Second Version of the Cover
1955 Southland Records S-LP 216
Side One
Sharkey and his Kings of Dixieland
1. When the Saints Come Marching In
2) Chime Blues
3) Monday Date (Vocal by Jack Delaney)
4) Somebody Else is Taking My Place (Vocal by Jackie Blaine)
George Girard and his New Orleans Five
5) I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now
6) Roses of Picardy
Side Two
Santo Pecora and his New Orleans Rhythm Kings
1) Tail Gate Ramble
2) A Good Man is Hard to Find
3) Missouri Two Beat
4) World is Waiting for the Sunrise
George Girard and his New Orleans Five
5) I'm Sittin' On Top of the World
6) I'm Goin's Home
Liner Notes:
Band One
Sharkey and his Kings of Dixieland
SHARKEY BONANO, Trumpet
JACK DELANEY, Trombone
HARRY SHIELDS. Clarinet
STAN MENDELSON, Piano
ABBIE BRUNIES, Drums
CHINK MARTIN JR., String Bass
CHINK MARTIN SR., Tuba
I KNOW SHARKEY
Yeah, I know him since both of us were kids.... Wanted to be a clarinet player... In fact, he would have been a great clarinet player, too... But the way things worked out, well, you see Sharkey had a brother-in-law, John Quarella who used to have this pavilion on Lake Pontchartrain at Milneburg, and there was a band in the place. Frank Christian used to play cornet, but one night he didn't show up for work and little Sharkey went on the stand, and he's been blowin' up a storm ever since.
It's always been my ambition to put Sharkey on records, not the way records are usually made, but the way he sounds on the job. So I just caught him at a regular New Orleans style jam session, with first rate equipment and took down what he put out. I was lucky, to, because Jack Delaney was sitting in on trombone and Harry Shields on clarinet... and with Abbie Brunies on drums and Happy Mendelson, piano and the great Chink Martin on bass to make up as fine a rhythm section as New Orleans can produce, I got what I was after, plus. Naturally, the boys were delighted when they heard the playback - and I can confidently say that you will be, too, because lucky accidents like this don't happen every day.
- JOE MARES, JR.
...AND I KNOW JOE
It's a pleasure to work with Joe Mares, because he's a real New Orleans boy, who knows the real jazz sound like I know my brown derby. Where jazz is concerned he's always ready to try out an idea, to gamble on a new tune, to make a break for a musician down on his luck.
Anyway, recording for Joe, a guy can relax. Doesn't have to hurry through a session - and sometimes, you know how it is, a session doesn't come out. Well, that's the time that, instead of putting out second rate stuff, he'll just stick the tape away in his safe and make another session. This time he caught us by surprise, though, and really got four sides done the way that makes us feel good. Joe's got it down here the way we like to hear ourselves - and even Jack, who usually hates to hear himself on records, had that happy look when Joe played these sides back for us. Besides that, he's a genius when it comes to balancing an out-fit so that you can hear all the instruments. There's a flavor about Joe's records that goes beyond the music itself, and somehow recreates the New Orleans atmosphere.
I can tell you that I'm personally more than delighted with what Joe's produced on this LP. He's a great guy to work with.
- SHARKEY
Band Two
SANTO PECORA and his New Orleans Rhythm Kings
SANTO PECORA, Trombone
GEORGE GIRARD, Trumpet
LESTER BOUCHON, Tenor Sax
RAYMOND BURKE, Clarinet
ARMAND HUG, Piano
ABBIE BRUNIES, Drums
CHINK MARTIN, String Bass
Here is the King of the Tailgate Trombone, Santo Pecora, in all his rugged glory, finally presented to the world's jazz fans the way he really sounds, here, at home in New Orleans. Thirty active musical years have developed this brassy genius to the very peak of his talent. Today, still a young man, he retains his full, almost juvenile, vigor, a constantly expanding, ingeniously original flow of ideas, and a flawless mechanical facility. It only remained for Joe Mares, the Casey Stengel of the Jazz business, to get him down on wax with such fidelity as to show every facet of this great jazzman clearly and in full color. Santo's right to his kingdom will be amply authenticated by his "World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" and "Tailgate Ramble."
Since Southland, geographically, is right here in the heart of Jazz, Joe Mares can always surround each featured Jazz celebrity with a plethora of superb musicians. How well he's done justice to Santo in this respect will be evident when you hear Lester Bouchon convert the tenor saxophone into a true Dixieland instrument in his extravagantly lush treatment of "A Good Man Is Hard To Find". Bouchon, after a quarter-century, still too shy to appear comfortably in public, relaxes for Joe and gives him as haunting a solo as you'll ever hear recorded.
A current star in his own right, with a lip developed by his nightly stint on Bourbon Street, where he entertains packed houses regularly with his fully developed lead trumpet, George Girard carries this session along in masterly fashion. This twenty-five year old wonder boy has established himself already as one of New Orleans' outstanding jazzmen. Raymond Burke wraps up this superior front line with his tasteful, sensitive clarinet, so easily identifiable to all jazz fans, for the simple reason that there's no other sound in the entire jazz idiom that remotely resembles Raymond's. To establish the truly "all-star" character of this ensemble, Joe Mares has supplied a rhythm section consisting of Armand Hug, on piano, who's solo work is already thoroughly familiar, on many labels, to fans from New Orleans to Patagonia, plus Abbie Brunies, youngest of the famed clan of Brunies, and finally, the old-time master of bass, Chink Martin, who does things with a bass on these four tunes that you'll continue to refer to as long as you collect records. The musicians, other than the ones who appear in this album, that have heard these records, agree that they're among the very finest ever recorded in New Orleans.
Band Three
GEORGE GIRARD and his New Orleans Five
GEORGE GIRARD, Trumpet
JACK DELANEY, Trombone
RAYMOND BURKE, Clarinet
JOHNNY SENAC, String Bass-Tuba
ABBIE BRUNIES, Drums
STANLEY MENDELSON, Piano
Out in the front of the New Orleans five is the youthful sensation from whose gleaming trumpet pours the whole tradition of the Crescent City. At twenty-five, he's respected around town not only for his superb musicianship, fine driving lead and exciting solos, but also for his obvious and natural leadership. George Girard is one of the keystones on which New Orleans is building it's musical future.
George has been fronting his own group for the last thirty months and has spent twenty-four of these at The Famous Door here in New Orleans and Southland is the first to pin down George and his New Orleans Five on wax. Tutored by some of the greatest of the old-timers he's the true mid-century representative of all that is wonderful in our great music. One hearing will add him to your roster of great New Orleans hornmen.
On the New Orleans Five tracks you hear a veritable Cavalacade of great New Orleans jazzmen built around the lead trumpet of George Girard. You hear the unique ideas of Raymond Burke on clarinet; Mr. Dixieland of 1955 of New Orleans Jack Delaney on that fine singing trombone; On piano, a young man with old ideas Stanley Mendelson. Bassman Johnny Senac whom you'll hear on the New Orleans Five sides, not only on string bass, but with his nostalgic tuba comes forth a polished, full grown jazzman to take his place in the ranks of the top Crescent City jazz musicians. The late Abbie Brunies heard on drums here, lays down a solid beat and plays more honest-to-goodness drums than you can find anywhere else in this modern, hide-beating generation. There's a remarkable amount of fine Dixieland jazz on this long playing record - and it's all New Orleans.
- JOE MARES, JR.
"Southland Records" wishes to thank the Record Changer, Down Beat, Jazz Journal, Second Line, and all the people who wrote such wonderful things about Southland Long Playing efforts. We are pleased to be able to present another album produced by the same high musical and technical standard.
- JOE MARES, JR.
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