Product Description

PE0151. That Devilin’ Tune - A Jazz History, Vol. III, incl. Count Basie, Harry James, Willie the Lion Smith, Lionel Hampton, Eddy Condon, Glen Miller, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, etc. (E.U.) 9-West Hill Radio Archives WHRA 6005, recorded 1934-45. Long out-of-print, Final Sealed Copy! - 4015023160057
CRITIC REVIEW:
“The musical landscape that gave birth to jazz during the late 19th and early 20th centuries has seldom been accurately depicted, and is still only partially understood even by the few who try to interact with it on more than a superficial level. While artificially imposed genre delineations have long been used to organize and market audio recordings, they often make a mockery of the diverse culture within which the music evolved. When in 2006 the West Hill Radio Archives brought out the first of four sizable box sets of nine CDs, each containing a total of 851 examples dating from 1895-1950, the producers of the series achieved an unprecedented degree of panoramic comprehensiveness. Vol. 1, a varied and unusually inclusive core sample of historic recordings, traces the multifaceted roots of the tradition by including much of what was in the air when the earliest glimmers of jazz began to appear. (All that is missing, it seems, is the influence of Italian opera and European art music, although these elements are certainly detectable here and there.) Practically everything else that has anything to do with the simultaneous inception of jazz throughout North America is represented here. That includes syncopated orchestral novelties, cakewalks, and ragtime; topical ditties played by military bands and wind ensembles; early vocal harmony groups; traditional folk, and Tin Pan Alley pop; tap dancing, vaudeville, and minstrelsy; Caribbean and Latin American dance music; blues, barrelhouse, jug bands, stride piano, hot jazz, big bands, and early swing.
THAT DEVILIN' TUNE, the song for which the collection was named, is heard performed by Broadway star Stella Mayhew (1875-1934), mainly remembered today for a series of Edison records she cut with vocalist Billie Taylor in 1910 and 1912. The inherent inference of the title is unmistakable -- stage performers, and especially jazz musicians, were saddled with small-minded pejoratives from the get-go, and blues in particular was singled out as ‘the devil's music’." What makes this anthology so thrilling is the inclusion of rarities by artists both legendary and little-known. Bert Williams, Bessie Smith, Sophie Tucker, Al Jolson, Freddie Keppard, Fats Waller, and W.C. Handy co-exist with John Philip Sousa, Voss' 1st Regiment Band, an Argentine tango ensemble known as the Orquesta Typica, and the Brazilian Grupo Bahianainho. Listen for James P. Johnson's very first solo record; Trinidadian pianist Lionel Belasco's Barbados-inspired ‘Bajan Girl’, and ragtime pioneer Ben Harney's phonograph cylinder from 1925. ‘Deacon Jazz’ and ‘Oh How I Love My Darling’ are drawn from near the very beginning of Duke Ellington's discography; the nominal leaders of the zippy little band heard on these sides were drummer Sonny Greer and vocalist Joe Trent. This is a breathtaking reservoir of great old-time music. It is not overkill, nor has it been thrown together haphazardly like so many other quarry-sized compilations. Well-worth investigating not only for the presence of old friends like Bix Beiderbecke, Jelly Roll Morton, and the Boswell Sisters, but especially ever heard before.
- arwulf arwulf, allmusic.com
TRACK LISTING:
Disc 1:
1. Chillun Get Up
2. Night Is Blue
3. Let's Get Together
4. U Samovara y Ya Maj Masha (At the Samovar with Masha)
5. Sendin' the Vipers
6. Linger Awhile
7. Jelly Roll Blues
8. Moon Country
9. Serenade to a Wealthy Widow
10. State Street Rag
11. Bugle Call Rag
12. Travelin' Man
13. Moonglow
14. Down South Camp Meeting
15. Frisky Honey
16. Riddle Rhythm
17. Caroline
18. Dinah
19. Way Down Yonder in New Orleans
20. Smiles
21. Throwing Stones at the Sun
22. Lookie, Lookie, Lookie...
23. Between the Devil...
24. I Ain't Got Nobody
25. Tap Room Special
Disc 2:
