Alton Purnell JL 16.iv.11

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0106yt5


er one hit of that clunky banjo and i was gone ...... it was 35 years ago to the day that i married Dr Death [she hated jazz] ..... gone!

[Alyn_Shipton]

The last three tracks in the programme are a banjo-free zone...

[charles t]

it was 35...

Calum: Good timing/synchronicity for a need to (what's another definition for self-pity?)...I had 35 tickets (bet) ystd'y, 9th race at Santa Anita. Trifecta (three horses of six)...1,2,6 (6 being Irish bred).

Potential payoff somewhere between $3,000-$4,000. Even split the bet to get around tax problems.

Final at the wire: 1,2,5,(6).

Why me, dear God....

[Ian Thumwood]

Calum

I've been listening to Bela Fleck & the Flecktones this weekend. Great fun and demonstrative that the banjo csan be reconciled into a contemporary jazz context - or indeed a musical one, if you feel that strongly about the instrument ! The group also includes Paul McCandless on Cor anglais, Paul Hanson on bassoon and Andy Narrell on steel drums as well Future man on a drum synth. On paper, it sounds like the band from hell that no one wanted to employ (I assume that Fleck couldn't find anyone to play the accordeon and bagpipes!) but the results are hugely entertaining.

I haven't heard the programme yet but was fascinated to see in the listings a version of "Stack o' Lee." Last week I picked up a CD of Mississippi John Hurt's 1928 recordings which, apart from two religious tracks I am not fussed about, represent some of the most perfect blues guitar I have heard from that era. The stand out track is a version of "Stack o' Lee" and, googling for information on the tune , was astounded to find that it related to a real event - a murder in 1895 where "Stack " or "Stag" Lee murdered a colleague in an argument about a stetson hat.

Here is another version which is also pretty good although MJH was much older when he recorded this and this tells on his voice:-

Here is an account of the event described within the story.You can actually download a very nice cartoon that tells the story in a fashion not too far removed from the stuff that R. Crumb produces:-

http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2007-...f-stagger-lee/


Interesting to see that the fate of Stack O Lee was far less dramatic in real life than in the song. Amazing to see how a local incident like that can perpetuate itself in popular culture.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

well Chas i got it wrong too it was 34! sorry bout the numerology which as we know rules all ...

lovely stuff Ian but in deference to Alyn his prog was about a pianist and just because i came out in a rash is no reason to miss the point, i will fast forward Alyn and listen to Alton


well i listened and the track with Plas Johnson stood out for me, your Stackolee Ian.....

i am afraid to say that New Orleans leaves me in a more negative mood than just unmoved ... but then that's me innit ... i think it's interesting how the discography moved to the uk ... duffel coats beards pipes and pints ... and the adoration of the authentic, whatever that was, .... they would never get the point of early Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker or Charles Brown or Jimmie Witherspoon ... never mind Jimmie Deuchar and Ronnie and Mr Hayes eh ... tribal, man, tribal ....

[Ian Thumwood]

Listened to the programme and was most taken by the earlier tracks but would have to agree with Calum that by the time the programme had progressed to the later stuff , the appeal had worn pretty thin. The performance of the rhythm section in the George Lewis / Bunk Johnson tracks was worthy of being singled out although as a soloist I didn't think that Purnell really stood out that much. It was really a team performance. Quite liked Kid Nelson's playing too. The first fifteen minutes seemed to be where the best music was. Still, when it comes to revivalist bands, I definately think that Kid Ory's band takes the biscuit.

Must admit that the "Revivalist" bands always seemed a bit spurious to me and never sounded anything like the groups led by Armstrong, Oliver or Morton. As much as I love 1920's jazz, the "Revivalist" always sounded to me like they had their own agenda as opposed to continuing an earlier vintage. Initially, I always felt that the sounded a bit phoney. It wasn't until I heard Freddie Keppard for the first time a few years back that someone like Johnson actually made any sense and all the pieces of the puzzle came together. Keppard's music seem far cruder and basic that the sophisticated and educated music of Morton. Even King Oliver sounds more ahead of his time when compared with one of the very early pioneers like Keppard. It is this kind of archaic music from which someone like Bunk Johnson was taking his cues. You can also get a flavour of this from some of the Lomax interviews ith the likes of Johhn St. Cyr, etc. All of a sudden, I could appreciate exactly where this music was coming from.

