Journey Through The Penguin Jazz Guide

Zeeba Neighba

Zeeba Neighba

Staff member
Inspired by Ojai's Capitol Series (as well as my thoughts there should always be a jazz thread running), wanted a thread centered around The Penguin Jazz Guide.
Long an essential resource among jazz fans, the Guide has not been updated since 2010, and there was a bit of consternation among fans with the decision then to redesign the exhaustive artist based guide with a chronological 1001 album overview guide. Though the Guide tried to cover a wide range of artists, it did this at the expense of several key albums. I bought the 2010 edition but tended to rely on the prior edition more.

Over the years though I've grown a fondness for the new edition as it does bring up albums and artists outside the usual canon, and it does provide a nice chronological perspective of jazz development covering each era exhaustively (the temptation is always to focus on the golden years of album-based jazz 1955-1965).

So, though an exhaustive journey, my intentions are to go chronologically shooting for an album/day to not burn out on jazz and to allow myself time for other genres.

But Zeeba, have you finished past series focused on Broadway or the Mojo Core Collection? Why do you counter my excitement with cold, depression facts :)
 
BEGINNINGS:
Eubie Blake - The Eighty Six Years of Eubie Blake (1969)
Eubie Blake - The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake - album cover


Original Dixieland Jazz Band - The 75th Anniversary

Original Dixieland Jazz Band - The 75th Anniversary - album cover


The Penguin Guide begins with a short "Beginnings" of jazz section focused on artists who found fame prior to or at the dawn of the recording era (the first jazz single typically is cited as the ODJB's "Livery Stable Blues" in 1917)

I revisit Eubie Blake's wonderful album - Blake composed ragtime and early jazz songs starting from his teens in the early 20th century including 1921's Shuffle Along, the first Broadway musical with a cast (and director) composed entirely of African-Americans. Blake was fortunate to have a long life until 93 yo passing in 1983 (!). Understandably most of his recordings are from years into his prime, but The Eighty Six Years of... is such a wonderful and unique album with a vibrant 86 yo Blake (rejoining his collaborator Noble Sissle) revisiting many of his old numbers and other tunes with verve sometimes chatting about their history. It's a wonderful window into the development of the genre

At best a egoist and at worse a racist, coronetist/bandleader Nick LaRocca's later big-mouth bitter comments how he was the sole, underappreciated creator of jazz sadly underminds the wonderful music of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Yes, they were the first to record beating greats like King Oliver, and, yes, many of these numbers were done by contemporaries of color. Focusing on the music, this is energetic wonderful stuff. Though any music of the 20s given recording limitations, is going to sound tinny, dated with high pitched weird clarinet sound, this music crackles. Despite LaRocca's character, no jazz overview can leave out the ODJB's recordings and contributions.
 
All right, one more for Day one:

James P. Johnson
Running Wild 1921-1926
Snowy Morning Blues

1696042492275.jpeg1696044714582.jpeg

Occasionally with these early compilations, May have to improvise a bit with the Penguin suggestions due to availability (especially 13 years later from last edition). Penguin suggests Carolina Shout, an album of Johnson’s piano rolls from 1917-1925 to give you a more authentic sense of the time. We’ll settle for his early 1920s recordings as well as some 1930s-1940s stuff on Snowy Morning Blues.

Johnson was arguably the greatest pianist of his era eclipsed by the showmanship of his pupil Fats Waller. But there’s enough Johnson out there to appreciate his greatness as he led the transition from ragtime piano to jazz through the style of “stride piano”. Also excelled as a composer of songs like “Charleston” and as well as musical hits, waltzes, and classical pieces.
 
Baby Dodds - Baby Dodds

Baby Dodds - Baby Dodds - album cover


Like the Eubie Blake album (and the upcoming Jelly Roll Morton recordings), this comp combines songs with Dodds riffing about drumming techniques and stories about, say, playing at New Orleans funerals. An interesting document by a man who was there in the early days of New Orleans jazz. Dodds would play (along with his brother, clarinetist Johnny Dodds) with King Oliver and later in Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven.
 
Jelly Roll Morton - The Complete Library Congress of Recordings

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Musicologist/Morton biographer Alan Lomax’s exhaustive 128 track collection is more talk than music but given Morton’s instrumental role at jazz’s beginnings, pretty essential listening. Morton was known as storyteller and had quite the ego himself about his reputation, but the stories about the characters of early 20th century New Orleans are fascinating. Morton riffing on the piano playing songs of era is pretty great too.
 
