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New Orleans Jazz – News and Views – Kid Thomas

Kid Thomas Valentine – Trumpet – Vocals and a bag of tricks! Born Reserve Louisiana 3rd February 1896. Died 16th June 1987 In New Orleans.

Let’s get the history out of the way: Kid Thomas was a band leader from 1922 onward and led bands all over Louisiana, but always remained based in New Orleans.

I want to quote from “The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD” by Richard Cook and Brian Morton. Their brilliant words on the subject cannot be bettered. “He approached this awesome career with a Zen-like simplicity, reducing the New Orleans sound to its essentials and creating a lifetime’s work from them. A fascinating lead trumpeter – his method, including a strict observance of the melody, a blunt jabbing attack and a vibrato that sounds like an angry trill, managed to create high drama and lyrical depth alike. He seldom took solos, he was such a strong lead voice he tended to dominate every band he played with.”

Kid Thomas made the most amazing number of recordings, and many of them are available to you on CD right now! But first a warning: the music and these musicians produce a sound that is like fine wine or great coffee – you may take some time to acquire the taste: but when you do you, like me, will become addicted for life.

Try from 1961 “Kid Thomas – George Lewis Ragtime Stompers” on GHB bcd-5. a true classic. Try “The December Band” from 1965 on GHB BCD – 197 and BCD – 198. Then try “New Orleans, The Living Legends” Kid Thomas and his Algiers Stompers on Riverside OCJCCD – 1833 -2 from 1961.

This is one of the rare occasions when I had the great good fortune to be personally acquainted with Kid Thomas and to count Albert Burbank and Emmanuel Paul as very dear friends. In 1963- 4 I toured with Kid Thomas and Emmanuel Paul all over the U.K. on their tour with the Kid Martyn Ragtime Band. My payment for using my band bus and driving for many miles was the pleasure and yes, honour of playing a session at Studio 51 the Ken Colyer Club with my Gothic Jazz Band and Kid Thomas andn Emmanuel Paul. Much later, back in Australia it was a great joy to renew my friendship with them when they toured in a package show – sharing the stage with Dizzy Gillespie. I always remember one of these non-jazz press reporters at Sydney Airport asking Art Blakey how he felt about playing a concert with these “primitive musicians”. Art said “It’s a great honour for us to play on the same stage as these gentlemen. Let’s face it – without them we would not exist! They are the creators.”

Kid Thomas Valentine was an enigma, although I spent many hours with him his conversation was like his trumpet playing: staccato, brief and to the point. Just the melody line sparsely stated. Only one night in an hotel room in Melbourne, Australia with most of his band and some star- struck executives of the Sydney Jazz Club, including me, did he let himself go. He told us wonderful stories of his earliest days as a band leader in New Orleans and of the amazing eccentricities of those long gone musicians on the gigs. I wish that I had had a tape recorder but again thankfully we do have plenty of his music on record.

My first purchase was the Riverside Kid Thomas and his Algiers Stompers I recommended earlier. Apart from the missing Emmanuel Paul, this was a band with a long history of playing together. Put on Panama Rag, it’s hotter than a fiery furnace! Gulley House Blues can bring tears to the eyes! Sammy Penn is the true master drummer and I hope to write about him in a future article.

When the band broke into ” Smile Darn You Smile” at the St Pancras Town Hall it was ecstasy, just like the record and although Alonzo Stewart was no Sammy Penn the overall effect was electric and we knew we were in the presence of the living legends.

Kid Thomas Valentine was an entertainer, his bag of tricks was with him at all times; slap sticks, maracas, tambourines, bonnets for “Milk Cow Blues” and always the biggest New Orleans grin!

