A talented stride pianist, Claude Hopkins never became as famous as he deserved. He was a bandleader early on, and toured Europe in the mid-'20s as the musical director for Josephine Baker. Hopkins returned to the U.S. in 1926, led his own groups, and in 1930 took over Charlie Skeete's band. Between 1932-1935, he recorded steadily with his big... [+] Read More

A talented stride pianist, Claude Hopkins never became as famous as he deserved. He was a bandleader early on, and toured Europe in the mid-'20s as the musical director for Josephine Baker. Hopkins returned to the U.S. in 1926, led his own groups, and in 1930 took over Charlie Skeete's band. Between 1932-1935, he recorded steadily with his big band (all of the music has been reissued on three Classics CDs), which featured Jimmy Mundy arrangements and such fine soloists as trumpeter/vocalist Ovie Alston, trombonist Fernando Arbello, a young Edmond Hall on clarinet, and baritone and tenorman Bobby Sands, along with the popular high-note vocals of Orlando Roberson. The orchestra's recordings are a bit erratic, with more than their share of mistakes from the ensembles and a difficulty in integrating Hopkins' powerhouse piano with the full group, but they are generally quite enjoyable. Mundy's eccentric "Mush Mouth" is a classic, and Hopkins introduced his best-known original, "I Would Do Anything for You." Although they played regularly at Roseland (1931-1935) and the Cotton Club (1935-1936), and there were further sessions in 1937 and 1940, the Claude Hopkins big band never really caught on and ended up breaking up at the height of the swing era. Hopkins did lead a later, unrecorded big band (1944-1947), but mostly worked with small groups for the remainder of his career. He played with Red Allen's group during the second half of the 1950s, led his own band during 1960-1966, and in 1968 was in the Jazz Giants with Wild Bill Davison. Claude Hopkins led an obscure record for 20th Century Fox (1958) and three Swingville albums (1960-1963), but his best later work were solo stride dates for Chiaroscuro and Sackville (both in 1972), and a trio session for Black & Blue in 1974; it is surprising that his piano skills were not more extensively documented. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide [-] Hide

One of the top pre-bop pianists to be active during the past 30 years, Butch Thompson's piano playing stretches from Jelly Roll Morton and James P. Johnson to swing; he is also an excellent (if occasional) New Orleans-style clarinetist. In 1962, he joined the Hall Brothers New Orleans Jazz Band in Minneapolis, an association that lasted over 20... [+] Read More

One of the top pre-bop pianists to be active during the past 30 years, Butch Thompson's piano playing stretches from Jelly Roll Morton and James P. Johnson to swing; he is also an excellent (if occasional) New Orleans-style clarinetist. In 1962, he joined the Hall Brothers New Orleans Jazz Band in Minneapolis, an association that lasted over 20 years. Thompson has led his own trio since the mid-'60s, and during 1974-1986 he appeared regularly on Garrison Keillor's very popular radio series A Prairie Home Companion. Thompson has recorded extensively for many labels including Center, Jazzology, GHB, Stomp Off, and Daring. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide [-] Hide

One of the great jazz pianists of all time, James P. Johnson was the king of stride pianists in the 1920s. He began working in New York clubs as early as 1913 and was quickly recognized as the pacesetter. In 1917 Johnson began making piano rolls. Duke Ellington learned from these (by slowing them down to half-speed) and a few years later Johnson... [+] Read More

One of the great jazz pianists of all time, James P. Johnson was the king of stride pianists in the 1920s. He began working in New York clubs as early as 1913 and was quickly recognized as the pacesetter. In 1917 Johnson began making piano rolls. Duke Ellington learned from these (by slowing them down to half-speed) and a few years later Johnson became Fats Waller's teacher and inspiration. During the 1920s (starting in 1921), James P. Johnson began to record, he was the nightly star at Harlem rent parties (accompanied by Waller and Willie "The Lion" Smith) and he wrote some of his most famous compositions. For the 1923 Broadway show Running Wild (one of his dozen scores), James P. composed "The Charleston" and "Old Fashioned Love," his earlier piano feature "Carolina Shout" became the test piece for other pianists and some of his other songs included "If I Could Be with You One Hour Tonight" and "A Porter's Love Song to a Chambermaid."

