[Dixielandjazz] Condon at Town Hall

[Stephen G Barbone]

What are you disagreeing with?

Bob Rawlins said the Town Hall sessions were "among" his favorites.  
And, like you and me, he adores Pee Wee Russell's playing. I do have  
one point of disagreement where he implies that Pee Wee had poor  
technique. Shoot, he was playing quarter tones before the rest of the  
reed players knew what they were. I always believed that Pee Wee  
played that way because he wanted to.

I think Bob would also agree that Russell communicated with his  
clarinet as opposed to players who master the instrument. but don't  
say much.

On my part, my favorite Condon memories are listening to his various  
groups live, at his joint. IMO, there is nothing on records that comes  
close to what that band really sounded like. Unfortunately, the Town  
Hall sessions and others are subject to the imperfect state of  
recording art at the time and just give the listener a hazy idea of  
how great they were.

Kind of like listening to King Oliver. Even the latest technology of  
Archeophone, as good as it is cannot give us an idea of what he really  
sounded like. One has to listen "through" the recordings, best done  
with a glass of Cardhu and one's imagination, helped in Condon's case,  
by those who saw/heard his various bands live, in performance.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband

On Oct 24, 2008, at 3:40 PM, Marek Boym wrote:

> I beg to disagree!
> I have only one Town Hall double album (I'm really not interested in
> commercials for war bonds, or news announcements about what the allies
> had liberated at the time of the concert), but I have most of the
> Condon gang pre-war records.  Nevertheless, Bixieland and Coast to
> Coast Jam Session (With the Rampart St. Praders on the flip side) are
> my favourite Condon records (I have quite a few more, including the
> 1940's Deccas).
>
> Oh, and I've never been convinced that Pee Wee played badly in the
> forties; I even protested when this was mentioned on the Mississippi
> Rag Bulletin Board.  My ears (even though I am a BG admirer) tell me
> taht Pee Wee was great - but then, by the time I came to jazz, his
> sound was widely accepted.
> Cheers