50 Jazz Nuggets for 2009
Here’s a blog that could be worth following during the year: the Grauniad‘s jazz writer John Fordham has started writing a weekly ‘episode’ that will eventually span “50 Great Moments of Jazz”. Fuel for education, debate and controversy no doubt.
It’s likely that Fordham’s perspective will encompass a ‘British’ view of the music, and I guess he’ll include at least a couple of moments that will relate to the local UK scene (will we hear from Nat Gonella, Humphrey Lyttleton, Mike Westbrook or Courtney Pine?). And it’s very possible that Fordham will avoid some of the classicist/progressive debates (Stanley Crouch vs Dave Douglas for example) that have so concerned US jazz cognoscenti since the 1980s.
Anyway, this week he starts with the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, (illustrated above) which is probably the only place to start if you want to post a recording each week. By the end of February I’m guessing we’ll have cruised past King Oliver and Louis Armstrong‘s Chicago recordings, and hopefully have paid tribute to Paul Whiteman and Bix on the way through…
PS. Observant listeners/readers may notice that the version of Livery Stable Blues included in this post is NOT the 1917 ODJB version, but a much more swinging 1945 version by Muggsy Spanier‘s band.
