NEW ORLEANS JAZZ ACETATES 1940's UNHEARD RARE JAZZ $.99 Downloads

KL-3
NEW ORLEANS JAZZ
ACETATES & HOME
RECORDINGS Vol.1
1942 - 1952

This collection of home recordings could be

called a labor

love. They were within

minutes of being thrown into a

dumpster back

in 1990, while clearing out a house that

belonged to Raymond Burke. Raymond had

passed away

few years before, and his

house had not been lived in

since his

death.

His family had donated Raymond's huge

collection of

records, books and piano rolls to

an archive

of New Orleans

Jazz. There were

boxes near the

doorway, waiting to be put in

huge dumpster, rented for

the occasion. As I

was moving a

few of these boxes

outside, I

noticed one that was quite heavy,

yet the top

made it look like it was filled with newspapers

and

magazines, all in pretty rough shape. As I

removed a few

layers

of old press, I noticed

that most of the box

contained old home

recordings, and there were quite a

few of them.

They were in

horrible condition, over 90%

had

huge chunks of acetate

flaking off, and some

had a

sort of mold on them. The person in

charge walked into

the room and said that he

had looked at the

recordings

and they were of

no use to anyone, and were to be

thrown

into

the dumpster. I then asked him if he would

mind if I

put them in my car, take them home

and see what I could

with them. After giving

me the "Oh, Brother!" look, he

just said,

"Enjoy

yourself!", gave a wave of the hand at the

box

and left

the room. After taking them back to my

dwelling, I gave them a

good looking at. He

was correct,

they were shot. However, they

were still in the original

sleeves, and the

chunks of acetate

were everywhere, but

good portion of the acetate was still

floating

around in

the sleeve. The very few that could

be played

revealed a

wonderful sound of New

Orleans Jazz from the early

1940's to early

1950's. Recorded by the New Orleans

legend

the Clarinet, Raymond Burke, these

recordings

contained

wonderful performances

by Burke, Johnny

Wiggs, Doc

Souchon,

Snoozer Quinn, Sharkey Bonnano,

and quite a

few

others who were quite active during those

years. These men

were seldom recorded

during this

period, mostly because the

type of

music that the record

companies wanted, were

the

players of the Bunk

Johnson school of

jazz. In later years,

Burke, Wiggs and

company

made a few nice recordings, but

these sides

were made during their peak years. And then

they

sat in a

box for another 16 years, being

moved when I moved to

various parts of the

country. After years of trying to figure

out a

method to piece together the flakes of acetate

back

onto the

recording to get at least one

transfer, I found a

way. And it

involved

hairspray from a pump poured into a

shot

glass,

Q-Tips & a 35mm Projector lens. After

coating

the back of the

flake, I had less than 10

seconds to get

into position with the

grooves

lined correctly. After that, I

had less than 10

minutes to

do a transfer before it would

longer hold. And it could only

be attempted

once, the

hairspray damaged the acetate flake

and it was gone

forever. Once transferred, I

discovered that

many had

been over-recorded,

under-recorded, and most had

been

played

back using an old heavy steel needle. The

hours

get them even into the condition that

you hear them in

now,

can't be counted. But it

seemed to be too important

of a project

to put

aside and possibly lose these songs

forever.

So, here they are. As well as they can be at the

present.

When I

can improve the quality

further, I will. I have

enough for at least

one,

probably two more CD's of this

wonderful

sound from

New Orleans

24. WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN -
THE RAMBLERS

Most of these are complete songs, however a few
ran over the time allotted on a home recording. Still,
I felt they had way too much great jazz on them to be
discarded. I hope you enjoy them. The joy that these
great musicians into their music overcomes the
technical problems in the recordings. They were
made for the musicians themselves to listen to, and
we're lucky that they have survived over a half a
century in any condition!

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