[Dixielandjazz] Jim Cullum Jazz Band - Porgy and Bess

[Marek Boym]

Dear Don,
I know that the record has not been reissued.
I heard the programme when it was broadcat.  Actually, I prefer continuous
music without talk, so that I was not too happy with the narrator.  But
there was no faulting the music!
It is difficult to compare performances like that; after all, the band was
different than the band on the CD.  I do not really remember, but I have
the feeling that the bass player was not the only one who had not been on
the original version (which had the benefit of no talk whatsoever).
I have not seen "Show Boat."  In fact, in 1951 no American films were
screened in Poland; the only exception I recall was "The Salt of the
Earth," which showed "class struggle" (it was about a strike of exploited
Mexican workers), and therefore "Kosher" for showing in a communist
country.  We did see French and Italian films, and some British, but
Hollywood was strictly out!  I did not see any Westerns before I left
Poland, although in 1956 they resumed publication of American books, and
even showing American films - in Warsaw, but not in Wroclaw wher we lived.
At least, jazz becam "kosher" around 1953, and I got hooked either then or
in 1954.
Cheers


On 4 August 2013 22:38, Donald Mopsick <dmopsick at gmail.com> wrote:

> The CD has not been reissued. The record project took place before I joined
> the band in 1991. However, I did get to record the same arrangements by
> Randy Reinhart and John Sheridan as a 2-part series in the Riverwalk Jazz
> radio series. The radio version has the important addition of William
> Warfield as the narrator.
>
> You may remember Warfield in the role of Joe the Dockhand in the 1951 MGM
> movie version of "Show Boat." He sings "Ol' Man River" somewhere near the
> beginning. You may not know, however, that he also played Porgy on Broadway
> in the 1950s. Leontyne Price was Bess. They eventually got married, but
> later divorced. The Cullum Band in the early 90s was appearing with
> Warfield presenting Porgy and Bess nationwide on the road. Regrettably Mr.
> Warfield is no longer with us.
>
> The good new is that you CAN hear this 2-hour, 2-part version with
> Warfield, which in my opinion is so much richer than the CD, (especially
> because I'm on it, naturally). It's in there with all the shows which are
> being streamed in no particular order via Stanford Archive of Recorded
> Sound. The bad news is that you just have to keep listening to the stream
> to catch them, and then they're not necessarily in order of Part 1 then
> Part 2. They set it up this way in order to qualify as a non-royalty-paying
> radio station rather than on-demand.
>
> Personnel on these shows:
>
> Jim Cullum, cornet
> Mike Pittsley, trombone
> Allan Vaché, clarinet
> John Sheridan, piano
> Howard Elkins, guitar/banjo
> Don Mopsick, bass
> Ed Torres, drums
> William Warfield, narrator
> David Holt, host
>
> Here's how to get to the Stanford streaming site:
>
> http://riverwalkjazz.stanford.edu/
>
> Here are links to the JazzNotes for the 2-part Porgy and Bess (you can't
> stream the shows from these pages, they are informational only).
>
>
> http://riverwalkjazz.stanford.edu/program/porgy-and-bess-jim-cullums-jazz-transcription-part-one
>
>
> http://riverwalkjazz.stanford.edu/program/porgy-and-bess-jim-cullums-jazz-transcription-part-two
>
> The shows are numbered 36 and 37 under "Programs."
>
> Let me know how you do. By the way, a lot of people just leave it streaming
> the whole day while they do their work.It takes 17 days to stream through
> the entire archive of shows playing 24/7.
>
> mopo
> --
> http://about.me/donmopsick
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