Viewpoints

I've long wondered about Elena Kats-Chernin, so I greatly appreciated David Reffkin's interview. I have her "Russian Rag" on Donna Coleman's outstanding CD Rags to Riches, which may not be easily available in the U.S., but is worth trying to find. Kats-Chernin's "Russian Rag" is a lovely, wistful, piece that suggests the past as viewed through a veil, doing so with harmonies that never would have been considered during the ragtime years. Her acknowledged debt to Bolcom and Albright is clear, but she has her own voice. I would like to hear more from her.

Ed Berlin

Miller Place, N.Y.

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Paige Van Vorst's write-up on the annual "Tribute to Bix" was interesting; however it leads to the following comments:

In my CD collection is the two-volume set called King Oliver: Off the Record, consisting of ALL 37 of the recordings made by the Creole Jazz Band in 1923. While these have been VERY well reproduced, I personally doubt that the Paramount sides were electrically recorded, although the company issuing this set must be congratulated in what they have done with records which were very "low-fi."

I cannot comment on the 1924 Autograph recordings of the Oliver-Morton duets, as I haven't heard them; maybe they were electrically recorded, maybe not. The earliest records which were DEFINITELY made by the new electrical process were issued in the spring and early summer of 1925 by the "Big Three" lateral disc companies: Victor, Columbia, and Brunswick. Within the next couple of years the smaller companies began falling in line, starting with Vocalion, when this label became a Brunswick subsidiary in mid-1925. By 1927, nearly all the independent lateral-disc companies (and Edison -- it took some doing to convince old Thomas Edison to adopt the new process, as he feared distortion) were recording by the electrical process: OKeh (now taken over by Columbia), Gennett, Pathe/Perfect, et al, with Paramount probably bringing up the rear. The sound quality of Paramount's so-called "Electrical Records" was so poor that the standing joke was that what they meant by "Electrical Recording" was that a light bulb had been switched on in the recording studio!

Not counting the 1924 Autographs, which may or may not have been electrically recorded by Marsh Laboratories, the first electrical jazz records were probably the ones recorded in New Orleans for Columbia by the New Orleans Owls and the Halfway House Orchestra. And the latter sides, particularly "Let Me Call You Sweetheart"(!) were HOT!

Doug Parker

Santa Rosa, Calif.

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Got the June issue of the RAG™. Nice to see the tribute to Lionel Hampton by Tom Jacobsen. I'm not sure if he has this, but the evidence points to him being born in 1908 definitely. He is recorded as being 2 years old in Birmingham, Alabama, in the 1910 census (on 14th May 1910) and 11 years old in Chicago in the 1920 census (on 8th March 1920). Both of these are consistent with a birth date of 20th April 1908. Also his social security details give the same birth date. Hope this helps.

Brian Goggin

London, England

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Reading "Norwich Party Celebrates A Vintage Year for Jazz," and "The 19th Swinging Year at The Atlanta Jazz Party," June 2008 RAG, I am reminded of my friend, the late Richard Gibson, who with his wife, Maddie, having missed the jazz scene and the ocean after moving from New York to Denver, held their first Colorado Jazz Party in Aspen at the historic Jerome Hotel in 1962. Gibson admitted that he couldn't do anything about the ocean, but he could about the jazz. His innovative concept of presenting mainstream jazz spread to over 60 venues in this country and abroad before his death in the late '90s. I'm certain that Dick would have been proud to know about the success of the Norwich and Atlanta events, both including many of the jazz greats who were featured at his Colorado parties. As many of the legendary jazz artists recognized with the advent of the rock era -- including Milt Hinton, Sweets Edison, and Benny Carter -- their careers were revived and extended because of Dick Gibson.

Bill Smith

Highlands Ranch, Colo.