Adventures In Recordland, Post #13: The Bs, Part 10

#1: The Amherst Saxophone Quartet- "An American Classic- Eubie Blake", 1981:

 

James Hubert "Eubie" Blake was one of the great ragtime pianists and composers. He lived a long life, 1887 to 1983, and there seems to have been a resurgence of interest in his work in the 1970s and '80s as he became an elder statesman of American popular music. This album consists of the Amherst Saxophone Quartet playing a wide selection of Blake's work- not only some of his classic rags, but semiclassical pieces, and songs from his Broadway shows (the most famous of which is the perennial vaudevillian tune "I'm Just Wild About Harry"). Personally I prefer the classic sound of ragtime played on piano, but the quartet has an amusing style that's fun to listen to.

#2: Eubie Blake- "Live Concert", 1974:

This is the man himself- Eubie Blake at 87 years old, still full of life and energy and good humor. It was the first, perhaps only, live concert album he ever made, and it's a delight. He only plays a handful of pieces, but does quite a bit of banter and storytelling between numbers which is equally entertaining.

#3: Bob and Ray- "Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife", 1976:

If you're reading this, it must be because you're a friend of mine. And if you're a friend of mine, you're probably the kind of person who already knows Bob and Ray and has been a fan of theirs for years. But just in case you're not...
Bob Elliott (still living as of this writing) and Ray Goulding (deceased) were satirical comedians on radio, and occasionally stage and television for more than 35 years. They specialized in somewhat understated, deadpan humor- they were perhaps not traditional "comedians" in the sense that they were not broad or zany, not always going for the biggest laughs, but their subtle absurdist wit has gained many devoted followers over the years, myself included.
One of the regular features of their shows over the years were parodies of golden-age radio soap operas. There used to be a soap called "Backstage Wife" about a character named Mary Noble- Bob and Ray switched it around and did sketches about "Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife." This album collects a bunch of those sketches. I think they exemplify the genius of Bob and Ray's humor very well. If one were to record an average conversation among human beings and transcribe it literally, one would find everyday speech filled with oddly humorous things that don't make sense. Bob and Ray are brilliant at taking the inanities of normal speech and behavior and exaggerating it just enough to accentuate the absurdity and make it funny. And decades before Seinfeld, Bob and Ray were experts at presenting sketches in which nothing really happens. Characters discuss a situation, mull it over, try to solve its problems, maybe express mild concern, but don't really accomplish very much. Which is particularly funny considering this is supposedly a dramatic soap opera.
So I got a lot of laughs out of this album, and I think I should definitely add more Bob and Ray to my collection.

Adventures In Recordland, Post #7: The Bs, part 3

I only did three albums today. I actually don't have much to say about them, but let's take a look.

#1: Count Basie- "Basie's Basement" (1959):

This is a compilation of sides Basie and his band originally recorded in the late '40s on 78. Whether playing swing, slow blues, or the occasional novelty like "The Jungle King", Basie was one of the greats. Definitely a record I'd recommend to any fan of the big band era. Wonderful stuff.

#2: Count Basie: "Basie's Beatle Bag" (1966):

Yes- it's Count Basie playing the songs of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. An unusual item, to be sure.
But I actually can't comment on this record. And I'll tell you why.
I was never a big Beatles fan. When I was a kid, I immediately got the sense that this was the most popular band in the entire world, and something in my brain went "Well, if that's what everybody ELSE likes so much, I'm gonna go in a different direction and find my own thing." Of course I've HEARD the Beatles- you'd have to be living under a rock not to have heard them at some time in your life on this planet. But there's a lot of stuff by them that I've never heard. I'm a long way from an expert on the subject. MY favorites from the era are people like the Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa, both of whom the average person knows by name but probably couldn't tell you anything about their music. I am by my own admission an eccentric person, and my refusal to submit to the world's love for the Beatles has been my way of resisting the status quo. Sure, I have all their albums on my backup hard drive, and I do intend to listen to them sometime, and maybe I'll discover that I was wrong. In fact, I'm sure I am. But because I haven't heard the original versions of most of the songs Basie covers here, I don't want to spoil them by hearing his versions first. Therefore, I just digitized this album and let it play with the sound down, and didn't listen to it. Someday, a few years from now, when I've caught up to the rest of the human race and can recite Beatles trivia at the drop of a hat, I'll give Basie's interpretations a listen. But not now.

 

#3: Count Basie & Duke Ellington: "First Time! The Count Meets The Duke" (1962):

Judging from the liner notes, Basie and Ellington had been good friends and mutual admirers for many years before this album was made, but apparently this was the first, perhaps the only, time that these two giants ever worked together. I'm more familiar with their earlier work from the '30s and '40s, so I can't comment on the type of work they were both doing at this time, but the pieces on this album sound more like Stan Kenton-style "modern jazz" (as it was called- at least it was modern at the time) than the big-band sounds I'm used to. Nonetheless, Count and Duke create some fine stuff accompanied by a great group of sidemen. Again, I wish I could say more, but I'm using this blog more to jot down my reactions than give professional-quality reviews. If I could do that, I'd be working for a newspaper, not a blog. Anyway, it's a good record by two of my all-time favorites. Worth a listen.

That's all I'm doing today. See you again tomorrow.