Patuxent Music

07/18/2024

06/18/2024

IBMA Members - LOOK!!

06/11/2024

*********** NEW ALBUM *********

www.pxrec.com

Album notes by Alan Munde-

My first encounter with Bill Emerson's banjo playing was in the early 1960s on the bargain Coronet label release, Bill Emerson and his Virginia Mountaineers, Banjo Pickin' N' Hot Fiddlin', Country Style. Later I found a Volume 2 with the same title. I purchased these albums from the record rack of a five and dime store like I assume many others did. The recordings in String Time: The Early Recordings of Bill Emerson are taken from these 1962-1963 Coronet sessions.

In these early performances Bill Emerson demonstrates all the things one looks for in a model of superb bluegrass banjo playing. His performance is immaculate, with surprising and creative banjo arrangements of many standards and a few originals that have become classics. Emerson's powerhouse picking is accompanied by a stellar group of supporting musicians. Of special note is the atom-splitting mandolin of Frank Wakefield. When I was an aspiring banjo player, I listened to these recordings with great attention and pleasure as I attempted to learn the tunes, arrangements, and the subtle mysteries of the bluegrass banjo roll.

As I made my way in the bluegrass music world I found others who admired these early recordings. In the late 1960's when I joined with Sam Bush and Wayne Stewart in forming Poor Richard's Almanac, they were both aware of the Coronet releases of Emerson's music and cited them as influential recordings. Not surprising Sam was interested in the mandolin playing of Frank Wakefield, although we only assumed it was him at that time, as the accompanying musicians were not listed. We also had to guess at the titles as many listed on the Coronet recordings were incorrect or fictitious. What is listed as "String Time" on the Coronet cover is actually "Theme Time" "Honeysuckle" is "Little Maggie," and so on.

When I lived in Los Angeles, I would get together with the glorious banjo player John Hickman to trade tunes, licks, and ideas about banjo set-up. On many occasions he would reference Bill Emerson's playing from these recordings, and throw in Emerson licks and variations gleaned from the Coronet sessions. John went on to record "Sweet Dixie" on his album, and referenced Emerson's version from this early session. What is it they say about imitation?

At a workshop in Dallas, I had the opportunity to sit in on a class with the out-of-this-world player Jens Kruger. In a discussion of his early attraction to the banjo, Kruger referenced Bill Emerson's rock-solid roll displayed on the Coronet sessions Jens had found in his home country of Switzerland. Mesmerized by the insistence and rhythmically perfect pulse of Bill's playing, Jens encouraged the workshop participants to seek out these recordings for that same inspiration.

Bill Emerson went on from these early recordings to have a Hall of Fame career working and recording in turn with Buzz Busby, Red Allen, Jimmy Martin (where again he recorded his compositions "Theme Time," "Sweet Dixie," and the traditional "Little Maggie,") Cliff Waldron (where Bill brought "Fox on the Run" and "Proud Mary'" into the bluegrass world), the Country Gentlemen (which he helped form in 1957), The Navy Band - Country Current, Tony Rice, Del McCoury, and his own group the Sweet Dixie Band. The recordings here were near the beginning of his long and influential career. What a meaningful beginning it was.

04/17/2024

IBMA members - Please consider The Country Gentlemen Tribute Band's new album - Yesterday and Tomorrow when making your selections for IBMA awards

01/31/2024

https://youtu.be/0UxuTNiRRDU

2024 is the 40th anniversary of Patuxent Music. Here's a film with many of the artists we recorded over the years. I will probably post this link several times this year

01/08/2024

Patuxent Music has released a debut single for a new artist, West Virginia's Shannon Bielski and Moonlight Drive, who they has signed to the label.

