Eddie Condon in Color, 1962

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

In the early 1960's, the American Goodyear Tire Co. commissioned a series of short jazz-performance films as part of a promotional campaign. (Why Apple, Google or Facebook don't do the same today with classic jazz, rock and soul artists is beyond me.) Goodyear's jazz movies were filmed in color by multiple cameras on 35mm and the sound was recorded on professional stereo. When presented, the shows were shown in 16mm and mono sound.

In 1962, Goodyear filmed Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars in a TV studio performing some of his hits. Also captured as part of the series was the Bobby Hackett Quintet and Sextet, featuring trombonist Urbie Green, clarinetist Bob Wilber and pianist Dave McKenna. Lastly, Goodyear managed to bring together an exceptional Chicago jazz band led by guitarist Eddie Condon. The band featured Wild Bill Davison on cornet, Cutty Curshall on trombone and Peanuts Hucko on clarinet backed by Condon on guitar, Johnny Varro on piano, Joe Williams on bass and Buzzy Drootin on drums. [Above, a 1964 Goodyear print ad]

The following film might not seem like much to you, but thanks to Goodyear you're seeing an incredible bunch of Chicago jazz musicians who still had what it takes to dance through essential songs popular 25 years earlier and move your foot in the process...

JazzWax tracks: You'll find video of the Armstrong, Hackett and Condon groups on a DVD here.

A special thanks to Jimi Mentis.

Used with permission by Marc Myers

Eddie Condon, 1928 – 1931

by Richard M. Sudhalter
(from the liner notes of Eddie Condon 1928 – 1931 on Timeless Records)
Easy going? New York City? Certainly not in May, 1928. Work had just begun on the New Jersey tower of Othmar Ammann's projected 3,500-foot suspension bridge across the Hudson River; popular Governor Alfred E. Smith, though a Roman Catholic and a "wet" — a foe of Prohibition — was gaining momentum in his headlong rush toward the Democratic presidential nomination. 

Lillie P. Bliss, daughter of a millionaire industrialist, had begun talking informally with Arthur Davies, an organizer of the famed 1913 Armory show, about her pet obsession: a permanent museum for modern art in New York.

The New York Yankees, powered by Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and the rest of Miller Huggins' "murderer's row", were cranking up for another sweep of both pennant and World Series. Lew Leslie's Blackbirds of 1928, with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Adelaide Hall among its headliners, had opened on Broadway in a starburst of brand new songs and rave reviews.

Fortified by such preoccupations, and by the simple ebb and flow of day-to-day business, the city took no notice, on a Sunday at mid-month, when two wiry little guys, dressed like race-track touts, emerged, blinking in the sunlight, from the majestic glass-domed twilight of Pennsylvania Station.

The way they glanced around, snapping out side-of-mouth one-liners and appearing to strut, rather than simply walk, up Seventh Avenue, made two things clear: they were from out-of-town, and they intended to be noticed. William "Red" McKenzie, at 28 the elder of the pair, was from St. Louis, and had ridden racehorses until a fall broke both his arms. Somewhere along the line he'd discovered that by singing falsetto through a strip of newspaper wrapped around a comb, he could produce a reasonable facsimile of a muted hot trumpet. 

read more: http://www.redhotjazz.com/condonarticle.html

At Town Hall – Eddie Condon's Concerts

This series presents excerpts from Dixieland Jazz concerts produced by Ernest Anderson and directed by Eddie Condon, directly from the Town Hall in New York City in broadcasts by the National Broadcasting Corporation Radio - Blue Network Broadcast Series.

Despite this series of concerts to be known Eddie Condon Town Hall Concerts and some transmissions were made from the Ritz Theater on Broadway site leased by Blue Network as a studio for many programs and this concert was the case. In fact what happened as incredible and unbelievable racism was a lack of sponsorship to rent the Town Hall as a black musician would act together with others - Cozy Cole and the usual sponsor, Chesterfield cigarettes, declined sponsorship thinking it would be fine, claiming that many regions in the country, since the program was broadcast on a national level, it envisaged the integration of races and therefore might boycott the sponsor, and such ...

This presentation was attended by new members into the group as trumpeters Max Kaminsky and Dick Cary, trombonist Miff Mole and clarinet Edmond Hall, and drummer Cozy Cole and bassist Jack Lesberg. Muggsy Spanier cornet as the special guest. After the rapid opening speaker Fred Robbins - At Sundown (Walter Donaldson) is performed by the whole group. It follows the announcement by the Condon Edmond Hall one of the great New Orleans clarinetists in It's Been So Long (Jerry Leiber / Mike Stoller) only with the trio Schroeder, Lesberg, Cole Condon and more naturally.

We end with the great cornetist Muggsy Spanier and the group Mandy, Make Up Your Mind (Grant Clarke / Arthur Johnson / George Meyer / Roy Turk).
The whole group that acts consists of: Eddie Condon (gt and leader), Max Kaminsky and Dick Cary (tp) Miff Mole (tb), Ernie Caceres (bar sax), Eugene Schroeder (pi), Jack Lesberg (bx) and Cozy Cole (bat). Host: Muggsy Spanier (cornet).
Recording: 7/outubro/1944 - Ritz Theater, New York City
Source: CD Jazzology - JCE1011 -1992 - USA
http://charutojazz.blogspot.com/2009/10/town-hall-eddie-condons-concerts-5.html