[Dixielandjazz] Bechet and Noone and Dodds

[Bill Haesler]

ROBERT R. CALDER wrote [in part] on a slow DJML weekend:
> I remember Steve Voce has reported the element of the Bechet-Eddie Lambert conversation, "why do you play soprano these days to the exclusion of clarinet?"... 

Dear Robert,
I don't recall that interview (Jazz Journal?) but get the idea regarding the response.

> I've given up on thinking it would have been a good thing if Bechet had played lots of clarinet in his later years. 

Me too. It was because Bechet gave up clarinet in about 1951 that I stopped buying his records.
With some exceptions.

> Another masterpiece on lines like Bechet's in the 1930s is Johnny Dodds's performance on "I'm Goin' Huntin'" with Louis Armstrong, Jimmy Blythe and I think Jimmy Bertrand...Twenty years later I finally managed to hear the other title of the two from that date. I found it incredibly dull.  Masterpieces are rare things.

They are indeed.
But I can't let that last piece of misinformation slide.
That Jimmy Bertrand Washboard Wizards' Vocalion session recorded on 21 April 1927 with Louis, Dodds, Blythe and Bertrand produced four tunes:
    Easy Come, Easy Go Blues   
    The Blues Stampede 
    I'm Goin' Huntin'   
    If You Want To Be My Sugar Papa       
All masterpieces!
(But Haesler would say that wouldn't he?)
Have another listen with fresh ears and a glass of singe malt.
They are all on YouTube.
Very kind regards,
Bill.