Jazz in the Public Domain

Jimmy Joy: Milenberg Joys, Clarinet Marmalade, Mama Will Be Gone. Dick Long: Hoop Em Up Blues, Bring Back Those Rock- A -Bye-Baby Days (Max Covert on trumpet). Goofus 5: Oh Mabel (voc, Billy Jones), Henderson: Jealous, Do That Thing (voc. Rosa Henderson), Mobile Blues, Chicago Blues, I Never Care About Tomorrow, Somebody Stole My Gal, He's the Hottest Man in Town, Lots O’ Mama, Red Nichols: Back Where the Daffodils Grow.This is all 1924 pre-Armstrong for the Henderson Orchestra. Do That Thing was a top selling hit. Jimmy Joy had a creative Austin,Texas band and Dick Long led a talented Minneapolis band. Five weeks at #1 as a hit for Ted Weems, Somebody Stole My Gal leads the way here in comic personality. Also in Mobile Blues we seem to hear a shoe shine towel. Red Nichols makes his debut with a Ramblers tune. He would eventually become a Rambler. Hawkins delivers a strong solo in Hottest. Lotsa Mama was a tune introduced by Schoebel who also provided Henderson with Prince of Wails. The 1924 Armstrong sides are featured on an earlier episode titled Pops.

Bucktown Blues, New Orleans Joys, Big Foot Ham, Kansas City Stomp, Tom Cat Blues, Frog-I-Moore Rag, London Blues, Original Jelly Roll Blues, Mamanita, Milenberg Joys (with NORK),Perfect Rag/Sporting House Rag, Shreveport Stomp, Stratford Hunch, 35th St Blues, London Blues (with band), The Pearls, Tia Juana, Wolverine Blues, Grandpa's Spells, King Porter Stomp, Mr. Jelly Lord (with NORK).The soft touch here, the high keys plink and sustain. Morton’s approach seemingly not jazz highlights the beauty of the touch and sound. Morton’s father was a bricklayer and he understood meticulous crafts. His tunes are indestructible regardless of the skill level, they sound good if the players play the notes. Here the piano gives the composer’s world and is complete by itself.These are definitive performances by the composer, not piano rolls. Morton put a lot of music into every tune. As with Heraclitus or the Mississippi, never the same river twice.The tunes meander through different strains so that they do not lend themselves to memory as does a theme and variations form. In the woods of notes there opens from time to time the clearing of an iconic strain, King Porter Stomp being an example. Lots of space in a tune and you feel it when it is taken away as in Grandpa’s Spells, as torrid background music to a silent slapstick, or the Perfect Rag or Shreveport Stomp. America post-Emancipation was the environment for this free expression, the national musical expression made possible under Lady Liberty. May the torch stay lit.

Sing Sing Prison Blues, Dying Gambler's Blues, Hateful Blues, House Rent Blues, Moonshine Blues, Pinchbacks Take Em Away, Frankie Blues, Ticket Agent Easy Your Window Down, Sorrowful Blues, Weeping Willow Blues, Work House Blues, Easy Come Easy Go Blues, Sinful Blues, Follow the Deal on Down. Here is the great presence of Bessie Smith as leading tragedienne in these music dramas on the operatic side whereas Ma Rainey seemed more about summoning transcendent experiences and Clara Smith was just letting you in on what’s happening.

Popular tunes from Morton and Oliver in 1923