[Dixielandjazz] Bud Freeman 100 years anniversary.

[Steve barbone]

April 10, 2006 Edition - NY SUN  Arts and Letters By WILL FRIEDWALD
   
The Traditionalist Who Made the Sax Modern Bud Freeman at 100

Jazz and the saxophone both entered the national consciousness around the
end of World War I, and it was clear at that point that the two would have
some kind of a future together. But for a few years, no one knew how that
would happen.The first major musician to play jazz on the saxophone was
Sidney Bechet, who treated the soprano instrument like a clarinet with a
built-in megaphone. It remained for the founding generation of saxophonists
- Frank Trumbauer, Jimmy Dorsey, Adrian Rollini, and especially Coleman
Hawkins and Bud Freeman - to show what could be done with the instrument.

Freeman (1906-90), whose centennial is being celebrated this month with the
reissue of one of his greatest albums, approached the horn in a unique
manner. Before the saxophone entered the jazz universe, it was mainly known
as a novelty device in vaudeville - it had as much in common with the
unicycle as it did with the trumpet. Freeman's innovation was to build on
the trickster aspect of the horn, superimposing a jazz and blues rhythmic
and tonal sensibility.

Freeman debuted his tour de force showstopper, "The Eel," in 1933 in a
session under the name of Eddie Condon, the bandleader he was associated
with for most of their long careers. A winding melody that constantly
doubled back on itself, full of carefully articulated 16th and 32nd note
runs, "The Eel" was distinguished from other finger-busters of the era by
the way Freeman swung. He had a distinct rhythmic mobility that allowed him
to keep up with both the best black and white jazzmen of his day. He could
play any standard tune with gusto and joie de vivre, and he could wail the
blues.

Freeman, a native Chicagoan, fell in love with the saxophone at 14, when he
heard a star saxophone soloist playing pretty tunes in a local cinema. It
was the image of the instrument - this one happened to be diamond-studded -
as much as the sound that seduced him. He began practicing on the now
archaic C-melody saxophone around the time he began attending Austin High
School, where he soon found himself at the center of a band of like-minded
youngsters including cornetist Jimmy McPartland, drummer Davey Tough,
clarinetist Frank Teschmacher, and Condon, the guitarist who would soon
establish himself as their de facto leader.

They became intrigued by jazz upon hearing the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, and
were irrevocably hooked by King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, particular
Oliver's cornet protege, the young Louis Armstrong. Inspired by Armstrong's
example, Freeman, Condon, and the others devoted their lives to playing New
Orleans jazz. But they put a Chicago stamp on the music.

The Austin High gang began recording in 1927, becoming one of the first New
Orleans-style ensembles to employ a tenor saxophone soloist. Freeman's
earliest solos on "Sugar" and "China Boy" are rough and throaty in the
manner of such clarinetists as Teschmacher and Pee Wee Russell.

Along with the younger Benny Goodman, Freeman left Chicago later that year
to travel to New York with bandleader Ben Pollack, formerly the drummer in
the Rhythm Kings. He spent most of the '30s touring with big bands: After
playing alongside Pollack, he toured with the dance orchestras of Joe
Haymes, Ray Noble,Tommy Dorsey, and Goodman. Beginning in 1938, he was a
regular on producer Milt Gabler's Commodore Records, coming off especially
well on two 1938 trio sessions with pianist Jess Stacy and drummer George
Wettling. In 1940, he led a band billed as his "Famous Chicagoans" in one of
the great jazz recording dates of all time, sharing the spotlight with
Russell and the trombonist and singer JackTeagarden.

For the next 50 years, Freeman was unstoppable. He continually toured the
world with small groups, often as the bandleader. In his record dates, he
generally participated in traditional Chicago-style projects involving the
Condonites. One of the best of these has just been reissued for the first
time in the United States, the 1957 "Chicago/Austin High School Jazz in
Hi-Fi" on the new Mosaic Single series (MCD-1002).

Like many postwar sessions by the Chicagoans, it has the feeling of a
reunion and brings together Teagarden, Russell, Wettling, McPartland, and
trumpeter Billy Butterfield. There is outstanding ensemble work on tunes
that these men had recorded before, such as the Rhythm Kings' wailing
"Prince of Wails" and Teagarden's blues "Jack Hits the Road." The album also
features four bonus tracks, of which "I Cover the Waterfront" is a trombone
and vocal feature for Teagarden. "Sunday" and "You Took Advantage of Me,"
are Condon-esque jam sessions that, like the best music in the Chicago
genre, sound relaxed and driving at the same time. The fourth tune, "The
Reverend's in Town," is something else again; instead of featuring the
expected, Dixieland-style polyphony, it uses the streamlined, smoother style
of swing and modern harmonizing.

Also recently reissued is the 1958 "Tiger Rag and All That Jazz" (Mighty
Quinn 1105), Condon's only album for World Pacific. The repertory is mostly
from the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, and the date is sparked by cornetist
Rex Stewart. Freeman is particularly animated and aggressive on "Livery
Stable Blues," the ODJB classic that had begun life as animal imitation
novelty. It's a great album of Chicago jazz that shows that these men were
hardly standing still, even though they were still playing the same songs in
the same company.

Indeed, Freeman did a 1945 album for Capitol with guitarist Carl Kress that
was much more in the up-to-date swing style, and in 1962 he teamed with two
guitarists, Kress and George Barnes, in a most unusual trio. In 1960, on
"All Star Swing Sessions," Freeman recorded a blues march ("March On") that
in retrospect sounds very similar to what Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers
were doing at the time. In 1980 he recorded the album, "The Dolphin Has a
Message," in a quasi-modal style with the modern British pianist Brian
Lemon. Freeman cut his last known session in the Netherlands in 1986, 60
years after his first Chicago date. His was a remarkable legacy, making sure
that no one had to go and reinvent the eel.