Essential Condon Recordings
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The music of Eddie Condon is commemorated on several excellent box sets put out by Mosaic Records (mosaicrecords.com).
An excellent eight-CD box, “The Classic Columbia Condon Mob Sessions” (Mosaic 206), spotlights many familiar Condonites. The selections range from Bud Freeman’s famous 1940 “Summa Cum Laude” sessions with Jack Teagarden to Jimmy McPartland’s 1958 treatment of “The Music Man.”
Another Mosaic box, “The Complete CBS Recordings of Eddie Condon and His All Stars” (Mosaic 152), features 72 tracks of classic Condon material. Condon’s CBS-Columbia albums, mostly produced by George Avakian, generally revolve around specific concepts, but they hang together well as a set. Unfortunately, this five-CD box is no longer in print.
Perhaps Condon’s most famous performance is his 17-minute 1940 version of “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” which is available on “Eddie Condon 1938-1940” (Classics 759). This jazz standard was associated with Bessie Smith, whom Condon cited as a major inspiration, and utilizes elements of both blues harmony and song form. Released on four 12-inch 78s, the set was probably the first extended jam session released for home consumption. On it, each of the eight soloists – including Freeman, clarinetist Pee Wee Russell, trombonist Miff Mole, and cornetist Muggsy Spanier – improvises thematically on the melody rather than the chord changes, telling his own version of the story in a jazz version of “Rashomon.”
Also available from Classics is “Eddie Condon 1927-1938” (742), which includes the crucial tracks Condon recorded alongside Red McKenzie in December 1927. ‘Tiger Rag,’ a 1958 album for the cool jazz-oriented World Pacific label, has just been reissued.