SOS 1152 00 Notes.txt
BARBARA LASHLEY AND RAY SKJELBRED
"Sweet and Lowdown"
Stomp Off SOS 1152, 1987
LP rip (320 kbps) by Dick Baker, June 2008
PROGRAM:
Side A
1. SUGAR (That Sugar Baby of Mine) (Maceo Pinkard-Sidney D. Mitchell (a) - 4:08
2. THAT'S YOU, BABY (Con Conrad-Archie Gottler-Sidney D. Mitchell) (a) - 2:21
3. BABY, OH! WHERE CAN YOU BE? (Frank Magine-Ted Koehler) (a) - 4:38
4. THERE'LL BE SOME CHANGES MADE (W. B. Overstreet-Billy Higgins) (b) - 3:26
5. BECAUSE MY BABY DON'T MEAN "MAYBE" NOW (Walter Donaldson) (a) - 2:51
6. WHEN DAY IS DONE (Robert Katscher-Buddy de Sylva) (a) - 3:39
7. TEN CENTS A DANCE (Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart) (a) - 3:31
8. PARADISE (Nacio Herb Brown-Gordon Clifford) (a) - 3:15
27:49
Side B
1. BIG CITY BLUES (Con Conrad-Sidney D. Mitchell) (b) - 4:17
2. BLUE AGAIN (Dorothy Fields-Jimmy McHugh) (a) - 3:30
3. HOLD ME (Jack Little-Dave Oppenheim-Ira Schuster) (a) - 4:24
4. FROM MONDAY ON (Harry Barris-Harry Crosby) - 2:25
5. BABY (Dorothy Fields-Jimmy McHugh) (b) - 3:53
6. SAVE YOUR SORROW (Al Sherman-Buddy de Sylva) (a) - 2:55
7. I'VE GOT THE BLUES FOR HOME SWEET HOME (Jerome-Goetz-Mayer) (a) - 3:40
8. SWEET AND LOWDOWN (George Gershwin-Ira Gershwin) (a)- 2:50
27:54
MUSICIANS:
Barbara Lashley/vocals
Ray Skjelbred/piano
NOTES by Richard Hadlock
We traditional jazz people seem to be discovering, at last, that "sweet" is as important as "lowdown" in our musical vocabulary. The concepts behind the words have been connected to jazz since ragtime and Buddy Bolden, but sweet jazz did not move to center stage until the late 'twenties. With the spread of electrical microphones and the popularity of radio, venerable hell-for-leather march numbers and booming blues gave way to melodious, often intimate variations on relatively sophisticated popular songs. A decade later the New Orleans jazz revival began, and many of its advocates vaulted back in time to pre-electrical days, ignoring the protests of crafty old men such as Bunk Johnson and Kid Ory, who wanted very much to include pretty pop songs in their programs. It has taken a while for the listeners to catch up to the musicians.
Ray Skjelbred, a splendid "lowdown" pianist (he put in three years with Turk Murphy's band) and singer Barbara Lashley, who can turn out a resounding version of "Oh Daddy" when she wishes to, love the good Tin Pan Alley songs which informed much of the best jazz of the late 'twenties and early 'thirties. And, like the most talented and secure performers of the period, they are not afraid to sing and play straightforward melody, shorn of needless fancywork. (Remember Louis Armstrong's stark and magnificent "When You're Smiling"?) These are the sounds of the little era between 1927 and 1933, when jazz musicians came to realize that sweet music was here to stay, and many were glad of it.
"I get tired of these people who think that loud is hot," Earl Hines once told me. "The hottest bands I've heard put tone and phrasing first, then played good songs with a nice swing. But not too loud. You can't get really good music when you're overblowing."
Earl knew something about his subject: he played piano behind two of New Orleans's hottest, sweetest interpreters of popular songs in the late 'twenties--Louis Armstrong and Jimmie Noone.
Hines was personally fond of both Ray Skjelbred and Barbara Lashley. In fact, Barbara worked with Earl on his last big band date (and Ray played solo piano opposite them), just weeks before the great pianist's death in 1983. This set of performances would have pleased him, I believe. Though restrained and soft-edged, the music swings firmly. Good improvisation, gracefully turned phrases and rhythmic muscle make for a satisfying jazz program; yet, the music flows without strain or self-conscious jazz posturing. It succeeds as good sweet jazz, I think, because there is careful choice of songs, concern for expressive detail, mature attention to dynamics and, perhaps most important, respect for melody. Finally, all is enhanced by a magical rapport between these two musicians, developed over nearly a decade of musical partnership.