11/02/2023

I am both saddened and hopeful as I draft this post. My very special and … Juliet Sosebee needs your support for John Colaianni’s medical and living expenses

10/16/2023

************************* NEW ALBUM ******************
www.pxrec.com
If ever there was a modern bluegrass band worthy of note as both a leader in innovation and a transmitter of tradition, it would be the Country Gentlemen. They naturally and seamlessly fused those two paths, doing so with a contagious enthusiasm and high-level musical excellence that greatly increased the size and spectrum of the bluegrass fan base and inspired countless musicians' hearts and minds to stretch. Without a doubt, the Gents impacted the entire bluegrass genre while catching the ears of folk, country, rock'n'roll and pop fans too. ..And if ever there was any single bluegrass band today with the most respect for that iconic group's sound, it would be the Country Gentlemen Tribute Band, who are carrying on that tradition in the same spirit of high standards and expansive inclusiveness.
For some years now the Tribute Band have devoted their outstanding talents to maintaining and enlivening the legacy of the Country Gentlemen, with an emphasis on the lead-vocal style of the late Charlie Waller. The impact of the Gents sound through the years is still pervasive in bluegrass music, yet no single group except the Country Gentlemen Tribute Band has so devoted itself to pursuing the continuation of that heritage.
Even so, the Tribute Band also sources songs never performed or recorded by the Gents, and they have comfortably managed to sync it all into a compatible whole; it's clear that these other songs they have chosen for this project are an excellent fit with the mid-period Gents songs included -- a worthy accomplishment indeed.
There's no doubt that the many fans of the Country Gentlemen Tribute Band are trusting that they will long continue their fine musical work, since audiences are certain to be clamoring for much, much more.

Mattha & Eddie Adcock

Long live the Country Gentlemen Tribute Band!! They keep alive the music of the late Charlie Waller and the Country Gentlemen. Not just the many songs made famous by that group, but the musical style of the group: not quite traditional bluegrass, not quite newgrass, but a contemporary blending of influences, played and sung with skill and an attitude. That attitude is on display here on this CD, where they add their own choice of material within the style of the Gents. I was privileged to be part of the first “Classic” configuration of the Country Gentlemen in the 1960s. It would not be an exaggeration to say that we changed the genre. The influence of pioneer Gents John Duffey, Charlie Waller, Eddie Adcock, Bill Emerson, Doyle Lawson, Bill Yates, Jimmy Gaudreau and more shines through in everything this Tribute Band does, whether live on stage or on recordings such as this.

Tom Gray

09/24/2023

https://youtu.be/0UxuTNiRRDU

Here's a film celebrating the 40th anniversary of Patuxent Music

Appearing in this film:

