Royal Garden Blues Condon 1962

A typical Eddie Condon Session.
Wild Bill Davison on trumpet, Cutty Cutshall trombone, Peanuts Hucko clarinet, Johnny Varro piano,Joe Williams bass and Buzzy Drootin drums and of course announcer, tenor guitarist bandleader and jazz promotor Eddie Condon on his four string tenor guitar.

Eddie Condon photos

China Boy Condon All Stars 1959

In this film clip from 1959 the announcer names all these famous musicians, Jimmy McPartland trumpet, Pee Wee Russell clarinet, Bud Freeman tenor sax, Jack Teagarden trombone, Joe Sullivan piano, Eddie Condon guitar, Bob Haggart bass and Gene Krupa drums.
There are not enough films of a dreamband like this.

Wolverine Blues Condon Eddie 1959

The grand finale with a one minute clip of Wolverine Blues by Eddie Condon's All Stars. Actually 65 seconds, but every second is worth that double impact of seeing and hearing at the same time, simply called movie. Youtube made it possible that this clip came out of my video cabinet. My film jazz collection doesn't do much good sitting neatly catalogized on one of my shelves. Thank you Youtube to have made it possible to share this with all of you
Jimmy McPartland trumpet, Pee Wee Russell clarinet, Bud Freeman tenor sax, Jack Teagarden trombone, Joe Sullivan piano, Eddie Condon guitar, Bob Haggart bass and Gene Krupa drums.

Tailgate Ramble Manone Wingy 1964

Probably in a recording studio in New York in 1964 we see a performance of Wingy Manone playing one of his favourite tunes "Tailgate Ramble". It appears that this clip has never been published. 12 years later Wingy came to Toronto and played for a week with our Climax Jazz Band. I remember him singing this tune almost every night.
Wingy Manone ( 1900-1982) was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He lost an arm in a streetcar accident, which resulted in his nickname of "Wingy". After playing professionally with various bands in his home town, he began to travel widely in the 1920s, working in Chicago, New York City, Texas, Mobile, Alabama, California, St. Louis, Missouri and other locations through the decade; he continued to travel widely around the United States for decades. He and his band did regular recording and radio work through the 1930s, and appeared with Bing Crosby in the movie Rhythm on the River in 1940.
His autobiography "Trumpet On The Wing" was published in 1948.
From the 1950s on he was based mostly in California and Las Vegas, Nevada, although he also toured through the United States, Canada, and parts of Europe to appear at jazz festivals.
He is survived by his son, Joseph Matthew Manone II and his grandson, Jimmy Manone who are both musicians as well.

Singin' the blues Butterfield Billy 1964

Billy Butterfield plays the first chorus of Singin' the blues, one of the tunes Bix Beiderbecke recorded in the late twenties.
In the following chorus we see some solos by Edmund Hall on clarinet and Cutty Cutshall on trombone. This is one of these clips that hasn't been around much before and it is certainly a great pleasure to post it on youtube, thanks to one of my youtube friends, who found this in his video collection and sent it to me to share with all of you jazz lovers.

At The Jazz Band Ball Johnny Mercer 1964

Johnny Mercer who wrote the lyrics of At the Jazz Band Ball is actually singing this tune. The only time I heard it sang before was with an Eddie Condon Band with Bing Crosby.
John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer (1909 -- 1976) was a songwriter. He wrote the lyrics to more that 1000 songs, received nineteen Academy Award nominations, and wrote music for movies and Broadway shows. He also was a cofounder of Capitol Records.

Jazz me Blues Condon Eddie 1964

Under the leadership of "conductor" Eddie Condon we see an all star group playing "Jazz me blues". Wild Bill Davison and Billy Butterfield on trumpets, Edmund Hall clarinet, Vic Dickenson and Cutty Cutshall trombones, Willie 'The Lion' Smith piano, Al Hall bass and George Wettling drums. Many of the famous recordings in the late fifties and early sixties were issued on LP's (I still enjoy 'em all) but hardly a film-recording was done. I have been collecting videos for more than twenty years but this is the first time I've seen a "Condon" band in such great picture and sound quality. Recorded in New York in 1964 but ever been issued?
Everybody, enjoy these great jazz masters!

Do you know what it means Butterfield Billy 1964

With an piano introduction from Henry Duncan we see Billy Butterfield on trumpet, Edmund Hall on clarinet, Vic Dickenson on trombone in the classic standard "Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans".
Al Hall is on bass and George Wettling on drums.
This was the kind of music I adored and tried to play in 1964 as well when we still lived in the Netherlands.These musicians were our heroes and seeing 'em play together in such a relaxed manner and with such good picture and sound quality will be, I'm sure for many of us, a new treasure to behold.

