[78-L] Various Rollini Concerns

[Ate van Delden]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Lewis" <uncledavelewis at hotmail.com>
To: "78-l" <78-l at 78online.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2010 7:27 PM
Subject: [78-L] Various Rollini Concerns



Judging from the number of unread digests in my inbox that respond to the 
call of a search on "Rollini," there has been plenty of discussion on the 
subject of Adrian Rollini on this list and perhaps I should go through all 
of those before advancing these admittedly somewhat rhetorical questions 
about him. Nevertheless, here goes:

>From Rollini's Wikipedia article:

During this time, a gradual shift occurs in Adrian's
focus from the bass sax to the vibraphone.
This is not so much that Rollini was giving up on the
bass saxophone or his abilities, as that popular tastes
had rendered the instrument unmarketable after the hot
jazz era of the 20s. Rollini recorded on bass sax for
the last time in 1938. He continued to be active with
vibraphone and chimes, but sadly, when he gave up his
role as a bass saxophonist, his role in jazz went with it. ~ Rollini Wiki

***
I have observed various stances as to just when and how Rollini "gave up" 
his role in jazz. However, my impression after listening to and collecting 
even very late sides that his work still maintains a strong jazz, or at 
least swing, feel as late as you want to go. This film clip is dated 1948 
(is that possible) and it still sounds pretty swinging to me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdNzCNQmGG0

At the risk of answering my own question, my impression that Rollini is like 
any number of major artists who made enormous amounts of recordings like 
Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington et al: among the obviously great there are 
duds, dogs and boring titles. It's just that the mediocre things tend to 
stick more to Rollini than to the others. Does anyone have an additional 
perspective on this?

I concur that his vibe playing is more pianistic and less soloistic than 
Lionel Hampton or Red Norvo; he seems never to use less than three mallets 
and in the video you can see he sticks in the fourth here and there. But I 
still find the style very attractive. Perhaps Sonny Greer was the only other 
jazzman to bother with the chimes.

Below the clip, there is this statement:

> This film is been available thanks to Tom Faber, the late Dutch 
> discographer of Adrian Rollini.

Was this work ever published, and if so, how can one access it?

Finally, there's this odd statement from the liner notes of a Timeless 
collection devoted to the California Ramblers, as reprinted on the 
redhotjazz site:


In late 1927 Rollini went to Europe for a little over
5 years and was temporarily replaced by his protégé
Spencer Clark, probably the only one who could
satisfactorily follow in the master's footsteps. ~
Hans Eekhoff
http://www.redhotjazz.com/caramblers.html

Certainly this cannot be right -- he recorded with Joe Venuti in NYC in June 
1928 and with Tom Clines in 1930; doubtless there are other NY dates for 
Rollini from 1927 to 1933. What was the real duration of his time in Europe, 
and were these dates the result of visits back?


Uncle Dave Lewis uncledavelewis at hotmail.com


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