Tom Mindte
Bryan Mindte
Joe Meadows
Emblem
Keegan Corbey
Danny Bentley
Patrick Greaney
Patuxent Partners
Victoria McMullen
Bryan Deere
Jack Leiderman
Mark Delaney
Jordan Tice
Warner Williams
Jay Summerour
Andy Martin
Eric Rhodes
Eleanor Ellis
Pearl Bailes
Tom Cox
Joel Bailes
Jeremy Stephens
Mike Baytop
Rick Franklin
Ericka Ovette
Ruby Hayes
Paul Pieper
Chuck Redd
Mark Dorman
Herb Smith
Kenny Rittenhouse
Danny Knicely
Nate Leath
Kinberly Fraser
Nat Smith
Mantis Greenhouse
Nate White
Merasi Troupe
Noam Pikelny
Casey Driessen
Andy Hall
Mark Schatz
Alex Hargreaves
Tatiana Hargreaves
Emma Beaton
Jessie Baker
Dudley Connell
Michael Cleveland
David McLaughlin
Marshall Wilborn
The Doerfels
Kim Doerfel
Ben Doerfel
TJ Doerfel
Eddy Doerfel
Joe Doerfel
Angelica Grim
Frank Solivan
John Miller
The Stonemans
Patsy Stoneman
Donna Stoneman
Roni Stoneman
Casey Driscoll
Jon Grisham
"Chick Hall, Jr."
Dave Panzer
Steve Abshire
Paul Wingo
Dave Wundrow
John Escobar
Darren Beachley
Mike Auldridge
Norman Wright
Tom Gray
Brennen Ernst
Rusty Mason
Robert Redd
Steve Larrance
Ralph Gordon
Larry Coryell
John Colianni
Russ Carson
Dominick Leslie
Jake Stargel
Patrick McAvinue
Jared Gulliford
Taylor Baker
Ethan Hughes
Nate Grower
Sav Sankaran
Frank Wakefield
Tom Ewing
Bryan McDowell
Cory Piatt
Michael G. Stewart
Danny Paisley
Doug Meek
Eric Troutman
Mikey Ambrosino
Rick Franklin
Russ Hooper
Al Jones
"Billy Hurt, Jr."
Robert Montgomery
C.J. Lewandowski
Kark Shiflett
Victor Furtado
Paul Brown
Randy Barrett
Keith Arneson
Joe Hermann
Doug McKelway
Kevin Church
Dick Smith
Bill Emerson
Fred Geiger
Scott Walker
John Brunschwyler
Reed Martin
Daniel Greeson
Pete Kuylendall
Tom Morgan
Justin Lees
Joshua Palmer
Ben Somerville
The Moon Trotters
Luke Barnhill
Isabella Gorman
Lauren Wasmund
Jan Knutson
Tommy Cecil
Billy Puckett
Paul Anastasio
Frank Maloy
Robbie Benzing
Corrina Rose Logston
Kurt Stephenson
Casey Campbell
P. J. George
Molly Rose Band
Lynwood Lunsford
Mark Hudson
David Lewis
Gary Baird
Eli Wildman
Aila Wildman
Andrew Vogts
Mark Puryear
Mason Via
Paramount Jazz Orchestra
Marv Reitz
Big Howdy Bluegrass Band
Ira Gitlin
Dede Wyland
Tom McLaughlin
Billy Baker
Carroll Swam
Stefan Custodi
Dee Gunter
Danny Stuckeenschneider
Stephen Wade
Alex Lacquement
Zan McLeod
Jeff Scroggins
Tristan Scroggins
Greg Blake
Ellie Hakanson
Scott Vestal
Stu Geisbert
Willie Marschner
Five Mile Mountain Road
Danny Bureau
Seth Boyd
Caleb Duke Erickson
J. C. Radford
Esther Haynes
Sam Atkins
Eddie Ray Buzzini

Patuxent Music was founded in 1984 by engineer / producer / musician Tom Mindte. This is a montage of film clips and stills from recording sessions.Appearing...

09/16/2023

Tex Rubinowitz - vocal & guitar
Tom Mindte - mandolin / accordion / vocal
Ira Gitlin / electric guitar
Jon Combs - bass
Joe Atkins - rhythm guitar
Sam Atkins - drums
Les Elkins - trumpet
Marv Reitz - clarinet
Robert Kokta - trombone

08/14/2023

Springfield's Alan Munde is regarded as one of the best American banjoists ever, according to virtually everyone who knows the banjo.

06/28/2023

***** NEW RELEASE from Patuxent Muisic ******
Alan Munde - Excelsior

www.pxrec.com

The most important reason to be involved in music making as a player, composer of banjo ditties, and ensemble member, is that playing music is a kind of fun like no other. Certainly, it was grand fun being in the studio with all these top-notch musicians and engineers. Thanks so much to all for the fun times especially with musician/engineer/producer Billy Bright, and musician/engineer Pat Manske.

Alan Munde – banjo with:

Sam Bush, Don Stiernberg, Billy Bright, Emory Lester, Ron Pennington, Bruno Avitia,
Josh Baca, Bo Brown, Jeremy Chapman, Dom Fisher, Paul Glasse, Eric Hokkanen, Noah Jeffries, Kitty Ledbetter, Dennis Ludiker, Lloyd Maines, Pat Manske, Randy McSpadden, Elliott Rogers, Steve Smith,
Kym Warner.