Shame that the Capitol studios weren't around to catch this music in the 1920's!

The oddest thing (other than the "over the top" version of "Stack o' Lee") was that Purnell's contemporaries would have been players like Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, Art Tatum and Artie Shaw as opposed to the likes of JRM.

[charles t]

" i am afraid to say that New Orleans leaves me in a more negative mood than just unmoved ... but then that's me innit ... "

Well, Calum, for the visitor to the 'Easy', the decade with which the visit coincided, would affect the experience.

I was lucky to visit Preservation Hall while Kid Thomas, Sweet Emma Barrett and other heavy-trad cats were appearing...

While on another night, strolling down Bourbon Street, I saw a barker for an 'Adult' club, hold the door open long enough so that a black family with a little child walking, by could observe the filth taking place on the bar!

And post-Katrina, hearing how Hilton Ruiz, New York jazz pianist, had volunteered his playing time to help out, and was later found beaten to death outside the club he had appeared. (The infamously corrupt New Orleans Police Dept. determined he had fallen on the sidewalk!)

Your online buddy - Alyn - has written extensively about the early scene, as well as writing the preface of an autobiography by guitarist Danny Barker.

(Barker's New Orleans jazz survey - Bourbon Street Black - is another fine read.)

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

not the place Chas ... never been there .... but here in the London fogs of the late fifties and sixties New Orleans had a culturally idiosyncratic reference ....

[Ian Thumwood]

Calum

My parents went to New Orleans as part of a cruise just before Katrina as my Dad had always wanted to visit the city. I think he found it an amazing experience , especially the visit to Preservation Hall and a museum that celebrated Louis Armstrong. However, he did say that there were parts of it which seemed extremely seedy and, if you took the wrong turn, I imagine that it could have been quite shocking. There has always been a strong "counter-culture" element from what I have read and seen in documentaries and, for certain decades in the 19th century, would have been considered really liberal for its time - a bit like London in the preceding century perhaps?

Have you ever heard the JRM library of Congress recordings as they show a very different light on the city? Being remote from someone like New Orleans will always mean that people who love the music will always look at the city through rose tinted glasses but even in Morton's time it seems that the law was not enforced quite as strictly as elsewhere and certainly not in the UK. Having listened to all the CD's, I loved the musical history but wouldn't be sure if I would have liked to visit New Orleans at that time or atleast the kind of places Morton frequented! I don't think the appeal of N.O. jazz will ever cease and because the music went unrecorded during it's conception and proper, thorough historical research research is always casting this music in a new light, the origins of jazz will always be debated. More me, the birth of jazz is as compelling as an event such as the Norman Conquest - people will continually look at the history from a fresh perspective, address history from a particular bias and find new things to say.

I think the likes of Ken Colyer did manage to capture the true spirit of the music pretty accurately and , with the passage of time, with no less authenticity than some of the recordings on JL. I can understand the pull of Modern jazz in the 50's / 60's, but I think the Revivalist movement did produce some valid moments even if listening to the likes of George Lewis does give me a few anxious moments. The brass players appeal more than the clarinetists and, having been listening to some Lester Bowie on Youtube whilst working over the weekend, it is interesting to find similarities between this "Avant gardist" and the more traditional aspects of jazz.

On the subject of "Early music", I discovered this group last week and, although I an more intrigued by the music than a fan, thought it was an interesting insight following the thread about string bands in New orleans on the old board. Not really my bag, but the research into this music would be fascinating:-

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

one of the most pleasing aspects of this universe is that there are always some kids somewhere in a room JAMMIN