I find jazz paper ephemera so very tempting. Even though my piano skills were never more than sub-amateur at their height, that candid awareness hasn’t stopped me from coveting sheet music or purchasing a folio now and then.
I saw this on eBay and couldn’t hold back my hand (the price was low and the folio was new to me). So I am the new owner:
and here (found online but not purchased) is a different edition:
I believe the edition I bought dates from 1934. Why one folio is ten cents more than the other is a mystery too deep for me. And speaking of “too deep for me,” here is the first page of ALLIGATOR CRAWL. Maybe in my retirement I could crawl through those notes?
The Ebay seller also had two remarkable pieces of sheet music — prices too high for an eager dilettante like myself — compositions by Willie “the Lion” Smith inscribed to fellow pianist Milt Raskin in 1937.
FUSSIN’:
SNEAK AWAY:
And if you wonder how we know they belonged to Milt Raskin, the purple-ink rubber stamp on each sheet tells us so.
Music, Maestro, please!
Fats’ liberal improvisation (1935) on ALLIGATOR CRAWL:
FUSSIN’ — played by Ralph Sutton:
Our friend and hero Rossano Sportiello also played FUSSIN’ just two weeks ago at the Cleveland Classic Jazz Party, so perhaps I might be able to share that with you someday.
And here, introduced by The Lion and Eddie Condon, at a Town Hall concert, is SNEAK AWAY:
It’s possible that having sheet music connected to Fats and The Lion is as close as I will get to playing stride piano, so thank goodness for recordings.
May your happiness increase!
