Barney Mallon "Asleep in the Deep" - Dukes of Dixieland - AF

[Tom Eshelman]

That Rich Matteson solo is stupendous. That's got to be one of the all-time great trad jazz albums. I see Spotify has it but they omit Limehouse Blues(!) and a couple other tracks.

[EdFirth]

There's a YouTube of Al Hirt and Maynard Ferguson that is really great. If you type in both their names it should pop up. And there is a band that I think is as good as any of the Dukes incarnations formerly called The Happy Jazz Band then changed to The Jim Cullem Band that owned their club, The Landing, on the Riverwalk in San Antonio. They play radio broadcasts of them here on Sundays called Riverwalk Jazz. It's my understanding that they lost the club but are still together. I played a set with them when our circus was in town and when their tuba player, Buddy Apfel, left Jim attempted to find the tuba player from the Circus Vargas Band and was led to the guy after me who hadn't been on the show when we were in San Antonio. From the circus I went to New Orleans and played quite a bit with the Dukes who had been taken over by a carpetbagger asshole. . He got a book put together and the band would go out and play with orchestras and was based on the top floor of the Monteleone Hotel. Later they moved to Bourbon Street to a club called the Paddock Lounge and changed the name to Mohogany Hall. Both bands switched to bass fiddle quite awhile ago. Ramble over, Ed

[EdFirth]

I think the trumpet player you're referring to at the Paddock lounge was a guy named Johnny Horn. I'm remembering him also being able to play two trumpets at once. And the guy in Cullum's band on trombone and cornet was Randy Reinhardt. I have to say, when I heard Cullum in 75' I was very impressed. There's an album called Hot with a cornet with a sparkler behind it also where he sounds great.This is just a side note but in New Orleans sometime around 1980 Jimmy Ille, who was the first bandleader after Merle Evans on Ringling, and worked all around town, put a circus band together for a green sheet job in Jackson Square. It featured all of the old circus staples and all of the jazzers playing them Johnny Horn was on that one, but with only one trumpet. I still have a cassette tape that the "band arranger" made while strolling around the bandstand. Joe, I'm thinking some of the Dules you met were Kevin Clark,tpt., Ben Smith,tbn., and Dickie taylor, drums. The old Dukes were the first jazz band I ever heard. They were on the Mike Douglas show in Philly when I was a kid and I later got most of their albums. And time marches on. Ed

[roweenie]

I used to work (when there was still work to be had) with Randy quite frequently back in the 1980's-90's, and he was (is) without question one of the finest Trad cornettists (and trombone) there is, and is a great guy, too.

I remember that at one time he toyed with the idea of playing tuba also......

[EdFirth]

The trumpet player would've probably been Frank Trappani. The first time we met I blurted out "Wow, are you Al Hirt?" To which he replied " No I aint F888ing Al Hirt" We eventually worked together quite a lot at the jazz brunch at the Court of Two sisters. He had three embrouchers. One on the right, one on the left, and one in the middle. His explanation for having three was that he often worked a couple of jobs a day to get out of the house and one embrochure wouldn't stand up to the pounding. He died way too young but it was a great pleasure to know and work with him. There was a later trumpet player who was with them called JB(jazz blob) who kind of fits your description but I think he's still with us. I need to drive over there sometime. Ed

[Tom Eshelman]

Back to Rich Matteson's "stupendous" solo on the Limehouse Blues. It's beyond stupendous - it absolutely stomps the life out of the Limehouse Blues and lays waste to western music as we know it. It's preceeded by a fine solo by Louie that builds to a nice bluesey high-register climax at which time Matteson's helicon just comes crashing in destroying absolutely everything in its path with savage emotion and fearful power ... 30-seconds for the ages.

In the past I've listened a fair amount to the Tuba-Euph Legacy Project Rich Matteson CD which does include several trad jazz tracks - I even transcribed Rich's walking bass in I Found a New Baby from that CD - so I thought I knew his work and I was a big fan - but this Limehouse Blues solo is a whole other level beyond anything on that CD imo.

