KENNETH PATCHEN READS WITH JAZZ IN CANADA

On trumpet, flugelhorn and bag flute, it's Charles Cha Cha Shaw-perhaps under-billed, but certainly worthy of a good listen-laying down some post-bop, obscure and free jazz. A soulful atmosphere is provided by the likes of Ronnie Boykins on bass and Art Blakey Jr.. on drums.

This companion album to Folkways FW02857, Emile Barnes: The First Session, presents all the issuable alternate takes from the clarinetist's first recording session in 1951.

This compilation traces the genre's early days in the recording studio. It includes a reissue of the Victor Talking Machine Company's first piano ragtime disc in 1916, as well as several performances of English ragtime. These sides portray the piano in an era when recording technology struggled to capture the instrument's full range.

This influential 1920s small jazz band played music ideal for dancing, while it's members' improvisational creativity offered listeners a new experience with every take. The Original Memphis Five is said to have recorded more records than any other jazz ensemble of it's time.

This collection of poems by Sarah Webster Fabio and Deniake is an example of Fabio's affinity for combining poetry with music. In this blues-inspired album, Fabio and her children's band Don't Fight the Feeling pay tribute to John Coltrane, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington while simultaneously building a positive collective identity for African Americans with poems like "Pride" and "Black Is."

Recorded when Ernest "Doc" Paulin was almost seventy-four years old, this album provides a glimpse into the musical life of a New Orleans marching band. The ensemble's blues-influenced repertoire includes traditional march tunes, spirituals, and pop standards, played with what New Orleans musicians call "lots of tone"-with overblown horns, and of course, at high volume!

In this collection of prose and song, Langston Hughes narrates the history of the African-American people. Beginning with the struggles associated with slavery and punctuated with African chants and freedom songs sung by Brownie McGhee, Hilda Haynes and Leadbelly, Hughes imparts the glory and triumphs of African-Americans, which include the accomplishments of Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver, the founding of the NAACP, the sporting legends Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis and the music of William Grant and Ella Fitzgerald.

This compilation reflects musicians' accounts of the growth of jazz, spotlighting forms they heard in New Orleans such as the march, rag, blues, spiritual and "standards. " Featured are Jelly Roll Morton's Quartet, the Johnny Dodd's Orchestra and the Red Onion Jazz Babies (with whom Louis Armstrong played), as well as the first known recording of "High Society" as jazz by the King Oliver Creole Jazz Band. Liner notes by Frederic Ramsey Jr..

The classic 1957 release from one of the greats of gospel blues, a rough diamond of hard, pure country gospel expression, at odds with the earthly concerns of the blues and yet entwined with the devil's rhythms. Listen to the splendid Moon Goes Down, the skittering guitar figures on Bad Company and classic ragtime of I Didn't Want to Join the Band for confirmation of his brilliant originality. 17 cuts total, including a couple of unreleased items.

Texan Blind Willie Johnson was one of the most successful recording artists in the South in the late 1920s, before the Depression ruined the company for which he recorded. This collection demonstrates the singer's unique ability to express his personal poetic style through the genre of religious song.

Jelly Roll Morton's unexpected use of rhythm and his skill at emulating a full jazz band sound on the piano resonate throughout this collection of classic recordings from the Gennett label. These 19 selections were recorded during one prolific year and are presented here in chronological order.

I've never had the blues, says Brownie McGhee in an interview with famed oral historian, Studs Terkel, "the blues has always had me." the trio of legendary bluesmen played, talked, and traded stories with Terkel until the early hours of the morning in the studio of Chicago's WFMT radio station, creating a historic and memorable experience. Big Bill Broonzy had the idea of putting this session together in order "to reveal the uniqueness of each man's blues as a reflection of the uniqueness of each man's life," as noted in the extensive liner notes to what would be Broonzy's last recording for Folkways Records.

Tony "Little Sun" Glover (b. 1939) is a Minneapolis-born harmonica player and singer, most notably associated with guitarists "Spider" John Koerner and Dave "Snaker" Ray during the folk revival in the early 1960s. Glover performed with Ray until the latter's death in 2002, and he still performs with Koerner on occasion. This session, recorded in 1965, is an introduction to the basics of playing blues harmonica. Glover stresses that the student should first listen to a wide range of players before attempting to play. The liner notes cover the recorded material in greater depth, as well as a discography of Glover's favorite blues harp recordings.

Pink Anderson (1900-1974) spent most of his life working as a roving entertainer in the small medicine shows that traveled throughout the South. His stage repertoire included blues, comedic songs, country ballads, and minstrel show tunes. Pink's songs were first recorded in 1950 by the folk singer Paul Clayton. Folklorist Kenneth S. Goldstein heard the material, and asked the music historian Samuel Charters to find Pink and document his song repertoire. Charters subsequently featured Pink in his documentary the Blues. After a film session at his home in Spartanburg, South Carolina, in the summer of 1962, Pink felt like singing, so Charters continued recording. Many of the songs on this album come from those tapes, which include Pink's friend, blues guitarist Baby Tate.