[Dixielandjazz] Bixing

[Ken Mathieson]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the partial personnel. I had assumed JC Johnson was the pianist, 
unless the splendidly-named Mabel Horsey was a pseudonym. I've never seen 
that name in print before and it is a name that could be hard to forget. I 
thought the alto sounded similar stylistically to the clarinet-playing and 
assumed it was the same player doubling. I don't hear the alto at all on 
Crying for You and, while there's an alto solo on Red Hot Hottentot, the 
clarinet is silent immediately before, during and immediately after the alro 
solo. There was only one very brief ensemble passage on Hottentot which 
sounded as though both could be playing at the same time. I'll need to 
listen again to hear if they're both present elsewhere in ensembles.

It was the clarinettist who caught my ear: I thought there was a strong 
similarity to Omer Simeon in both sound and phrasing, yet it didn't quite 
sound like him. Simeon of course played a lot with Jabbo in that era. The 
style is New Orleans Creole, but it didn't sound like any of the other 
widely recorded N.O. Creole clarinettists of that era. Unless of course it 
was Tio himself. So my candidates would be Simeon or Tio. An outsider might 
be Russell Procope. I was once told by Harold Dejan that Procope had studied 
with Tio in NYC but Dejan gave no indication of timescale. Certainly Procope 
had N.O. influences, but, if this is him, he sounds more like the Tio school 
players than he ever did again in his recording career. Thoughts anyone?

Cheers,

Ken Mathieson


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Smith" <robert.smith at tele2.no>
To: "Ken Mathieson" <ken at kenmath.free-online.co.uk>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 1:32 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Bixing


> Dear Ken,
>
> The only two recordings I have by J.C. Johnson & his Five Hot Sparks are:
> Jabbo Smith (tpt); unknown tbn; clt; probably George James (alt); Mabel 
> Horsey (p); Ikey Robinson (bj)
>                                                    c. January, 1929
> 347    Crying For You
> 348    Red Hot Hottentot
>
> Both issued on QRS 7064
>
> Kind Regards
>
> Bob Smith
>
>
>
>
> -----
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