Classic Jazz Online—Check It Out
by Don Mopsick
Before the recent explosion of online streaming media, fans of classic jazz had to settle for the more traditional ways of getting to “the good stuff” —CDs, DVDs, and of course the airwaves including public radio. But now, new streaming sites such as YouTube.com, Pandora.com and a host of others are creating a rapidly expanding universe of choices.
And, it’s individuals—ordinary folks who share our passsion—who are leading the way for the rest of us, not record companies and cable TV channels. This “democratizaiton of taste” currently underway is especially good news for classic jazz.
Two sites that have been providing large collecions of pre-war jazz audio recordings for quite some time now are The Red Hot Jazz Archive and Dismuke’s Virtual Talking Machine. Red Hot Jazz Archive’s creator Scott Alexander calls his site “A History of Jazz Before 1930.” In addition to Real streaming files of recordings by virtually all the great jazz artists of the 1920s, there are articles, photographs, and links to books and movies. There is also on online discussion group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RedHotJazz.
Although not as massive, Dismuke’s Virtual Talking Machine features streaming and downloads from Mr. Dismuke’s interesting personal audio record collection, in Real format. The collection ranges from the turn of the 20th century to the 1930s. “It is my hope that this site will help further the creation of a new generation of enthusiasts for an exciting, vibrant and, sadly, all- but-forgotten era of American popular culture.”
Bob Erwig is the former cornetist with the Climax Jazz Band based in Canada, a band that appeared frequently at classic jazz festivals and “jazz party” weekends worldwide. Bob amassed a huge collecion of jazz films and videos, some of which he shot himself, many others sent to him by individuals. Lately, Bob has taken to posting his collection on YouTube.com, and we are the lucky beneficiaries.
Bob writes, “At the moment I get about 10 to 12 thousand visitors a day since I started in June. I just passed the 1 millionth viewer count at Christmas. Now I have about 750 film clips and subscibers to my site have come close to the 800 mark and growing by some 10 a day.”
For example, here is a clip of Louis Armstrong performing “Dinah.” Bob writes, “This is part of a few tunes that were filmed in 1933 in Denmark. I believe it is one of the first sound movies with Louis’ playing and singing.”
You can explore Bob’s entire collection on his YouTube page here. Also, Bob has posted 5 clips of The Jim Cullum Jazz Band: “S.O.L. Blues,” “My Daddy Rocks Me” and “Fireworks” from a 1985 appearance on the Public TV series Austin City Limits, and “The Mooche” and “Shimmy Sha Wobble” from a party the night before a concert, organized by Jim Cullum, Chuck Huggins and Juanita Greenwood in tribute to Turk Murphy at Carnegie Hall in 1987.
Bob has also recently posted an excerpt from a 1986 JCJB performance of the Jelly Roll Morton standard, “Milenberg Joys.” Bob writes, “In 1986 our Climax Jazz Band was invited to a jazz festival in Friday Harbor, the small town on one of the San Juan Islands, just off the coast of Washington State. In one of our sets we were preceded by Jim Cullum’s Jazz Band from San Antonio, Texas. I had heard this band before but this was the first time I had a chance to enjoy the full impact of Jim and his superb band. I also had just bought one of these (then) big Sony video8 cameras and was able to record most of Jim’s set. I remember to be really taken by the band’s skills, talent, jazz feeling, a band totally honest, nothing phony, a band that just played very hot and in the idiom. These cassettes have been on the shelf for more than 20 years.”
Here is the link to Bob’s 1986 video of the “‘Milenberg Joys.” The Band personnel at that time was Jim Cullum, cornet; Allan Vaché, clarinet; Randy Reinhart, trombone; John Sheridan, piano; Howard Elkins, banjo; Jim Hunter, bass; Ed Torres, drums.
Thank you, Bob! After you experience the depth of Bob’s posted collection, you may want to thank him yourself via email or by leaving a comment on his YouTube site.
Ken McPherson, also of Canada, has posted a nice collection of jazz videos on DailyMotion.com. Here is Ken’s page on that site. Here is a sampling of his posts: Lester Young: “Jammin’ the Blues” with Sweets Edison, Red Callender, Sid Catlett, Barney Kessel, Joe Jones and Illinois Jaquet; Sister Rosetta Tharpe with Lucky Millender: “Lonesome Road;” Chick Webb Orchestra from 1929 backing up Lindy Hop dancers.
Just today I recieved from our good friend and Riverwalk Jazz guest artist, Paul Mehling, this link to a hot new video of his group, the Hot Club of San Francisco.
Both YouTube and DailyMotion feature opportunities for users to join groups, add “friend” lists, create comments and blogs, and share postings via email, etc. These features are similar to other “social engineering” sites like the enormously popular MySpace.com. The object is to allow people who share a given interest to find each other online and form a virtual community. This is not a new concept. For example, in 1995 the late Peter Lovric (yet another Canadian) founded the Dixieland Jazz Mailing List, probably the oldest established “bulletin board” discussion group for fans of older jazz. The text-only list is still going strong with about 500 worldwide members, and is moderated by Sacramento area musician Bob Ringwald. To sign up, visit the DJML home page and follow the instructions.
Grassroots community-forming also plays a big part in Pandora.com, a site that allows the user to stream single tracks from currently available CDs. Each user creates a unique playlist, or “station” according to intelligent recommendations from the site, and you can share your playlists with others via email. For example, here is a “station” that I created that includes tracks from the latest Jim Cullum Jazz Band CD. For each track that you play, you have the option of purchasinng a download from iTunes.com, or you can purchase the entire CD from Amazon.com.
Pandora recommends tracks to you based on their huge database of musical characteristics they call “The Music Genome Project.” Begun in 2000, the project has analyzed over 10,000 tracks from artists of all genres except classical music, according to hundreds of musical variables.
I’ve touched on just a few sites in this article and hope to report more to you in the future. I welcome your discoveries and suggestions, which you can share with our Riverwalk Jazz friends by emailing them to me at mophandl@landing.com. Warning: once you find media content online that speaks to your interests, you may find yourself spending more time than you intended listening, viewing, enjoying and sharing them with friends, loved ones, students, etc.
About the author: Don Mopsick plays the bass fiddle in The Jim Cullum Jazz Band and is the Editor of Jazz Me News.