03/26/2023

******** NEW CD **********

Stephen Wade - Hands on the Tune

www.pxrec.com

An impassioned banjoist, a nimbly authoritative clog dancer, a soulful singer of folk music and an enthralling tall tale raconteur … a wondrous artist, this Stephen Wade. – TIME MAGAZINE

Hands on the Tune

On this live concert album recorded in 2017 and 2022, Stephen Wade draws from songs, melodies, and styles rooted in Southeastern folk tradition. Based on a lifetime of personal contact with exemplars of this music, his performances attest to a welcome truth: that individuals adapting a traditional tune can renew a shared repertory. These performances feature a variety of five-string banjos—open back, resonator, a wooden-hooped mountain design, a gourd, and a Civil War-era fretless—as well as guitar. In addition to solos, Stephen is joined by multi-instrumentalist Zan McLeod and Dobro-player Russ Hooper. This collection, equally divided among old favorites, new interpretations, and numbers he has never previously recorded, forms a companion to Stephen’s forthcoming book, Our Common Life: Folklore from the Front Porch to the Concert Hall (University of Illinois Press). 72-minutes with illustrated booklet.

A 2013 Grammy nominee, Stephen Wade is the author of the prize-winning book The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience. Prior to that work he edited and annotated A Treasury of Library of Congress Field Recordings (Rounder, 1997), and for a decade wrote and narrated a series of occasional song studies for NPR’s All Things Considered and Morning Edition. He founded and directed all five years of the American Roots Music Program at Rocky Ridge Music Center in Estes Park, Colorado. On Labor Day 1979 he performed for President Carter at the White House. This invitation stemmed from his one-person theater piece, Banjo Dancing, which, over the course of its eighteen-years, became one of the five longest-running, off-Broadway stage shows in the United States.

For the Patuxent label he previously recorded A Storyteller’s Story: Sources of Banjo Dancing (2019) and Americana Concert: Alan Jabbour and Stephen Wade at the Library of Congress. (2017). He also appears on the Patuxent Banjo Project: The Best of Washington, DC, Baltimore, MD., and Southern PA (2014).
Over the course of Stephen Wade’s half-century career as a musician, performer, educator, and author, critical reception to his work has remained consistent. “Throughout, the eclectic virtuosity and unending joy of Stephen Wade's playing and voice ties it all together, never failing to entertain while enlightening,” commented Bluegrass Unlimited in May 2020. In 1979, the Wall Street Journal called him, “A man of rare ability; a one-of-a-kind all-American original.” In the early 1990s, The Times of London said, “Wade is a phenomenon, a curly-haired, gentle voiced enthusiast in a crumpled suit … nor is he sentimental: just in love with his old banjo and all those sad, sardonic, stories he can tell to it.” The lead critic in the San Francisco Examiner concurred: “He’s a kind of people’s court jester, an archivist who puts us at ease with our folk heritage, making us feel at home with the tales and melodies he’s collected as if they were our personal heirlooms. He is, in a way, a walking, talking banjo himself.”

01/20/2023

****** NEW ALBUM *****
Tex Rubinowitz - Bad Boys 1980.
previously unreleased -

Buy CD - https://yhst-1309885141442.stores.yahoo.net/panoclcdtexr.html

Buy Download - https://store.payloadz.com/details/2679365-music-rock-patuxent-no-club-cd-364-tex-rubinowitz-bad-boys-1980.html

12/12/2022

************ New Album ********
available at http://www.pxrec.com/
Shane has heard his father's banjo playing since birth. He spent his summers running around bluegrass festivals and dropping in on jams since before he was big enough to hold a guitar. For Shane McGeehan, life as a bluegrass musician was an inescapable fate. In the summer of 2015 he met his bandmates in Serene Green. Since then they've recorded two albums , played countless shows, and developed a fan-base all over the east coast. On this debut solo album he showcases the sound he has honed during his formative years. Comprised mostly of original songs and a few choice covers, the album demonstrates Shane's knack for honest and insightful songwriting, his technical command of the upright bass and the guitar, and his singing which is at the same time strong and full of warmth. In addition, he has put together a powerhouse band. You can hear the excitement and admiration the musicians have for one another. The band sounds relaxed and spontaneous, eagerly pushing each other to greater musical heights. It's like listening to a good jam among old friends. His respect for the first generation pioneers of bluegrass music is clearly evident, but he is certainly not bound by convention or tradition. No doubt, after listening to this album we will all look forward to whatever the future holds for Shane and his musical endeavors.

