southcoastukes
Well-known member
I wanted to post a little something about what I think is a fairly new release from Arhoolie :”Papa Lemon Nash – New Orleans Ukulele Maestro & Tent Show Troubadour”. I’m not sure, but I may have actually seen this fellow on a trip to Jackson Square as a young boy. It was a very bohemian place then, with lots of characters, but as I had a new Ukulele, the memory of an elderly Ukulele player on that day is one that stands out in particular. I was probably easily impressed, but hearing this music again, I think anyone would be.
The songs and playing are great; the stories are wonderful – really entertaining insight into the early days of Jazz. Lemon was roughly a contemporary of Cliff Edwards (check out “I’m Blue Every Monday”, Jon), but the selections here are mainly typical New Orleans songbook. You can hear Danny Barker’s wonderful solo guitar album and find some of the same songs with very similar arrangements. Lemon's influence on Danny is obvious (Danny started out hustling in the Quarter on a Banjo-Uke), and Danny influenced countless numbers of players here today, so Lemon had a lot more impact on our scene than a lot of folks realize.
There have been only a very few releases of Lemon’s work up to this point (thank you, Brits!), but this CD, besides being a blast to listen to, to me is monumental. Like Cliff Edwards’ late 40s session (on the Jazzology label here in New Orleans), it’s a rare late career recording of a great early period player in a solo setting with excellent sound.
You can hear the whole CD here:
http://www.airplaydirect.com/music/LemonNash/
If you like it as much as I do, I’d encourage you to buy it direct from Arhoolie, a great little independent label for 50 years:
http://www.arhoolie.com/jazz/lemon-nash-papa-lemon.html
Their prices are good, they get a bigger cut that way, and during checkout you get to write them a message. Supposedly there are four hours of these Papa Lemon recordings. I encouraged them to get on the stick and release some more.
Hep’ me out, here, folks!
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