Paul Barbarin's Atlantic Album

Let's look at a recording session from almost exactly halfway through Willie Humphrey's recording career. The information about the differences between some of the mono and stereo takes has not been published before, I don't believe, except in a post I made a few years back on an online jazz forum.

In the mid 1950s Willie often worked and recorded with bands led by New Orleans drummer Paul Barbarin. Toward the end of 1954, Barbarin took an excellent band to New York for a residency at Child's Paramount Restaurant. While in the Big Apple, the band recorded two albums, one for Jazztone, followed by a disc for Atlantic.

The Atlantic album, titled Paul Barbarin and His New Orleans Jazz, was recorded at Capitol Studios on January 7, 1955. Atlantic was not yet the powerhouse label they would become, but they already had an impressive stable of R & B stars under contract by 1955: Ray Charles, Big Joe Turner, and The Clovers were among their biggest hit-makers. Atlantic's president, Nesuhi Ertegun, also strove to have a representative jazz catalog. He was personally fond of traditional New Orleans jazz, and produced Barbarin's album himself.

Paul Barbarin had a distinguished career and reputation in jazz, and was perhaps best known for his work with King Oliver and Louis Armstrong in the 1920s. The band Barbarin brought to New York was an interesting one, linked by familial and pedagogical connections, as so many New Orleans bands are. Trumpeter John Brunious and banjoist Danny Barker were Barbarin's nephews, and Willie Humphrey had been Brunious's teacher. Bob Thomas, the trombonist, was the oldest member of the band, being born in 1898; he was taught by Willie's grandfather, Professor James Humphrey. Lester Santiago was the pianist; he was Brunious's brother-in-law, if I have the relationships straight. Veteran bassist Milt Hinton was added for the recording session, possibly by Ertegun; at the earlier Jazztone session (and presumably at Child's) the band relied on Santiago's left hand to provide the bass line.

A similar Barbarin band at Sid Davilla's Mardi Gras Lounge,
New Orleans later in 1955. L-R: Barbarin, Bob Thomas,
Willie Humphrey, Andy Anderson, Danny Barker, Richard
Alexis, Joe Robichaux

John Brunious Sr. had big band experience and a style that was poised between modern and traditional jazz. I have always been amused that he was considered "too modern" to play at Preservation Hall during the 1960s, while his two trumpet-playing sons, John Jr. and Wendell, were mainstays at that St. Peter Street venue years later, playing in a style similar to their father's.

Danny Barker's unique banjo style adds a real sparkle to this session. His banjo playing never sounded like anyone else's; in his hands the basic four-beat rhythm was enhanced with syncopated accents and rolling triplets. And like the fine guitarist he was, he spiced his chords with added sixths and ninths. The net result was that Barker's playing gave a tremendously exciting lift to the music.

As for Willie Humphrey, his playing is consistently excellent throughout, both in solo and ensemble passages. He had only recorded half a dozen times previously (over the course of nearly 30 years), and was still obscure enough that his name was misspelled (as "Humphreys") on the back of the album jacket. But with this record, he began to attract the attention of at least a few jazz writers.

Among the details of Humphrey's playing that deserve our attention are a wide-ranging, passionate blues solo in the long "Crescent Blues," a very soulful solo in "Sister Kate," and a wonderful final ensemble chorus of that song in which he plays dissonant neighbor tones which resolve upward. Willie is featured on "Someday Sweetheart," where his low-register playing is at least a distant reflection of Johny Dodds' solo on the 1926 King Oliver recording of the song, a recording on which Barbarin was the drummer.

It's worth quoting Recorded Jazz: A Critical Guide by Rex Harris and Brian Rust, since it's a book not well known in the United States. After discussion some of Barbarin's earlier recordings, Harris and Rust have this to say:

The New York titles have a greater polish and refinement in the best senses of the words. There is a sense of ease in the performances which is partly due to the fact that no restrictions of time were enforced - the beautifully improvised "Crescent Blues," for example, is a superb twelve-bar blues which lasts for nearly nine minutes, which gives the musicians time to explore and develop variations to a logical conclusion - one of the enormous advantages the LP disc has over the old 78 speed time-space concept of three minutes/10 inches. 

Particularly noticeable is the unobtrusive drum work by Barbarin, who has never been one of those "give everything a bash from time to time" drummers who give the impression that their audible prominence is vital to the overall sound. Danny Barker (one of the few well-known members of the band) sings some Creole patois verses in "Eh La Bas," and it is interesting to compare the Barbarin of 1926 with the Barbarin of 1955 in the version of "Someday Sweetheart," a title which he included as a tribute to King Oliver for the days when he worked for him.  

Mention must be made, too, of the gentle tempo at which "Sister Kate" is taken. From Lester Santiago's lazy but compulsive opening piano chorus, through Willie Humphrey's following typical clarinet solo in the strict New Orleans vein and the trumpet and trombone contributions from Brunious and Thomas, to the last ringing notes of Danny Barker's banjo this could be cited as one the best treatments of an old favorite on record.

Atlantic had a practice of running a second, stereo tape machine long before stereo records became practical and affordable. When that happened around 1958, Atlantic often issued new, stereo versions of sessions from previous years. But early stereo tape recorders were prone to malfunction, and sometimes the preferred take didn't exist in stereo. In such cases the best available stereo take was issued instead. At Paul Barbarin's Atlantic session, the stereo versions of "Eh La Bas" and "Someday Sweetheart" are different takes from the first-choice mono versions, and the opening piano solo of the stereo "Crescent Blues" is different from the mono version. I'm not sure whether the mono or stereo version has the piano solo spliced on, but one of them apparently does.

In terms of Willie Humphrey's playing, the original mono take of "Someday Sweetheart" is to be preferred, since there is a poorly chosen passing note in the stereo version. Willie's playing on the stereo "Eh La Bas" is arguably more interesting than the mono version, but there was apparently a problem toward the end of the stereo take, since it fades out a minute earlier than the mono version.

The mono version of the album is on YouTube (legally), one track at a time. Links are below - enjoy!

Sing On

Eh La Bas 

Just a Little While to Stay Here

Crescent Blues

Bourbon Street Parade

Sister Kate

Bugle Boy March

Someday Sweetheart

Walking Through the Streets of the City


Quote from - Rex Harris and Brian Rust: Recorded Jazz: A Critical Guide, Penguin Books, 1958.