1945 - March 10

Bunk Johnson and Sidney Bechet – March 10 1945

 Leonard Feather BLP 1201 Liner Notes 

Milenberg Joys and Days Beyond Recall stem from the era when Bunk Johnson, retrieved from retirement in the rice fields of Louisiana, had become the centre of an increasing circle of admirers all over the country. On their only joint session, Bechet and Bunk evoke poignant memories of past New Orleans days. The interplay between Sidney's clarinet and Bunk's horn make these pieces a unique contribution to jazz history 

Leonard Feather BLP 1202 Liner Notes 

Up In Sidney's Flat, with a long, fine Sandy Williams trombone solo, and the traditional Lord, Let Me In The Lifeboat, are striking examples of the sympathetic vibrations between Bechet and Bunk Johnson, who sounds more at ease here than on most of his own sessions. 

Scott Yanow - bluenote.som Bunk Johnson biography 

Bunk Johnson, who tended to exaggerate, claimed that he was born in 1879 and that he played with Buddy Bolden in New Orleans, but it was discovered that he was actually a decade younger. He did have a pretty tone and, although not an influence on Louis Armstrong (as he often stated), he was a major player in New Orleans starting around 1910 when he joined the Eagle Band. Johnson was active in the South until the early ’30s, but did not record during that era. Discovered in the latter part of the decade by Bill Russell and Fred Ramsey, he was profiled in the 1939 book Jazzmen. A collection was taken up to get Johnson new teeth and a horn. In 1942, he privately recorded in New Orleans, and the next year he was in San Francisco playing with the wartime edition of the Yerba Buena Jazz Band. An alcoholic, Johnson’s playing tended to be erratic, and when Sidney Bechet recruited him for a band in 1945, he essentially drank himself out of the group. In 1946, Bunk Johnson led a group that included the nucleus of the ensemble George Lewis would make famous a few years later, but Johnson disliked the playing of the primitive New Orleans musicians. He was more comfortable the following year heading a unit filled with skilled swing players, and his final album (Columbia’s The Last Testament of a Great Jazzman) was one of his best recordings. In 1948, the trumpeter (who was only 59 but seemed much older) returned to Louisiana and retired. Many of Bunk Johnson’s better recordings have been reissued on CD by Good Time Jazz and American Music 

Bunk Johnson at the March 10 1945 session

Dan Morgenstern – Hot Jazz on Blue Note CD Liner Notes 

Days Beyond Recall shows us what might have come of the Bunk Johnson-Sidney Bechet collaboration if Bunk had stayed sober, as he certainly was on this occasion. After Cliff Jackson’s rolling piano sets the stage, Bunk’s good tone is prominent as Bechet, on clarinet, lets the trumpeter lead. (Bunk did not approve of the soprano sax, which he called “the fish horn.”) Sidney now takes center stage, answered by Sandy Williams’s trombone, while Bunk lays out, but Bunk returns behind Williams when that worthy takes the lead for a chorus. Then the clarinet kicks into the upper range whole Bunk gets off some of his Armstrong phrases. This is tougher music than that of the (George) Lewis band, more egocentric – and in this instance, too much so to survive. Bunk and Bechet could have made some great music together, but it was not to be. 

Max Harrison - The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Sidney Bechet - Mosaic Records MR6-110 

Different again, and altogether a special occasion was the session with Bunk Johnson, not least because from the "historical" or "evolutionary" viewpoint it represents a successful meeting between two very different approaches to jazz. The biggest surprise is that it was mostly organized according to the trumpeter's ideas as demonstrated on the best of his other records, Besides not dominating, Bechet made no apparent attempt to do so. The first piece of evidence is the eloquent equal-voiced ensemble which opens MILENBERG JOYS, this being followed by solos each of which is enhanced by the participation of the other two horns. On LORD, LET ME IN THE LIFEBOAT, also, rather than solos in the usual sense there is a continuous ensemble in which one thread or another becomes for a while the most prominent. DAYS BEYOND RECALL, one of two Bechet themes here, begins as a duet between him and Johnson with Williams murmuring in the background; then Bechet and Williams duet, then Williams takes the lead; Bechet, who plays clarinet throughout this session, continues behind him and Johnson, who had dropped out, rejoins, and then takes the lead until the end. Some of the duetting, particularly Johnson and Bechet's at the start, produces closely argued counterpoint of similar quality—in a different style—to that of Armstrong and Johnny Dodd in the Hot Seven's 1927 POTATO HEAD BLUES.  

Previously unknown, PORTO RICO begins south of the border, and, as the best jazzmen usually do, they show themselves adept at Latin rhythms. It soon moves into a swinging 4/4, however, and there are good solos from the three horns with richly-textured support by the other two in each case. Bechet's other theme is UP IN SIDNEY'S FLAT and Williams leads off here, with Johnson and Bechet very active beside rather than behind him. The latter each take their turn in leading the performance in the same way. Williams' is the finest trombone playing to be heard on this set of records, and Jackson's presence at the keyboard is unobtrusively beneficial throughout. But it is due to the efforts of all that DAYS BEYOND RECALL and UP IN SIDNEY'S FLAT are such deeply moving pieces of collective music making, jazz that does not wear out. Afterwards one feels lucky to have heard them, and the better for having done so. 

Down Beat April 20 1951 Volume 18 Issue 8 George [Hoefer]: The Bechet-Johnson collaboration didn’t work out any better on record than on the one-week fiasco they did in person in Boston. It seems as though the driving Sidney couldn’t wait for the more uncertain trumpet of the late Bunk. On these sides Bunk does his best work, it having a nice lyrical quality on Lord. Sandy Williams gets off some gutty trombone on Milenberg and on Bechet’s original, Up in Sidney’s Flat. On this LP Sidney plays clarinet almost exclusively. The two best sides, Blame It on the Blues and Weary Way Blues, come from a 1946 date by the Bechet-Nicholas Blue five. Blame has melodic quality and the clarinet-soprana duet work between Sidney and Albert Nicholas on the second unissued master Weary Way is fine. Complete personnels of sides on all Blue Note LPs are on the back of the folder. (Blue Note LP 7008.)

Session Information 

Bunk Johnson, trumpet; Sandy Williams, trombone; Sidney Bechet, clarinet; Cliff Jackson, piano; George "Pops" Foster, bass; Manzie Johnson, drums. 

WOR Studios, NYC, March 10, 1945 

BN223-1, Milenberg Joys, Blue Note 564, BLP 7008, BLP 1201, BST 89902 

BN224, Basin Street Blues, Blue Note rejected 

BN225-0, Lord, Let Me In The Lifeboat, Blue Note 565, BLP 7008, BLP 1202 

BN226-0, Days Beyond Recall, Blue Note 564, BLP 7008, BLP 1201 

BN227-0, Porto Rico 

BN228-1, Up In Sidney's Flat, Blue Note 565, BLP 7008, BLP 1202