Quotes: The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD by Richard Cook Brian Morton (Penguin Press)

A Brief History of Home Entertainment

The concept of home entertainment and indoor recreational activities changed when home electronics invaded our lives. One can say that access to numerous electronic products at home has revolutionized the idea of what constitutes a complete home entertainment. Nowadays, anyone can have immediate access to every kind of electronic entertainment via different media within the comforts of their homes. They can have their choice of entertainment which may range from the latest DVD players, radios to the wireless internet connection which offers them the convenience of mobility. Advancement in technology has gifted us with loads of home entertainment options ranging from radio, television, CD, DVD players, home theatre system, games consoles and so on.Music has always been one of the most preferred leisure activities. It found its way into our home through the long playing discs and the gramophone. Of course with the coming of radio a decade later made music a more widespread home entertainment. Before the advent of the CD or DVD player, the radio was the most popular home entertainment system available. Though there were some juke boxes available in the local pubs or salons where one could listen to a song of their choice at home there was only the radio. With radio, the choice of listening was however quite limited as people had to listen to the songs that the radio channels would play, even though some of the stations would at times play the selected numbers based on listeners’ requests. But there were no complaints as there wasn’t anything better for decades to come.Initially, when television had not yet become an everyday part of our lives, the visual entertainment strictly meant those theatres which had large screens to view a movie. Things changed dramatically with the invention of the television in the initial phase of the 1950s. The television was a complete wonder in the days when it was discovered. People did not have to restrict themselves anymore to music as their only entertainment at home. They could actually watch a full length movie in the comfort of their own home.Not only movies, this small wonder box started entertaining people with more and more new ideas, programs and techniques. Television has been considered as one of the pioneers in the history of home visual entertainment. Of course it provided more than just entertainment. With news and special documentaries, TV soon became the most important source of amusement. The long playing discs were also a part of home entertainment which was an early discovery. While radios, LPs and television made a permanent place in everyone’s home, the quality of sound in those times essentially required tremendous development.Good sound systems and speakers stared to develop in the mid 1970s. Various technologies were discovered to enhance the quality of sound. And with the music genres like rock, pop and discos coming into being, there was a specific and urgent requirement for good quality sound systems. Thus the electronic giants did not stop producing recorders and put more emphasis on amplifying and equalizing the sound to give it a new dimension.Good quality sound systems were specially designed and created for homes which produced outstanding music. Woofers and subwoofers along with various amplifiers equalizers and multi channel audio were being used to produce crisp stereophonic sounds.However, this concept took a back seat when CD and DVD players came into existence. During the end of the ’70s and early ’80s some of the electronic giants worked in collaboration to develop the world’s first Compact Disc system. Experts proved that this CD player was quite compact and lightweight with its unique durability. For music lovers it was truly a boon. At the same time this CD system opened a new window in the audio equipment industry.Compact discs were more durable than any other long playing discs or tapes. Thus the CDs removed all other music disc and tapes from the market and held prominent position. The 80s and early 90s saw a vast improvement in the technology of compact disc systems. It became very popular with people because of the crystal clear sound it produced and was affordable. These CDs not only stored music, it was versatile enough to store movies, data, pictures or even software.Along with CDs a much improved device which actually revolutionized and changed the entire system of home entertainment is the DVD or digital versatile discs. These discs are powerful and large enough to hold two movies in one. It stores data digitally and is more durable. The scratch proof technology of the DVD players also makes the DVDs last a long time. Both music and movie buffs felt delighted when the DVD player came into the market. Recent survey statistics reveal that the DVD player is the most successful product of home entertainment. It was introduced in the year 1997 and has reached great heights of success ever since.Nowadays, people can have the same effect of a movie theatre in their homes. With the latest DVD players, LCD screens and the sound systems with woofers, sub woofers and multi channel audio systems, anyone can have a fantastic home entertainment system with high quality sound and spectacular visual effects. The plasma and LCD screens are high resolution televisions which started to develop in the latter half of the 1990s and these sleek televisions enabled the viewers to experience digital sound and vision with fantastic picture quality and various advanced features.With the invention of DVDs and a major development in the visual media such as Plasma and Liquid Crystal Display or LCD in the late 90s gave home entertainment its latest technical dimension. With it, the meaning of home entertainment changed significantly with more and more people installing the home theatre systems with newest gadgets and technologies.