Jazz

My LP fascination has once again blossomed, as it is wont to do every so often. The arrival of my super-expensive Tom Waits ‘Orphans‘ boxed LP set with exclusive tracks (even though I own the music already), finding a box of prized LPs from high school in my closet today, and the discovery of Neutral Milk Hotel’s ‘Aeroplane Over the Sea‘ on affordable vinyl have all been contributing factors.

Unless you are studied expert, it’s nearly impossible to tell what you’re looking at in any given tag sale. I’m not sure how many amazing gems I’ve passed up over the years, but there are a few rules I follow : buy everything jazz, buy everything printed on non-black vinyl, and buy everything that genuinely looks neat. Who knows if I’ve flipped right on past an $8000 copy of The Beatles’ ‘Please Please Me’? I’m more of a ‘Revolver’ kind of guy.

A recent set of eBay sales reveal a great, old jazz album that I wouldn’t have ever passed up, as it meets two of my criteria – Dexter Gordon’s Dexter Blows Hot and Cool from 1956, printed on red vinyl, which has recently been hovering around $3000 (a $2400 increase over a sale made just 5 years ago). This is his fifth album as a band leader.

Alternate copies on black vinyl, and reissues from Japan, also exist – so it’s not as if the music itself is exceptionally rare. It’s also available on CD and easily downloadable from legal sources. It’s simply the appeal of having a translucent, red jazz album.

In many instances, rare records are differentiated from common records by a few small printing differences on the jacket or the record’s label itself, and these variations are so minor that you really have no hope to find them without a lifetime of careful study. With many churches and libraries trying to clear out their donations of LPs for 25 cents each, you can literally purchase 100 LPs, and if you find three that are worth $10 each, you’ve already made a profit.

Soul records, things that you don’t recognize – at the very least, you’ll hear some music that you might dig.

“we must all own up that without Les Paul, generations of flash punks like us would be in jail or cleaning toilets.” Keith Richards

Music is such a major part of every day life, is it any wonder that collecting some aspect of this category reaches almost everyone. Name a household without a CD assortment or MP3 player, vinyl, tapes, sheet music, or musical instruments. Some of us have old Victrolas, radios, cassette players, tape players, or record decks when the collection is vintage. (My old radio doesn’t play old music)

Our affection for one form or another leads us to idolize the music makers, a particular genre, era or the instruments played.

Every so often an artist comes along with a lasting impact on a vast portion of the field of music and therefore creates collectibles for so many separate categories. Les Paul, a 92 year old performer, inventor, and innovator is such a person.

Every Monday night, the great guitarist carries his 92-year-old body and his 44-year-old Gibson onstage at the Iridium Jazz Club at 51st and Broadway in New York City. Still introduced as “The Wizard of Waukesha,” he does two shows – one at 8, one at 10 – in the basement nightclub.

In 1978 Les Paul and Mary Ford were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as recognition for their achievements. He also received a Grammy Trustee Award for lifetime achievements in 1983.

In 1988 Les was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Les Paul was inducted into the National Inventors Hall Of Fame in 2005 for his development of the solid-body electric guitar.

In 2006, he was inducted into the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame. He was also named an honorary member of the Audio Engineering Society.

He is a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. His many recording innovations include over dubbing, delay – such as sound on sound and tape delay, phasing effects and multi-track recording.

We only need to dig out the old vinyl of recordings with then wife Mary Ford, to hear examples of his innovative styling on records like Bye Bye Blues, How High the Moon, Hummingbird, Just Because, Tennessee Waltz, The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise & Vaya Con Dios.

Les had an early start in music before he played guitar he played piano. By 13, Les was performing semi-professionally as a country-music guitarist.

At the age of 17, Les played with Rube Tronson’s Cowboys. Soon after, he dropped out of high school to join Wolverton’s Radio Band in St. Louis, then moved to Chicago. His first records were released in 1936. Unsatified with the sound of electric guitars, he was experimenting with sound in the 1930s.

