Face the Music 8.02.12

There was a beautiful gentle rain last night in our part of the world, and the air today is blessedly cool & peaceful. In order to celebrate the traditional Lammas holy day, this week's Face the Music broadcast/stream is dedicated to the earth where we live. The songs listed here may or may not actually be included, and the sequential arrangement should be understood to be approximate. Break bread together and be kind to the animals.  

Rainbow Dreams                                  Eddie Lang 1928

Deep Creek                                          Jelly Roll Morton & his Orchestra 1929

Damp Weather                                     Jones & Collins Astoria Hot Eight 1929

Canebreak Blues                                   Birmingham Jug Band 1930

Rainy Nights                                         Duke Ellington & the Washingtonians 1924

Sloppy Water Blues                               Fats Waller {pipe organ solo 1927}

Lake Michigan Blues                             Yank Rachell 1938

Back to the Land {2^nd version}              Lester Young Trio {Nat King Cole, piano} 1946

On the Sunny Side of the Street              Billie Holiday 1944

The Swampland is Calling Me               Willie the Lion Smith and his Cubs 1937

How Deep is the Ocean?                       Coleman Hawkins 1943

Some Rainy Day                                   Fats Waller & his Rhythm 1939

Take Me to the River                            Jabbo Smith’s Rhythm Aces 1929

Ol’ Man River                                       Bix Beiderbecke & his Gang 1928

Outrunning the Wind                              Shakin’ Jake Woods

Pine Creek                                            Albert Ammons & Pete Johnson 1943

Stormy Weather                                    Joseph Robichaux & his New Orleans Rhythm Boys 1933

The Good Earth                                    Woody Herman & his Orchestra 1945

Constellation                                         Charlie Parker's All Stars 1948

Michigan is experiencing severe drought and record breaking high temperatures. My response is to initiate a series of programs serenading the earth and especially the water element. Most of these recordings were made in the 1920s, 30s & 40s. The titles on this list will potentially and even probably air, but not necessarily in the exact sequence you see here.

water element radio – face the music 7-8 PM                   wcbn 88.3 fm – www.wcbn.org - 7.26.12

Muscle Shoals Blues                                                                  Fats Waller

Swampy River                                                                          Duke Ellington

Up the Lazy River                                                                     Bechet-Spanier Big Four

Riverside Blues                                                                         King Oliver

Michigan Water Blues                                                               Jelly Roll Morton

No Good Water Cause the Pond is Dry                                      Jaybird Coleman

Summertime                                                                              Sidney Bechet

Back to the Land                                                                       Lester Young

Chant of the Rain                                                                      The Cats and the Fiddle

Keeps On A-Rainin’                                                                  Bessie Smith

Malt Can Blues                                                                         Ike Rodgers & his Biddle Street Boys

By the Waters of Minnetonka                                                    Bob & Jim, the Genial Hawaiians

Down By the Old Mill Stream                                                    Irving Fazola & the Musical Maniacs

By a Waterfall                                                                          Bonzo Dog Band

Wabash Blues                                                                           Hoosier Hot Shots

Swanee River                                                                           Freddy Johnson & Django Reinhardt

Stormy Weather                                                                        Joseph Robichaux

Blue River                                                                                Bix Beiderbecke Centennial Band

As Ann Arbor prepares to be occupied by a lot of people from out of town who will use a lot of the town to sell a lot of stuff to a lot of other people from out of town, this is at least the seed bed for the playlist I plan to use during Thursday night's broadcast on WCBN 88.3 FM www.wcbn.org

Face the Music           art?          71912

No Parking      The Cotton Pickers      1928-1929       Timeless Historical

That’s No Bargain      Red Nichols' Five Pennies      Hot Trumpets       ASV Living Era

Easy Money      Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra      A Study in Frustration      Columbia

Selling That Stuff      The Hokum Boys      1929      Document

Rippin’ It Off      Five Harmaniacs      Harps Jugs Washboards & Kazoos 1926-1940      Document

Buck Dance {body percussion}      J.W. Jones & Ephram Carter      Traveling Through the Jungle: Fife & Drum Band Music from the Deep South      Testament

Untitled Phrases from Cartoon Soundtrack      Meade Lux Lewis      Alternate Takes, Soundies, Etc.      Document

I Want a Hot Dog for My Roll      Butterbeans & Susie      1926-1927      Document

Selling the Jelly      Noah Lewis Jug Band      Gus Cannon & Noah Lewis Volume 2      Document

Any Rags?      Wooden Joe Nicholas      Wooden Joe Nicholas      American Music

Foot Scuffle      Joseph Robichaux & his N.O. Rhythm Boys      1933      Document

Hot Heels      Eddie Lang      A Handful of Riffs      ASV Living Era

Hello Mabel      Bonzo Dog Band      Cornology      EMI

Bow Wow Blues      Original Dixieland Jazz Band      1917-1936      French RCA

Hook, Line & Sinker      Humphrey Lyttelton & Graeme Bell      The Other Parlophones 1951-1954      Sackville

All the Whores      Bunk’s Brass Band      Bunk Johnson 1945 Sessions      American Music

Get the “L” On Down the Road      Bill Johnson’s Louisiana Jug Band      Frankie Half Pint Jaxon 1926-1929      Document

You Drink Too Much      Harlem Hamfats      1936-1937      Document

Diddy Wah Diddy     Leon Redbone

Justrite      Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra

how to modify a preconceived pre-show play list

Resubmitting as a post rather than a comment [just learning how to do this]

This list came together during the week as I heard different musical passages in my heart & head. I reworked the second half of the program at 7:20 this morning after realizing that my decision to end with Dodo Marmarosa's "Bopmatism" had originally grown out of a desire to air the Count Basie Orchestra's 1940 recording of Lester Young's "Tickle Toe". To my sensibilities the two pieces seem more than slightly related. Consulting Frank Buchmann-Moller's Lester Young 'solography' "You Got To Be Original, Man!" I encountered this passage describing the origins of 'Tickle Toe': "The theme has its own story, pointed out by Richard Sudhalter. Tickle Toe was a tap dancer and maybe also a drug pusher, but the most interesting thing here is the material used for the composition." Elements include "arpeggios taken from an exercise book for saxophone players which was widely used in the 1920s. Lester may have used that particular book and remembered some of the exercises." There is also a section that is "identical with a solo played by Bix Beiderbecke on a recording of 'When' by the Paul Whiteman band on March 12 1938". Confronted with this delightful evidence, and after listening to the Beiderbecke solo in question, I eliminated a Jay McShann recording from the list in order to make room for Bix & Prez, as it were. This also necessitated a restructuring of the second half of the playlist, so that it "sounded right" to my heart & head. An example of how a show can be cobbled together and tweaked around beforehand. 

This blog has been created in order to provide background for WCBN's Face the Music show. It is also an educational tool intended to illustrate what goes into the making of this broadcast each week.