SQUEEZINGS

I try to avoid soda, the beverage of my childhood, but I once bought a bottle of SQUEEZE because its affectionate logo charmed me.  The bottle vanished in one of several moves, but the melody lingers on.

Fats Waller’s first published song — although it was liberally based on a bawdy tune called THE BOY IN THE BOAT, whose central image was not nautical.  But here are a few versions . . . . the first one from Jazz at Chautauqua in 2011 with Marty Grosz, Jon-Erik Kellso, Scott Robinson, Frank Tate:

with a pause for liquid enlightenment here:

and a solo version by Ray Skjelbred, recorded at Cline Cellars in California, June 2013:

with one more icon:

and from the 2014 Atlanta  Jazz Party, with Dan Block, Duke Heitger, Bria Skonberg, Ed Polcer, John Cocuzzi, Paul Keller, Ed Metz:

Reading this post and listening to the music, I don’t know if you’ll suddenly crave an orange soda, look around for the right person to squeeze and be squeezed by . . . in such things, you’re on your own.  But perhaps at the Cleveland Classic Jazz Party — starting September 15 — someone will give this wonderful song another squeeze.  You never know.

May your happiness increase!

FRESH-SQUEEZED: VINCE BARTELS, ALLAN VACHÉ, DAN BARRETT, RUSS PHILLIPS, JOHNNY VARRO, DAVE STONE at the SACRAMENTO MUSIC FESTIVAL (May 23, 2014)

Mister Waller would be delighted.  And we were too.

Vince Bartels had assembled a truly all-star band in the Condon tradition for the 2014 Sacramento Music Festival, with himself on drums, Dave Stone, string bass; Johnny Varro, piano; Allan Vaché, clarinet, Russ Phillips, trombone; Dan Barrett, trumpet. And they performed SQUEEZE ME and got every drop of sweetly lascivious energy out of it — a memorable performance indeed:

I mean my fellow-listeners no disrespect, but that performance deserved much more applause than it got.  Perhaps everyone was stunned into silence.  You may applaud now, as loudly as possible.  If you are someplace where applause might not be appropriate, I will settle for loud grinning and sending this blogpost on to others who might like to have their spirits uplifted.  OK?

May your happiness increase!

“THE BOY IN THE BOAT”

Another mystery solved, or perhaps another text explicated. 

In May 2010, I posted videos (courtesy of Rae Ann Berry) of a party thrown by Alisa Clancy that featured wonderful duets by Jeff Hamilton on piano and Clint Baker on trumpet. 

In case you missed them, here they are: https://jazzlives.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/alisas-party-jeff-hamilton-and-clint-baker-may-18-2010/

One of their most saucy outings was SQUEEZE ME, which made me think of its origins in a cheerfully bawdy song called THE BOY IN THE BOAT.  The title had little to do with nautical adventures, and I have included the Winslow Homer image above only as a jape. 

I had only a partial recollection of the lyrics and asked my readers for assistance.  Surprisingly, no explicators or archivists emerged to assist me. 

But when I recently found the YouTube channel of “blindleroygarnett” enlightenment came along as a bonus — a late Paramount (circa 1931) of one George Hannah singing about that boy with accompaniment by Meade Lux Lewis. 

Listen, my children, and you shall hear. 

Now you know!

THE ORIGINAL PRAGUE SYNCOPATED ORCHESTRA, 2010

WHERE’S MY SWEETIE HIDING?

The inquiry’s made by the Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra* — wittily and rhythmically. 

How could anyone not love a band whose theme is SQUEEZE ME?

Many thanks to Enrico Borsetti for posting this delightful Twenties interlude!

*They’re really the “Originální Pražský Synkopický Orchestr,” but they accept booking in all languages.