Royal Garden Blues Condon 1964

Eddie Condon and his All Stars .To me this was the most exciting band when I was in my twenties. We had a jazz band in the early sixties and we tried to play stylistically just like that. Obviously we managed reasonably good. We became winners of the Dutch AVRO radio jazz competiton with a special mention by famous jazz critic Michael de Ruyter on my playing in the Wild Bill Davison style. Our price was a concert in the The Hague Kurhaus Concert Hall with jazz clarinettist Albert Nicholas in 1965.
Naturally Wild Bill Davison was my hero, and even today, more than 40 years later I still get excited hearing him play, then with this clip also being able to see him in action is that extra dimension. Absolutely wonderful. Eddie had different musician combinations in his groups but particularly with Bill on trumpet, Edmund Hall on clarinet and Cutty Cutshall was their hottest one.
I wish I could sit with my trombonist from those years and see this clip together. Jan Meeuwisse, I lost contact, hope he is still alive, was totally addicted to Cutty Cutshall.
In this recording, which I had never seen before, was made around 1964. In the rhythm group are Willy The "Lyon" Smith on piano, Al Hall on the bass and one of the greatest dixieland drummers, you guessed it, George Wettling.
Typical of many of the Eddie Condon recordings. One doesn't hear much of Eddie's 4 string guitar playing. He was there, but probable just for encouragement, with a glass of whiskey working on his memoires.
Enough said. I'm going to listen to this hot "Royal Garden Blues" again

Blue and Broken Hearted Condon 1964

From a 1964 recording done somewhere in a studio in New York an Eddie Condon group plays "Blue and Broken Hearted", a feature for cornet player Wild Bill Davison. Next to Bill in the band we see Edmund Hall on clarinet, Cutty Cutshall on trombone. In the rhythm group we have Eddie Duncan piano, Al Hall bass and George Wettling drums.
In my years of collecting LP's of Wild Bill I remember many a time that he would select "Blue and Broken Heated" to be included on the recording. It was obviously one of Bill's favourites, and it so good to now also see him play that tune so effectively

Eccentric Rag Condon Eddie 1946

Eddie Condon and his band in his club in New York, probably shortly after opening when Danton Walker, a then famous radio and film announcer did a program on newly opened clubs in town. "Eddie Condon's" on West Third Street opened in December 1945, so I would think this was taped in 1946.
On reflection, more important was the music of course! An excellent version of the Eccentric Rag with Wild Bill Davison tpt, Edmund Hall clt, Cutty Cutshall tb, Gene Schroeder pno, Bob Casey(?) bass, Dave Tough drs and this time with host Eddie Condon indeed playing his four string tenor guitar as well.

Stompy Jones Soprano Summit 1977

From the 1977 Jazz Festival in Nice France comes this music from the Soprano Summit. Bob Wilber and Kenny Davern and a rhythm group with Bucky Pizzarelli gtr, George Duvivier bass, and Bobby Rosengarten drs.
Of course both Bob and Kenny are incredible musicians, but in this tune, Stompy Jones, Kenny's clarinet solo was so ingenious, with humor, technique, warmth and emotion. To me this is Kenny's ultimate creation. Therefore I like to emphasize a bit more on Kenny Davern (1935 - Dec 12, 2006)
After hearing Pee Wee Russell the first time, he was convinced that he wanted to be a jazz musician, too; and at the age of 16 he joined the musician's union, first as a baritone saxophone player. In 1954 he joined Jack Teagarden's Band, and after only a few days with the band he made his first jazz recordings. Later on, he worked with bands lead by Phil Napoleon and Pee Wee Erwin before joining the Dukes of Dixieland in 1962. The late 1960s found him free-lancing with a.o. Red Allen, Ralph Sutton, Yank Lawson and his life-long friend Dick Wellstood.
When Soprano summit disbanded in 1979, Davern devoted himself to solely playing clarinet, preferring trio formats with piano and drums. His collaboration with Bob Wilber was revived in 1991, the new group being called Summit Reunion. Leading his own quartets since the 1990s, Davern has preferred the guitar to the piano in his rhythm section, employing guitarists Bucky Pizzarelli, Howard Alden and James Chirillo.
A full, rounded tone, especially "woody" in the lower chalumeau register, combined with highly personal tone inflections and the ability to hit notes far above the conventional range of the clarinet, have made his sound immediately recognizable. In the late 1980s, the New York Times hailed him as 'the finest jazz clarinetist playing today'.
In addition to his accomplishments in jazz, his ardour and knowledge of classical music is encyclopaedic, particularly of the work of conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler.

Chicago Condon 1964

Under the leadership of Eddie Condon we see an all star group playing "Chicago" Next to Eddie playing his 4 string tenor guitar we see Wild Bill Davison, Wingy Manone and Billy Butterfield on trumpets, Edmund Hall clarinet, Vic Dickenson and Cutty Cutshall trombones, Henry Duncan piano, Al Hall bass and George Wettling drums. There is a vocal by Thelma Middleton especially written for this occassion by Johnny Mercer. An ad-in vocal as well by Sammy Davis Jr This is from special feature film called a "Tribute to Eddie Condon". It appears that this 1964 music movie which I received from a collector friend in New Jersey has actually never been issued.