[Dixielandjazz] FW: Eddie Condon centennial

[Bill Haesler]

Dear friends,
This fine commemorative article by Will Friedwald via the Australian Dance
Bands list.
Kind regards,
Bill. 

A Brand-Name Bandleader
by Will Friedwald
New York Sun, November 22, 2005

Jazz could use more guys like Eddie Condon, who was born 100 years
ago this month. Neither a standout instrumentalist nor a prolific
songwriter, Condon nevertheless left a lasting mark on jazz by
assembling great bands and holding them together through sheer force
of personality. He helped define the Chicago sound of the 1920s,
established traditional jazz as a New York cultural institution in
the Swing Era, and was one of the first bandleaders to make a mark
on television.

Condon was also the H.L. Mencken of jazz, a brilliant author of
prose wielding a highly quotable sense of humor. In his 1947
autobiography, "We Called It Music," he recalled: "I arrived at the
job in what I considered to be a perfect state of equilibrium: half
man and half alcohol." Once, when a French record producer presumed
to tell the musicians how to play, Condon exclaimed, "We don't tell
them how to jump on grapes!" And then there's his description of
Chicago at the height of the Jazz Age: "Around midnight you could
hold an instrument in the middle of the street and the air would
play it." 

In his heyday, Eddie Condon was a brand name. There were those who
referred to his style of music as "Chicago-Dixieland," but the term
most listeners preferred was the "Eddie Condon style." When you
dropped Condon's name into a discussion (or, more likely, an
argument), everyone knew exactly what kind of jazz you were talking
about.

It is startling, then, that the Condon centennial has scarcely been
recognized: There is no new box set, no new book, and, most
surprising, not even a tribute concert here in his adopted city.
True, Jack Teagarden's centennial this summer was greeted with a
similar lack of fanfare, but Teagarden was merely a great singer and
trombonist; Condon represented an entire jazz movement.

Condon was born in Goodland, Ind., on November 16, 1905, and grew up
in the towns of Momence, Ill., and Chicago Heights. A banjo player
and guitarist, he was an early convert to the new music just out of
New Orleans, and in the summer of 1922 he was able to work with his
hero, Bix Beiderbecke.

Condon spent most of the Roaring '20s in Chicago, and his name would
become synonymous with the sound of that time and place. He
initially gravitated to the New Orleans pioneers, including Louis
Armstrong, who worked in King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band at the
Lincoln Gardens. Then he took up with the young white Chicagoans,
most prominently trumpeter Jimmy McPartland, tenor saxophonist Bud
Freeman, and clarinetists Frank Teschmacher and Benny Goodman -- all
of whom idolized the older black New Orleanians. Condon was soon a
factotum of Chicago's white, small-band jazz scene.

Co-leading a band with Red McKenzie (a sometime singer who was even
less of a player than Condon), Condon recorded four titles in
December 1927 that put both the Condon sound and its most famous
players -- McPartland, Freeman, Teschmacher, pianist Joe Sullivan,
drummer Gene Krupa, and Condon on banjo -- on the map. These songs,
especially "Sugar" and "China Boy," are given credit for launching
what became known as Chicago Jazz.

Condon moved to New York in the late 1920s, just as Gotham was
becoming jazz's epicenter. He was substantial enough a musician to
tour with the musically demanding cornet player and bandleader Red
Nichols (whose centennial also is this year). During these climactic
years, Condon recorded with most of the era's giants, including
pianist Fats Waller, tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, Teagarden,
and Armstrong -- the last on the memorable blues "Knockin' a Jug."
Condon was also one of the first jazzmen to produce and participate
regularly in integrated record sessions.

Though opportunities dried up during the Great Depression, Condon
had two important things going for him. He found a place to play,
Nick Rongetti's club on West 10th Street and Seventh Avenue, which
would be the first of many addresses Condon transformed into a
shrine for his brand of jazz. And he joined forces with a
sympathetic record-retailer turned producer, Milt Gabler (famous
posthumously as Billy Crystal's uncle), who was anxious to record as
much of Condon's music as possible.

During the war years, Condon produced a series of Town Hall jazz
concerts that were broadcast for both civilians and Armed Forces
Radio listeners. He was especially popular with GIs, who liked his
music for the same reason Chicago gangsters had: As Condon put
it, "It's got guts, and it doesn't slobber." His friend Bing Crosby
referred to Condon's music as the "Dixieland Cult" (describing
himself as a member), but Condon referred to the two-fisted, hard-
drinking, dues-paying musicians he worked with as his "mob."
Condon's was a working class audience that could relate to his
pretension-free performances and his direct, folksy presentation.

After the war, Condon's music became still more widely known. Gabler
upgraded Condon to the more mainstream Decca Records label (and he
later recorded several albums for Columbia); he launched the first
of several jazz clubs called Condon's; and for more than a year
hosted the first televised series of jazz sets, "Eddie Condon's
Floor Show." In the 1950s and '60s, he toured the world and recorded
prolifically. He lived until 1973 in an apartment on Washington
Square North.
_________________________________________________

Essential Condon Recordings

The music of Eddie Condon is commemorated on several excellent box
sets put out by Mosaic Records (mosaicrecords.com).

An excellent eight-CD box, "The Classic Columbia Condon Mob
Sessions" (Mosaic 206), spotlights many familiar Condonites. The
selections range from Bud Freeman's famous 1940 "Summa Cum Laude"
sessions with Jack Teagarden to Jimmy McPartland's 1958 treatment
of "The Music Man."

Another Mosaic box, "The Complete CBS Recordings of Eddie Condon and
His All Stars" (Mosaic 152), features 72 tracks of classic Condon
material. Condon's CBS-Columbia albums, mostly produced by George
Avakian, generally revolve around specific concepts, but they hang
together well as a set. Unfortunately, this five-CD box is no longer
in print.

Perhaps Condon's most famous performance is his 17-minute 1940
version of "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," which is available
on "Eddie Condon 1938-1940" (Classics 759). This jazz standard was
associated with Bessie Smith, whom Condon cited as a major
inspiration, and utilizes elements of both blues harmony and song
form. Released on four 12-inch 78s, the set was probably the first
extended jam session released for home consumption. On it, each of
the eight soloists -- including Freeman, clarinetist Pee Wee
Russell, trombonist Miff Mole, and cornetist Muggsy Spanier --
improvises thematically on the melody rather than the chord changes,
telling his own version of the story in a jazz version of "Rashomon."

Also available from Classics is "Eddie Condon 1927-1938" (742),
which includes the crucial tracks Condon recorded alongside Red
McKenzie in December 1927. "Tiger Rag," a 1958 album for the cool
jazz-oriented World Pacific label, has just been reissued.

-- W.F.