This afternoon, I was doing research for a post on the eccentric and wholly rewarding trumpeter and bandleader P.T. Stanton and I stumbled across this, hidden in plain sight on YouTube: two sessions from June 1956 and March 1957, featuring New Orleans clarinetist George Lewis playing with banjoist Dick Oxtot’s Traditional Jazz Quartet — whose other members were Stanton, string bassist Leilas Sharpton, and the still ongoing singer Barbara Dane.
Stanton is more restrained on these tracks — a potent shining lead and melodic improvisations — but his individualities come through. This seems to be the only recording for bassist Sharpton. Is anything more known about this good player, whose name I might have misspelled?
Let this music guide you out of 2017 and into 2018 in the most hopeful uplifting ways.
SMILES:
THE GLORY OF LOVE, as Barbara explicates it gloriously for us:
and the other side of GLORY, the MECCA FLAT BLUES:
Barbara returns to offer what some might feel on Monday, January 1, 2018:
Always a good question, SHOULD I?:
In the name of holy relics and relevant paper ephemera, here is one UK issue of two of the performances:
Appropriate for the occasion, TILL WE MEET AGAIN:
Other titles were recorded at the first session, but these five performances are the only ones issued, as far as I know. Another glimpse into the jazz treasure chest, full of surprises always. Wishing you only the best surprises for 2018 and onwards.
May your happiness increase!