12/01/2022

New single, You're No Good," by Ettore Buzzini. From the album "Eddie Ray," to be released soon

https://eddieraybuzzini.bandcamp.com/track/youre-no-good?from=fanpub_fnb_trk&utm_source=track_release&utm_medium=email&utm_content=fanpub_fnb_trk&utm_campaign=eddieraybuzzini+track+youre-no-good

“I plan to carry this music forward to the twenty-second century.”
Eddie Ray Buzzini’s bold declaration is not so far-fetched, as he was born in 2007 and may well still be picking in 2101. A second of Eddie Ray’s aspirations is to convince his contemporaries that bluegrass and particularly banjo music is cool, up-to-date, and should be considered legit. Confirming his commitment to both intentions, the music on Eddie Ray’s solo debut album covers well over a century of compositions. Ranging from “When You and I Were Young, Maggie,” composed in 1864, to several new songs written by Eddie Ray, the disc offers a wide array of American music in the bluegrass style.
Eddie Ray, whose given name is Ettore, lives in a multi-lingual household in Mooresville, North Carolina where his Swiss-Italian father and East-Tennessee born mother offer him a vibrant mix of European and Appalachian culture. He plays his grandfather’s banjo and listens to Flatt & Scruggs and Reno & Smiley as well as many of the contemporary bands that are playing today. Eddie Ray’s musical tastes are not limited to bluegrass. Country classics, Latin Jazz, and the guitar of Eddie Van Halen are all on his listening and playing agenda.
The three original compositions on this project prove that Eddie Ray is already on a trajectory to become an inventor as well as conveyor of widely varying musical styles. His “Ragnarok,” composed at age eleven, is a saga of the battle that brought an end to the great Norse gods, including Odin and Thor. “Cash Don’t Sleep” is the emotive tale of an undocumented immigrant who runs into some serious difficulties trying to get to his family in North Carolina. “I’ll Try Not to Care,” cowritten with Mason Via and producer Tom Mindte, focuses on classic “boy meets girl” drama – their parting leaving the boy with a bad case of teen angst.
Joining Eddie Ray on this project instrumentally are Danny Knicely, Marshall Wilborn, Patrick McAvinue, and Willie Marschner. Mason Via and Tom Mindte are featured on several numbers singing harmony vocals.
As a special treat, Southbound 77, a bluegrass band of young pickers that Eddie Ray regularly performs with, gathers for the final offering here.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy this presentation of Eddie Ray’s wide-ranging musical gifts - his first – and it won’t be the last!

Tom Mindte
Patuxent Music
July 2022

05/12/2022

New Release
www.pxrec.com

Canada was a hotbed of country music in the 1930s and 40s, as Leon Morris was growing up in Simcoe, Ontario. The music of Canadian country super-stars Hank Snow and Wilf Carter, also known as Montana Slim, and their emulators was ubiquitous on radio throughout the country. Fans could also tune in mainstream country stars from the United States on WLS (Chicago), WWVA (Wheeling), and sometimes on a clear night, WSM in Nashville. At home in Ontario, Leon's family performed locally with his mother on piano, brother on guitar, two fiddles and an accordion.
When Leon was old enough to start playing, his older brother showed him how to play the G, C, and D chords on the guitar. He practiced his playing and singing diligently and by the age of 13, he was ready to show his talent. The event was a local amateur talent contest for kids near his hometown. Leon took first place by yodeling a couple of Wilf Carter songs.

