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Welcome to another 2 hours of jazz on Radio Mecha. As usual, I'll be posting some links, comments and credits as the set plays, which I hope are of interest to those listening, as well as to those who come to this thread later.

In this program, I've lined up some interesting early jazz recordings with backstories, and some first rate tunes from later times, that aren't often heard any more, so I encourage you to click the links that are included, as that is half the fun! Plus, some links to YouTube videos of songwriters and artists I think you'll find interesting...

The tune that I open these sets with, "The Greeting" is from a later McCoy Tyner album, called Things Ain't What They Used To Be.

#2 Aunt Hagar's Blues

Art Tatum playing a tune by Tim Brymn and W.C. Handy, which is elsewhere credited as "Aunt Hagar's Children's Blues." Edward P. Jones, who in 2004 published a Pulitzer Prize winning volume of short stories titled All Aunt Hagar's Children, explains the name reference thusly:

"On the Name Hagar:

"In the Bible, it's Abraham's concubine, his slave. The phrase, "all Aunt Hagar's children" is one my mother used for black people. The novel I wrote, The Known World, was going to be titled Aunt Hagar's Children, because when I started it, it was going to be about the black people that the slave owners owned. But as the years went ahead ... the original title didn't work. So I never throw anything away, and I found a use for that title here."

"...the other things she would say, people weren't black at that time, they were 'colored.' So it was either 'colored' or 'all Aunt Hagar's children.' It was just a phrase she used ... it's along the lines of what Penny says in the title story. She says, 'All the bad things they do to all Aunt Hagar's children.' That's sort of the same way my mother would've spoken those words."

#3 Terrible Blues

The Red Onion Jazz Babies [Louie Armstrong (cornet), Aaron Thompson (trombone), Buster Bailey (clarinet), Lil Hardin Armstrong (piano), and Buddy Christian (banjo)]with a tune by Clarence Williams recorded November 28, 1924 in NYC.

#4 Way Down Yonder in New Orleans

An old jazz standard by Henry Creamer and J. Turner Layton, done here by Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra [Bix Biederbecke (cornet), Frankie Trumbauer (C-melody sax), Bill Rank (trombone), Don Murray (clarinet), Doc Ryker (alto sax), Itzy Riskin (piano), Eddie Lang (banjo & guitar), and Chauncy Morehouse (drums)] recorded May 13, 1927 in NYC.

#5 High Society

Jelly Roll Morton's New Orleans Jazzmen [Sidney de Paris (trumpet), Claude Jones (trombone), Albert Nicholas (clarinet), Sidney Bechet (soprano sax), Happy Caldwell (tenor sax), Jelly Roll Morton (piano), Lawerence Lacie (guitar), Wellman Braud (bass) and Zutty Singleton (drums)] recorded September 14, 1939 doing a traditional New Orleans march variously copyrighted, but usually attributed to Porter Steele.

#6 Me, Myself and I

Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra, doing a tune by Irving Gordon, Allan Roberts, and Alvin S. Kaufman, which she popularized. Nothing to do with the Beyonce tune of the same title.

#7 Now's The Time

Charlie Parker's Ree Bopper's [Charlie Parker (alto sax), Miles Davis (trumpet), Dizzy Gillespie (piano), Curley Russell (bass) and Max Roach (drums)] recorded November 26, 1945 at WOR Studios, NYC, doing this composition by Parker.

#8 Boplicity

Miles Davis and various personnel from "The Birth of the Cool" sessions, in an April 22, 1949 recording of a tune Davis inexplicably published as his one and only use of the pen name "Cleo Henry."

#9 Spiral

From the 1960 Atlantic Records album "Giant Steps", here are John Coltrane (tenor sax), Tommy Flanagan (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), and Art Taylor (drums) with a tune by Coltrane.

#10 Off Minor (Take 4)

Here's an alternate take of "Off Minor" courtesy of the 1991 Original Jazz Classics CD re-issue of the classic 1957 Thelonious Monk album "Monk's Music."

#11 Sweet Rain

The title track by Mike Gibbs for Stan Getz's 1967 album "Sweet Rain" played by a quartet consisting of Chick Corea (piano), Ron Carter (bass) and Grady Tate (drums). Ron Carter and Grady Tate were recruited as last minute replacements for a reformed Quartet after vibraphonist Gary Burton left for other opportunities.

