Thursday, January 19, 2023

J. Lawrence Cook--Piano-Roll Rock "N Roll (Mercury SR 60083; 1959)

 


                                                                                              Photo from the Made In Chicago Museum website.


Today we have J. Lawrence Cook (1899-1976), an incredibly prolific maker of piano rolls (the most prolific, says Wikipedia), accompanied by Tony Mottola on guitar, George Duvivier and Milton Hinton on bass, and Osie Johnson on drums.  Personnel info courtesy of Doctor Jazz.

A very fun album, though its brand of binaural stereo is a bit annoying to my ears--the sound is strictly left/right channel, with no sense of depth.  I was almost tempted to sum the channels, but I didn't.  Oddly enough, some Cook originals in the mix, along with Sheldon Harnick and Jery Bock's Oh Yeah, a minor success for Steve Lawrence, whereas "John" (Johnny) Mercer's Bernadine was a number one hit for Pat Boone.  I probably have his version, though my collection is too big at the moment to be sure.

The highlight has to be Rock Around the Clock, which has two things going for it: 1) It's a fine version, and 2) it's an example of the song as originally written, prior to its reinvention by Bill Haley.  Haley completely changed the introductory verse (which initially sounded a bit like The Syncopated Clock in minor mode, as it does here) and used a broken A Major triad in root position (A, C#, E) instead of the as-written A-B-C# in the chorus.  Actually, the original sheet music is in the key of F, but there's no rule which dictates staying in the lead sheet key.

And, if you've followed my blog for a while, you know that I regard Rock Around the Clock as performed by Haley (vs. the tune as written), as a sure indication that Haley was eager to find his "own" Rock the Joint.  Haley revamped RATC with Joint in mind.  (That came out weird.)

Anyway, a number of RATC recordings presented the song as written, or nearly as written, including Artie Malvin's Waldorf fake hit, which has its virtues but can't hold a candle to the "Gabe Drake" version on SPC, which appeared all over the budget-label world.

Cook was a veteran of the jazz age of the 1920s, having been buddies with Eubie Blake, so you might think he'd have had a little trouble with rock and roll (aka, in this case, rock 'n roll), but clearly this was no problem for him.  The 60-year-old J. Lawrence beautifully mixes the player-piano tradition/sound with the feel of rock and roll, and if a couple of the results are amusing (to me, at least)--such as All Shook Up and Hound Dog--it's just the novelty of hearing these numbers in perforated-piano-roll fashion.  And I wonder if anyone else in cyberspace has ever typed "perforated-piano-roll fashion."  And... nope!  A Google check says no.  Not surprisingly.

"This is a true stereophonic disc record," says the back jacket, but binaural isn't really stereo as we know (or expect) it.  I'd have loved the middle-channel stereo experience on this one, but the music is beautifully arranged and rendered, so I can't complain too much.

Oh, and this is one of the "Wacker Series" Mercury releases.  At least, it has "Wacker Series" rubber-stamped on the back.  Discogs lists 24 examples of same.  I have no idea what it means, save for Discogs' speculation that "Wacker" was derived from the address of Mercury's headquarters.  It almost sounds like the designation for a novelty series.


DOWNLOAD: Piano-Roll Rock 'N Roll--J. Lawrence Cook (Mercury SR 60083; 1959)


Rock Around the Clock

Bernadine

All Shook Up

Searching and Dreaming

Why Do Fools Fall in Love

My Ship

Hound Dog

Oh Yeah

Wake up Little Susie

The Swingin' Shepherd Blues

The Walk

Nice Little Girl

J. Lawrence Cook, piano roll; Tony Mottola, guitar; George Duvivier and Milton Hinton on bass, and Osie Johnson on drums


Lee

8 comments:

Ernie said...

Thanks for this one, Lee. And I've noticed that Wacker Series imprint a few times and been unable to find anything about it. I'm sure it has something to do with Wacker Drive in Chicago (it was mentioned in The Blues Brothers!), but I have never come across any details. If you find anything else about it, please let me know.

lafong said...

Haven't listened yet, but wondering how "My Ship" got in there on a "rock n roll" LP? I assume that is the Kurt Weill song.

Lee Hartsfeld said...

Ernie,

I'll definitely do that, because it has me highly curious.

lafong,

Actually, the composer credit is given to Cook. I put the author/composer credits on the mp3 tags but not in my track listing...

Diane said...

Wow, what a find. And what a list of musicians. Thanks, as always.

musicman1979 said...

Yes, some major A-List players on this effort, vets of several Pop and Jazz Big Band projects, With Tony Mottola going on to have his own solo recording career with Command and Project 3 Records and eventually touring with Frank Sinatra in the early-1980's.

Yeah, Mercury's late-'50's early-'60's Stereo is not the best. It probably is better described as "binaural Stereo." Clyde Otis in particular used it a lot on his Mercury productions with the likes of Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, and Brook Benton. That is why I primarily look for Mono versions of several of these early Stereo Mercury albums because the separation is so wide, you can drive a truck through it, to quote one of my fellow friends in music.

Anxious to plow through this playlist! Lots of great song choices here! Thanks for taking the time to upload this for me.

musicman1979 said...

"All Shook Up" kind of has a B Bumble and the Stingers vibe to it. And really like Tony Mottola's electric guitar solos on this! At times, he has a sound similar to George Barnes.

It is amazing how "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" adapts to the piano roll vibe. Again, Mottola does a great job on this, while Mr. Cook's Playing maintains the B. Bumble vibe and just a touch of Johnny Maddox for good measure. If this tune was written in the 1860s or 1870's, the piano roll sound on this would give us a taste of what it would sound like.

The Johnny Maddox sound is all over "Bernardine" Mr. Cook does a real good job on it.

Also really like their reimagining of Jimmy McCracklin's "The Walk", they manage to put a unique spin to it. Duvivier or Hinton does a great job on his bass solo, while Tony Mottola provides with a great George Barnes-styled solo.

Good new unique twist to "Wake Up Little Susie". This cut really lives up to the album's title. Mr. Cook and Mr. Mottola have some great interaction here.

Try as they may, they just could not quite adapt "Hound Dog" to a Ragtime beat. Again, the B. Bumble and the Stingers "Nut Rocker" sound is foreshadowed for a few seconds here. While there is no Honky Tonk piano per se on thius, there is some great Boogie Woogie piano solos on this.

Tony Mottola does a great job on his guitar solos on the "Swingin' Shepherd Blues" adding several unique improvisations, while Mr. Cook does a superb job giving us some Pop/Jazz solos in the Fats Waller style.

Again, the winner is "Rock Around the Clock." It gets the prize for the most unique arrangement in the whole set. Very different to the point of almost, but not quite being, unrecognizable.

Good mid-tempo originals for Mr. Cook on this! "My Ship" in particular, is a great toe-tapper with Tony Mottola playing in the George Barnes Three Suns style.

Actually, the Stereo on this release is not as bad as some early Mercury Stereo albums. Surprisingly better than I thought it was going to be! Thanks for uploading this and satisfying my curiosity.

Lee Hartsfeld said...

musicman1979,

Sure thing! And it's interesting that the stereo here (which seems to perfectly match the expression you used) isn't as bad as some other early Mercury stereo. I can only imagine how broadly space their channels are!

I totally agree that "Hound Dog" doesn't register here, and totally agree that the other numbers are very skillfully adapted. I guess we could call this a serious novelty project, since it's so very well done at every level.

musicman1979 said...

It certainly is.