Ray has long had a keen appetite for sweet, unpretentious music, whether it happens to be jazz, show tunes, country blues, supper club ballads or old cowboy songs. His fondness for singers such as the Mills Brothers, Connee Boswell, Annette Hanshaw, Lee Wiley and Bing Crosby is not merely jazz-based. It has to do with his appreciation of personal style combined with sincere, highly musical delivery. When he met Barbara Lashley, in the late 'seventies, it turned out that the singing partner he had often imagined lived only blocks from his Berkeley home. I think that all of us in the Bay Area jazz community shared this "love at first hearing" experience.
"I've worked with many singers," observes Ray. "Some like to be led and others take over and tell you what to do. There was none of that with us. Barbara and I just did what was natural for each of us and everything came out musically right."
Barbara Lashley was born in New York City. Her show business debut took place when, at age five, she sang "My Reverie" at a Harlem dancing school recital.
She grew up, however, in Washington, D.C. Her parents placed high value on music and there were lots of records in the house. Barbara and her brother, Rennie, descended from a long line of singers, sang along with the records and picked up a crazy grab bag of songs from artists such as Bing Crosby, the Ink Spots, the Andrews Sisters ("Mother and Daddy preferred the Boswells"), Ella Fitzgerald, the Mills Brothers, Fats Waller, Nat Cole and Ethel Waters.
"All of us in the family enjoyed the same things in music," she recalls. "We all loved sweet sacred songs, for example, by groups such as the Charioteers, the Golden Gate Quartet and Fred Waring. We admired good close harmony. Today I also enjoy listening to lowdown blues singing, but in those days the family didn't care to have such music in our home."
Barbara did not turn to solo singing in a jazz setting until 1978, after she had raised four children, finished with a nine-to-five career at the Voice of America and then ABC News, and finally earned a University of California degree in Afro-American Studies. Then she sat in a few times with us (Ray and I played together often) at a saloon called Berkeley Square, launching what some have called "the Barb and Ray show." The tunes selected by Barbara and Ray for this record come partly from their regular performance list. Others were dug out of old sheet music collections or suggested by recordings of singers whom they both admire.
"Sugar (That Sugar Baby of Mine)" was written by Maceo Pinkard, who also played piano for Ethel Waters's 1926 recording of the tune. Pinkard has contributed several good compositions to jazz band portfolios, including "Sweet Georgia Brown," "Them There Eyes," and "Mammy o' Mine." Lee Wiley liked to sing this number, and it was her torchy version of it which most influenced Barbara. However, Barbara's saucy overtones suggest a little of the impertinent style of Waters as well.
If you listen very carefully to Ray's solo, you may hear whispers of "Sugar" variations recorded more than once by clarinetist Pee Wee Russell.
"That's You, Baby" and "Big City Blues" came from Fox Movietone Follies of 1929, a film which featured Lola Lane and Stepin Fetchit (Lincoln Perry). Annette Hanshaw recorded both tunes back-to-back, and it was her radio-smart vocal style which served as inspiration for the versions heard here. Although the verse to "That's You, Baby" begins in a rather theatrical mode, it is worked into a fine light stomp by Skjelbred. Here is a good example of how well these two artists can blend contrasting approaches, like sugar and spice.
"Baby, Oh! Where Can You Be?" was composed by a rather obscure Chicago pianist named Frank Magine. His lyricist, however, was the renowned Ted Koehler, who later turned out great Cotton Club songs with Harold Arlen. This splendid tune has scarcely been recorded since the 'twenties, when the Dorsey Brothers, Bing Crosby and Fats Waller all gave it a whirl. I happen to think that Barbara does a more convincing job of it here than Bing did in 1929. Her last high note is pure honey.
Everyone knows "There'll Be Some Changes Made," but it is not always remembered that the Boswell Sisters turned one section of it into a quite moving slow blues. Ray didn't forget, though, and it works well here as an introduction. Barbara maintains the akimbo stance and scolding tone which are so suitable to these words. The little bluesy piano phrases which sound like Art Hodes are no accident: along with pianists Jess Stacy, Joe Sullivan and Earl Hines, Hodes is a contributor to Skjelbred's own unique style. This tune was somewhat unorthodox in form for the 'twenties and jazz players still enjoy its challenge.
"When Day Is Done" is the lovely 1926 product of composer Robert Katscher and lyricist Buddy de Sylva, who was just about to join Ray Henderson and Lew Brown to form one of the most successful songwriting teams of all time. Musicians relish the attractive harmonic changes in this tune and good singers, including Barbara, generally treat the melody with great respect. Ray is duly restrained, almost reverent, here.
