Pause to play ‘Harlem Air-Shaft’ and ‘Sepia Panorama’ (Elllington) that I’ve borrowed. They aren’t so abysmal as you’d think. To hear a big band, trained to a hair, swinging is pleasant. Certainly Barney Bigard is still shitty, but Rex Stewart blows some batty stuff and there’s a fucking good rhythm section centred round Jimmy Blanton (bass) and Sonny Greer. Now I put on ‘Hello Lola’. Mackenzie’s buzzing shit, but there’s a hell of a drive behind it, Russell’s clarinet: clean & pure. Form. Impassioned tone: nothing like his ‘Eel’ solo. By the way a different ‘Eel’ (same session) is being released on Parlophone. I’ve heard it. Trumpet is better, but nearly everything else is inferior – just slightly. I played nearly all the Banks sides this morning and was overcome by the manifest presence of high art. I didn’t hear the Marsala programme – nobody ever tells me these things. Nor did I hear a Higginbotham programme. Pause to play Louis’ Savoy Blues’. The early Armstrong can’t really surpass the G. Age Armstrong when surveyed equally, but occasionally they are pretty close - as here. Louis plays 2 of his most restrained and delicate choruses here (12 bar). Bix was an incompetent blaster compared to Louis! For me the biggest thrill is to imagine what the other players felt like. Did they feel that they were making great jazz with a Genius? I wonder. << less