In early March, 1927, gang warfare caused The Plantation Cafe in Chicago to close. It had been where King Oliver’s band had been in residence under a steady longstanding contract. On April 5, it was completely destroyed by a fire, putting the Oliver band out of work – and destroying the band’s collection of photographs and publicity material.
It was shortly after this event that Oliver made the decision to move the band to New York City to accept a gig at the Savoy Ballroom. This was the last recording he made in Chicago before he left.
I picked this one up recently, graded as being in Poor condition. Visually, it’s probably a G+ at worse and V- at best – so I wasn’t expecting much. Probably the seller just didn’t want a buyer to complain so they graded it ultra-conservatively. For $5 I figured it might even make a nice wall hanger. However, as you can hear, it sounds pretty good! Just goes to show that with 78s, you often can’t accurately judge the grade by appearance alone.
0:00 Soprano sax (Simeon)
0:12 Trombone (Ory)
0:33 Muted cornet (Oliver)
1:15 Soprano sax (Simeon)
1:48 Trombone (Ory)
2:20 Soprano sax (Simeon) and cornet (Oliver)
In the “Kings of Jazz” book series, Martin Williams was quite hard on this performance. He wrote: “Black Snake uses Omer Simeon (he took up soprano saxophone just for the arrangement) to advantage, but hardly to the near-brilliance that Morton did—it is quite possible that Simeon was always a better ensemble improviser than soloist. Ory manages again to be both witty and deeply serious. Oliver’s opening is sure and the slightest technical shakiness of his final chorus is fully overcome by his dignity and force. Black Snake is one Luis Russell arrangement for the Syncopators that does manage variety without clutter, but it is variety of a rather pointless sort, a variety of several good effects within a score, but with such little attention to over-all pattern. If the total effect of such writing is good, it is almost an accident.”
Me, I just really enjoyed the performances. 🙂
Recorded in Chicago, Illinois on April 27, 1927.
Released as Vocalion 1112.
Credits:
King Oliver, Thomas “Tick” Gray – cornet
Kid Ory – trombone
Omer Simeon – clarinet, soprano sax, alto sax
Paul Barnes – clarinet, alto sax
Barney Bigard – clarinetr, tenor sax
Luis Russell – piano, arranger
Junie Cobb – banjo
Lawson Buford – tuba
Paul Barbarin – drums
Sources:
King Joe Oliver, B.A.L. Rust and Walter C. Allen, 1957, A Jazz Book Club Production, London
Kings of Jazz: King Oliver, Martin Williams, 1961, A.S. Barnes & Co., New York