Ironically James P. Johnson, the most sophisticated pianist of the 1920s, was also an expert accompanist for blues singers and he starred on several memorable Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters recordings. In addition to his solo recordings, Johnson led some hot combos on records and guested with Perry Bradford and Clarence Williams; he also shared the spotlight with Fats Waller on a few occasions. Because he was very interested in writing longer works, Johnson (who had composed "Yamekraw" in 1927) spent much of the 1930s working on such pieces as "Harlem Symphony," "Symphony in Brown" and a blues opera. Unfortunately much of this music has been lost through the years. Johnson, who was only semiactive as a pianist throughout much of the 1930s, started recording again in 1939, often sat in with Eddie Condon and was active in the 1940s despite some minor strokes. A major stroke in 1955 finished off his career. Most of his recordings have been reissued on CD. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Overshadowed through the years by his contemporary, Wally Rose, Burt Bales was a talented stride and ragtime pianist in his own right. He started playing piano when he was 12 and worked in California in the 1930s in various hotel and dance bands. Bales became part of the 1940s San Francisco jazz movement when he started playing with Lu Watters'... [+] Read More

Overshadowed through the years by his contemporary, Wally Rose, Burt Bales was a talented stride and ragtime pianist in his own right. He started playing piano when he was 12 and worked in California in the 1930s in various hotel and dance bands. Bales became part of the 1940s San Francisco jazz movement when he started playing with Lu Watters' Yerba Buena Jazz Band, but he was soon drafted (1943) and never officially recorded with the group (other than a session in which they were joined by Bunk Johnson). Poor eyesight resulted in his discharge from the service, and Bales led a band during 1943-1946 before becoming the solo pianist at the 1018 Club in San Francisco for several years. After stints with Turk Murphy (1949-1950), Bob Scobey, and Marty Marsala, Bales mostly performed as a solo pianist (1954-1966), often at Pier 23 in San Francisco. Although he spent a period outside of music working with electronics, Bales was active on at least a part-time basis until near his death. Bales recorded as a leader for Good Time Jazz (1949-1950), Arhoolie, ABC-Paramount, Euphonic (1975), and in a pickup group for the Sacramento Jazz Society. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Andy Kirk was never a major musician (in fact he never really soloed), arranger or personality yet he was a successful big bandleader in the 1930s and '40s. He started playing bass sax and tuba in Denver with George Morrison's band in 1918. In 1925 he moved to Dallas where he played with Terrence Holder's Dark Clouds of Joy. In 1929 he took over... [+] Read More

Andy Kirk was never a major musician (in fact he never really soloed), arranger or personality yet he was a successful big bandleader in the 1930s and '40s. He started playing bass sax and tuba in Denver with George Morrison's band in 1918. In 1925 he moved to Dallas where he played with Terrence Holder's Dark Clouds of Joy. In 1929 he took over leadership of the band (which was renamed Andy Kirk's Twelve Clouds of Joy) and moved to Kansas City. During 1929-30 they recorded some excellent hot performances with such players as pianist/arranger Mary Lou Williams, violinist Claude Williams and trumpeter Edgar "Puddinghead" Battle. Surprisingly Kirk's Orchestra was off records entirely during 1931-35 but in 1936 (the year it relocated to New York) it immediately had a pop hit in "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" featuring the high voice of singer Pha Terrell. In future years such fine soloists as tenor saxophonist Dick Wilson, the early electric guitarist Floyd Smith, Don Byas, Harold "Shorty" Baker, Howard McGhee (1942-43), Jimmy Forrest and even Fats Navarro and (briefly) Charlie Parker would be among Kirk's sidemen. However Mary Lou Williams was the most important musician in the band, both as a soloist and as an arranger. In 1948 Andy Kirk broke up the band (which had recorded mostly for Decca) and in later years ran a hotel and served as an official in the Musicians' Union. A lone "reunion" date in 1956 featured the classic charts but almost none of the original sidemen. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide [-] Hide

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A wonderfully selected chronological taste of Fats Waller from his first piano solo up through the glorious ensemble swing of 1935. Many recent U.S. attempts at a Waller sampler seem haphazard by comparison. Ever since the deletion of his entire Bluebird catalog, the European labels have been a great source of consolation for disgruntled... [+] Read More