"Ten Cents a Dance" was written by Rodgers and Hart in 1930 for Lee Morse to sing in the show Simple Simon. Lee was replaced at the last minute by Ruth Etting, for whom this was an important song. Barbara and Ray have been doing this one for quite some time, ever since Barbara produced a series of "taxi" dances at the Shattuck Hotel in Berkeley. Although Barbara's innocent, open-hearted approach is somewhat out of accord with the jaded sentiments of this piece, I cannot imagine the melody any better imparted than this.
I once owned a George Olsen record of "Big City Blues" and liked the tune very much. (I was in high school at the time and my classmates were more interested in "Elmer's Tune" and "Sleepy Lagoon.") Many years later, in 1981, while driving through Brittany, I heard an incredible hour of various recordings of "Big City Blues" on a French late-night radio show. So it is a delight to encounter the song again now. Of all the versions I've heard, this strikes me as the best. It suits both performers very well and Barbara makes the vintage words come alive. Here's another example of how jazz emerges naturally from simply playing a nice song respectfully. Ray is so good on this he could establish "Big City Blues" as a jazz standard.
"Blue Again" is a superior song written by Dorothy Fields (whose father, incidentally, was half of the comedy duo Weber and Fields) and composer Jimmy McHugh for the unsuccessful 1930 show Vanderbilt Revue. Louis Armstrong established "Blue Again" as a jazz vehicle, inspiring others such as Wild Bill Davison to have a go at it. Like Lee Wiley and other wise singers of the past, Barbara likes to include classy verses and this one is very classy indeed.
"Hold Me" was composed in 1933 by the English-born radio personality Little Jack Little. Again, Skjelbred and Lashley seem to select just the right tempo and phrasing to bring out the beauty of the piece. At the soulful pace of Barbara's first chorus, this melody somehow reminds me of Sidney Bechet's plaintive "Love Me with a Feeling."
"Baby," again from Fields and McHugh, was written for Blackbirds of 1928, which had a stunning score. Other pieces in the production were "I Can't Give You Anything but Love," "Diga Diga Doo," "I Must Have That Man," "Porgy" and "Doin' the New Lowdown." Bill Robinson danced and Adelaide Hall sang. "Baby" was one of her numbers. It is a good structure for jazz playing and Barbara sounds thoroughly at ease with it, understating and phrasing like a laid-back horn player. This is a neat bit of business.
"I've Got the Blues for Home Sweet Home" is from the repertoire of Butterbeans and Susie, and it is Susie Edwards's sincere, sweet rendering of it which serves as a model for this version. No nonsense here, just a heartfelt reading of a good sentimental, bluesy song. Ethel Waters could hardly have done it better.
The phrase "sweet and lowdown" really says it all. It suggests the kind of jazz Earl Hines was talking about, and it's a fair description of some wonderful music handed down to us by the old masters. The words also evoke, for me, a picture of Barbara Lashley and Ray Skjelbred making music the way they feel is right for themselves.
Richard Hadlock
Producer, The Annals of Jazz
KQED-FM, San Francisco
WSLU-FM, Canton, New York
CREDITS:
Recording Dates -(a) September 14-15, 1986; (b) December 2, 1986
Recording Locations - (a) Home of Bill and Dee Boland, Nicasio, Ca.; (b) Bay Records, Alameda, Ca.
Recording Engineer - Mike Cogan, Bay Records, Alameda, Ca.
Direct Metal Mastering - Jim Shelton at Europadisk, Ltd.
Production Supervisor - Mike Cogan
Back Cover Photo - Bonnie Swinderman
Front Cover Photo - Theron Henderson
Front Cover Design and Art - Elsa Bouman, El Cerrito, Ca.
Producer - Bob Erdos
Stomp Off Records - 549 Fairview Terrace, York, Pa. 17403
Our special thanks to Richard Hadlock and John Gill for supplying the recordings and sheet music that made this project possible and to Bill and Dee for use of the piano.
OTHER RECORDINGS:
Barbara Lashley with Ray Skjelbred and others:
How Long Has This Been Going On? - Shoestring 700
Direct From The Ballroom Of The Shattuck Hotel (2 tracks) - Stomp Off SOS 1127
Ray Skjelbred, solo piano:
Solo Jazz Piano - Berkeley Rhythm - 2
Chicago High Life - Euphonic ESR - 1223
Gin Mill Blues - Stomp Off SOS 1097 (with Hal Smith, drums)
Stompin' 'Em Down - Stomp Off SOS 1124 (with Hal Smith, drums)
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