[Dixielandjazz] Re: Strange Blues

[Bill Haesler]

Dear Bob and Bob,
This question was posted to me a week or so back, but when I went to reply I
couldn't find it.
"Strange Blues" is a Wingy Manone composition which he recorded for
Brunswick on 2 May 1934. One of those great jazz records that has been in my
collection since the 40s.
It is on CD: Classics, Collectors Classics and Mosaic.
The Bob Scobey version (included on Good Time Jazz LP L-12006 recorded in
Jan 1955) is the same tune. I'm playing it now.
The composer credit on the GTJ LP is: Wingy Manone & Irving Mills.
How Lil Armstrong's name got involved, I can't imagine. Other than to repeat
my frequent complaint regarding most jazz musicians' faulty memory for song
titles and composers.
"Strange Blues" is also on a recently issued Lu Watters CD featuring Lu
Watters' Sweet's Ballroom Orchestra, recorded in 1937.
(SFTJF CD 105. Lu Watters' YBJB. Vol 1, 1937-1943.)
Also great stuff.
I do not know if Bob Scobey ever used "Strange Blues" as a theme but, in his
notes to the original LP, Fred Reynolds suggests that it would make a "most
appropriate theme" for some "late-at-night disc jockeys" and that Bob Scobey
told him that he was considering it as the band's theme.
Kind regards,
Bill.