Boyd1 - Posted - 11/14/2008:  14:28:25

---

I have checked the search and there doesn't seem to be a thread on Buell Kazee so...

When I think of what I consider to be the best of Buell Kazee, I think of untouchable drive on the banjo. My 2 very favorite songs are the classic Wagoner's Lad (1928) and Blind Man's Lament (which I believe was recorded in 1972- more than 40 years later!) Rev. Kazee is one of my banjo heroes, and yet I know little about him. What I do know is summed up nicely in the new booklet from Anthology of American Folk Music:

"Born in Burton's Fork, KY, Buell Kazee (1900-1976) was a Baptist minister in Lexington and a scholar-performer of Appalachian folk songs much like North Carolinian Bascom Lamar Lunsford and fellow Kentuckian Bradly Kincaid. Kazee had formal musical training and approached his performances as voice recitals. His repetoire included sentimental songs, and he frequently insisted they be included in his recordings and programs. Kazee recorded 58 songs for Brunswick during 1927-1929 and an LP for Folkways in 1958. He had a precise, Appalachian clawhammer style of banjo playing."

I think the 1958 Folkways is currently available on cd. But where is the rest of the 58 songs recorded for Brunswick?! I have not even heard the song that P. Seeger includes in How to Play the 5 String Banjo, Lady Gay. There also seems to have been a June Appal release which I think was the recordings from 1972. Where is it all?

Does anybody have any thoughts on Buell Kazee and his amazing career? Anything at all.

Thank you!

***************************
Anything you can imagine is real. - Pablo Picasso

RG - Posted - 11/14/2008:  16:21:18

---

Boyd, check out...

http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdet...x?itemid=590

Folkways 1958 recording of Buell, it's a good one...

RG

"I''m too drunk to taste this chicken..." The Late, Great Colonel Sanders

RG - Posted - 11/14/2008:  16:23:56

---

OK, my bad, you already know about the Folkways release, should have read further...but like you I enjoy Buell's playing, always enjoyed listening to the Kentucky OT stuff...rough with a lot of drive usually, Rufus Crisp is another one of my all time favorites...

RG

"I''m too drunk to taste this chicken..." The Late, Great Colonel Sanders

RG - Posted - 11/14/2008:  16:25:47

---

Boyd...in an attempt to redeem myself from my inattentive first post, here is some info on the June Appal release

http://www.appalshop.org/archive/kazee/

RG

"I''m too drunk to taste this chicken..." The Late, Great Colonel Sanders

RG - Posted - 11/14/2008:  16:29:17

---

Here's another interesting release of original Kazee songs including "Lady Gay"...

http://www.smartchoicemusic.com/sto...pr-1485.html

I'll shut up now...

RG

"I''m too drunk to taste this chicken..." The Late, Great Colonel Sanders

pernicketylad - Posted - 11/14/2008:  17:07:22

---

I really enjoy his playing and listening to his reflections.
It's clear that he "approached his performances as voice recitals" and I must say his singing voice is a bit too operatic for me.I understand that singing in a casual,throwaway fashion is a more modern, revivalist approach but I'd have to say I prefer it.Just a preference.
The recording that got my attention is on "The Art of Field Recording Volume 1" released by Dust to Digital.The tune is "Big Foot Feller" which sounds alot like "Last Chance" to me
The only other recording I have (along with the Anthology) is the re-issue of the 1958 recordings "Buell Kazee Sings and Plays" (FS3810).I think there's real drive to his playing.
All the best.

There are three types of people in the world.....those who can count and those who can''t!

"King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O
Ki-Mo-Ke-Mo-Ki-Mo-Ke, Way down yonder in the hollow tree....."

INFP47 - Posted - 11/14/2008:  17:19:52

---

Boyd,
Lady Gay is on the June Appal CD re-issue of their 1978 LP. I have been enjoying the CD for the last year. My understand is that the tracks on the CD came from a variety of earlier recordings of Kazee. I highly recommend the June Appal recording.

Tim


"I never met a banjo I didn''t like."

