[Dixielandjazz] More on "Stomp off ..."

[Anton Crouch]

Hello all

Louis with Erskine Tate?; Miss Lil and Johnny Dodds? Now we're talking -
this is definitely MKOM.

Some observations on Bill Haesler's erudite discussion:

Louis' "fluff" - as Tony Orr points out, this take is hotter than the other
one. Louis fluffing is often better than a thousand other trumpeters
playing perfectly. OK, I exaggerate, but you know what I mean.

Johnny Dodds' presence - where oh where did Ernie Ripley get this from?
There's not a shred of aural evidence for it.

The two pianists - now it gets difficult. The first thing to note is that
Brunswick, when it began electrical recording in April 1925, did not use
the Western Electric system - presumably to avoid paying the licence fee.
The Brunswick system was quite "fierce" by comparison and the piano sound
it produced was not natural. The high frequencies "glare' and the bass
"thumps". Listen, for example, to Jelly Roll Morton's piano solos from 20
April 1926.

With the Erskine Tate sides, I agree with Bill to a certain extent - that a
case can be made for the presence of two pianists, but not two pianos. The
trouble is that the "two pianists" effect is most noticeable in the
ensembles. The solos sound to me to be the playing of a single person.
Could the "two pianists" effect be an artefact of the recording system?

Lil Hardin's presence - I agree with Bill - if there are two pianists, it's
probably Lil, sitting on the left and having some fun in the bass. But then
I don't think there are two pianists   :-)

A final note, for the discographers: The gap in the E prefix matrix numbers
between the Erskine Tates and the Lil's Hot Shots (E3143 to E3154) does not
indicate a gap in the recording sequence. The Chicago (C prefix) matrix
numbers are uninterrupted (C334 to C342). The "missing" E numbers were used
in New York on 1 June 1926 (The Ambassadors and "Jack Kelly").

All the best
Anton