Prize in hand, Leon was ready to be on record. His brother loaned him a dollar and a half to record four songs at a local radio shop that had a disc cutter. He still has those recordings.
A few years later, a chance meeting helped guide seventeen-year-old Morris toward bluegrass. Migrant to***co farmer and musician Jim Ross from Danville, Virginia, who was working in Ontario, was playing music with fiddlin' bootlegger Norm Boyles as Leon happened by in his car. Never without his instruments, Leon stopped and joined them on mandolin. This led to the formation of a duo known ad “Jimmy and Leon.” They played all over Ontario until Ross returned to the United States.

In the mid-1950s, Leon joined Canada's first bluegrass band, the York County Boys. The line-up was “Big John” McManaman on banjo, Rex Yetman on mandolin, Brian Barron on fiddle, Dusty Leger on bass, and Leon on guitar. In addition to extensive touring from New Brunswick to western Ontario, the group appeared on CBC as guests on the Cross-Canada “Country Hoedown” show, which later became “The Tommy Hunter Show.”

In 1957, Leon performed as a multi-instrumentalist on television as a member of Lonnie and Lottie and the Po' Folks. Their program, “The Mainstreet Jamboree,” aired on CHCH, in Hamilton, Ontario. He picked up the fiddle, mandolin, guitar, or banjo to accompany the brother and sister singing duo.

In 1959, Morris crossed the border to Detroit to work in the house painting business with his brother. While there, he met Earl Taylor, who had relocated there and was working the bluegrass clubs with Walt Hensley, Vernon McIntyre (Boat Whistle) and Billy Baker. Earl was looking for a guitar player and tried to hire Billy Gill, who would later record with Pete Gobel. Gill was unable to join the band and told Earl about Leon, whom he hired. Shortly thereafter, Earl Taylor and the Stoney Mountain Boys left Detroit in search of better venues. They tried Chicago without any success, finally settling in Kansas City, Missouri. They booked the Buckeye Club and a couple of other bars in Kansas City, where they worked five nights a week. After about two months, some of the band members became homesick for Baltimore, so they headed east.
Upon arriving in the Baltimore-Washington area, Leon teamed up with Bill and Wayne Yates and worked with them through 1962. Later in 1962, he was married, quit full-time music, and started a painting business, settling in northern Virginia.

Leon played with Jack Tottle, working the clubs in DC and Virginia, in 1964 and 1965. They recorded an album for Folkways, but it was never released. In 1968, he teamed up with Buzz Busby, recording the album “Honky Tonk Bluegrass” for Rounder records. They toured and played around the DC area until 1971 Since then, Leon has continued to play music with his own band, recording several albums and employing some of the area's best musicians.
Leon also plays mandolin with Jay Armsworthy and Easten Tradidition and is on their 2020 Patuxent CD “My Best Friend”
This album is a retrospective look at Leon's work and consists of previously released material recorded over the last 40 years.
Tom Mindte
July, 2021

04/13/2022

https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ent-banjo-dancing-stephen-wade-comes-home-0417-20220413-acbmnrmjsvcczkpfhzw233dmyq-story.html

Stephen Wade will return to Chicago to do research for his next book and appear in concert at the Old Town School of Folk Music.

03/29/2022

Saturday, April 23, 2022 · 8:00 PM CDT
Stephen Wade
A Storyteller's Story
Rescheduled from Saturday, April 11, 2020, and Saturday, April 3, 2021
Old Town School of Folk Music
4544 N Lincoln Ave · Gary and Laura Maurer Concert Hall · 773.728.6000

$30 General Public
$28 Members

BUY APR 23 SAT 8:00 PM

In May 1979 a young musician named Stephen Wade opened a one-man show at a small yet adventurous off-Loop theater in Chicago. Called Banjo Dancing, or the 48th Annual Squitters Mountain Song, Dance, Folklore Convention & Banjo Contest and How I Lost, it consisted of songs, tunes, and stories sourced in American folklore and literature, accompanied by his five-string banjo and percussive dance steps.

Scheduled for a four-weekend run in an eighty-seat black box, the show took a wholly unexpected turn. Theater critics from around the nation saw it and raved. “An impassioned banjoist, a nimbly authoritative clog dancer, a soulful singer of folk music and an enthralling tall tale raconteur,” said Time magazine. “A wondrous artist, this Stephen Wade.” The reviews soon led to an invited appearance at the White House, and the show moved into successively larger spaces in Chicago, and eventually to stages across the nation.

