(b) Bechet (soprano sax); Mezzrow (clarinet), Fitz Weston (piano); Pops Foster (bass); Kaiser Marshall (drums). 29/30 Aug 1945
(c) Bechet (soprano sax); Mezzrow (clarinet); Sam Price (“Jimmy Blythe, Jnr.”) (piano); Foster (bass); Marshall (drums). 18 Dec 1947
(d) Hot Lips Page (trumpet; vocal on 6); Bechet (Soprano sax); Mezzrow (clarinet); Price (piano); Danny Barker (guitar); Foster (bass); Sid Catlett (drums). 30 Jul 1945
I found the sleeve notes, written by one Charles Fox, interesting - most of what follows is a straight cut 'n paste. Ready? Ok...
In his autobiography, “Really the Blues”, Mezz Mezzrow has described his struggle to play jazz with the feeling and power of the great Negro musicians. To do it he lived among Negroes, identifying himself not only with their music but with their whole approach to life.
Mezzrow’s admiration for Sidney Bechet began in Chicago during the early ‘Twenties, when Bechet was playing with the Original Creole Band at the De Luxe Café. But not until 1938, when the French critic Hugues Panassié visited the United States and supervised a series of sessions, did they get an opportunity to record together.
To create good New Orleans jazz, Mezzrow saw that it was necessary to achieve unity of style. He planned to record blues which would be models of teamwork rather than a pattern of solos, the musicians taking their parts in a balanced, harmonious whole. “A celebration of life” is how Mezzrow describes the function of jazz...
Perhaps the Quintet recordings made in August, 1945, contain the greatest jazz of all. Bechet and Mezzrow...become almost equal partners in some of the most intimate ensemble improvisations ever heard in jazz. While not approaching Bechet’s stature as a soloist, Mezzrow is skilled in creating a deft, sympathetic counterpoint.
Hot Lips Page plays fierce, biting trumpet on two tracks by the Septet. His singing of Blood on the moon is interrupted by a superb solo from Bechet. House party is distinguished by vigorous ensemble playing, Page and Bechet sharing the lead between them.
On the 1947 session the group adopted a more conventional attitude. Funky Butt, I want some and Tommy's blues contain wonderful solos but the fabric is less complex, no attempt being made to achieve a contrapuntal effect.
Apart from the excellence of front-line musicians, the performances gather added distinction from the work of the rhythm sections. Three of the greatest drummers in jazz—Sid Catlett, Baby Dodds and Kaiser Marshall—all took part. Pops Foster shows that he is still unsurpassed as a bassist at sessions of this kind; Wellman Braud, the strength of Duke Ellington’s rhythm team during the ‘Thirties, can be heard on one track. Danny Barker, a guitarist too rarely recorded, plays in the Septet. Fitz Weston, Wesley ‘Sox’ Wilson and Sam Price (for contractual reasons using the pseudonym “Jimmy Blythe, Jnr.”) all contribute extremely solid piano work.
It seems no exaggeration to claim that Mezz Mezzrow and Sidney Bechet have never played better than they did at these sessions. The simplicity of blues reveals the truth about a man...no living musician can excel Bechet’s performances in this idiom. Each phrase mounts upon its predecessor with magnificent inevitability, until the solo stands revealed as a complete and organic entity.
And here’s some bonus extras from Mezzrow's Wiki listing, just for the helluvit:
“Milton Mesirow was ethnically and religiously Jewish, and was raised in Chicago. His wife, Johnnie Mae, was a black Baptist. They had one son, Milton Mesirow, Jr. According to the younger Mesirow, the surname \"Mezzrow\" was a \"pen name\" of his father's. In an interview with the New York Times in 2015, \"Mezz Jr.\" told a reporter, \"My father put me in a shul, and my mother's side tried to make me a Baptist. So when I'm asked what my religion is, I just say 'jazz.'\"[8]
The family lived in Harlem, New York, where Mezzrow declared himself a \"voluntary Negro\" and was listed as Negro on his draft card in World War II. [8] He believed that \"he had definitely 'crossed the line' that divided white and black identities\".[9]
Mezzrow...was so well known in the jazz community for selling marijuana that Mezz became slang for marijuana. He was also known as the Muggles King, 'muggles' being slang for marijuana, as in Louis Armstrong's 1928 recording \"Muggles\". Armstrong was one of his biggest customers.”
