As he entered into a lifetime of session and event organizing, banjoist and guitarist
Eddie Condon was quite busy as a sideman during the 1920s and early ‘30s. A 22-track
Condon sampler released by Timeless during the '90s taps into the years 1928-1931, beginning with two titles by trombonist
Miff Mole's Molers.
Condon had enormous respect for
Mole and was one of the few to attend his funeral in 1961. "Oh Baby" (with a thrilling group scat intro) and "Back Home Again in Indiana" (with a delightfully naive vocal by
Condon that he would spend the rest of his years trying to live down) were recorded on July 28, 1928 by the
Eddie Condon Quartet, with Frank Teschmacher blowing clarinet and alto sax,
Joe Sullivan at the piano, and
Gene Krupa behind the drums. "Makin' Friends" and "I'm Sorry I Made You Cry" three months later by
Condon,
Sullivan, singing trombonist
Jack Teagarden, and talking clarinetist
Mezz Mezzrow as
Eddie Condon's Footwarmers. In February, 1929, this little group reassembled with African American tenor saxophonist
Happy Caldwell and several other musicians for what
Condon later claimed was one of the very first racially mixed sessions for a nationally distributed major label (Victor). Billed as
Eddie's Hot Shots, the band ground out two take of "I'm Gonna Stomp, Mr. Henry Lee" and "That's a Serious Thing." According to
Condon, who described this period in vivid detail in his autobiography We Called It Music, the
Hot Shots date was the immediate precursor to the very first recordings ever made under the banner of
Fats Waller & His Buddies. That session, which
Condon attempted to organize under dauntingly hedonistic circumstances, took place on March 1, 1929 with
Condon playing banjo. Oddly enough, the producers of this collection did not include the
Waller sides, but opted instead to fill the rest of the album with 12 titles representing
Condon's involvement with
Red McKenzie & the Mound City Blue Blowers. The best of these are the selections on which
McKenzie concentrates on generating kazoo-like effects using his trusty paper and comb ("Arkansas Blues," "Tailspin Blues," "Firehouse Blues") , and the titles that feature tenor saxophonist
Coleman Hawkins (
James P. Johnson's "If I Could Be with You One Hour Tonight" and "Hello Lola"). Other early jazz heroes who appear on this collection are
Muggsy Spanier,
Pee Wee Russell,
Bud Freeman,
Jimmy Dorsey,
Red Nichols, and
Benny Goodman. ~ arwulf arwulf