[Dixielandjazz] Firehouse Five + Two (was Phil Napolen, and more)

[Marek Boym]

Dear Bill,
On GTJ 33-1, in the lengthy liner notes, there is a reference to
Penner's playing bass saxophone, and there is a picture showing him
with that instrument.  Mrs. Harris and Rust in their "REcorded Jazz: a
Critical Guide" (where the American issue is indeed refered to as GTJ
33-1) mention brass bass only.  On L-2 there is a personnel listing,
and Penner is listed on tuba.
That's all the Firehouse I have - I am not a great fan of the band.
And I still prefer LPs to CDs; actually, at home I listen solely to
LPs and tapes, leaving CDs for the car.  However, I have two CDs with
sound so bland as to require extensive use of bass and treble
controls; to these, I listen at home, as I do not know how to use the
controls on my car CD player, and the large home speakers, too,
improve sound.
With kindest regards

On 31 May 2011 13:16, Bill Haesler <bhaesler at bigpond.net.au> wrote:
> To Marek's final comment:
>>> By the way, the FH5+2 have bass saxophone rather than brass bass.
>> I replied
>> Yes, Ed Penner did not start using tuba in [should have been 'until'] March 1951.
>
> Dear Marek (and all),
> Our band's clarinet player, Jack Wiard, has just taken me to task over this one.
> I used 1968 Jepson's discography to check your comment and it confirms your statement, hence my answer.
> My Bruyninckx' discography also confirms Jepson.
> I have an almost complete collection of the FH5+2 up to March 1960 but, as my early LPs have been replaced by CDs,
> I was unable to check the LP covers for instrumentation details (if any).
> The YouTube Snader videos show Mr Penner on tuba. I have a separate file date as 15 March 1951 for these, so that does not help us much.
> The next step was to use my ears.
> There seems to be a bass on the first tune, "Firehouse Stomp" from the first session, 13 May 1949, but bass sax on "Blues My Naughty Sweetie..." (both takes), "Fireman's Lament"and "San".
> For the second session, 8 October 1949, I hear "Brass Bell" (tuba), "Everybody Loves My Baby" (bssx), "Red Hot River Valley" (tuba), "Riverside Blues" (tuba).
> Then to 18 February 1950. "The World Is Waiting...", etc. All tuba.
> 20 July 1950. "Down Where The Sun Goes Down", etc. All tuba.
> 10 October 1950. "12th Street Rag", etc. All tuba.
> 9 March 1951. "Lonesome Mama Blues", etc. All tuba.
> 12 June 1951. ""Show Me The Way To The Fire", etc. All tuba.
> 20 May 1952. "Lonesome Railroad Blues", etc. All tuba.
> >From here on, the discographal references to bass sax stop.
> Phew!
> Can someone please check the 1949-51 Good Time Jazz LPs  (10" L-1, 2, 6 &16 and 12" L-12010, 12011 & 12012) for me to see if there are any specific references to Ed Penner and bass sax.
> If you don't agree with my above observations, at least you will (like me) have had fun relistening to this fine happy band of jazzmen.
> Very kind regards,
> Bill.
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> To unsubscribe or change your e-mail preferences for the Dixieland Jazz Mailing list, or to find the online archives, please visit:
>
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>
>
>
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>