HMV B.10645
Recorded in Chicago, Illinois on June 4, 1927.
If the Hot Seven version of “Wild Man Blues” took its sweet time slowly and masterfully unraveling its tale, the Jelly Roll Morton and his Red Hot Peppers version, recorded about a month later, seems to take a lighter approach.
It begins with a startling cacophonous series of knocks followed by a warning to “get away from that, boy, ‘fore the wild men get you” punctuated by a wild roar for good measure.
This tune clips at a faster pace with George Mitchell leading us through the first solo on cornet. Jelly and Johnny Dodds cut back and forth while proceedings are often interrupted by the novel acrobatics of Stump Evans on alto sax. The many starts, stops, and breaks also showcase the syncopations and fills of drummer Baby Dodds.
Though recorded in June of 1927, this side does not seem to have been released domestically on Bluebird until 1941. Here we have transferred a UK dub pressing.
Credits
Jelly Roll Morton – piano
George Mitchell – cornet
Johnny Dodds – clarinet
Gerald Reeves – trombone
Stump Evans – alto saxophone
Bud Scott – guitar
Quinn Wilson – tuba
Baby Dodds – drums
Lew LeMar – effects
Equipment used in the transfer:
Lenco L75 turntable with Shure M91ED cartridge
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2
Audacity (for digitization, de-clicking, and De-RIAA/Re-EQing)
Logic (for additional mild EQ tweaks, a light touch of compression, and stereo mixdown to mono)
Adobe Premiere (for adding label image and final export to MP4)