Harlem Style Hot Jazz - Waldo's Gutbucket Syncopators

 

Harlem Blues

Harlem Style Hot Jazz

Waldo's Gutbucket Syncopators

Producer: Big Al Mothershead, the ragtime millionaire

Recording: Fred Derf

Tune Notes: Frank Powers

Dirty Shame Records STEREO DSR 2003

1979

From the back cover: ST. LOUIS SHUFFLE: Legend says this is one of nine tunes Fats Waller gave to Fletcher Henderson to cover the corpulent one's tab in a hamburger joint in 1926. It's a good story and sounds typical of Fats; it's a shame it isn't true. Actually, Fats always got composer credit along with co-authors Jack Pettis and Al Goering They played saxophone and piano respectively with Ben Bernie. How much Pettis or Goering had to do with the composition might be questioned, but in all fairness, they did pen some other decent hot instrumental without help from Waller. Pettis made the initial recording in December 1926. Henderson recorded the number twice in the spring of the following year, first under the name of the Dixie Stompers for Columbia's low cost Harmony subsidiary and, in a more developed Ron Redman orchestration, for the Victor Company. The version here is partially adapted by Frank Powers from the Robbins published stock orchestration and the Henderson recorded versions.

HARLEM BLUES: This is a neglected W. C. Handy masterpiece copywrited in 1922. As in many of the Handy blues it is partially adapted from folk sources. The main theme will be recognized as the folk song BEEN AROUND THIS OLD TOWN TOO LONG. But Handy was far more than a collector of folk lore. As this tune and others like AUNT HAGAR'S BLUES demonstrate, he was a master of complex harmony and musical form. The version here attempts to exploit and showcase those harmonic and structural complexities and contrast them to the sensuous abandonment of the free ensemble playing on the main theme. Frank Powers did the chart with editorial assistance from Eddy Davis.

WHEN ERASTUS PLAYS HIS OLD KAZOO: This tune was written by three tin pan alley tunesmiths, Larry Spier, Sam Coslow and Sammy Fain, in 1926. The definitive version is the one recorded by Johnny Dodds and his Black Bottom Stompers. During the New Orleans revival of the '40s and '50s the tune was resurrected. Gene Mayl's Dixieland Rhythm Kings recorded a version for Riverside in 1953. Trombonist Jim Snyder was inspired to bring this one to the band after hearing a more recent recording by the South Frisco Jazz Band, a group he subsequently has played with.

BOY IN THE BOAT: This piece, originally called THE ROCK, was written by Charlie Johnson, leader of the house band at Small's Paradise in Harlem during the '20s and '30s. Don't confuse this tune with a Harlem ditty of the same name which forms the basis for Fats Waller's SQUEEZE ME. Johnson's Paradise Or- chestra made a classic recording in 1928 that strongly suggests that Duke Ellington was not unique for playing in the so-called jungle style. This particular adaption by Frank Powers was previously recorded by Cincinnati's Queen City Jazz Band in 1961.

EVERYBODY STOMP: This hot dance tune was written in 1925 by Billy Meyers, an obscure early figure on the Chicago music scene, and Elmer Schoebel, a skilled jazz pianist and composer who worked and recorded with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. Schoebel is best remembered as a composer of Farewell Blues, Bugle Call Rag and his biggest hit, Nobody's Sweet- heart. Everybody Stomp was recorded by a number of hot '20s dance bands. The version that inspires this particular Powers arrangement is the one recorded by the Cotton Club Orchestra, a black group from the Middle West that eventually changed its name to the Missourians before being taken over by a hyper-active scat singer named Cab Calloway.

YELLOW ROSE RAG: This is Terry Waldo's rather successful attempt to compose a rag in the Joplin tradition. It was originally supposed to be incorporated in Terry's Warren G. Harding show, but fell victim to production considerations. It has subsequently been published in several forms. Waldo recorded a piano solo version on a earlier Dirty Shame recording (Snookums Rag, DRS 1237). This arrangement written by Frank Powers and the performance can be said to be a reaction to clinical orchestral interpretations of ragtime in recent vogue. Rags constitute a major portion of the library of early jazz and the performance of rags as jazz tunes and in a jazz style is both appropriate and wonderful.

ZULUS BALL: This is one of the most obscure of all the tunes re- corded by King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. Only one copy of that rare 1923 Oliver Gennett recording is known to exist. That worn platter was in the possession of Monte Ballou, the Portland, Oregon banjoist, reconteur and leader of the Castle Jazz Band. Biltmore, a bootleg reissuer of the early '50s, put out a dubbed version on 78 in that was nearly inaudible. Ballou's copy was eventually purchased by collector Robert Altshuler who then sold it to Herwin records where superior engineering by Nick Perl's produced a reasonably audible dubbing. The resulting LP recording of the Oliver Gennett's inspired Frank Powers to transcribe the number for Waldo's Gutbucket Syncopators. Thus, they become, as far as can be determined, the first band to perform and record this tune in over 50 years.

