It seems that every time I post an album with a boring cover, Marco updates his weirdomusic download links page , and there I am for a week or more, being represented by something as boring as the
Cumbia album instead of, say, the Sexcessfully Yours album cover. [UPDATE: Evil Marco just did a "special" update of this horrible album cover......just for me.....grrrrr]
Weirdo music just updated with the jazzy Tequila cover (below), so it’s safe to post this one, the dullest album cover ever. It’s from a vanity label—Artist’s Recording Co. from Cincinnati-- or more to the point, it would have been vanity had the artist been alive to enjoy it.
According to the liner notes, George Quittner was a chemical engineer whose passion was for jazz—he emulated the music of pianists Earl Hines, Art Tatum, and Fats Waller. This album is “a rare collection of outstanding improvisations taped informally in the Quitttner living room, Cleveland Ohio 1973”. George died not two years later, at the age of 54, and his wife probably produced this to pass around as a memento to friends and relatives.
The only song that captured my attention is George’s version of the Jelly Roll Morton tune “Grandpa’s Spells”, which sounds for the world as though George started ragtimin’ just as fast as he possibly could and starting spinning out of control and just couldn’t stop. It’s pretty strange and just seems to go on and on and on, though it’s less than 4 minutes long. If I ever compile Son of Turd in the Punchbowl it would fit right in.
Jazz Improvisations of George Quittner
EDIT: The link is now fixed....it's not like I don't do this all the time or anything!
There Will Never Be Another You
I Ain't Got Nobody
The Man I Love
Mean To Me
Grandpa's Spells
George's Blues
Memories of You
Lullaby of the Leaves
10 comments:
I just did a very very very special update of the downloads page, just for you ;-)
Mediafire says the link is invalid
Let me know if you are having problems with the link,,, I tested it and it seems OK, and there have already bee 10 downloads of it.
Hi!
The rar-archive only contains yhe A-side and front cover.
I'm a moron...it's fixed now!
Actually this sounds pretty good for an amateur. There are lots of really good piano players who once played professionally as well. My father had a friend like this and I taped him in my living room. He preferred his own piano however. I will check further into Quittner's background as there is still a Quittner in the phone book in Cleveland Heights. Thanks for putting it up. I like it. I wish you had done it at a higher bitrate (320 CBR or at least 192). The sound is adequate but would be better at a higher bitrate.
Just to report: Quittner was a prominent professional jazz player in Cleveland in the traditional or dixieland style. A local jazz historian told me that he heard him play in the fifties and sixties at some clubs downtown and elsewhere. His fellow musicians used to joke that he could read abstruse technical books that they could not understand while he was playing. His son told me that most of the stuff recorded for this album was done in the last year of his life and reflects that, though I'd say it was quite interesting playing reflective of a seasoned jazz musician. He was curious as to whether you live in the Cleveland area or where this album might have migrated to. He still has some copies. Thanks for keeping this alive. The son lives on the same street (though not close) and I would never have known about this fine playing.
Thanks for the back story--I bought this at a record convention in Indianapolis, and I think some of the dealers were from Ohio.
I've got too many other albums I want to deal with to re-visit this one--I could be convinced to sell most things I post on the blog, really cheap since I don't pay much for most albums I buy.
merci
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