Continued: CD Reviws

HUMPHREY LYTTELTON: The Other Parlophones 1951-1954 (Sackville SKCD2-2067) 76:02 min.
Take a Note from the South; Open House; Hook, Line and Sinker; Backroom Joys; Apple Be Ripe; Midnight Creep; Small Hour Fantasy; Sweet Muscatel; Get It; Stay with It; Ugly Duckling; Friendless Blues; Fat Tuesday; Original Jelly Roll Blues; King Porter Stomp; London Blues; Mike's Tangana; Ain't Misbehavin'; Beale Street Blues; Georgia on My Mind; Muskrat Ramble; Manzelle Josephine; Mainly Traditional; Oh! Dad.

Reviewed by Bill Mitchell

Humphrey Lyttleton, dean of British trad trumpet players, will be 87 in May. As far as I know, he is still active in music, playing and leading his band. He is a man of many talents and has had a versatile career.

Humph discovered jazz as a youngster, listening to records by Louis Armstrong and Nat Gonella. He taught himself to play trumpet, and while a student at Eton in 1936 he formed a quartet. During WWII he saw service in the Grenadier Guards. In 1949 he joined the Daily Mail as a cartoonist, a post he held for a number of years. In the late 1940s and early 1950s he was preeminent in the British trad revival, recording with Sidney Bechet in 1949 as well as leading his own groups. He conducted a record show, The Best of Jazz, from 1967 to 2007, and hosted a comedy panel, I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue, on the BBC beginning in 1972. He has also written several books on jazz.

In his notes to the CD under review here, John Norris writes, "It has been nearly a decade since Calligraph issued four CDs of Humphrey Lyttelton Band recordings which appeared originally on 78s or 45s. At that time, listeners were promised a further CD of `hybrid' recordings, for want of a better name.' This issue fulfills that promise by assembling the recordings made between 1951 and 1954 with members of the Graeme Bell Band, the collaborations with Freddy Grant's Caribbean musicians, Humph's supporting role with vocalist Marie Bryant, and the session with the Melody Maker All Stars. We have added, as a bonus, the originally issued version of `Ace in the Hole' which included John Picard in the personnel. Calligraph used a previously unissued version of the tune from an earlier date."

The first 11 cuts offer Lyttelton with various combinations of musicians from Graeme Bell's Australian band. Bell's crew is said to have had a salutary effect on the British trad bands by loosening them up, freeing them from a certain "stuffiness" that afflicted them in the early 1950s. The tunes are all originals by band members (Lytellton, Bell, Ade Monsbourgh). The performances are at times reminiscent of big band hot dance, and at other times a marriage of New Orleans and Chicago styles. Bell's "Apples Be Ripe" introduces an intriguing calypso sound.

The Grant-Lyttelton Paseo Jazz Band provides an unusual and appealing calypso interpretation of classic jazz tunes. It's a kick to hear "Original Jelly Roll Blues," "King Porter Stomp," and "London Blues" with bongos and maracas, as Freddy Grant's visiting West Indians hit it off with Lyttelton's Londoners. "Fat Tuesday," an original by Grant, Lyttelton and Denis Preston, is an irresistible calypso romp, one of the highlights of the session.

The Mike McKenzie Quartet, with Humphrey Lyttelton, trumpet; Mike McKenzie, piano; Denny Wright, guitar; and Jack Fallon, bass, accompanies singer Marie Bryant on four standards. Ms. Bryant had a successful career as a dancer before beginning her second career as vocalist. Her voice and style are decidedly reminiscent of Billie Holiday, and, as a matter of fact, she appears in the 1944 film, Jammin' the Blues, supposedly subbing for Billie.

"Mainly Traditional," from The Melody Makers All Stars date of 1954, is an original by Lyttelton. It features an intensely hot blues solo which reflects the Armstrong influence. The other all stars include some familiar names in British jazz: George Chisholm, trombone; Wally Fawkes, clarinet; Bruce Turner, alto saxophone; Mike McKenzie, piano; Fitzroy Coleman, guitar; Joe Muddel, bass 1; Micky Ashman, bass 2; and Eric Delaney, drums.

To obtain this CD featuring Lyttelton in a variety of contexts, you need to contact Sackville Recordings, P.O. Box 1002, Stn. O, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4A 2N4. Phone/Fax (416) 465-9093.

VINCE LEWIS TRIO: CHARLOTTE SWING -- THE GIFT (Redstone Jazz RJCD 4505)
Will You Still Be Mine?; Bluesette; I Only Have Eyes for You; Road Song; Pick Yourself Up; Satin Doll; The Gift; Just a Closer Walk; West Coast Blues; Lullaby of Birdland; So Many Stars.

Reviewed by Will Shapira

The first great jazz guitarist I ever saw was Denver, Colorado-based Johnny Smith in 1958, playing with very good bassists and drummers in frequent visits to the old Herb's Bar in downtown Minneapolis, Minn. Smith set the bar pretty high for the many guitarists I later heard over time, but Vince Lewis is among the very best I've encountered on CD in recent years.

He's on a different label here -- Redstone -- and playing with new accompanists (Tom Hildreth, bass; Phil Riddle, drums) but the result essentially is the same as on previous CDs with different instrumentation: swinging standards; tender, probing ballads, artists in complete control of their instruments, many passages infused with blues, some humor with quotes from other songs. In sum, this is an excellent recital by perhaps the best guitarist too many jazz fans have never heard of.

That's a real shame because Lewis can play with the best of today's guitarists, would do any venue proud, and his recordings deserve to be heard around the world. I know this is a familiar story of frustration for countless artists in many art forms, but that does not make it any less true. I urge you check out Vince Lewis via (256) 520-3881 or www.vincelewis.com or www.redstoneaudio.com.

As another musician named Lewis used to say, Vince will "make everybody happy."

March 2008 issue | © 2008 The Mississippi Rag

P.O. Box 19068, Minneapolis, MN 55419.