A wonderfully selected chronological taste of Fats Waller from his first piano solo up through the glorious ensemble swing of 1935. Many recent U.S. attempts at a Waller sampler seem haphazard by comparison. Ever since the deletion of his entire Bluebird catalog, the European labels have been a great source of consolation for disgruntled admirers of this man's music. One irritating shortcoming of most American reissues has been an apparent reluctance to include more than a thimbleful of Waller's exciting material from the 1920s. Nearly half of the sides included here date from before 1930. This allows the listener to follow the growth of the young Thomas Waller and to arrive at a greater appreciation of his impact upon the world. Here is Fats cutting a hot piano solo at the age of 19, daring to play such stuff on the pipe organ a few years later, and incorporating both instruments into hot ensembles, resulting in some of the toughest records of the entire decade. (All that's missing is the knuckles 'n' know-how piano solo "Blue Black Bottom" of 1927, but you can't have everything.) Waller was the first jazz organist, and the inclusion of two organ solos makes this disc all the more valuable, even if the liner notes imply that he didn't record with the organ between the years 1929 and 1942. (On the contrary, Waller's 1935 recording of "Night Wind" is among the loveliest of his organ performances, and he trundled the instrument out on a regular basis throughout his career, particularly during the year 1939.) Only three of the 1929 piano solos are included, but they illustrate perfectly why all of Waller's piano solos need to be made available and kept in circulation for the rest of time, possibly protected by an act of Congress or a United Nations resolution. For these are masterpieces worth contemplating over and over again. For the purposes of this CD, three will do, but there are plenty more piano solos where these came from, and one can never have enough. The inclusion of a piano duet with Benny Payne comes as a surprise, as previous compilers have often seemed to resent the presence of a second pianist, but indeed there is something exciting about hearing Cab Calloway's piano man interacting with Fats. "I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby" from 1930 (like "Red Hot Dan" of 1927) is an early glimpse of Fats the Vocalist. Even more than his piano, it was Thomas Waller's voice that made him into a nationally famous recording artist by the middle of the 1930s. Nine examples of Fats Waller & His Rhythm (recorded in 1934 and 1935) round off the album beautifully. Nearly every side they made in these first couple of years as a working unit had this fresh and cheeky quality. As time passed, some of the charm would occasionally fade as producers kept handing Fats ridiculously lousy material. Waller in 1939 or 1940 could sometimes sound just a little bit tired of Tin Pan Alley rejects. "A Porter's Love Song to a Chambermaid," on the other hand, is the perfect example of this artist's undiluted joie de vivre. What you have here then is Waller at his very best. Hopefully it will inspire some folks to go out and pursue the rest of his recordings, even if they have to purchase them from the French or the Dutch or the Swedes. ~ arwulf arwulf, All Music Guide [-] Hide

James P. Johnson (1894-1955) was one of the very first people to play jazz on the piano, hastening the evolution of Eastern ragtime into something vibrant and organic that music critics would later christen "Harlem stride piano." James P. Johnson's "Charleston" set the pace for the 1920s, his many compositions formed part of the bedrock of the... [+] Read More

James P. Johnson (1894-1955) was one of the very first people to play jazz on the piano, hastening the evolution of Eastern ragtime into something vibrant and organic that music critics would later christen "Harlem stride piano." James P. Johnson's "Charleston" set the pace for the 1920s, his many compositions formed part of the bedrock of the traditional jazz repertoire, and his most brilliant exponent was Thomas "Fats" Waller, famous as a piano-thumping singer and purveyor of swing music. This Giants of Jazz compilation combines vintage player piano rolls with a series of excellent solos recorded in 1930 and 1944, a welcome development as most other collections handle either piano rolls or phonograph recordings but do not mingle the two formats. Although an enclosed list provides recording dates and arranges the titles chronologically, the later recordings are shuffled together on the disc with the piano rolls placed last. These rolls include "Eccentricity," a marvelous ragtime waltz from 1921 that feels more like 1905; Tom Delaney's "Down Home Blues"; and a medley of tunes that Johnson wrote for the stage show Runnin' Wild. The kicking strains of "Charleston" are executed at times with such intensity as to suggest the blows of a fist. Note that the years mentioned in the album title should be 1921-1944. Whoever assembled the enclosed discographical information not only referenced a nonexistent piano roll -- Johnson did not record "Down Home Blues" in 1918 on any format -- but also mistook a 1921 phonograph recording of this song by Alice Leslie Carter with Jimmy Johnson's Jazz Boys for a piano roll. James P. Johnson's sole piano roll of "Down Home Blues" was cut in February of 1922. The material selected for this compilation is uniformly excellent. James P. Johnson's 1930 rendering of Cole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love?" was the first recording of that melody ever made by anyone. In June of 1944, six months after the sudden death of Fats Waller at the age of 39, James P. Johnson coped with the loss of his friend by recording a series of songs composed or made famous by Waller. In August and September of 1944, Johnson recorded a series of his own melodies, including the famous "Snowy Morning Blues," the old "Carolina Shout," and the romantically infused "If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)." ~ arwulf arwulf, All Music Guide [-] Hide

