1951 - June 14

Sidney DeParis And His Blue Note Stompers June 14 1951 

 

Pete Welding – B-6501 - DeParis Dixie Liner Notes 

Sidney DeParis And His Blue Note Stompers, was organized just one week shy of seven years after the first. (See here.) If its music seems a bit more stylized than that of the Blue Note Jazzmen, it must be remembered that seven years during which a music is subjected to great commercialization can exert a strong influence even on the most creative, best-intentioned musicians working in that musical idiom. Something of this accounts for the feeling of formulaic ensemble and solo playing that occasionally marks the work of the later DeParis group. There are plenty of fine moments in the music of Stompers DeParis, trombonist Jimmy Archey, clarinetist Omer Simeon, pianist Robert Green, bassist Pops Foster and drummer Joseph Smith, to be sure, but at the some time there is a certain glossiness and pattern-feeling to the group's work. For these ears, the greater polish and admirable precision of the Stompers' stereotypical work here are no substitute for the rough-hewn textures, striking freshness and truly inspired playing of the earlier Jazzmen group. I'll take that feeling any day. 

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

With a rather more than six-and-a-half-years' leap, De Paris lands in a role deliberately more formal than anything shown previously. The early 'fifties saw the emergence—or re-emergence—of a specialized collaboration with his elder brother, the trombonist Wilbur. For much of the decade, Wilbur's New New Orleans Jazz gained in popularity in the U.S., and abroad, playing a firmly organized brand of traditional jazz spiced often with Latin-American themes and rhythms, and even occasionally featuring Sidney in tuba solos (e.g., the 1955 HOT LIPS). Omer Simeon was Wilbur's clarinet man.  

The Stompers reflect a bouncing sense of purpose very similar to what was coming and yet to come. There is neither guitar nor banjo (Lee Blair linked the N.N.O.J. to olden times), yet the group receives a comparable evenness of under-running stress from the Morton-admiring Bob Green. WHEN YOU WORE A TULIP prances in with clarinet and trombone weaving their ways around the trumpet's staccato delineation of the song. This sets the mode for all ensemble choruses to come, and the quiet harmonized riffing behind Archey's following solo is similarly determinative. Archey has not Dickenson's dry wit, and has nothing, incidentally, of the elder De Pans' smooth approach to melody. He makes warm joyous, unsophisticated sounds, Simeon is an interesting contrast to Hall—a tone more slender with equal inner life, always slightly on top of the expected pitch, but never sharp. His beautiful first solo of the Stompers' set recalls various works shared with Morton, and also a marvellous group of trios done with James P Johnson and the present bassist, Foster, in 1945. In all his solos, De Paris accepts the restriction of a choice of style which allows for a little cross-beat enterprise. His continual sense of symmetry counts for a good deal, however.  

Green shows a concentration the surface elements of the Jelly Roll style. This is more acceptable in ensemble than in solo since it misses something of the master's subtlety and variation of stress. MOOSE WARCH and PANAMA (perennial favorite of the marching bands) are additional buoyant processions. The riff backings, though modern enough in effect, are in fact derived from brass band conventions older than jazz itself. Simeon's ensemble parts are different from Hall's chiefly because he was better schooled in older procedures and, although a seasoned big band sideman, had not really heeded the lures of swing. He fares least well in MOOSE MARCH, theme of which gives little to go on either in solo or collective. Notice in this number, Green ‘primes himself’ for his solo in sturdy emulation of his idol.  

The ragtime skeleton of PANAMA shows through the jazz flesh, this archaism is countered, at the close, by some effective dynamics. Simeon has a nice solo here, and an even better one in PLEASE DON’T TALK ABOUT ME, which brings a overdue lessening of tempo conducive to a clearer of linear relationships. A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND, a dull, awkward theme of twenty-two bars well-loved by jazzmen of the previous two decades, has a wayward measure towards its end which it is to avoid playing straight if the flow of a solo is to be maintained. No one here makes any bones about this - they all play the bar straight! Foster, otherwise an impressive stay throughout, slaps a rather dull solo for the GOOD MAN.  

Artie Matthews’ WEARY BLUES invited clearer fluidity, and the most sustained excellence of the session. Green does his party-piece again, to be sure, but when he is heard rocking away behind the second part of Simeon’s  solo, the joys of 1928 and Jelly Roll's GEORGIA SWING are pretty effectively conjured up. 

Ultimately. exultation carries the day as the crescendos of the final strain lead to a brief, romping scramble for the post. Having gained steadily in assurance, Simeon writhes and mewls like a man possessed. 

Dan Morgenstern - The Blue Note Jazzmen CD Liner Notes 

Moose March, composed in 1909 by P. Hans Flath, was recorded by Bunk Johnson in 1942, so no doubt it had long been part of the New Orleans marching band repertory by then. This performance serves to introduce another entrant in our Great Clarinets sweepstakes. Omer Simeon has that New Orleans “thing,” but with a Chicago edge. This is also our first of many encounters with the clipped trumpet phraseology of Sidney De Paris, who leads the band into march-swing after the parade drum opening. There’s a typical half-chorus of rhythmic trombone from Jimmy Archey. Bob Greem sounds like Jelly Roll Morton on speed. The final ensemble is enhanced by Simeon. 

Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone, a 1930 pop song, was introduced by Bea Palmer, who’d hired the Chicagoans-in-New York the year before for her act at the Palace Theater – she was a jazz fan. Omer Simeon is back for this one, and he’s the main event, in solo and ensemble, though De Paris rides nice and easy, and Little Jimmy Archey does his thing – by now we can tell that all his solos essentially consist of rhythmic parsing of the melody, on the beat. Pops Foster is very relaxed here, keeping good time. 

Notes etc. 

It’s highly that this session was recorded with a 10” release in mind. Unusually for a session at this time, no 10” or 12” tracks were released, but as Blue Note transitioned to longer form albums, there was a route to releasing this session. 

Omer Simeon is back for his second Blue Note session at WOR Studios, the first being the September 14 1945 Art Hodes BackRoom Boys. He would go on to work with Sidney’s brother, Wilbur. 

This is Bob Green’s one and only Blue Note session. 

 

BLP 7016

B-6501

Session Information 

Sidney De Paris, trumpet; Jimmy Archey, trombone; Omer Simeon, clarinet; Bob Green, piano; George "Pops" Foster, bass; Joe Smith, drums. 

WOR Studios, NYC, June 14, 1951 

BN386-0, When You Wore A Tulip (alt), Blue Note B-6501 

BN386-1, When You Wore A Tulip, Blue Note BLP 7016, B-6501 

BN387-2, Weary Blues, Blue Note BLP 7016, B-6501 

BN388-0, Moose March, Blue Note BLP 7016, B-6501 

BN389-1, Panama, Blue Note BLP 7016, B-6501 

BN390-0, Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone, Blue Note BLP 7016, B-6501 

BN391-1, A Good Man Is Hard To Find, Blue Note BLP 7016, B-6501