1930-1931

• Artist: King Oliver and His Orchestra
• Rating:
• Release Date: 1991
• Total Time: 68:41
• Type: Compilation (best of), Instrumental
• Genre: Jazz

Review

What you've got here are King Oliver's final recordings as a leader. Big bands were still figuring themselves out in 1930, moving from one decade's definitive flavor into another stylistic space as yet unspecified. Hovering over everything was the gruesome specter of fiscal disaster. This did strange things to the music business. Pop culture became partly mummified by a creeping sentimentality that would emerge again during the age of Cold War conformity. During the 1930s and the 1950s jazz endured and continued to evolve, as it always will under any circumstances. With his best decade behind him, King Oliver presided over an orchestra that occasionally sounds a bit sleepy. During their best moments, these guys are almost as solid as Bennie Moten's band, or maybe the Moten orchestra of 1927. "Mule Face Blues" and "Stingaree" are features for Henry "Red" Allen. "Boogie Woogie" is a high-potency stomp containing not one speck of the definitive eight-to-the-bar formula usually associated with the term. On "Stop Crying," Buster Bailey blows into his clarinet with unusual ferocity and Ward Pinkett launches into a frantic scat vocal. Speaking of singers, if you're going to listen back on music from around 1930, it is necessary to make concessions to notions of popular taste. Otherwise, you'll be operating with no historical context whatsoever. If you think George Bias was a silly vocalist, check out some of the singing on records from the same time period by Fats Waller & His Buddies or Duke Ellington. Not everybody is going to sound as hip as Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon or Baby Cox. When three members of the band formed a vocal trio and sang on some of the recordings made in 1931, the results were entertaining in ways that maybe we ought to allow ourselves to rediscover. It's a shame that King Oliver's recordings taper off at this point. Like most other bands on the scene at that time, this one could have picked up steam again as new players, composers and arrangers would have helped it adapt to changing times. By the end of the 1930s, Eddie Condon or the guys at the Library of Congress could have rekindled popular interest in Joe Oliver. Even if by then he'd given up blowing his horn he could have succeeded as nominal leader of a New Orleans-styled jazz band, or something more modern-sounding. But this is pure speculation. Papa Joe died in abject poverty in Savannah, Georgia on the 10th of April, 1938. With five volumes of his work available from Classics, there's a lot of King Oliver to explore, and it's all worth your while. ~ arwulf arwulf, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track Title	Composers	Performers	Time
I Must Have It	King Oliver	King Oliver	(2:55)
Rhythm Club Stomp	King Oliver, Dave Nelson	King Oliver	(2:55)
You're Just My Type	King Oliver, Dave Nelson	King Oliver	(2:30)
Edna	King Oliver, Dave Nelson	King Oliver	(2:39)
Boogie Woogie	King Oliver, Dave Nelson	King Oliver	(3:00)
Mule Face Blues	King Oliver, Dave Nelson	King Oliver	(2:54)
Struggle Buggy	Clinton Walker	King Oliver	(2:57)
Don't You Think I Love You?	King Oliver	King Oliver	(2:44)
Olga	King Oliver, Dave Nelson	King Oliver	(3:25)
Shake It and Break It	Grant Clarke, Lou Chicha Friscoe	King Oliver	(2:30)
Stingaree Blues	Clinton A. Kemp	King Oliver	(3:13)
What's the Use of Living Without Love?	James F. Hanley, Joseph McCarthy	King Oliver	(3:25)
You Were Only Passing Time With Me	Alex Hill	King Oliver	(2:47)
Nelson Stomp	King Oliver, Dave Nelson	King Oliver	(3:13)
Stealing Love	Dave Nelson	King Oliver	(3:24)
Papa De-Da-Da	Clarence Williams, Clarence Todd	King Oliver	(2:50)
Who's Blue?		King Oliver	(2:53)
Stop Crying	King Oliver	King Oliver	(3:05)
Sugar Blues	Clarence Williams, Lucy Fletcher	King Oliver	(2:58)
I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby (And My Baby's Crazy 'Bout Me)	Fats Waller, Alex Hill	King Oliver	(3:20)
Loveless Love	W.C. Handy	King Oliver	(2:57)
One More Time	Lew Brown, Buddy DeSylva, Ray Henderson	King Oliver	(3:14)
When I Take My Sugar to Tea	Sammy Fain, Irving Kahal, Pierre Norman Connor	King Oliver	(2:53)

Credits

George Bias (Vocals), Glyn Pacque (Sax (Alto)), Henry Jones (Sax (Alto)), Bobby Holmes (Piano), Fred Skerritt (Sax (Baritone)), Clinton Walker (?), Carroll Dickerson (Director), Norman Lester (Piano), Arthur Taylor (Banjo), Buster Bailey (Clarinet), Gene Rodgers (Piano), King Oliver (Trumpet), Ward Pinkett (Vocals), Anatol Schenker (Liner Notes), Richard "Dick" Fullbright (?), King Oliver (Trombone), Charles Frazier (Sax (Tenor)), Bill Dillard (Trumpet), Bingie Madison (Vocals), Walter Wheeler (Sax (Tenor)), Hilton Jefferson (Sax (Alto)), Jimmy Archey (Trombone), King Oliver (Cornet), Dave Nelson (Trumpet), Bill Beason (Drums), Arthur Nipton (?), Henry Duncan (Piano), Bingie Madison (Sax (Tenor)), Freddie Moore (Drums), Glyn Pacque (Clarinet), Ward Pinkett (Trumpet), Fred Skerritt (Vocals), Bobby Holmes (Clarinet), Hilton Jefferson (Clarinet), Bobby Holmes (Sax (Alto)), Goldie Lucas (Vocals), Eric Franker (Piano), King Oliver (Director), Henry "Red" Allen (Trumpet), Bobby Holmes (Drums), Goldie Lucas (Guitar), Bobby Holmes (Sax (Tenor)), Bobby Holmes (Banjo)