None of this material has ever been easy to find. The selections by Cliff Jackson and his Krazy Kats are exceptionally rare. In addition to Jackson's occasional flourishes of dexterous Harlem piano, highlights include a trombonist named Noisy Richardson, trumpeter and scat vocalist Henry Goodwin and reedman Rudy Powell, "who" would make a lot of... [+] Read More

None of this material has ever been easy to find. The selections by Cliff Jackson and his Krazy Kats are exceptionally rare. In addition to Jackson's occasional flourishes of dexterous Harlem piano, highlights include a trombonist named Noisy Richardson, trumpeter and scat vocalist Henry Goodwin and reedman Rudy Powell, "who" would make a lot of great records with Fats Waller in 1935. Some of these numbers are pleasantly frantic stomps, "Horse Feathers," "Torrid Rhythm" and "The Terror" sounding similar in some ways to recordings made between 1925 and 1930 by other large hot bands, such as Fess Williams, Charlie Johnson or Sam Wooding. Also issued bearing the names of the Tuxedo Syncopators and the Newport Syncopators, most of these early records came out on the Grey Gull record label under the name of Marvin Smolev and His Syncopators. Whoever the hell Smolev was, he had a hand in composing 8 out of 12 songs included here, and quite a number of these are quaint, conventional hotsy totsy stuff. It's a shame that this band didn't get around to making more records. The Krazy Kats (also billed as the Crazy Cats) first came on the scene in 1927 and were considered by other bands to be formidably awesome competition. Major phonograph companies apparently never figured this out. Like many worthy musicians, Jackson had to wait a long time -- March of 1944 -- before he could lead another band in a recording studio. Fortunately the quartet contained clarinetist Pee Wee Russell, bassist Bob Casey and drummer Jack "The Bear" Parker. They emitted a fairly rowdy number called "Quiet Please," Fats Waller's "Squeeze Me," James P. Johnson's "If I Could Be With You" and a wild rip through the "Weary Blues," with blistering runs on the piano and a good example of the Bear's percussive bravado. The eight remaining tracks are piano solos of great potency, allowing the listener to appreciate Jackson's Eastern Seaboard style in all its glory. "Royal Garden Blues" packs in just about everything that needs to be said in only a little over two minutes. "Limehouse Blues" is similarly hot, and places Jackson directly within the realm of what critics and historians call the Harlem Stride Piano tradition. "Who" and "Tea for Two" are dizzyingly executed, bringing on the inevitable question -- why wasn't this man given more opportunities to record? ~ arwulf arwulf, All Music Guide [-] Hide

For his recording debut, 24-year-old pianist Butch Thompson performs a dozen selections associated with Jelly Roll Morton, including a couple ("Tiger Rag" and Scott Joplin's "Original Rags') not actually composed by Morton but performed during his Library of Congress sessions. Thompson, who has long been considered one of the top interpreters of... [+] Read More

For his recording debut, 24-year-old pianist Butch Thompson performs a dozen selections associated with Jelly Roll Morton, including a couple ("Tiger Rag" and Scott Joplin's "Original Rags') not actually composed by Morton but performed during his Library of Congress sessions. Thompson, who has long been considered one of the top interpreters of Morton's music, already had his technique and sound down at this early stage, and his solo recital (reissued on CD) is excellent. Highlights include "King Porter Stomp," "Tiger Rag," "Pep" and "The Crave." ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide [-] Hide