THE BEST of JAZZ Swiney; Johnson's Motor Car

Home , Velma Middleton

Tri-Color Ribbon; Lonely Banna Strand; The Fontaine; L'Alouette; Madre, En la puerta; Soldier's Song; The Foggy Dew; Kevin Barry; Schlafe, mein Prinzchen; Adieu foulards. Whack Fol The Diddle; Song of Terence Mc- Msgr. F. Maillet, Director. THE BEST OF JAZZ Swiney; Johnson's Motor Car. ANGEL ANG 64024. IO-in. $2.98. Sung byjPatrick Galvin. Probably the most famous juvenile choir in by John S. Wilson Accompanied by Al Jeffery. the world is Les Petits Chanteurs d la Croix de STINSON SLP 83/84,/85. Io-in. $3.00 each. Bois of Paris, currently on tour in the U. S. Originally dedicated to a renaissance of History can offer nothing to compare with LOUIS ARMSTRONG Ireland's relentless Boo -year struggle for Gregorian chant, the group has broadened its musical scope At the Crescendo, Vol. r unity and independence - a struggle that considerably in the thirty has by no means ended. To oppose the years Msgr. Maillet has served as Director. When It's Sleepy Time Down South; haughty panoply of English power, the Angel offers a fair cross- section of the Jeepers Creepers; Tin Roof Blues; My Irish had only an ill -armed but uncowed Petits Chanteurs' repertory, running from Bucket's Got a Hole in It; Rose Room; rabble and the fitful genius of men like thirteenth -century Christmas carols to folk Me and Brother Bill; Lazy River; s'ain't Robert Emmet, Wolfe Tone and Padraic songs such as A La Claire Fontaine and What You Do; Perdido; Blues for Bass; Pearse. Yet for eight centuries the flower Alouette. As boys' choirs go, there is no Don't Fence Me In; Stompin' at the Savoy. Irish manhood battered gainsaying the pre-eminence of the Petits of itself to death in Louis Armstrong, trumpet and vocals; futile revolts or, like sad Chanteurs. They are brilliant, disciplined, the and glorious Trummy Young, trombone and vocals; service in any instantly responsive to the gifted conducting "Wild Geese," took foreign Barney Bigard, clarinet and vocal; Billy army fighting the English. of Abbé Maillet. Kyle, piano; Arvell Shaw, bass; Barrett Because the narrative ballad But instead of choosing songs that fit the has always Deems, drums; Velma Middleton, vocal. been a primary mode of Irish musical ex- choir's peculiar talents, Abbé Maillet fre- pression, all the bitter defeats, cruel repres- quently tries to adapt the song to their DECCA DL 8168. I2 -in. 49 min. $3.98. sions and martyred leaders have duly been talents. The result - overblown choral chronicled in song. "All these songs," effects, soaring boy sopranos - is injurious At the Crescendo, Vol, 2 to songs which rely for writes Patrick Galvin in the notes accom- their beauty upon Old Man Mose; Rockin' Chair; C'est simple, pure melodic Si panying this set, "are sung everywhere in lines. Despite an Bon; The Whiffenpoof Song; When You're occasional lack of definition, the sound is Ireland . . . They are in the air at one's Smiling; When the Saints satisfactory. Go Marching earliest breath. They are the atmosphere of In; Someday You'll Be Sorry; St. Louis Irish family and social life." And, through Blues; Back o' Town Blues; HALLY WOOD Big Mama's the centuries, they have served to fan the SINGS TEXAS FOLK Back in Town; Mop! Mop!; When It's flames of Irish resistance. SONGS Sleepy Time Down South. In this outstanding series of three ten - Sugar Babe; O Freedom; Worried Blues; Same personnel inch disks, Stinson has brought us the best When I Was Single; B'lieve I'll Call The of these Rebel Songs. Properly speaking, Captain; Farther Along; St. James Hospital; DECCA DL 8169. 