This month: Leon Redbone talks t0 Pbilip Watson

Each month we test a musician with a to do it. So they can come in handy for other was a better singer than in many things. ways, but because he had that destructive series of records which they're asked to edge to his life, he wasn't as well-known. comment on and out of five" with "mark - SONNY TERRY You see everybody has their own personality no prior knowledge of what it is "I've Been Your Doggie Since I Been to contend with and in his case he was a big they're hearing! Your Man" from The Folkway Years boozer, and a party type of a person, and, 1944 63 (Smithsonian Folkways). who knows, he had health problems as well Brownie McGhee (g); Terry (hmca, voc); I'm sure. But Edwards gets five because he ArrHoucH HE is probably best JC Burris (bones). was a wonderful conveyor of a tune and he known in the UK for "So, Relax", his music was able to do it even if he was totally out of to the InterCity "Kick off your shoes" com- (Immediately) Sonny Terry. Brownie it, drunk out of his mind. mercial, Leon Redbone is a musician of McGhee. Sonny's certainly the greatest har- But this is very definitely from the period infinitely greater resources. Time-locked in a monica player in that style. He fits into the I love. The years between 1900 and 1915 78rpm era somewhere between 1900 and classification of the purely acoustic acts, back were the world's attempt to be civilised, and 19)5, singer, guitarist, banio and harmonica to the real roots of the and the tradi- there was a strong movement for people to player Redbone eschews modern popular tions ofthe 1880s variety shows. This is the try to release themselves from the shackles of forms in favour of earlier blues, ragtime, reai stuff. There's no frills to it; there can be imperialism and create a more equitable vaudeville and minstrel show tradirions. no luxury tax imposed on that kind of world. Consequently his low, gravelly baritone is playing. lt s srmpie and as pure as you can influenced by such singers as , get from a person to an instrument, without GEORGE FORMBY and Bing Crosby. going from person to instrument to electric- "It's Turned Out Nice Again" (Regal Redbone is also renowned for his on-stage ity to amplifiers and all that nonsense. From Zonophone MR 3066, 78rpm. Formby theatrics - between tunes he entertains with the standpoint of the innovative and pure (v, uke) with orchestra. light comedy, visual gags and hand-shadow harmonica player that Sonny was, it's a five. shows - and. in rhe US for wriring music ro (Starts whistling along) It's the Lancashire various TV and radio commercials for such BING CROSBY man. George Formby. I've always liked products as Budweiser, Kodak and Ali, the "Play A Simple Melody" from Bing Cros- George Formby, but if I had to be critical I great stain remover. His most recent UK by €t Friends (Magic). Crosby (v), would say that he was rhe utilitarian version releases are Sagar, his seventh, arld Christmas Groucho Marx (uke, v ). of . Because what he did was to Island (both Private Music), a collection of be entertaining. He was not bogged down by Yuletide favourites including "rJ7hite Christ- I've never heard that before. It's Groucho being a depressed individual; he wasn't going mas" and "Frosty The Snowman", which is to Marx with not Danny Kaye. Let me to sing the blues, he didn't have that edge to be re-promoted in November. A reluctant listen to it one more time. rJ7ell, it's a him. He was the ultimate and consummate and inscrutable interviewee, Redbone looks familiar voice, but I don't know. entertainer. And he did that about as good as like a cross between and It's Bing. yuu can ger. As far as getring any emorion Groucho Marx, and he answers in a humor- It's Bing Crosby! -Was it after an operation? out of anybody, it didn't happen. But no- ous, considered, knowledgeable drawl. Read It didn't sound anything like him; it was so body can really analyse or criticise him and his responses out aloud in a style as close to a off-key. He was a wonderful singer, but this his vocal ability - that's not the point his sober \WC Fields as you can muster. track sounds awful. In fact it's so bad, it's voice was perfect for reaching people in a unrecognisable. \What I admire about his comedic way. It's another five. HARRY RESER singing is his vocal technique which seems to "Crackerjack" from Banja Crackerjack be effortlessl it has a naturalness like Caruso. D'ANGO REINHARDT 1922 30 (Yazoo). Reser (bj). The thing that makes Crosby unique in the "Old Man Ri-ver" from Nuages (Yogue). annals of popular music is that he was the Reinhardt (g); Joseph Reinhardt (g); \7e11, I haven't heard that recording. It's the first person to sing in a relaxed tone. Before Eugdne Vees (g); St6phane Grappelli (George) Van Eps school of playing, but it's Bing Crosby, everybody was pretty formal - (vn); Fred Ermelin (b). not him. It must be Harry Reser. It was the diction had to be formal and the vowels marvellous playing, but some of his stuff pronounced correctly. Bing relaxed the tone That's Grappelli and Django. This is a late wouldn't amount to a tin of beans if it was into a conversational language. recording they were at their best in 1934 around today. It gives you a light sense, but Marks? because it was fresh then and they weren't it wasn't thought-provoking. The things What, based on that performance or his life? trying to be experimental. Plus, let's nor which affect me the most are things which \Well, it's zero for that track, but for Bing's forget the material from that earlier period are completely morose, romantic and melan- musical achievement and contribution, five. was more stable in its formula of progres- choly, rather than exciting. Yet this was sions; they were just good basic tunes. The probably perfect. I wasn't awfully taken with CLIFF "UKELELE IKE'' ED}VARDS late 40s, early 10s stuff went too way out on all of the notes, but the way they came out "Fascinatin' Rhythm" from Fascinatin' a 1imb. But then again the whole world was a that's about as good as it gets. Five. And a Rhyrbm (Totem). Edwards (uke, v); little out there in the 50s, gloating on the \W\)7II. little banjo goes a long way. I have an article Tony Mottola (g); Joe Tarto (b). rewards and spoils of And that on me about a man in Ohio who killed his recording was not the best; Grappelli missed wife with a banjo; in fact, he used two banjos (Immediately) Cliff Eclwards. Cliff Edwards all kinds of notes. For D jango, top marks.