MANDY, MAKE UP YOUR MIND: This 1924 pop tune composed by George W. Meyer, Arthur Johnston, Grant Clarke and Roy Turk may be the nearest thing to a standard repertory item on this LP. Louis Armstrong was involved in two memorable recordings of this tune in 1924, one with Fletcher Henderson; the other with Clarence Williams' Blue Five. Maybe Muggsy Spanier recalled those records when he resurrected the piece for his Ragtime Band in 1939. Later versions are as diversified as Wild Bill Davison's effort with strings. and Turk Murphy's more barrelhouse rendering featuring the wonderful piano of Don Ewell. The band is indebted to banjoist Eddy Davis for setting right the changes for the last eight bars.

TERRY WALDO, leader and pianist, needs no introduction. From his headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, he authored a book on ragtime (THIS IS RAGTIME, Hawthorn, 1976), transcribed a folio of Eubie Blake piano compositions (SINCERELY, EUBIE BLAKE, Marks Music, 1975), composed the music for a Broadway show yet to premier based on the life of Warren G. Harding, produced a series of programs of recordings and comments on the history of ragtime for National Public Radio, and has still found time to perform as a soloist, accompanyist to singer Susan LaMarche and as leader of the Gutbucket Syncopators at festivals, concerts and night clubs throughout the United States. Terry is a protege of the vernerable Eubie Blake.

EDDY DAVIS, banjo, is a major star in the firmament of the New York traditional jazz, club and studio scene. Like Snyder, he is at graduate of the Original Salty Dogs. He has toured Europe exten- sively, recorded with his own group, Eddy Davis's Hot Jazz Orchestra, and performed with others like Vince Giardano's New Orleans Nighthawks and the Jazz A'cordes. Eddy and Terry first came together in New York where the former was conductor and orchestrator for the tranditional jazz group in pit for Terry's Warren G. Harding show. Eddy is one of the truly unique personalities in traditional jazz a virtuoso on several instruments, a skilled composer and orchestrator, an entertaining vocalist, and dedicated musical perfectionist.

LOUISE ANDERSON, tuba, a relative newcomer to traditional jazz, is a professional musician, orchestrator, composer and vocalist of many years experience in the folk, rock and classical fields. She dis- covered traditional jazz by accident when she stumbled into Arnold's, a traditional jazz hangout in Cincinnati. She retreated to her battered van; procured "Heinrich," an ancient tuba of Tuetonic origin, and assumed a position that has become permanent. She currently leads Arnold's Thursday night group, the Bluebird Jazz Band. Lou is a sought after studio musician doubling on both string bass and fender bass. She currently seeks a bass saxophone for her arsenal and plans to search for the elusive echo of Adrian Rollini.

FRANK POWERS, clarinet, tenor saxophone and arranger, is also a charter member of the Syncopators. His association with Roy Tate goes back 25 years. They worked together in various bands includ- ing Cincinnati's Queen City Jazz Band and Gene Mayl's Dixieland Rhythm Kings. Frank also played with Carl Halen's Gen Bottle Seven and appeared and recorded with the famous Boll Weevil Jass Band. His playing is an amalgam of clarinetist like Johnny Dodds, Jimmy Noone, Omer Simeon, Frank Teschmacher and Pee Wee Russell. He is generally conceded to possess one of the more distinctive sounds in traditional jazz. He is the orchestrator of six of the selec- tions on this LP. He is also a co-founder of the Classic Jazz Society of Southwestern Ohio.

HAL SMITH, drums, is a Californian deeply involved in Bay Area traditional jazz activities. He had met some of the syncopators through former WGS drummer Wayne Jones. When Hal appeared with the Euphonic Jazz Band at the Central City Jazz Festival in 1978 Terry asked him to sit in. Afterwards Jim Snyder commented, "We've been waiting seven years to hear those temple blocks on the Mooche." Hal is drummer for the Golden State Jazz Band in California, a group that features such traditional jazz luminaries as Bill Napier, Ev Farey, Bob Mielke and Carl Lunsford. He is also editor of the newsletter of the New Orleans Jazz Club of Northern California.

ROY TATE, trumpet, is a charter member of the Syncopators. He first attracted attention as the trumpeter with Monte Tabbert's Queen City Jazz Band of Cincinnati in the late '50s. Subsequently he worked with Gene Mayl's Dixieland Rhythm Kings and other groups. Waldo describes Roy (known as "Swine-chops" to insiders) as the last of the great freak players. This a reference to such black trumpet stylists of the late 20s like King Oliver, Louis Metcalf, and Jabbo Smith. Much of the unique sound of the band is attributable to Roy.

JIM SNYDER, trombone, joined the Syncopators in 1971. Prior to that he had been a mainstay with Chicago's Original Salty Dogs since college days. Snyder is one of the most respected players in traditional jazz and a totally committed band player. He must be considered among the top ensemble players of traditional jazz, yet he is a soloist as skill, taste and wit. Snyd is one of a battalion of trombonists in the Turk Murphy style, but it is said that he is Turk's personal favorite.