Pee Wee Russell - Quadromania

Pee Wee Russell, the man with the 'licorice stick'

Pee Wee was a gifted clarinetist, back in the advent of the developmental days improvising on original New Orleans style, and helping the genre meld into Chicago/New York and eventual European Trad style , heading for the West Coast Revival of Trad Jazz and swing in the 30's, 40's and beyond. He associated with the best in the business, like Eddie Condon, Teagarden, Wild Bill Davison, George Wettling, Mugsy Spanier, etc. The Quadromania 4-CD sets are all impeccably done, and beautifully remastered. All should have these German issues in their collections. January 6, 2007

There's A Lot More To Pee Wee Than This

Musical Content: 4 stars
Sound Quality: 3 stars
Packaging: 2 stars
Bang for the Buck: 4 stars

The clarinet is usually such a polite, sweet instrument in the hands of most of its best known masters (Goodman, Shaw, Bigard,...). But Pee Wee Russell has a very sharp, aggressive edge to his tone; be careful handling the CDs, you might cut your fingers. The first 3 CDs, recorded between 1933 & 1944, all feature him as a member of the long-standing Eddie Condon (banjo) band that was headquartered out of Nick's Club in Chicago. Heavily slanted toward dixieland (but with an edge), the mostly uptempo numbers here are a lot of fun, and the occassional down tempo tunes give PWR a chance to show his pretty side. But he was never really satisfied with the "Nixieland" ghetto his playing was trapped in with this group; there is a distinct lack of variety to this material. None of his early work with the exciting Mound City Blowers, or his 50's work when he finally took control of his music and formed his own bands. While a very dominant side man with this group, he does often have to wait his turn to solo. As a jazz experience, 3.5 stars but for sheer cheerful upbeat whoopie 4.5 stars.

The last CD is a 1961 session with Coleman Hawkins with a very solid rhythm section (PWR was not great at keeping his own time). It's a pleasant if sedate set, playing with Hawk as he had 30 years earlier in the Mound City Blowers. The playing, however, shows Pee Wee and Coleman powers fading somewhat as they both neared the end of their careers. Pee Wee plays a lot sweeter and works the lower register a lot more than on the Nixieland pieces. The old masters seem to push each other, there are some high points, and the set is of historical interest. A nice bonus, if less than scintillating on its own.

The sound quality is fair; given the direct-to-disk recording methods of the time. There's no noise, but there is noticable distortion in some of the trombone and trumpet playing. And on some tracks, there is a distinct "listening from the next room" reverb applied either during the original recording or the remastering process. I suspect the latter, since many other Quadromania disks suffer this way. The sixties set on CD4, of course, sounds much better.

The 4 CD holder, while otherwise well designed, suffers because the teeth that should hold the CDs in place let go and/or break during travel or handling. The documentation lists accompanying musicians and recording dates, but no biographical or other information.

Update: I have found a recommended replacement: Take Me to the Land of Jazz. Only one CD, but more variety, more consistent musicianship, and better fidelity. December 14, 2006

Don't be Weary--Buy Happy.

I just discovered these Quadromania sets from Membran. They are simply treasures if you want a one-stop, broad retrospective of major jazz figures. This set of four discs compiles the career of Pee Wee Russell---a career that started in the late 20's and ended in the late 60's. Not a bad run for a clarinet player without a big band to call his own. The striking thing is that creativity and excellence were never lacking. Russell played with the best. He lived with Bix Biederbecke and in this collection he plays in Eddie Condon traditional jazz settings with trumpet greats like Bobby Hackett, Max Kaminsky, Mugsy Spanier, and Wild Bill Davidson and trombonists Jack Teagarden, Miff Mole, and Bob Brookmeyer. Pianists include Fats Waller, Joe Sullivan, and Jess Stacy. The range of Russell's career is simply astounding. This set is a great survey of a traditional jazz clarinetist with clearly modern intonations and extraordinary musical inventiveness. Disc 4---from `60's sessions that included Coleman Hawkins on tenor and Emmett Berry on trumpet---is worth the price of the set. It showcases Russell near the end of his career as the consummate jazz musician that he was. The collection contains 68 tracks (the official count is 69, but Earl Hines' "Rosetta" is repeated on disc 2 in place of Gershwin's "'S Wonderful"--I wanted to hear the Teagarden solo on that one, but c'est la vie, Dude). Given the time span covered, the recordings were cleanly remastered. June 22, 2006

Great Jazz

This album is great value for money, four CD's for under ten dollars. If you like the Condon "Town Hall Concert" series, you will love these four CD's covering jazz music from 1933 up to 1961. Here you have Condon, Pee Wee Russell, Hackett, Kaminski and many of their contemporaries blowing out great jazz. Over four hours of jazz music played by many top musicians.
Alan Carrick February 12, 2006

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