shines from nearly every note he plays. One guesses that he relishes the presence of Carney, and, to be sure, the latter is a major contributor to the success of this fortunate meeting. The great baritonist seldom got the elbow-room that he is given with the Swingtet. He gives us here some of his finest thoughts on record. 

Benny Morton, Alfred Lion, Sidney Catlett

Sidney Catlett, Harry Carney

The Record Changer – February 1946 

It's Been So Long and I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me are both on the popular side. Edmond Hall's clarinet has that wonderful crackling tone and melodic twist that he always manifests. Harry Carney's deep and rich sax tone is always pleas- ant to hear. His solo is especially nice on It's Been So Long. Benny Morton comes through nicely on I Can't Believe. It's Been So Long is the better side giving everyone a good chance to come forth. 

The Jazz Record April 1946 – George and Al Avakian 

It's hard to believe that these two sides weren't made several years ago when a hot record didn't necessarily point to the ultimate destiny of hot music. They aren't Dixieland ; they aren't re-bop; they're just jazz. Records like this are rare today. Except for a few Blue Notes, what you usually get is something very much like the last batch put out by Eddie Condon, or Eddie Heywood, or the old John Kirby band which seems to be largely responsible for the present-day trend in small colored units. Alfred Lion, on the other hand, is willing to experiment, and sometimes the results are highly successful. This is one of those times.  

Edmond Hall is a wonder. This is his record, although Harry Carney, Duke's number one man, gives him a close run. On most of his previous Blue Notes, Hill has taken the part of a top-notch New Orleans clarinetist; here he plays the Harlem instrumentalist who would do any Billie Holiday record of the late thirties proud.  

About all there is to choose between the two sides is whether you prefer Hall at his best following Carney at his best, or wonderful Carney superceding wonderful Hall. Trombonist Benny Morton' doesn't suffer comparatively by any means; his two solos would be standouts on the average date.  

On first hearing, we thought the addition of trumpet might have been advisable. but the nonchalant effect of the ensembles would have been spoiled, and certainly there's no help required by soloists Hall, Carney, and Morton. The sides are too right to tinker with, down to the complete absence of riffs, the chords behind the solos, and the casual abandon with which thee horns tackle the last choruses. The only flaws, perhaps - and they are, in themselves; stray kicks - are the queer intro to I Can't Believe and Sidney Catlett's eager-beaver hip-hip two beats in answer to a trite phrase Carney slips into during his So Long shot. Actually, Catlett and his fellow members of the rhythm section (Junior Raglin, Everett Barksdale, and Don Frye) couldn’t be much improved upon as a unit for a recording such as this. 

Alfred Lion is to be congratulated for again having the imagination to slew off the beat-up track jazz sometimes takes. 

Notes etc. Benny Morton’s first Blue Note appearance. Benny would be offered his own session as leader at the start of 1945. It’s Been So Long first recorded by Freddie Martin, versions also by Benny Goodman, Louis Prima, Bunny Berigan and others prior to this recording. Everett Barksdale would next record directly for Blue Note in 1968, as part of Stanley Turrentine’s big band recordings of Spooky/Love Is Blue. The one and only session for Blue Note by bass player Alvin “Junior” Raglin.

Session Information 

Benny Morton, trombone; Edmond Hall, clarinet; Harry Carney, baritone sax; Don Frye, piano; Everett Barksdale, guitar; Alvin Raglin, bass; Sidney Catlett, drums. 

WOR Studios, NYC, May 5, 1944 

BN973-1, It's Been So Long (alternate take) 

BN973-3, It's Been So Long, Blue Note 511 

BN974-0, I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me (alternate take) 

BN974-1, I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me, Blue Note 511 

BN975-0, Big City Blues, Blue Note 36 

BN976-1, Steamin' And Beamin', Blue Note 36