Malc's Jazz Mix Volume 2

Here is the second volume of jazz sides which I think Malc would have enjoyed listening to.

Tracklisting:

1. Joe Venuti Satan's Holiday
2. Bessie Smith Reckless Blues
3. Django Reinhardt Djangology
4. Django Reinhardt Oriental Shuffle
5. Bix Beiderbecke Davenport Blues
6. Original Memphis Five Bass Ale Blues
7. Joe Venuti & Eddie Lang Wild Dog
8. Frankie Trumbauer Way Down Yonder In New Orleans
9. Frankie Trumbauer Futuristic Rhythm

I've used a book cover from Scott Fitzgerald whose novels have come to epitomise the 1920's Jazz Age. Malc and his wife Margerie wrote a film script for Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night which was never made into a film and was only published in 1990.

If you like the above then tune into the first Malc's jazz mix.

Clfford "Ukulele Ike" Edwards Story

I have been continuing my research into the ululele and jazz music in the 1920's. There are no direct references to Clifford Edwards in Lowry's work but Edwards was the the most popular ukulele player in the world during the time that Lowry was devoted to the instrument. In addition, Edwards played with Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti who were amongst Lowry's favourite jazz players. So it is safe to assume that Lowry would most likely have been aware of Edward's work.

I came across the above video while carrying out my research into Edwards. What struck me about the video was some similarities between Edwards and Lowry. Lowry and Edwards were both alchoholics and both died in sad circumstances. However, the most striking thing for me was the apparent lack of awareness in Edward's home town of Hannibal USA of Edward's achievements. I think if I went out in my home town of New Brighton and Lowry's birthplace we would have the same reaction - Malcolm who? I thought he lived in Salford!

Here is more of Ukulele Ike with Eddie Lang:

King Of Jazz Meet The Boys

Watch some of Malc's favourite jazz players including Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang together in one segement of film in the movie King Of Jazz as they play with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra.

Read the story behind King Of Jazz on Red Hot Jazz

Eddie Lang Church Street Sobbin' Blues

Church Street Liverpool Late 1920's

Eddie Lang didn't write Church Street Sobbin' Blues with Liverpool's main thoroughfare in my mind. But I love the coincidence that one of Lowry's favourite jazz players wrote a song with that street title and I am sure Lowry would have loved the coincidence. Church Street would have been a street which Lowry would have often walked down on his visits to the city. You can see Lord Street at the top of the photograph which would have taken Lowry down to the river front. Paradise Street, with its infamous Museum Of Anatomy mentioned by Lowry several times in his books, is a street off to the right at the point where Church Street runs into Lord Street.

Frank Crumit & Ukulele Lady

But Hugh, if he could not play quite like Django Reinhardt or Eddie Lang on the one hand or, God help him, Frank Crumit on the other, could not help remembering either that he had once enjoyed the reputation of a tremendous talent. Malcolm Lowry Under The Volcano

Hugh is one many characters in Lowry's novels that are based on personas Lowry may have wished to portray i.e. the jazz composer who had sailed the oceans composing songs on his guitar or ukulele. In fact, Lowry had portrayed his voyage to the Far East in 1927, which provides the autobiogrpahical details of Hugh's experiences at sea, to the newpapers who covered the story as "Seeing The World With A Ukulele".

Lowry first started playing music around 1925 on a banjo brought home by his brother Russell before the pair embarked on learning the then popular ukulele to compose songs probably not that far removed from Frank Crumit's Ukulele Lady. Lowry seems to have had a low opinion of Frank Crumit and would have probably preferred Vaughn De Leath's version as she sang with Eddie Lang and Red Nichols who were more to Lowry's jazz tastes.

Vaughn De Leath liked the booze as much as Lowry and died of alcoholism at the age of 48

I am currently collating all of Malc's ukulele references and will return with other posts about his love of the instrument.

Eddie Lang

Malcolm Lowry had a life long love of jazz music particularily the essentially "white" sound of the classically trained artists such as Eddie Lang.

Eddie Lang (October 25, 1902 – March 26, 1933) was an American jazz guitarist, regarded as the most important Chicago jazz guitarist and the Father of the Jazz Guitar. He played a Gibson L-4 and L-5 guitar, providing great influence for many guitarists, including Django Reinhardt - Read more on Wikipedia or listen to Eddie at Red Hot Jazz

References to jazz music crop up in many of Lowry's novels. Perle Epstein's essay Swinging The Maelstrom: Malcolm Lowry and Jazz in George Woodcock ed. Malcolm Lowry The Man And His Work (2007) is a very useful starting point to appreciate Lowry's love of jazz.