"It''s a snare drum on a stick" - Riley Baugus

rkprater - Posted - 11/14/2008:  18:56:36

---

Buell was a first cousin to my grandmother and I knew him when I was younger. His son Phillip Kazee lives in Oneida, TN and is a retired Baptist minister. He also plays clawhammer and will occasionally appear in that area at festivals. Phillip is probably in his 70's now and I hope to go visit with him in the not too distant future. I have the Appal recording on CD and have the LP from some years ago. I am trying to learn how to play clawhammer style and take my interest from him. Do a search for him and you will find some information.

Ron Prater
Nashville, TN

brokenstrings - Posted - 11/14/2008:  19:49:44

---

Say, we seem to have quite a few banjo-playing ministers!

Jessy

Frailaway, ladies, frailaway!

oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 11/14/2008:  23:34:29

---

I'm pretty sure that there is a cd version of the Juna Appal lp available now. I know a lot of his early recordings are spread out among a bunch of anthologies - like the 7 cd Yazoo set "Kentucky Mountain Music", the Harry Smith Collection, etc.

At this time I know of no single source for his Brunswick recordings and have no idea how many of them survive. It is one of those things that County Records should have done back in the 70s, but didn't. Perhaps there were problems with the various permissions needed.
I've never found a Document or Bear Family collection of Kazee songs listed anywhere. Perhaps that JSP label has something.

If you are interested in what I say and would like to know more, it ony cost a couple mouse clicks. Download your free copy of Rocket Science Banjo - the Advanced Method For Beginning to Intermediate Clawhammer Players, at:
http://www.rsb.pricklypearmusic.net

Along with the full text in PDF you will also find the four current RSB videos and the "25 EZ Clawhammer tunes. - which are up to about 40 now.

Banjo Brad is still hosting "How To Mold A Mighty Pinky" and some other material at:
http://www.pricklypearmusic.net
A site full of interesting banjo material

janolov - Posted - 11/15/2008:  03:25:07

---

There are two Buell Kazee tunes at Juneberry:
http://juneberry78s.com/otmsampler/...g%20Cora.mp3
http://juneberry78s.com/otmsampler/...n%20Girl.mp3

Jan-Olov

Boyd1 - Posted - 11/15/2008:  06:30:05

---

I was thrilled after a hard week to wake this sunny Saturday morning and see all these wonderful responses! First, I'd like to say that I hope you never clam up RG. I am always looking for your posts.

I was sure that the June Appal recording had been allowed to fade away under the rug of Americana. So thank you all so much for that knowledge. How great is this group! I am pretty sure though that JSP has yet to touch Kazee, but isn't it sad that we would think first of a British company for something so.., American. It blows my mind. And I indend absolutely no slight against JSP Records. I've heard whines about them, but they put the goods out there. I have to investigate this Art of Field Recording cd! Where did you all get the June Appal cd- directly through June Appal? I notice that one link RG put up leads to "Smart Choice Music- The UK's American Music Store". Bless European interest in American Folk and Jazz! Right janolov?

I sure hope that rkprater returns and shares some memories and insights.

I hadn't thought about it, but now that you mention Rufus Crisp, there is a certain similiarity between his approach and Kazee's. I'll ask the question I always ask: Is Burton's Fork or Lexington near Crisp's home in Allen, KY?

Lastly, here is a quote from the notes of the wonderful cd Kentucky Old-Time Banjo (Rounder Records) which I find interesting, although it is unsourced:

"Although [Kazee] was ocassionally invited to some of the 'folk festivals' of the 'sixties, he was often left bemused by the attitudes he encountered, which struck him as streotyped and convertly condescending."

Thanks everybody!


***************************
Anything you can imagine is real. - Pablo Picasso

Hunter Robertson - Posted - 11/15/2008:  07:12:53

---

A few more of Kazee's tunes on the internet:
http://honkingduck.com/mc/audio_com...ge=2&apage=B
http://www.archive.org/search.php?q...l%20Kazee%22

Hunter

Old Time Music for Body & Soul - www.hunterrobertson.com

Boyd1 - Posted - 11/15/2008:  07:33:20

---

Wow! Another teasure trove I didn't know about. Thanks Hunter Robertson! I know what I'm doing this evening.