12 -in. 45 min. $3.98. most do not qualify as folk songs; the lyrics Courting Case; Come and Go With Me; Love This is the fourth Armstrong have been composed and set to traditional Henry; Amazing Grace; concert to be Santa Claus Blues; LPed and it is airs. They are often trite, banal, vulgar. Red Apple Juice; Glory Hallelujah. becoming apparent that a But they are never innocuous. And at their point of diminishing returns has been best they are magnificent. STINSON SLP 73. to -in. $3. reached. Because Armstrong's concert repertoire is relatively stable, there are in- They are sung by Mr. Galvin, an Irish- As performer, collector and transcriber, evitable repeats along with repetitions of man of many talents, with guitar and banjo Hally Wood has devoted much of her life numbers already available on other disks. accompaniments by Al Jeffery. Galvin's to folk songs. This rich experience, plus a And there is the further factor that the pitch is not perfect; occasionally he is flat; highly developed respect for the rough- group around Armstrong is not what sometimes he fluff's a note completely. But hewn poetry it of the people, has shaped her once was. Gone are Teagarden, Hines and he sings in the true accents of Ireland, with hard, nasal, intense voice into a stirring in- Cozy Cole. Barney Bigard, for all he con- conviction and emotional integrity. Stin- terpretive instrument. tributes these days is as good as gone. son's reproduction is crisply natural. Miss Wood's talents have never been Trummy Young and Billy Kyle, two of the Any attempt to delineate a "best" among more manifest than in this album of Texas replacements, are capable jazz performers the three albums would be profitless, since variants of widely current blues, ballads, but they're scarcely in the same league with each contributes to an integrated whole gospel and work songs. Many were culled the men whose chairs they have taken. The much more effective than any of its parts. from the monumental Texas collection made comparison between the Trummy Young - more than twenty years ago by John A. Armstrong Rockies' Chair on this recording and Alan SHARONA ARON SINGS ISRAELI Lomax. Miss Wood's versions and the Teagarden -Armstrong version is SONGS preserve the flavor of dirt farms, prison painful although, in all fairness to Young, camps, crossroad churches and the hot, At At; Roeh Vi roah; Gizratech; Ada; this is pitting him against the most formid- endless plains. Stinson provides Orchah Bamidbar; ChofShaket; Habokrim; bright, able competition with the cards stacked Shir full -range reproduction. Finjan; Hanava Babanot; Dodi Li; Li or against him. But Armstrong himself is still a practi- Hazichronot; Im Bá arazim; Laila, Laila; LES BORDS DU SAINT LAURENT Yoram; Noomi, Naomi Nim. cally peerless performer and no disk on ANGEL ANG 65018. £2-in. $3.98. French Canadian Folk Songs which he appears can be casually dis- Sung by Pierrette Champoux missed. Of these two, Volume 2 is easily A splendid selection of songs currently Accompanied by Samuel Levitan, pianist the better since it has fewer specialties by popular in the vigorous new nation that and Jacques Verdon, fiddler. Armstrong's sidemen and, consequently, has shattered the loo -year sleep of the Middle more Louis. It has the best Louis, too ESOTERIC ES 536. 12 -in. $5.95. - East. Sharona Aron, an Israeli with a charm- the straightforward and rather pretty Louis ing, relaxed vocal style, manages to con- of Someday You'll Be Sorry Pierrette Champoux is a sometime Radio - and When vey the piquant blend of old and new, tradi- TV performer north of the border. This You're Smiling, the crisply rhythmic Louis tion and innovation, desert and factory that record offers solid proof that she is without of C'est Si Bon and the fun -loving Louis in characterizes Israel. Angel has given her peer in her specialty of French Canadian his delightful whiffenspoof of boppery in clean, intimate sound, making this a superior folk songs. The Whi/enpoof Song. The recording is record in every sense. Her deep, beautifully controlled alto particularly good for a location job. ranges over these songs with verve and warmth. Mlle. THE LITTLE SINGERS OF PARIS Champoux's singing of the poignant, lovely but deceptively COUNT BASIE AND HIS ORCHES- (Les Petits Chanteurs d la Croix de Bois) - simple -A la Claire Fontaine is a delight to the TRA Two Thirteenth- Century Noels; Chanson joy- ear. Basie ewe de Noel; Noil from Savoy; A la claire Unequivocally recommended. Perdido; Ska- Di -Dle- Dee -Bee -Doo; Two

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