Product Description

PE0152. That Devilin' Tune - A Jazz History, Vol. IV, incl. Coleman Hawkins, Stan Kenton, Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dizzie Gilespie, Dave Brubeck, Frank Sinatra, etc. (E.U.) 9-West Hill Radio Archives WHRA 6006, recorded 1946-51. Long out-of-print, Final Sealed Copy! - 4015023160064
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:
CD 1:
1. Blue Skies
2. Big Chief Pawnee
3. Good for Nothin' Joe
4. We'll Be Together Again
5. Sometimes I'm Happy
6. Don't Blame Me
7. I Wonder
8. Did You Ever Love a Woman
9. Cannonball Rag
10. I'm Confessin'
11. Swingin' on Central
12. Get Happy
13. Tall, Dark, And Handsome
14. Dizzy Atmosphere
15. Rifftide
16. Air Mail Special
17. Don't Blame Me
18. Revolutionary Blues, Pt. 1
19. Minor Riff
20. Barefoot Boy with Cheek
21. (From) Ebony Concerto
22. Mean to Me
23. Waiting for the Train to Come Home
CD 2:
1. 1919 Rag
2. Somebody Loves Me
3. Hollywood Hi Hat
4. 52nd Street Theme
5. Dodo's Bounce
6. Who Put the Benzedrine...
7. Pete's Lonesome Blues
8. 'Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do
9. Bebop in Pastel
10. Ecuador
11. Lady McGowran's Dream
12. China Boy
13. Something to Remember You By
14. Up a Lazy River
15. This Subdues My Passion
16. Junkman Rag
17. When I'm in My Tea
18. Lover Man
19. Naked City
20. Sweet Lorraine
21. Gambler's Dream
22. Over the Rainbow
23. Thermodynamics
CD 3:
1. I Found a New Baby
2. Serge's Urge
3. Ballin' the Jack
4. Baila La Conga
5. Improvisation for the March of Time
6. Save It Pretty Mama
7. Jazz Me Blues
8. Cyclops
9. Yesterdays
10. And That's for Sure
11. Blue Brew
12. On the Sunny Side of the Street
13. Half Step Down
14. So Easy
15. New York City Blues
16. Mingus Fingers
17. I'm Confessin'
18. Sweet Lorraine
19. Thermopolae
20. It's Only a Paper Moon
21. How Come You Do Me
22. My Little Brown Book
CD 4:
1. Alexander's Ragtime Band
2. Laura
3. Ritmo Afro Cuban
4. Blue Turning Grey Over You
5. Exactly Like You
6. Cherokee
7. Lady Be Good
8. Don't Blame Me
9. Slow Drivin', Pt. 1-2
10. Time
11. Shorty's Got to Go
12. Quejas de Bandoneon
13. Who's to Blame
14. Locked Out
15. Pomus Blues
16. Aintcha Got Music
17. Nightmare Allen
18. Jockey Blues
19. Garbage Can Blues
20. I Thought About You
21. What Is This Thing Called Love
22. Lonely Moments
23. Out of Nowhere
24. Bop Alley
CD 5:
1. Fine and Dandy
2. Tone Painting, Pt. 1-2
3. Somebody Loves Me
4. Off Minor
5. Leapin Leo
6. Just One of Those Things
7. Ana
8. Koko
9. Relaxin' at Camrillo
10. Monk's Mood
11. Polka Dots and Moonbeams
12. Tuxedo Junction
13. I Hear a Rhapsody
14. Out of the Blue
15. Seventh Avenue Express
16. Little Orgg
17. What Is This Thing Called Love
18. Half Nelson
19. Sil Vous Plais
20. Our Delight
21. Fuller Bop Man
CD 6:
1. Boperation
2. Wrong Road Blues
3. Cottontop
4. Just You Just Me
5. My Old Flame
6. Robbin's Nest
7. Wanderer's Swing
8. Relaxin'
9. Cuba
10. Keeps on Raining
11. Professor Bop
12. Overtime
13. Bee Jay
14. Lestorian Mode
15. Waterworks
16. Southside Swing
17. Focus
18. Out of Nowhere
19. Bird in Igor's Yard
20. T & S
21. Stan Gets Along
22. Bird of Paradise
23. Tempus Fugit
CD 7:
1. Grandpa's Spells
2. Gassin' the Wig
3. Perdido
4. Babylon
5. Scene Changes
6. I'm Confessin'
7. Tautology
8. Marshmallow
9. When Your Lover Has Gone
10. Cindy Lou
11. Spider's Webb
12. Out of Nowhere
13. Clarinet Marmalade
14. All God's Chillun Got Rhythm
15. Body and Soul
16. Southern Hospitality
17. Salt Your Pillow Down
18. Nice Work If You Can Get It
19. Come Rain or Come Shine
20. You May Not Love Me
21. Flying the Coop
22. Red Hills and Green Barns [Excerpt]
23. Solitaire
CD 8:
1. Apple Blossoms
2. Singin' in the Rain
3. Liza
4. Dancing on the Ceiling
5. New Piano Roll Blues
6. Song of the Wanderer
7. Ornithology
8. Lover Come Back to Me [Excerpt]
9. Love Lies
10. Short Wave
11. Zulu's Parade
12. I Hadn't Anyone 'Til You
13. Early Spring
14. Dusky and Sandy
15. Black and Blue
16. Signal
17. Seventh and Union
18. Panama
19. You Tell Me Your Dream
CD 9:
1. Doggin' Blues
2. Will You Still Be Mine
3. All the Things You Are
4. It Could Happen to You
5. Happening
6. Denial
7. Aviary
8. Godchild
9. Mark
10. With a Song
11. Ezz-Thetic
12. I'm a Fool to Want You
13. Weary Blues
14. Birk's Works
15. Polka Dot
16. Fireworks
17. Stardust