Sold Date: December 3, 2022
Start Date: November 26, 2022
Final Price: $26.00 (USD)
Bid Count: 2
Seller Feedback: 703
Buyer Feedback: 0

FESS WILLIAMS AND HIS ROYAL FLUSH ORCHESTRA, in their last sessions for Victor in 1930, produced this autobiographical gem:   

"PLAYING MY SAXOPHONE" 

'Fess explains that "Playing my saxophone is my heart's delight," then twists and clobbers his instrument for all time, unleashing a compendium of goony and totally unorthodox slap-tongue and wailing!  Modern jazz saxophonists take note! What 'Fess does on this side adds immeasurably to the repertoire of sounds possible on an alto!   The band gives a swell backup.   

"SHAG"

THE NEW ORLEANS FEETWARMERS is the band name on this September, 1932 session led by SIDNEY BECHET (soprano sax) and TOMMY LADNIER (trumpet), while they temporarily were running a Chinese laundry to make ends meet! It was in the middle of the bleak, absolute depths of the Great Depression. In what had to be a terrific break for both, they landed this date at Victor, making these unbelievably noncommercial red-hot sides!  "SHAG" is the most relentless of the bunch - though not by much!  

TOMMY LADNIER (trumpet) / TEDDY NIXON (trombone) / SIDNEY BECHET (soprano saxophone) / HENRY "HANK" DUNCAN (piano) / WILSON MYERS (bass) / MORRIS MORELAND (drums).  Everyone gets off hot solos; Sidney rules 'em!  

This original ca. 1945 HMV 4944 is a repressing of 1930 / 1932 U.S. masters is in lovely EE+ condition.  

***** 

These records come from my private collection, which I have been accumulating since 1967, and now am downsizing!  My highest priority in these eBay auctions is to give you the best possible idea of a record’s true condition and aesthetic value.  I always post at least four clear images, showing the record fore and aft, a close-up of the label, and the whole disc, warts and all.  If my purple prose won’t cut it, the pictures will!  Shipping is done with expert care. Your record will brave Media Mail in a stout corregated box, between four sheets of cardboard and a couple of “packers.”  I hope you are amused by these descriptions, and by the quality of service being offered.