[Dixielandjazz] BBC Radio Celebrates the Centenary of Legendary Jazz Drummer - Big Sid Catlett .

[John Petters]

YouTube video of Sid with John Kirby Sextet, Louis Armstrong Orchestra & Gene Krupa.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boZUSU4s-Fw

Here two programmes about this sensational musician this Saturday:
The Late Paul Barnes @ 23:00 on BBC Cambrideshire, Essex, Kent, Norfolk, Northampton, Suffolk & Three Counties. (Paul celebrates the Django Reinhardt Centenary next week)

The live link on line will be:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/playlive/bbc_radio_norfolk/

and from Sunday until the following Saturday on Iplayer:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p002mhdx

And Alyn Shipton discusses Big Sid with drummer Richard Pite on ‘Jazz Library’ on BBC Radio 3 at 16:00 on Saturday. This is from the Radio 3 website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ps0sk

The show will be on Iplayer following the broadcast

Big Sid Catlett was arguably one of the most naturally talented percussionists in jazz history. To celebrate Catlett's centenary in January 2010, Alyn Shipton is joined by drum expert Richard Pite to pick the highlights of a recorded catalogue that includes work with the swing orchestras of Fletcher Henderson and Benny Goodman, the modern jazz of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and the original Louis Armstrong All Stars.

Jazz Library: Big Sid Catlett
D1SC 1
Title Bugle Call Rag
Artist Spike Hughes and his Negro Orchestra
Composer Pettis, Meyers, Schoebel
Album Spike Hughes and his All American Orchestra
Label Jasmine
Number 2012 Track 2
Personnel: Shad Collins, Bill Dillard, Leonard Davis, t; Dicky Wells, Wilbur De Paris, George Washington, tb; Benny Carter, Wayman Carver, Howard Johnson, Coleman Hawkins, reeds; Red Rodriguez, p; Lawrence Lucie, g; Ernest Hill, b; Sid Catlett, d. New York, 18 May, 1933.
DISC 2
Title Jangled Nerves 
Artist Fletcher Henderson
Composer Henderson, Moore
Album Hocus Pocus
Label Bluebird
Number ND 90413 Track 14
Personnel: Dick Vance, Roy Eldridge, Joe Thomas, t; Fernando Arbello, Ed Cuffee, tb; Buster Bailey, Omer Simeon, Chu Berry, Elmer Williams, reeds; Horace Henderson, p; Bob Lessey, g; Israel Crosby, b; Sid Catlett, d. Chicago, 9 April, 1936.
DISC 3
Title That Naughty Waltz
Artist Don Redman
Composer Levey / Stanley
Album Don Redman and his Orchestra, 1936-39
Label Classics
Number 574 Track 13
Personnel: Reunald Jones, Otis Johnson, Harold Baker, t; Gene Simon, Benny Morton, Quentin Jackson, tb; Edward Inge, Rupert Cole, Harvey Boone, Bob Carroll, reeds; Don Kirkpatrick, p; Bob Lessey, g; Bob Ysaguirre, b; Sidney Catlett, d. New York, 28 May, 1937.
DISC 4
Title Bye and Bye
Artist Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra
Composer Trad.
Album You Rascal You
Label Naxos
Number 8.120806 Track 6
Personnel: Louis Armstrong, t; v; Shelton Hemphill, Bernard Flood, Henry Red Allen, t; Wilbur de Paris, George Washington, J.C. Higginbotham, tb; Rupert Cole, Charlie Holmes, Joe Garland, Bingie Madison, reeds; Luis Russell, p; Lee Blair, g; Pops Foster, b; Sid Catlett, d. New York, 18 December, 1939.
DISC 5
Title The Earl [without drums]
Artist Benny Goodman
Composer Powell
Album The Alternate Goodman
Label Phontastic
Number 7616 Side 2 Track 8
Personnel: Benny Goodman, cl; ldr; Jimmy Maxell, Billy Butterfield, Cootie Williams, Al Davis, t; Lou McGarity, Cutty Cutshall, tb; Skip Martin, Clint Neagley, Vido Musso, George Berg, Chuck Gentry, reeds; Mel Powell, p; Tom Morgan, g; Morty Stuhlmaker, b. New York, 25 September, 1941.
DISC 6
Title The Earl [live]
Artist Benny Goodman
Composer Powell
Album Roll 'Em: Benny Goodman / Big Sid Catlett Live
Label Vintage Jazz Classics
Number 1032 Track 10
Personnel: (as above), with Johnny Simmons, b replacing Stuhlmaker, plus Pete Mondello ts; Sid Catlett, d. 25 September, 1941
DISC 7
Title The Breaks
Artist Albert Ammons And His Rhythm Kings
Composer Ammons
Album Albert Ammons, 1939-46
Label927 Classics
NumberTrack 11
Personnel: Hot Lips Page, t; Vic Dickenson, tb; Don Byas, ts; Albert Ammons, p; Israel Crosby, b; Sid Catlett, d. New York, 12 February, 1944.
DISC 8
Title Hallelujah
Artis tColeman Hawkins Quartet
Composer Robin, Grey, Youmans
Album Coleman Hawkins 1944
Labe lClassics
Number 842 Track 19
Personnel: Coleman Hawkins, ts; Teddy Wilson, p; John Kirby, b; Sid Catlett, d; New York , 29 May, 1944.
DISC 9
Title Hot House
Artist Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker
Composer Dameron
AlbumTown Hall New York City 22 June 1945
Label Uptown
NumberUPCD 27.51 Track 6
Personnel: Dizzy Gillespie, t; Charlie Parker, as; Al Haig, p; Curley Russell, b; Sid Catlett, d. New York , 22 Jun, 1945.
DISC 10
Title Royal Garden Blues
Artist Edmond Hall Blue Note Jazzmen
Composer Williams
Album Edmond Hall, 1937-1944
Labe lClassics
Number 830 Track 10
Personnel: Sidney DeParis, t; Vic Dickenson, tb; Ed Hall, cl; James P Johnson, p; Jimmy Shirley, g; Israel Crosby, b; Sid Catlett, d. 29 November, 1943. [Also on The Blue Note Jazzmen from Blue Note]
DISC 11
Title Boff Boff
Artis tLouis Armstrong All Stars
Composer Hawkins
Album Satchmo At Symphony Hall
Labe lVerve
Number Track 15
Personnel: Louis Armstrong, t; Barney Bigard, cl; Jack Teagarden, tb; Dock Cary, p; Arvell Shaw, b; Sid Catlett, d. Symphony Hall, Boston, 30 November, 1947.