Doc Zeebs, the three posts above lead me to ask you: Have you ever read Hear Me Talkin' to Ya, by Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff?

The subtitle is The Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It.

P. S. I doubt I will ever make it all the way through, but it is fascinating reading.
 
axolotl said:
Doc Zeebs, the three posts above lead me to ask you: Have you ever read Hear Me Talkin' to Ya, by Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff?

The subtitle is The Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It.

P. S. I doubt I will ever make it all the way through, but it is fascinating reading.
Click to expand...
I have not
And I have just added it to my reading list :thumbsup:
 
George “Pops” Foster with Art Hodes (recorded 1968)

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Penguin’s last “Beginnings” entry is another half reminiscing-half music as early Jazz bassist Pops Foster tells about the early days of jazz. Foster, captured here in his 70s just a year before his death, played bass with King Oliver and Kid Ory back in the teens in New Orleans and would play with Louis Armstrong in the 1930s and 1940s. His slap bass technique was influential on later bassists. Here with Hodes on piano, he shows over his bass work nicely on old standards. There private recordings would be released in 1999.
 
Well onto some music as I move into the 1920s
I enjoy old New Orleans and Dixieland jazz so looking forward to it though, like many, I gravitate to 1950s and bong. That’s gonna take awhile.

Here’s the distribution of the 1000 albums btw:

Beginnings, 7 releases
1920s, 41 releases
1930s, 56 releases
1940s, 52 releases
1950s, (1951-1955) 73 releases
1950s, (1956-1960) 142 releases
1960s, (1961-1965) 94 releases
1960s, (1966-1970) 63 releases
1970s, (1971-1975) 67 releases
1970s, (1976-1980) 45 releases
1980s, (1981-1985) 52 releases
1980s, (1986-1990) 67 releases
1990s, (1991-1995) 105 releases
1990s, (1996-2000) 88 releases
2000s, (2001-2010) 100 releases

I tried to be diverse in era and style in my original “Jazz Excursion” but definitely paid a lot more attention to the 1950s and 1960s. This distribution is more even.
@JazzyRandy will be happy to see 293 of the 1000 albums, over a quarter of the selections, are from 1990 to 2010.
Granted, we gotta get there first
 
The 1920’s
Per the guide: “Two wonderful things happened to jazz in the 1920’s. Electrical recording happened and Louis Armstrong happened”


First up:
Jelly Roll Morton - The Piano Rolls

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Complete Ladd's Black Aces: 1921-1924
and
The Original Memphis Five: Columbias 1923-1931

Ladd's Black Aces - The Complete Ladd's Black Aces: 1921-1924 - album cover
Columbias 1923-1931


Went through these two comps over the past 3 days - Ladd's Black Aces and The Original Memphis Five are two different names of essentially the same group under different names. Founded in 1917, this jazz quintet was prolific throughout the 1920s and at some point included Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey and, on piano, one Jimmy Durante.
 
Zeeba Neighba said:
Complete Ladd's Black Aces: 1921-1924
and
The Original Memphis Five: Columbias 1923-1931

Ladd's Black Aces - The Complete Ladd's Black Aces: 1921-1924 - album cover's Black Aces - The Complete Ladd's Black Aces: 1921-1924 - album cover
Columbias 1923-1931


Went through these two comps over the past 3 days - Ladd's Black Aces and The Original Memphis Five are two different names of essentially the same group under different names. Founded in 1917, this jazz quintet was prolific throughout the 1920s and at some point included Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey and, on piano, one Jimmy Durante.
Click to expand...
It’s nice to see so many collections featuring music that appeared on smaller labels so long ago. The digital era does have its compensations.
 
Kid Ory
Penguin Guide: Ora’s Creole Trombone: Greatest Recodings 1922-1944
I listened to: 1944-1945 The Legendary Crescent Recording Sessions

1697072599008.jpeg1697072666194.jpeg

Unfortunately not much of Ory’s 1920s material available on Spotify. So, as with some of these early suggestions, called an audible and went with his Crescent Recordings from right after the ASV-covered period - not bad as includes several versions of songs on ASV comp

Louisiana’s own Kid Ory (1886-1973) formed one of the key New Orleans band in the 1910s and hired such future greats as King Oliver, Jimmy Dodds, and in 1919 Louis Armstrong. Great, influential trombonist blessed with a long life until age 86, most of which he remained active in performing.
 
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