Thank you Joe for pointing out this one.

[David Richoux]

Well, I just listened to it on my MacBook Pro, with a Harmon Kardon UBS speaker system (with subwoofer) and the last note is just not there! I will have to dig out my LP copy of the record to see if it is better.

As for Sacramento, I have played there in a variety of bands almost every year since 1978 - certainly it has changed over those years, and it is in big trouble. It will never be as varied in musical styles as say the NOLA Jazz fest, but there is still a lot of "trad" for those who still like it. For a volunteer run event I think it does pretty well and the audience is becoming much less "blue-hair" for all of the acts. My band is not sure if we will be there this year yet, but I assume we will - we are a very popular group. Here are a few clips from 2011.

[David Richoux]

Ah, I figured out the problem - I have a MacBook app running called Boom - it is a EQ booster, but I had the settings on flat to improve some podcast playback. This cut the last few notes. No problems now after I changed the curve.

As a joke, with one of the songs I regularly play in my jazz band, "Peoria" I will tag with the end bit from "Asleep in the Deep." Since it is in a higher key, it is nothing getting down to the low F at the end, but I don't try for the "privilege tones" an octave lower. No mic, and I don't want to gas it! Plus, I have noticed that the low frequency hearing range of our audience (and several of my bandmates) has been much limited as of late...

[williamp]

Man, that brought back memories. I used to listen to that as a kid from my dad's collection and then learned it on sousaphone in the sixth grade for an audition for Interlochen summer camp. I didn't have the ending pedal tones at that time... Things have a way of coming full circle. I went off to college and studied orchestral repertoire, but have spent the last 13 years playing stuff more similar to this Dukes of Dixieland recording. Still brings me great joy and has introduced me to some fine, fine musicians. Thanks for that post.

[Dave DeWitt]

I worked many times over the years with Barney, but always on Bass , not Tuba.
It`s nice to hear these recordings of him with Dukes. He was a great guy and we miss him.

[Art Hovey]

Here's some really nice classic jazz by Lew Green with the Original Salty Dogs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... pPBCUlYEb8

The band has been around even longer than the Galvanized Jazz Band. The tubist is Mike Walbridge; he is worth listening to. He doesn't show off in terms of range or chops; he just swings. I have worked with Lew Green many times, and did a trio gig once with the late Bob Sundstrom, who passed just a couple of weeks ago. There are at least three other "Banjo Bobs" who I know of.

[tbn.al]

Joe, What horn were you playing on those cuts? I really, really like that sound.

[Steve Marcus]

Please do not move this post to "clipart".
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At the time of this recording (linked below), the double low F" at the end of this cut was the lowest recorded musical frequency to date...



(The label was "Audio Fidelity", the pioneer in mass-produced stereophonic recordings. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Fidelity_Records )

...the tuba player on the recording [was] Barney Mallon

Welllll...

Also in the very early days of commercially-released stereo recordings, the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra recorded their arrangement of "Little Brown Jug." In the right channel at 3:00 of the recording, Harvey Phillips(?) can be heard playing the descending "punches" 2 octaves below the string bass and bass trombone: double pedal Bb, A, Ab. Then when the trumpets drop out, the descent continues to double pedal Gb, F, Eb. On the last note of the scale at 3:06, the trombones and string bass play a staccato note while the tuba hangs on to what is (theoretically) a double pedal Db--accompanied by drums only. As if to affirm that was real, the last note of the arrangement at 3:10 has the tuba repeat that double pedal Db with the flute and glock playing Db in their range (7 octaves higher?).



This is the kind of "tickle" that was found in the humor of Sauter-Finegan arrangements. It would be fun to look at the chart of this arrangement, if it still exists, to verify S-F's intentions for the tuba.

Bottom line--fun listening.