Later moving to California 1n the early 40s and working with greats like Nat King Cole, The Andrew Sisters and on Bing Crosby’s radio Show.

Les hosted a 15-minute radio program, The Les Paul Show, on NBC in 1950, featuring himself, Mary Ford, and Eddie Stapleton. Several recordings of these shows survive and are prized by collectors of old time radio programs.

Les even built his own wax-cutter assembly, based on auto parts. He used the flywheel from a Cadillac for its weight and flatness. Even in these early days, he used the wax disk setup to record parts at different speeds and with delay, resulting in his signature sound with echoes and birdsong-like guitar riffs.

The Ampex company, with Bing Crosby’s backing, created the Ampex Model 200, the world’s first commercially-produced reel to reel tape recorder. Bing gave Les Paul what was only the second Model 200 to be produced and Les immediately saw its potential both for special effects, like echo, and its suitability for multi-track recording, for which he is considered the father.

Using this machine, Les developed his tape multi-track system by adding an additional recording head and extra circuitry, allowing multiple tracks to be recorded separately and asynchronously on the same tape. Paul’s invention was quickly developed by Ampex into commercially-produced two-track and three-track recorders, and these machines were the backbone of the professional recording studio, radio and TV industry in the 1950s and early 1960s.

When he later began using magnetic tape, the major change was that he could take his recording equipment on tour with him, making episodes for his 15-minute radio show in his hotel room.

When the Waukesha County Historical Society announced a preview and wine tasting event in the historical old county courthouse and jail, now run as a museum, to raise both funds and interest in the future permanent interactive exhibit of the Les Paul collection of memorabilia, we just had to attend.

We will cover the event and plans for the collection in the Friday Blog.

April means that finally, after months of snow and cold feet and shoveling, I can once again return outside and pick through crates of dollar LPs and ten cent comic boxes in abandoned parking lots and cracked driveways. For the unabashedly acquisitive, especially those unlimited by such things as common sense and good taste, such an adventure is beyond compare.

This past weekend was a trek through Salvation Army locations, old book shops with half-blind dogs that sneezed in your face, and the Peekskill, NY Flea Market. While I found no less than four copies of Derek’s favorite ‘Whipped Cream and Other Delights‘ (and bought one), the prize LP find of the weekend was undoubtedly ‘Hairy Jazz‘, by Shel Silverstein and the Red Onion Band, dated 1959. The vendor had it priced at five dollars, but dropped it to three. I would have paid twenty, but I play my cards close. They’re usually worthless Ghostbusters trading cards anyhow. Mostly of Egon.

Yeah, THAT Shel Silverstein, noted childrens’ author and illustrator of great merit.

While I knew that he’d written some very well known songs for some very well known people, including ‘A Boy Named Sue‘ for Johnny Cash and ‘The Unicorn Song’ (which the Irish Rovers became noteworthy for playing), he was also responsible for a vast and prolific songwriting-and-performing career. ‘Hairy Jazz’ was Silverstein’s first album of eight original musical albums (followed by many re-releases, compilations and recordings of childrens’ poetry), only half of which made it to official CD release – this one not among them. Not only does this make the record collectible for its sheer Silverstein-ness and rarity, but it’s also the only opportunity for Shel Silverstein fans to even hear any of this music. Such is at the very crux of why I collect old vinyl – to recover lost gems stuck in old grooves. Luckily, the record was in pristine condition and made a great transfer to unscratchable, immortal digital files.

Silverstein, when not writing for children, often breached such exclusively adult topics as drug use and sex. This album, in fact, has a very fair selection of bawdily lyricized ragtime / dixieland era-type jazz, belted out in Silverstein’s signature raspy, caterwauling talk-singing voice. While ten of the tracks are jazz standards (made unique by Silverstein’s bombastic delivery), two are original Silverstein compositions. The editorial liner notes on the back of the LP are an excellent parody of the traditional copy of the era, rife with hyperbole about the artist contained therein being the most amazing thing to ever touch an instrument. “Once in a generation and artist of first magnitude appears full blown and instantly communicates with his public. Overnight, he took his place among the all time greats of the operatic world.” Indeed.

