Eddie Condon
A major propagandist for freewheeling Chicago jazz, an underrated rhythm guitarist, and a talented wisecracker, Eddie Condon's main importance to jazz was not so much through his own playing as in his ability to gather together large groups of all-stars and produce exciting, spontaneous, and very coherent music.
Condon started out playing banjo with Hollis Peavey's Jazz Bandits when he was 17, he worked with members of the famed Austin High School Gang in the 1920s, and in 1927 he co-led (with Red McKenzie) the McKenzie-Condon Chicagoans on a record date that helped define Chicago jazz (and featured Jimmy McPartland, Jimmy Teschemacher, Joe Sullivan, and Gene Krupa). After organizing some other record sessions, Condon switched to guitar, moved to New York in 1929, worked with Red Nichols' Five Pennies and Red McKenzie's Blue Blowers, and recorded in several settings, including with Louis Armstrong (1929) and the Rhythm Makers (1932). During 1936-1937, he co-led a band with Joe Marsala.
Although Condon had to an extent laid low since the beginning of the Depression, in 1938, with the opportunity to lead some sessions for the new Commodore label, he became a major name. Playing nightly at Nick's (1937-1944), Condon utilized top musicians in racially mixed groups. He started a long series of exciting recordings (which really continued on several labels up until his death), and his Town Hall concerts of 1944-1945 (which were broadcast weekly on the radio) were consistently brilliant and gave him an opportunity to show his verbal acid wit; the Jazzology label reissued them complete and in chronological order. Condon opened his own club in 1945, recorded for Columbia in the 1950s (all of those records have been made available by Mosaic on a limited-edition box set), and wrote three colorful books, including his 1948 memoirs We Called It Music. A partial list of the classic musicians who performed and recorded often with Condon include trumpeters/cornetists Wild Bill Davison, Max Kaminsky, Billy Butterfield, Bobby Hackett, Rex Stewart, and Hot Lips Page; trombonists Jack Teagarden, Lou McGarity, Cutty Cutshall, George Brunies, and Vic Dickenson; clarinetists Pee Wee Russell, Edmond Hall, Joe Marsala, Peanuts Hucko, and Bob Wilbur; Bud Freeman on tenor; baritonist Ernie Caceres; pianists Gene Schroeder, Joe Sullivan, Jess Stacy, and Ralph Sutton; drummers George Wettling, Dave Tough, and Gene Krupa; a string of bassists; and singer Lee Wiley. Many Eddie Condon records are currently available, and no jazz collection is complete without at least a healthy sampling.
© Scott Yanow /TiVo
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Jazz Masters, Vol. 6
Dixieland - Released by Planet Blue Records on 1 Dec 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Complete Jazz Series 1944 - 1946
Jazz - Released by Complete Jazz Series on 1 Dec 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Eddie Condon: Jam Session Coast-To-Coast
Jazz - Released by Blue Velvet on 6 Mar 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
That's a Plenty, Vol. 1
Jazz - Released by Top Tracks on 30 Oct 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Swing Time: Sir Walter Thomas - Eddie Condon - Sidney de Paris
Sir Walter Thomas, Eddie Condon, Sidney de Paris
Jazz - Released by Bella Musica Edition on 7 Aug 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Essential Jazz Masters
Jazz - Released by Burning Fire on 16 Nov 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jazz Archives Presents: "Chicago Style" (1932-1942)
The Rhythmakers, Eddie Condon, Joe Sullivan, Fats Waller
Jazz - Released by Jazz Archives on 24 Jan 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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The Classic Years - In Concert, Vol. 2
Jazz - Released by Sleeping Giant Music on 30 Apr 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Roaring '20s
Dixieland - Released by Master Classics Records on 1 Dec 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Complete Jazz Series 1954 - 1955
Jazz - Released by Complete Jazz Series on 1 Dec 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bixieland + Midnight in Moscow
Jazz - Released by Treasury Jazz on 15 Jan 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Best of Dixieland: Eddie Condon (Jazz Essential)
Eddie Condon, Jam Session At Commodore
Jazz - Released by Jazz Essential on 3 Jun 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Best Of Eddie Condon
Jazz - Released by Saar srl on 30 Jul 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Eddie Condon And His Band
Jazz - Released by Saar srl on 1 Jan 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Dance to 'Slicks' Dixieland Jazz!
Jazz - Released by Mach60 Music on 1 Feb 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo