The Connoisseur's Frankie Newton: His 25 Finest 1937-1939

“On reading my piece on Frank Newton in the last issue of Jazz Rag, Digby Fairweather drew my attention to this Retrospective release for which he wrote the liner notes. All I can say about the work of Frank Newton is: the more you listen to it, the better it gets! Newton has been described as ‘a gentle lyrical trumpeter’ – well, yes, when he wanted to be, but he was also a great swing player with an impeccable technique and a formidable upper register. In later years ill health and alcohol took their toll, but in 1937-1939 there was very little he couldn’t achieve. The first set of tracks are of his Uptown Serenaders of 1937, teaming him with the master of jump-style alto, Pete Brown, and the fine clarinettist Edmond Hall. Newton’s playing on I Found a New Baby is nothing short of sensational and his own The Brittwood Stomp is decidedly forward-looking. Mezz Mezzrow’s Orchestra complained that the tracks by Frank’s 1939 orchestra were just a stream of solos. True, but, when you’ve got Pete Brown, James P. Johnson and Al Casey, not to mention Frank Newton with his talent for swinging old songs like The World is Waiting for the Sunrise, does it matter? And, incidentally, we can enjoy the lyrical Newton, complete with mute, on Mezz’s own The Blues My Baby Gave to Me. For the rest of 1939 Newton recorded with two groups. His Blue Note tracks generally went under the Port of Harlem name and were 12 inch singles, featuring Albert Ammons or Meade Lux Lewis, Al Casey and J.C Higginbotham. Higginbotham and Newton switch from anticipations of rhythm and blues on Rockin’ the Blues to delicate lyricism on Port of Harlem Blues. When Bechet joined them for a tribute to Tommy Ladnier, Newton produced his most spectacular high-note work. The other band could not have been more different, his house band at Café Society, playing smart arrangements of, mostly, Tab Smith compositions, with the excellence of a three-sax team of Smith, Stanley Payne and Kenneth Hollon, and young pianist Kenny Kersey.” Ron Simpson, Jazz Rag

“…the splendid Retrospective series showcases some of Newton’s finest work in the immediate pre-war period. Beyond doubt, it shows what a wholly exceptional exponent of his instrument Newton was, technically and emotionally. Yes, we know from elsewhere he could do the stratospheric stuff like Eldridge but there’s also a tenderness to him, a hauntingly lyrical quality. Digby Fairweather, in customarily brilliant sleeve notes, channels Ruby Braff in in praising his ‘armoury of effects… growls, glissandi, challenging Armstrong-like flares, squeezy half-valve effects, pedal tones beyond and below the trumpet player’s legitimate register.’ Andrew Liddle, Just Jazz Magazine