1951 - November 5

Sidney Bechet And His Hot Six – November 5 1951

 

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

Bechet lived in France from 1951 onwards and the last sessions here were held during two of his infrequent returns home—if one who had travelled so restlessly considered anywhere to be home. Aside from Archey, the personnel for the penultimate date is changed completely yet the repertoire stays the same, with items carrying strong dixieland associations such as THAT'S A-PLENTY and, to start, ORIGINAL DIXIELAND ONE- STEP. This latter, first recorded by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1917 as DIXIE JASS BAND ONE-STEP, is in fact a good piece, and any possible cobwebs are blown away during Bechet's typically intent solo. De Paris and Archey do well, too, but again the overall ensemble sound is not distinguished. Kirkpatrick surfaces on AVALON, basing his solo firmly on the melody. Then the leader sails aloft over brass riffs. Next, he manages to find a new route through the rather predetermined ensemble patterns of THAT'S A-PLENTY.  

The trumpet and trombone solos here and in AVALON are less effective than on the ONESTEP. Despite what was said above about Bechet's alternative takes, there are differences between the two versions of BLUES MY NAUGHTY SWEETIE GAVE TO ME, the previously unissued one being more tidily organized. The great attraction of the familiar performance remains, however, this being the way that Bechet suddenly explodes into a passionate solo.  

We are now into the era of tape recording, yet these two accounts of BLUES MY NAUGHTY SWEETIE GAVE TO ME are the only ones on these six LPs to take much advantage of the extra length possible. If there are differences between the two readings of BALLIN' THE JACK and of THERE'LL BE SOME CHANCES MADE it is mainly that the latter version in each case sounds fiercer. There is a slight difference in the order of solos on the two performances of the former piece, while on THERE'LL BE SOME CHANGES MADE Foster and Manzie Johnson are briefly heard from in solos. 

Dan Morgenstern – Hot Jazz on Blue Note CD Liner Notes    

Original Dixieland One-Step (the title the 1917 Victor label inserts “Jass Band” between the second and last word) lifted its most catchy strain from pianist Joe Jordan’s “That Teasin’ Rag,” published in 1909, and the boys from New Orleans had to share royalties with Mr. Jordan and mention him and his tune on future label copy after he complained. It’s a snappy number, still popular today with traditional bands. De Paris leads, and Bechet (on soprano) doesn’t vie with him, waiting for his solo spot. Trumpet and trombone also have their say, but the star of this performance is Manzie Johnson, whose unobstrusive drumming holds the band together; his footwork on the bass drum is state-of-the art. 

Cover image for BLP 7020

The Record Changer: Robert L. Thompson – La Salle Street Breakdown 

[NB: Paul Bacon was a journalist and cover designer for Blue Note around this period]

You are sitting in this here smokefilled horse room and gradually you get to hear a sound like a cactus needle on very inferior shellac. Investigation proves that this is really no such thing; it is really a long, lean type with a long, lean mustache and he is working over something that gets called a scratch-board. This is nothing I dig in the slightest, and is no relative to a scratch-sheet, but this cat is like responsible for all the artful and designful things that makes the magazine look like it does, with everything arranged nice and all sorts pretty drawings and clever, too. He runs around under the name of Paul Bacon and is a very divergent cat. He is one part barbershop and ukulele brand with a voice that fits, and several parts very classy artist. This Bacon is also in the category of being a Record Changer functionary and also making a living. This he does by means of all sorts: ads, and labels, and Blue Note album covers, and other such pretty trinkets. But this only begins to explore this Bacon, who is also a very great fisherman and is usually descended from a long line of martinis, and is the world's greatest authority on Jabbo Smith. He also writes a very snappy prose (which he does not allow Keepnews to lay a finger on, on pain of getting scratched with a scratch-board, maybe) and is very keen for many kinds bop, but especially Thelonious Monk, and when he has bad dreams it is maybe that Jabbo and Monk are off cutting a date together. He is also addicted to the Brooklyn Dodgers, but is not half so loud as Keepnews (but, then, who is?). 

Sidney De Paris, Sidney Bechet and Jimmy Archey
at the November 1951 session

Notes etc. 

Manzie Johnson’s first Blue Note session since March 10 1945 Sidney Bechet and Bunk Johnson’s date. 

Don Kirkpatrick’s only Blue Note recording gig. 

Session Information 

Sidney DeParis, trumpet; Jimmy Archey, trombone; Sidney Bechet, soprano sax; Don Kirkpatrick, piano; George "Pops" Foster, bass; Manzie Johnson, drums. 

WOR Studios, NYC, November 5, 1951 

 

BN416-3 tk.3, Original Dixieland One-Step, Blue Note BLP 7020, BLP 1207 

BN417-0 tk.4, Avalon, Blue Note BLP 7020, BLP 1207 

BN418-1 tk.6, That's A Plenty, Blue Note BLP 7020, BLP 1207 

BN419-0 tk.7, Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gave To Me, Blue Note BLP 7020, BLP 1207 

BN419-1 tk.9, Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gave To Me (alt) 

BN420-0 tk.13, Ballin' The Jack (alt) 

BN420-1 tk.16, Ballin' The Jack, Blue Note BLP 7020, BLP 1207 

BN421-0 tk.17, There'll Be Some Changes Made (alt) 

BN421-1 tk.19, There'll Be Some Changes Made, Blue Note BLP 7020, BLP 1202 

 

 

Bootlegging - The Record Changer November / December 1951 

RCA Victor, sworn enemy of disc piracy, is currently engaged in pressing illicit Victor and Columbia LPs for one of the most blatant of the bootleggers! Documentary proof of this startling disclosure is now in the hands of the Record Changer. 

The bootlegger makes no attempt to disguise his true colors and his association with piracy. He sails under the revealing banner Jolly Roger. Yet he apparently has encountered no difficulty in persuading Victor to process and press for this label four bootleg reissues of jazz classics. 

 These are the facts: One facet of the vast RCA operation is to do custom pressing for independent labels too small to maintain their own presses — which is a totally legitimate business venture. But, beginning in June of this year, they have been accepting material to be processed and pressed on the Jolly Roger label. Without exception, this material has consisted of master acetates made from old Victor and Columbia sides strung together to form long-playing records. 

 

Last month's editorial, "Art and the Dollar," took Victor to task for the colossal ignorance of the music with which they deal which apparently permitted them to process records by Armstrong, Bechet, and Jelly Roll Morton without the slightest hesitancy. In defense of this action, Walter A. Buck, vice president and general manager of RCA Victor, expressing the company's official position, wrote us that "it would be a complete impossibility for us to check every one of the thousands of selections we press to order each year for our customers against the hundreds of thousands of sides pressed since the record industry began." 

Alfred Lyon of Blue Note...expressed strong objections to this magazine's expressed views on bootlegging. Arguing from the viewpoint of men whose deep interest in jazz has led them to struggle against small budgets and the competition of the major companies' massive distribution programs, they contest our conclusion that the value received by jazz fans, in the form of records that would otherwise be unobtainable today, serves as at least partial justification of unauthorized re-issues.  

According to Lyon, the activities of companies that do not, of course, need to pay musicians or stand the expense of recording sessions, represents "the most unfair competition I have met in my twelve years in the business." To Lyon, "this is stealing; you would not condone it if the product involved was perfume or books or the like"; in his opinion, the claim of "cultural aspects" should not be allowed to obscure a simple issue of opportunism and illegality.