"Words Fail Me" (April 28, 2006)

(Week 37)

This show is dedicated to scatting and other inarticulate sounds that issue from the human larynx in the service of rhythm. Barbaric yawps abound, with kazoos, jugs, and at least one detached saxophone mouthpiece. It should be a cacophony, but it ain't. It's an anthology of joyful noise, released from the constraints of intelligibility. (Why should I start making sense at this late date?)

Paul Whiteman and his Orch. – Charleston (1925) – History of Pop Radio 205598-202
Cab Calloway and his Orch. - The Scat Song (1933) - Jazz Tribune No. 58
Anonymous Ocarina Player – William Tell Overture (ca. 1910) – Columbia 78 RPM
Thomas Waller with Morris’s Hot Babies – Red Hot Dan (1927) – Bluebird 60015-2
Jabbo Smith’s Rhythm Aces – Decatur Street Tutti (1929) – Retrieval RTR 79013 JAZZ
Mills Blue Rhythm Band – Futuristic Jungleism (1931) – Hep CD 1008
The Rhythm Boys – Wa-Da-Da (1928) – Sony Music Special Products WK 75004
The Boswell Sisters – Shout Sister, Shout (1931) – Collectables COL-CD-6461
The Mills Brothers (w/Duke Ellington) – Diga, Diga Doo (1932) – Legacy/Columbia CK 57713
Dixieland Jug Blowers – Skit, Scat, Doodle-Do (1926) – Frog DGF8
Jimmy Wade’s Dixielanders – Mississippi Wobble (1928) – Timeless CBC 1-050 JAZZ
Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orch. – Just Rite (1928) – Frog DGF29
Sophie Tucker – Some of These Days (1911) – Archeophone ARCH 1003
‘Gene Greene – King of the Bungaloos (1917) – RCA Victor 09026 63206-2
Fletcher Henderson (Don Redman, vo.) – My Papa Doesn’t Two-Time No Time (1924) – Rivermont BSW 1141
Barbara Rosene and her New Yorkers – Me and the Man in the Moon (2005) – Stomp Off CD 1405
West End Jazz Band – Zulu Wail (2002) – Legacy 2K 101
Squirrel Nut Zippers – Put a Lid on it (1996) – Mammoth MR0137-2
Mound City Blue Blowers – Best Black (1925) – Timeless CBC 1-043 JAZZ
Cliff Edwards – Fascinatin’ Rhythm (1924) – Columbia/Legacy CK 57712
Charlie Palloy – Forty-Second Street (1933) – The Old Masters mb118
Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five – Heebie Jeebies (1925) – Columbia CK 44049
The Goofus Five (Ernest Hare, vo.) – Heebie Jeebies (1926) – Timeless CBC 1-017 JAZZ
The Boswell Sisters – Heebie Jeebies (1931) – Pro Arte Digital CDD 550
Bee Palmer – Singin’ the Blues (1929) – The Old Masters mb107
Lloyd Smith and his Gut-Bucketeers – Rub Me Some More (1930) – Biograph BCD 152 ADD
Joe Venuti’s Blue Four – Sensation (1928) – JSP CD 3402
King Radio – Sedition Law (1939) – Arhoolie Folklyric 7004
Eddie South and his International Orchestra – Hejre Kati (1931) – Classics 707
Slim and Slam – Boot-Ta-La-Za (1939) – Colmubia/Legacy CK 64898
Ben Selvin and his Orch. – Thank Your Father (1930) – The Old Masters mb117
Cab Calloway and his Orch. – Minnie the Moocher (1931) – Masters of Jazz MJCD 182
Bing Crosby – Sweet Sue (1933) – Columbia CK 44305
Ray Starita and his Ambassadors’ Club Orch. – Wake Up! Chill’un, Wake Up! (1929) – Avid AVC539