*ire @ tnagazine il

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STAN FREBERG night. The justification for doing it is not ; I'd actually give him that. Because '26 "Green Chri$tma$" from The Best Of The iust that, basically, I wouldn't be doing this those RCA recordings, with his wonder- Capitll Yearc (Capitol). Freberg (v); interview without it, but that everybody and ful arrangements, the Red Hot Peppers, with Daws Butler, Marvin Miller, \(ill everything advertises, including animals. In select musicians, has got to be the ultimate \Tright (v) with TheJud Conlon Rhyth- fact they are genetically designed to advertise in jazz recording. Once you've listened to maires & Billy May's Music. they flash their sexual readiness. And rhac's those, you have to disregard everybody's exartly what mankind. after miJlion o[years. playing, certainly today. \7here's rhe aten- -JThere's has devised - a means of flashing the neces- tion paid to the melody? the order It's not the kinda thing I'm interested in. sary rcsponse from civilisation. in all the stuff today?Jelly would have hated Remotely. rJ7ho is it? Marks ? today's society and music - which allows It's Stan Freberg. lt's bis satire on aduertising. Zero. everybody to do what the hell they like as \7ell, it wasn't funny. (Pause.) long as they're having a. good time. His Vhat do yla ral t0 pelple who think your JELLY ROLL MORTON ultimate goal was not only to make every- adttertising uork sitt uncomfortably u,ith the "Mamie's Blues" from New 0rleans thing in a perfect order, with some emotion, sinctrity o{ th rur of yotr mtr:ic.) Memories Plus Two ( 1939 ) (Commodore). but to bring to the foreground the beauty of I say they're idiots. They don't seem ro Morton (p, v). the melody. And for that reason, if I had to realise that they survive in a world of adver- name one person who more or less encompas- tising, and they themselves are responsible (After three nores on the piano) "Mamie's ses all the thoughrs on music that I have it for it. If they wish to rerrear from this Blues". Jelly Roll. My opinion of Jelly Roll would have to be Jelly Roll. advertising world, they'll have to go to one of almost matches his opinion of himself. Marhs? those retreats in Greece where they only Altnost. 1'm one of those people who would You'd have to give Jelly Roll a perfect mark, allow one sex and praying from morning to even go along with his claim thar he invented whatever that perfect mark is five or 100.

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