A three-week engagement at Washington's Arena Stage turned into ten years. “Among the enduring Washington institutions—the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, the inaugural parade—it will soon be necessary to include Stephen Wade,” wrote the Washington Post. Over time, Banjo Dancing became one of the longest-running, off-Broadway shows in the United States.

Now forty years after its premiere, with A Storyteller's Story: Sources of Banjo Dancing (Patuxent Music CD-333, 2019), Stephen Wade explores the precedents that lit his way. For him, so much stems from the Old Town School of Folk Music, this place where he learned the banjo from his teacher, Fleming Brown, and whose class he eventually inherited. Even more, the album illuminates a set of influences and experiences thriving long before Banjo Dancing, and embodied by an unlikely group of musicians, writers, orators, and actors. Tonight's concert brings this all back home.

A 2013 Grammy nominee, Stephen Wade is author of the prizewinning book, The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience (University of Illinois Press, 2012).

Between 2015 and 2019 Wade established and directed all five years of the American Roots Music Program at Colorado's Rocky Ridge Music Center, a faculty much filled by Old Town School teachers and a student body populated by their students. He earlier wrote and narrated a series of song studies that aired on NPR's All Things Considered and Morning Edition. In addition to performing, recording, and teaching, he is currently researching another book on American folklore.

08/17/2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chdyry-98X0

Mark Schatz Bryan McDowell

My dear departed wife Eileen Carson Schatz's parents moved to the Washington, DC area from East Tennessee soon after they were married to find a better life ...

08/06/2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n7pFWhi5ko&t=200s

We are excited to feature musician and author Stephen Wade to Deering Live this week. Stephen is a true scholar of American folk music, having written the c...

08/06/2021

*** JUST RELEASED REISSUE ***

www.pxrec.com

A real treasure from 1993, originally released on cassette, now revived for your merrymaking pleasure! The unbridled Washington, D.C. area ensemble Franklin, Harpe & Usilton set the acoustic blues and ragtime ablaze with their fun and exciting Hokum Blues. The Hokum blues are sly, drenched in mischief and sexual innuendo, good-time music with a strong dose of tongue-in-cheek street wit. Listen carefully to the words. It’s music with a story, just a little but funny, sometimes a little sad and even a little scary, but always deep. The fiery trio of Franklin, Harpe and Usilton swings like mad on this reissue packed with Piedmont and ragtime classics – old time acoustic blues of the 1930s. The revivalists trio made the classic old blues cool again – rough-hewn, edgy and raucous, focused on the exuberance of the song. Don’t let the clever songs distract you from the superb instrumentation. Both Rick Franklin and Neil Harpe are excellent alternating bass fingerpicking guitarists with the prowess to honor the best players of the golden era, covered here with virtuosic perfection. All that while keeping it loose and joyful.

This jolly trio of Franklin, Harpe & Usilton have managed to capture the gritty energy and the wild swinging punch of this roots music. Each of them are now aptly doing their own musical thing, but together they were the finest representatives of the culturally rich Maryland, Virginia, DC region. This fierce reissue proves it unequivocally.

Frank Matheis
Contributing writer to Living Blues magazine. Publisher of thecountyblues.com. Co-author with Phil Wiggins of Sweet Bitter Blues – Washington DC’s Homemade Blues

06/17/2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLvzuGq1jwA

Mark Schatz-Mark Schatz was born April 23, 1955 into a musical family. He began his formal musical training with cello at age ten and later switched over to ...