Thie following essay is from the Drummerworld website, which also has videos and audio tracks of Big Sid.

http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Big_Sid_Catlett.html

Big Sid Catlett - born 17 January 1910, Evansville, Indiana, USA, died 25 March 1951.

After briefly trying piano, Catlett switched to drums and received formal tuition when his family settled in Chicago. After working with Darnell Howard, Catlett moved to New York where he played with Elmer Snowden and Benny Carter, following these sessions by drumming with McKinney's Cotton Pickers, Fletcher Henderson and Don Redman. Catlett happily switched from big bands to small groups, such as those led by Eddie Condon and Lionel Hampton, without any discernible difficulty. In 1941 he joined Benny Goodman, giving that band an overwhelming plangency it never received from any other drummer. In the late '30s and early '40s Catlett worked and played endlessly, appearing on countless recording sessions with a staggeringly wide variety of musicians.

The advent of bebop appeared not to trouble him and if he never fully adapted his style he certainly gave his front-line colleagues few problems. In the early '40s Catlett was a member of the superb Teddy Wilson Sextet; when this engagement ended he led his own bands until he joined Louis Armstrong's All Stars in 1947. He remained with Armstrong until 1949 when the years of all-night jam sessions began to catch up with him. Ill or not, Catlett continued to work, but on 25 March 1951 he collapsed and died while visiting friends backstage at a Oran ‘Hot Lips’ Page benefit concert at the Chicago Opera House.

Although a brilliant technician, Catlett chose to play in a deceptively simple style. With the fleet, smoothly-swinging Wilson sextet he was discreet and self-effacing; with Goodman he rolled the band remorselessly onward, with Armstrong he gave each of his fellow musicians an individualized accompaniment that defied them not to swing. Instantly identifiable, especially through his thundercrack rimshots, Catlett always swung mightily. On stage, he was a spectacular showman, clothing his massive frame in green plaid suits, tossing his sticks high in the air during solos and generally enjoying himself.

-- 
John Petters
www.traditional-jazz.com
Amateur Radio Station G3YPZ