The Music Man Goes Dixieland - Jimmy McPartland

 

Ya Got Trouble

The Music Man Goes Dixieland

Jimmy McPartland's All-Stars

Produced by James Foglesong

Epic LN 3463

From the back cover: By Eddie Condon, spurred by Richard Gehman

At one point in The Music Man, Meredith's musical – Meredith Willson, that is – which has been doing nothing but ropes-up-no-ma'm-no-seats-for-tonight business ever since it opened in New York, a mummer named Robert Preston introduces the Think System of musical instruction, a method which may replace Schillinger and certainly endangers all others. According to the way this operates, you just think what you're going to play and everything comes out bearable, if possibly not tuneful.

No such system was used on the record in this sleeve, except beforehand. Jimmy McPartland, more commonly known as Scotch by name and by consumption, was approached by Epic to get together some convivial souls to do a jazz session of The Music Man score, and he did some thinking. He thought back to all the knaves he'd enjoyed playing with over the years and tried to pack as many of them as possible into that converted church in the Thirties that Epic uses as a studio.

Jimmy thought up quite a cast, and the cast in turn got loose on some music. This note would end right here if it weren't for the fact that a few high spots ought to be indicated. For one thing, there are Dick Cary's arrangements, which are not arrangements in the straitjacket sense of the word but are merely outlines which give the guys plenty of freedom to do whatever comes into their noodles. Jimmy said the other day, "My idea was to make it like Dixieland, to give it the flavor, but also to make it like a production." Cary, the fugitive from Hartford (he got out of there just before the society bands entrapped him permanently), was enlisted – and if there's anybody who hears these bands and thinks he didn't do a championship job, I'm applying to Jimmy the Goofer for work.

Another high spot are the sides on which McPartland's cornet sounds as though it had had a drink of Scotch. I've known this gentleman for thirty-five years, an while there have been times when neither of us have felt like climbing up on the stand, there have never been times when we didn't insist on playing. McPartland arrived in the studio on January 2, 1958, flush with holiday health, and blew a few trial blasts. Quoth he, "this thing sounds like a cazoo, like." And it did. He looked in the bell, he blew it again, and still there was that cazooey-wooey sound. Then he remembered what had happened. His grandson, Douglas, who has witnessed the passage of eight full years, had been eating a gang of nuts the day before. After finishing off the nuts he asked to blow Grandpa's horn. The result: when Jimmy tired to play, he sounded like a nutty cazoo. Fortunately, the cazoo phase lasted only a few minutes and McPartland go back to above normal, as anybody who bothers to listen will swear.

Some of the men on these numbers have known each other for more than three decades – Bud Freeman, George Wettling, Jimmy and I, for example. A few go back twenty years – Maxie Kaminsky, Coleman Hawkins, Cutty Cutshall. And some are more recent, but equally strong arrivals. McPartland, who appears by courtesy of Capitol Records, better than anybody knows anybody else. She's his wife.

In addition to setting the arrangements – pardon, the outlines – Cary played everything in sight: celeste (a la glockenspiel), also trumpet, alto horn, alto everything else. George the Wet also played an unusual item, the old-fashined temple blocks.

As far as standouts solos are concerned, I modestly refrain from mentioning my own contributions, preferring to defer to such performances as those of Bill Bell on tuba, Freeman and Hawkins chasing each other, Pee Wee Russell and Bob Wilbur doing the same thing, Tyree Glenn's trombone and plunger, Maxie Kaminsky's lead horn (especially in Seventy Six Trombones), McPartland's work with the Harmon mute, Charlie Shaver's trumpet, Marian's piano, Cutty's trombone, Cliff Leeman's drumming and Lou McGarity's big-toned trombone. That covers just about everybody, but if I overlooked anybody, blame it on McPartland's Scotch.

The personnels and the dates are as follows:

December 20th, 1957

"Marian The Librarian"; "Seventy Six Trombones."

Jimmy McPartland, Max Kaminsky, John Glasel, trumpet; Dick Cary, "F" trumpet, alto horn, celeste; Tyree Glenn, Cutty Cutshall, Vernon Brown, Al Gusikoff, trombone; Peanuts Hucko, clarinet; Marian McPartland, piano; Cliff Leemans, drums; Bobby Haggart, bass; Bill Bell, tuba; Billy Bauer, guitar; George Berg, tenor sax and bassoon.

January 2nd, 1958

"Till There Was You"; "It's  You"; "Iowa Stubborn."

Jimmy McPartland, Max Kaminsky, John Glasel, trumpet; Dick Cary, "F" trumpet and alto horn; Cutty Cutshall, Lou McGarity, Frank Rehab, trombone; Sol Yagen, clarinet; Marian McPartland, piano; George Wettling, drums; Bill Crow, bass; Sal Salvador, guitar; Bud Freeman, tenor sax; Billy Stanley, tuba.

January 3rd, 1958

"Gary Indiana"; "The Well Fargo Wagon."

Jimmy McPartland, Max Kaminsky, John Gasel, trumpet; Dick Cary, "F" trumpet, alto horn, prepared piano; Cutty Cutshall, Lou McGarity, Al Gusikoff, trombone; Pee Wee Russell, Bob Wilbur, clarinet; Marian McPartland, piano; George Wettling, drums; Bill Crow, bass; Eddie Condon, guitar; Bill Stanley, tuba.

January 16th, 1958

"Goodnight My Someone"; "The Sadder-But-Wiser Girl For Me"; "Lida Rose" w/ "Till There Was You"; "Ya Got Trouble."

Jimmy McPartland, Charlie Shavers, trumpet; Cutty Cutshall, trombone; Bud Freeman, Coleman Hawkins, tenor sax; Peanuts Hucko, clarinet; Cliff Leemans, drums; Eddie Condon, gitaar; Milt Hinton, bass; Gene Schroeder, piano.

Seventy Six Trombones

Iowa Stubborn

Ya Got Trouble

Lida Rose and Will I Ever Tell You

Goodnight My Someone

Gary, Indiana

The Wells Fargo Wagon

Till There Was You

Marian The Librarian 

It's You

The Sadder-But-Wiser Girl For Me