#12 Four by Five

From McCoy Tyner's first Blue Note album in 1967 "The Real McCoy" with Joe Henderson on tenor sax, Ron Carter on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums, doing a Tyner composition. Maybe the third or fourth jazz record I ever bought.

#13 Four on Six

From the 1960 album "The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery", (and who would have the hubris to title an album that way, today?), here's a tune by Montgomery, with Tommy Flanagan on piano, Percy Heath on bass, and Albert Heath on drums.

#14 India Town

The Chick Corea Elektric Band from the 1986 introductory album with a tune by Corea.

#15 Quick And Running

Gary Burton (vibraphone) and Pat Metheny (guitar) from the 1989 "Reunion" album, with a tune by pianist Polo Orti.

#16 Nothing Personal

Michael Brecker from his 1986 debut album, with a tune by Don Grolnick. Here is a link to a YouTube video of the tune, with a more extensive solo by Brecker.

#17 Now's the Time

Benny Carter from the 1990 CD "All That Jazz: Live at Princeton" with a Charlie Parker tune.

#18 Minuano (Six Eight)

The Pat Metheny Group from the 1987 CD "Still Life (Talking)", with a tune by Lyle Mays and Pat Metheny.

#19 Invitation

The Wynton Marsalis Septet from their 1994 CD "In This House, On This Morning". Wynton Marsalis (trumpet), Wycliffe Gordon (trombone), Wessell Andersen (alto saxophone), Todd Williams (tenor and soprano sax), Eric Reed (piano), Reginald Veal (bass) and Herlin Riley (drums). Originally commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center in 1992, the piece, or parts of it, have been performed all over the world by Marsalis, since, and will be back at the Rose Theatre at Lincoln Center, with Marsalis, May 24-26.

#20 Après Un Rêve

Regina Carter from her 2003 CD "Paganini: After a Dream", with a well known theme by Gabriel Fauré.

#21 From This Moment On

The Beegie Adair Trio, from their 2000 CD "Dream Dancing" with a Cole Porter tune, written for the 1950 Broadway show Out of This World.

#22 Quiet Now

Ramsey Lewis and Billy Taylor doing a Danny Zeitlin tune [link is to a YouTube video of Danny Zeitlin at the 1983 Berlin Jazz Festival doing the tune] for their 1988 album "We Meet Again".

#23 Time After Time

Anita O'Day doing the 1947 Jule Styne/Sammy Cahn classic, from the 1955 album This is Anita", via the 1991 Verve Japan CD reissue.

#24 I Will Say Goodbye

Once again, The Bill Evans Trio, with Eddie Gomez on bass and Eliot Zigmund on drums, takes us out with the title track from the 1977 album of the same name. To recap, in this set, we heard:

1. McCoy Tyner - The Greeting (2:27)
2. Art Tatum - Aunt Hagar's Blues (4:53)
3. Louis Armstrong & The Red Onion Jazz Babies - Terrible Blues (2:55)
4. Beiderbecke, Bix - Way Down Yonder in New Orleans (2:52)
5. Sidney Bechet - High Society / Jelly Roll Morton's New Orleans Jazzmen (2:49)
6. Billie Holiday - Me, Myself and I (2:33)
7. Charlie Parker - Now's The Time (3:16)
8. Miles Davis - Boplicity (3:02)
9. John Coltrane - Spiral (6:00)
10. Thelonious Monk - Off Minor (Take 4) [*] (5:16)
11. Stan Getz - Sweet Rain (7:08)
12. McCoy Tyner - Four by Five (6:37)
13. Wes Montgomery - Four on Six (6:16)
14. Chick Corea Elektric Band - India Town (5:09)
15. Gary Burton - Quick And Running (6:39)
16. Michael Brecker - Nothing Personal (5:31)
17. Benny Carter - Now's the Time (7:19)
18. Pat Metheny Group - Minuano (Six Eight) (9:27)
19. Wynton Marsalis - Invitation (6:01)
20. Regina Carter - Après Un Rêve (5:02)
21. Adair, Beegie - From This Moment On (3:41)
22. Ramsey Lewis/Billy Taylor - Quiet Now (7:18) (7:22)
23. Anita O'Day - Time After Time (4:07)
24. Bill Evans Trio - I Will Say Goodbye (3:30)