A Record a Week: Earl Hines - Fatha and His Orchestra On Tour

SIDE 1.
I JUST WANNA MAKE LOVE TO YOU
SECOND BALCONY JUMP
PASSION FLOWER
MY HEART STOOD STILL
I FEEL SO SMOOCHY
ALL OF ME

SIDE 2.
SOMEBODY LOVES ME
NIGHT IN TRINIDAD
CANNERY WALK
THINGS AIN'T WHAT THEY USED TO BE
MELODICA BLUES
EASY TO LOVE

Listening to this record, I am reminded that there was a time when the player was the namesake of the group, even if he or she was not the singer. Not to take anything away from the singer in this group, she's wonderful; but it is clearly Hines that is in control and the best of the bunch.

Teaming up with jazz greats Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington(among countless others) he over the years, Hines was considered amongst the elite in jazz and what would later become 'bebop'. He triumphed through a move to Chicago(where jazz was king at the time), powered through the times when African-Americans were discriminated against everywhere, and even maneuvered much of his band being drafted into the army, missing only a short stint as a result. I am not an aficionado of this style of music at all, but I can tell a good piece when I hear it. If my record player were upstairs, this would certainly be perfect cocktail party background music. I'm going to go against the grain of saying 'I should have been born in (insert era)' and just go ahead and say more modern musicians should do well done versions of music from eras past.