1. Moonglow
2. Four or Five Times
3. Sheik of Araby
4. Hesitation Blues
5. Triflin' Gal
6. I Don't Want to Make History
7. Until the Real Thing Comes Along
8. On the Sunny Side....
9. Echo in the Dark
10. Oh Baby Maybe Someday
11. Two Old Maids
12. Derby Town
13. Shoe Shine Boy
14. Mama Don't Allow
15. My Blue Heaven
16. Swing Low Sweet Chariot
17. John's Idea
18. Blues
19. More Than Somewhat
20. Blues in Disguise
21. Alexander's Ragtime Band
22. Sun Showers
23. After You've Gone
24. Havin' a Ball
25. Liza
Disc 3:
1. Sweet Sue
2. My Little Lady (Hadie Brown)
3. Blue Rhythm Fantasy
4. When My Dreamboat Comes Home
5. Goo
6. Swingin' at the Cat and Chew
7. Tea for Two
8. Nice Work If You Can Get It
9. Diga Diga Doo
10. Sweet Georgia Brown
11. Business After Midnight
12. Good Morning Blues
13. St. Louis Blues
14. You and Me That Used to Be
15. Bill Coleman's Blues
16. Somebody Loves Me
17. Nice Work If You Can Get It
18. Texas Chatter
19. Banjo Rag
20. Stardust on the Moon
21. Dimuendo in Blue
22. You Took Advantage of Me
23. Jim Jam Stomp
24. You Had an Evening to Spare
25. Tiger Rag
26. Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland
Disc 4:
1. Everybody's Tryin' to Be My Baby
2. Very Thought of You
3. Daddy Let Me Lay It on You
4. Passionette
5. I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket
6. Mary's Idea
7. Way Down Yonder on New Orleans
8. When Buddah Smiles
9. Alley Woman Blues
10. Pussy Pussy Pussy
11. Liza Pull Down the Shades
12. Stompin' at the Honky Tonk
13. Smokey Mary
14. Scotch and Soda
15. Lillypop
16. Ocean Motion
17. From AB to C
18. When I Grow Too Old to Dream
19. Winin' Boy Blues
20. Lonesome Zroad
21. Lady Be Good
22. Dixie Jamboree
23. I Ain't Lazy (I'm Just Dreamin')
24. You Took Advantage of Me
25. Peter Tambourine
26. My Heart Belongs to Daddy
Disc 5:
1. High Society
2. Blues My Baby Gave Me
3. Just a Little Swing
4. Chicken Rhythm
5. Jumpin Jive
6. Fare Thee Honey Fare Thee Well
7. Grand Terrace Shuffle
8. Don't Leave Me
9. I've Lost My Head Over You
10. Someday Sweetheart
11. If Dreams Came True
12. She's Sellin' What She Used to Give Away
13. Stardust
14. Strange Enchantment
15. Sugar
16. Washington and Lee Swing
17. There'll Be Some Changes Made
18. Volcano
19. Pagan Love Song
20. Eel
21. That's on Jack, That's On
22. Diga Diga Doo
23. Old Man River
24. Spain
Disc 6:
1. Milenberg Joys
2. Save It Pretty Mama
3. Sweet Subsitute
4. Gravier Street Blues
5. I Surrender Dear
6. Lament for Javanette
7. Harlem Air Shaft
8. I'd Be Lost Without You
9. Moonlight on the Ganges
10. New Falling Down Blues
11. Major and Minor Stomp
12. Chlow
13. I Never Knew
14. I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles
15. Good Man Is Hard to Find [Excerpt]
16. Pickin' the Cabbage
17. Baby Dear
18. Lafayette
19. Moten Swing
20. Careless Love
21. Contrasts
22. Moten Swing
23. Swingmatism
24. Tryin' to Be True
Disc 7:
1. Melancholy Baby/Rhythm Riff/Nice Work If You Can Get It [Excerpts]
2. Stardust
3. Melancholy Baby
4. Lullaby to a Dream
5. Blowin' Up a Breeze
6. Flo Flo
7. Georgia on My Mind
8. Anitra's Dance
9. Just a Sittin' and a Rockin'
10. Jig Walk
11. Portrait of a Guinea Farm
12. Pixie from Dixie
13. Menelik
14. Suite 8
15. Nowhere
16. Good for Nothin' Joe
17. Apollo Jump
18. Benny's Bugle
19. When Cootie Left the Duke
20. Nague
21. Loose Lid Special
22. What's the Use of Gettin' Sober...
23. Mound Bayou
Disc 8:
1. Johnny Come Lately
2. Sweet Lorraine
3. If I Didn't Love You
4. Tea for Two
5. Buster's Last Stand
6. Cherokee
7. Concerto in F
8. I Found a New Baby
9. Stardust
10. Tess' Torch Song
11. Singin' in the Rain
12. Sweet Georgia Brown
13. Night in Tunisia
14. Jada
15. In a Mist
16. Tea for Two
17. Sweet Lorraine
18. Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams
19. St. Louis Blues
20. Angry
21. Twilight in Teheran
22. Dee Dee's Dance
23. Two Spoons in an Igloo
24. Grand Central Getaway
Disc 9:
1. Body and Soul
2. What Is This Thing Called Love
3. Caravan
4. Stardust, Pt. 2
5. Ranbow Mist
6. Woody 'N You
7. Short Circuit
8. 1944 Stomp
9. Floogie Boo
10. Come Over to My House
11. On the Sunny Side of the Street
12. I Cover the Waterfront
13. Black, Brown and Beige: Three Dances
14. Mutt's Blues
15. I Wonder
16. When My Man Comes Home
17. Light Calvary Overture
18. Sugar
19. Footnotes to a Summer Love
20. Up Jumped the Devil
21. Alexander's Ragtime Band
22. You Always Hurt the One You Love
23. Who