[Dixielandjazz] Combo on Trixie Smith recordings?

Charles Suhor csuhor at zebra.net
Fri Apr 10 13:57:17 PDT 2015


I revisited a “Ladies of Jazz” 3-CD set and was fascinated on three levels by Trixie Smith’s 1938 rendition of “My Daddy Rocks Me with One Steady Roll.” There were no liner notes, though, and I’m curious about who is in the excellent backup group. I especially liked the clarinetist—could be Jimmie Noone? Or not. Does anyone have the info on the sidemen?
 
Second, when I went on YouTube I found that Trixie Smith had first recorded the song 16 years earlier—in 1922. What a huge difference in her conception and the band’s! That’s to be expected, since in my view fluid vocal and instrumental phrasing, vibrato, and articulation didn’t become standard until after the Louis with the Hot 5&7, Bix, Hines, Morton and others showed us how in the mid- and late 20s. The 1922 record is of historical interest, but only the mouldiest of fygges could prefer it as jazz listening. (Who, by the way, was in the earlier combo?) Both links are below.
 
Third, I suspected and a little research confirmed that the 1928 recording was the first time that “rock and roll” was on record as a definite sexual reference, very explicitly at that. Roy Brown, who I heard as a kid in New Orleans, is sometimes credited with embedding the phrase firmly into the music vocabulary.
 
Charlie 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvzmBA91P3c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3ryWwHzhJc


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