05/24/2021

*** NEW ALBUM ***

www.pxrec.com

Ahead of the Crowd
John Colianni

If you have John Colianni’s previous albums on Patuxent, you know from my liner notes that we go way back. In the notes to After Hours I relate how I first heard John perform in the final round of the first Thelonious Monk Piano Competition in 1987. What I didn’t mention was the earlier connection where my “day gig” intersected with my jazz life. Until I retired in 2013, I was a union representative with the American Federation of Government Employees working with locals at various federal agencies, one of which was the State Department. I don’t remember if it was during an administrative hearing or negotiations but during a break I got into a conversation with Carl Sosebee, the attorney representing the agency. I somehow steered the topic to my favorite subject, jazz. I told him that I did a radio show and taught jazz history at Georgetown and American universities, probably implying that I would rather devote my time to those activities than the somewhat contentious labor-management issue we were confronting. Carl sure brightened up and told me his brother-in-law was a jazz pianist and would be in a competition at the Smithsonian that was coming up. Carl is still with the government, currently senior counsel at the Peace Corp. He gets his musical satisfaction through his guitar.

The Thelonious Monk Piano Competition held at the Baird Auditorium of the Smithsonian Institution was a fascinating experience for those of us in the audience. The judges, including Sir Roland Hanna, Barry Harris and Hank Jones, insisted that there be no applause. It was weird sitting in silence when you wanted to applaud the marvelous performances you were listening to. John didn’t win first place, but he sure came close. When I introduced myself to him, I did so by saying I knew his brother-in-law Carl and, oh, by the way, I do a jazz radio show. It turns out he was familiar with me because he grew up in the Washington area before his family moved to New Jersey, and as a young teenager performed in such clubs as Pigfoot, One Step Down and Blues Alley. He was mentored by my friends John Malachi and Keter Betts in the 1970s.

By the time he participated in the Monk Competition, John had spent three years touring with Lionel Hampton. Our paths crossed in 1982 when Hamp performed at the Kennedy Center for George Wein’s Kool Jazz Festival and I was the MC. After the competition, he worked with Mel Torme for four years. In the early 2000s, his swinging piano accompanied the legendary guitarists Les Paul and Larry Coryell. In the liner notes for the Patuxent album On Target, Coryell said, ”John is not only ‘cool’ but he’s got energy to burn and chops that flair up into explosive note-clusters that boggle the mind.” He tagged him with the nickname “Johnny Chops.”

Those chops are certainly demonstrated on this album in the classic trio setting of his heroes Oscar Peterson and Hank Jones. John told me he would buy their albums as a kid and as a young twenty something pianist. in a highly competitive competition, Hank Jones was a judge. Not too much pressure, huh? A few years later John would become friends with Hank and drive him to the airport whenever he had a gig overseas. I wish I were in the back seat to overhear those conversations.

Accompanying John on bass is Boots Maleson who has worked with such jazz greats as Milt Jackson, Elvin Jones, Jaki Byard, Archie Shepp, Kenny Barron, Dexter Gordon and Benny Carter. The drummer is Bernard Linette. The native of Norfolk, Virginia, has performed with Little Jimmy Scott, Junior Cook, Cedar Walton, Abbey Lincoln and Freddy Cole.

Ahead of the Crowd is programmed as if it were a set in a club. It features a mix from the American popular song book, jazz classics, blues, some Colianni originals and a couple of R & B hits. Marvin Hamlisch’s One flows into One Mint Julip which leads into Count Basie’s One O’Clock Jump. It’s fascinating to contrast John’s Long Count with Billy Strayhorn’s Blood Count. There are two songs from George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, I Got Plenty of Nothing and Bess, You Is My Woman. Boots has some tasty bass interaction with John on Spring Is Here. Check out what the trio does with Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together.

With the COVID pandemic shutting down all the clubs and concert halls, it’s been a while since we got to see John perform in person. I, for one, I’m grateful to Tom Mindte and Patuxent Music for keeping John’s music available. And when you do get see him perform live, you’ll be able to take his music home with you on this CD. Hank Jones would have loved this album.



~Rusty Hassan

Rusty Hassan has been broadcasting jazz on the Washington airwaves for over fifty years. He can be currently heard on WPFW-FM. He has lectured at the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society and has taught jazz history courses at Georgetown University and American University.