Serrane Ferret et le Quintette de Paris: Miami
Alright, please welcome: Serrane Ferret (*1912 / † 1970), a classic Manouche, started as a banjo player (just like Django did) playing with his brothers and cousins out on the streets. He did recordings with Gus Viseur, Tony Murena, Charles Trenet. One day in 1939 he replaced Django at the London Kilbrun Theatre and he was the only guy ever having enough balls to play his stylish solos in front of Django. His own Quintett followed Django’s classic Hot Club lineup: three gitarres, bass, clarinette. His „Miami“ is a relaxed killer.
Carlos Montoya: Me Voy Mi Vida
A real edgy distorted pressing – sounds a bit punky, ey. Luis Carlos Montoya was a member of Los Exitos and The Latin Brothers and did a lot of songwriting and arrangements for artists on the Fuentes label based in Medellin / Colombia. Shoutout to DJ Autoscooter.
Jack Parnell and his Rhythm: White Suit Samba Parlophone R. 3435 – 1951
Part of the soundtrack to „The Man in the White Suit“, starring Alec Guiness as a professor whose invention threatens to ruin the fashion industry. Wondering about those „synths“? Mary Habberfield blew glass tubes ending in different liquids and pinging different pieces of brass and glass against the palm of the hand. Crazy, ha. Hot stuff to sample for Hip Hop guys.
Anissa Thouraya: Ana Ou Anti Ou Anti Ou Ana (Vogue, made in France, 1014)
Unknown artists part one: Algerian music from the french colonial period around 1952.
City Ramblers Skiffle: Ella Speed
Build your own instruments! Skiffle music can be seen as a kind of DIY movement – playing songs between hokum, washboard blues and american folk. These five british ramblers can be seen in an obscure Russian music movie called a “Girl With a Guitar” („Девушка с гитарой“). Singer Hylda Sims is still playing skiffle, has 4 grandchildren and 1 great grandson.
Teddy Kleindin Trio: Klarinettenzauber
June 12, 1941. At the Telefunken studios in Nazi-Berlin german clarinet player Teddy Kleindin with Primo Angeli on piano and Freddy Brocksieper on drums throw something on wax, hard to describe for the time. A very kletzmer jazz improvisation, containing one bar of „Bei mir bist Du schön“ – All three musicians also participated in recordings of a german propaganda band called Charlie and his Orchestra. These recordings of well known swing numbers (often with lyrics changed to propaganda and anti-jewish messages) where broadcast to the British Islands.
Moondog: Improvisation in 4/4
The great viking. A Hero. An outstanding artist. Hanging out on the streets of New York and playing on his self made drum set, he was soon to be introduced to Folkways Records, Stravinsky, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein – everybody … the rest is history. He often met Charlie Parker in the streets and Bird told him: „Hey, we should do a record together“. File under: Really Modern Sound.
E.K.’s Band: Anti Christo
This hi-life tune kills you. Again & again. Rockin, driving, we love it.
Gerry Mulligan Quartet: Carioca
Everybody loves the sound of this 78. Chet Baker en trumpet, oooahh, so cool & smooth.
Anestis Delias: To Sakkaki
One of our favorite remebtika tunes. Anestis (born 1920) was part of the quintett Tetras together with our hero Markos Mamvakaris. That was the birth of the first & really best rembetika group ever. Tetras influenced a lot of rembetika musicians. But Anestis would soon become a hard lovin’ heroin junkie. During the dictatorship of Metaxa he refused to record and got deported to an island. Back in Athens the heroin and „waiting for my man“ finished him and one day in July 1944 he was found dead in the streets at the age of 24. What a voice. What a singer. What a waste.
Piano Red (Dr. Feelgood alias Willie Perryman): Hey Good Looking
Hey Good Looking – only a year after Hank Williams recorded the tune, Piano Red did a piano based Rock & Roll version. At the turn of 1951/52 (just a few years before Elvis started playing R&B songs) Piano Red hammered his version of this brand new country song into the keys.
Lonnie Johnson: Swing Out Rhythm
In the late 30s the US record market was controlled by a few big companies (just like nowadays) with very little space for experiments. One exception was Lonnie (not Robert) Johnson (*1899 New Orleans / † 1970 Toronto) with this recording from November 8, 1937. Far away from any blues cliches, Johnson is a fine example of a wide open musician. Is he really (only) a blues guitar player? During his career he recorded with Louis, the Duke, Jimmy Noone, Roosevelt Sykes and others. He even played with the other Robert (Robert Zimmermann). Sure this guy had heard about Django who had toured the States with the Duke – however Lonnie is the blues musician with the second highest output of shellac recordings ever.
Chocolateers (Supervision Al Benson):
Unknown artists part two: a radio DJ from nowhere called Al Benson produced this tune. And again: Hot stuff for Hip Hop sampling.
Isao Hayashi & King Orchestra: Mamurogawa Ondo
林 伊佐雄 歌 & キングオ―ケストラ: 真室川音頭
Isao Hayashi was involved in Japanese propaganda recordings before and during the war. After the Japanese capitulation he turned back to swing – so this recording you listen to is a swinging version of a Japanese traditional. Thank you, Toshi K.
Ravi Shankar: Raga Rasia
Alright, a last track to chill you down, dear listener. Taken from Ravi’s period when he was musical director at the „All India Radio / New-Delhi“ long before the Beatles, Woodstock, Grammies, ect. On this track he is accompanied by Chatur Lal on tabla.