The spirit of fun found on this album is infectious, including an interpretation of the 1920s Williams / Piron composition ‘Sister Kate’, which was recently covered once again by the popular Ditty Bops. For anyone interested in Silverstein’s adult career, this album might be more easily found under its re-release title ‘Shel’s Stag Party’. You might check out any of 45 different Dr. Hook tunes, or ten different Bobby Bare albums, or a few different soundtracks. An extensive discography can be found at this link, clearly indicating that however iconic his career in writing for children was, his songwriting prowess completely dwarfed these accomplishments (and the Grammy that he won for his recording of How the Sidewalk Ends).

Please enjoy a sample song from this album as incentive to pursue this lost musical gem and others from Silverstein’s career. I present to you “Pass Me By (Like You Never Knowed Me)”, an original SIlverstein composition as found on Hairy Jazz. Enjoy.

This past weekend was my first weekend of freedom in about six years. For the past half-decade and then some, I’ve either been bogged down by term papers or employment on every available weekend day. Let me tell you, if you want to crush a man’s soul into a half-dead, mutilated thing, make him work every weekend for six years. This past weekend, however, were the first free days of my new work schedule, and the sunshine was never brighter. I celebrated by doing my favorite thing to do in just about ever : going to tag sales and flea markets.

I’m usually on the hunt for about seventy-five different classes of objects at any given rummage sale, half of them indescribable until I see them, so I never walk away dissatisfied. This weekend’s dozen or so local tag sales and parking-lot jamborees (not to omit the driveway hootenannies) brought me a fair collection of jazz guitar records, which I’ve slowly been adding to my collection while converting all of their lost songs into a digital format to preserve them and share them with select friends.

It all started about six months ago when I dug a handful of records out of the garbage after a book sale. Among the treasures was an album by a man named Rudi Vannelli called ‘Maestro of the Guitar‘. Solitary, solemn, bearing an odd resemblance to Vincent Price, and playing his guitar on the monotone cover, the record evoked some kind of secret peace and beauty that was new to me – and honestly, that’s a great gift that music can give. Especially music that you find in the garbage. Side 1 was interpretations of jazz classics, and on side 2 were classical arrangements.

So, I did a little bit of research on Rudi Vannelli, and I found that there’s more palpable proof that bigfoot exists. The man is a ghost as far as internet knowledge of him is concerned, having apparently recorded only one album in his lifetime, that album never making it to an official tape or CD release. From internet sources, I’ve been able to determine that this album was released by Verve Records in 1956 (and the recording sessions included some choice unreleased material), and that Rudi’s real name was Adolpho, sometimes ‘Adolph’. Of course, ‘Adolph’ wasn’t a very popular name any time after World War II, and Mr. Vannelli used the name ‘Rudi’, after Rudolph Valentino. Vannelli would play often in Boston’s Hotel Vendome, and I’ve been told that he’s somewhat of a musical legend in the area, studying under guitar legend Andre Sergovia. While the information I’ve found is sparse and not always accurate, an extraordinary and coincidental correspondence with a family friend of the Vannellis has reavealed a wealth of information regarding his career and personal life. The song that you’ll find below, ‘When Your Lover Has Gone’, was written by Vannelli for his wife, Kay.
With the agility of Django Reinhardt, the record sleeve makes sure that we know that there are NO overdubs in the recording. It’s Rudi and his ten fingers playing everything in real time. Stanley Jordan records would later make the same statements, the listener presumably disbelieving of a single guitarist’s dexterity and ability to play so many different things at once. Kaki King also keeps me in a state of complete amazement.
The record itself has reached prices of up to 75 dollars on rare album sites, and it’s been put onto an unofficial ‘bootleg’ CD – but the rest remains a mystery.

So, because the average jazz fan might not hear it otherwise, and I feel the need to preach the gospel of Vannelli, check out a few of his tunes and enjoy.

When Your Lover Has Gone

Yesterdays