***************************
Anything you can imagine is real. - Pablo Picasso

dbrooks - Posted - 11/15/2008:  08:52:19

---

In October 2007, a Louisville alternative weekly newspaper, LEO, published a feature story on Buell Kazee. June Appal had just released a CD of his later recordings. Here's a link to that story.
http://www.leoweekly.com/news-featu...-rediscovery

The paragraphs are not separated by blank lines so it's a bit tough to read, but it is a good read.

David

Boyd1 - Posted - 11/15/2008:  09:47:23

---

Wowie! Bingo! It is a mother lode of information. Thank goodness for Gene Bluestein.

***************************
Anything you can imagine is real. - Pablo Picasso

RG - Posted - 11/15/2008:  18:14:03

---

Boyd - thanks for the kind words, I enjoy your posts as well!

It is sad that America tends to forget it's musical history...my dad is an emmy winning jazz record producer and historian, and he always reminds me that the city of New Orleans bulldozed Louis Armstrong's house in the middle of the night...how's that for a sense of history? The birthplace of jazz totally denying that legacy...sad, but thanks to those in the UK and on the continent (and a few here in the US as well) that help to keep the traditions alive and make some of these older recordings available...and I still don't think tradition is a four lettered word (as some who post here do!)...

In regards to Rufus & Buell, I think their approach was slightly different, at least to my ear, Kazee was a classically trained musician and seems a little more polished than Crisp, who to me was a real throwback to the nineteenth century...as RD posted in another thread, Crisp learned banjo from his father so this would have been around 1880-1890...I just think that the Kentucky style is a little less "notey" (is that a word?) and more roughly rhythmic...which I like...but maybe that's just my ears...

RG

"I''m too drunk to taste this chicken..." The Late, Great Colonel Sanders

---

Edited by - RG on 11/15/2008 22:41:56

fictioneer - Posted - 11/15/2008:  21:33:45

---

About 40 of Kazee's Brunswick sides are reissued on disks B and C of the 4-disk JSP collection Mountain Frolic. They include nearly all of the classic tracks, plus a number of odder items (some with BHK on guitar instead of banjo, and some with a small combo led by a steel guitar), as well as a pair of 2-part skit recordings, "Election Day in KY" and "A Mountain Boy Makes His First Records," which are both quite rare and seldom heard. Unusually for the genre, "Election" doesn't feature music at all, but "Records" is engaging, with Kazee broadly impersonating a hick from Magoffin County who's been summoned to Chicago to record for "Mr Brunswick."

Set also includes some of the scarcer tracks by Bascom Lunsford from Okeh and Columbia (including a pair of banjoless but still classic recitations, "Stump Speech in the 10th District" and "Speaking the Truth" [better known as "Where the Whangdoodle Mourneth for Her Firstborn"]), and a whole disk of the Carolina Tar Heels, including I think all of the sides on which Tom Ashley was present. It's currently downloadable on eMusic.com, if you're a member, and if you'd rather have the CDs you should be able to find this set for about $20 (4 CDs in all).

Boyd1 - Posted - 11/16/2008:  09:43:38

---

Thanks to you all the veil of mystery surrounding Buell Kazee for me is beginning to lift - A good and a bad thing, if you know what I mean.

I have and treasure many JSP box sets, but I have overlooked The Mountain Frolic for some strange reason. My mouth is hanging open. I think I am going to order it this very evening. It is exactly what I have been looking for. All of it! I found sound clips here at CdUniverse: http://www.cduniverse.com/productin...?pid=7632146

[By the way, I cannot express how highly I admire the Hot Fives & Hot Sevens JSP box set. Just get it! Armstrong certainly was The Gift. I really don't think any other single human being in history has had a more profound effect on our world. Just my opinion. Maybe the guy who discovered fire. Maybe not.]

The two skits fictioneer mentions are discussed in the article dbrooks so kindly gave the link to. The article seems to suggest that Rev. Kazee came to regret his decision to act the clown in them.

Also, I now know that the Blind Man's Lament from the wonderful cd Kentucky Old-Time Banjo (Rounder Records) was not recorded in 1972 as the cd notes say, but from the original Bruswick recordings. I just knew there was something fishy here! You have given me something special today, fictioneer. Thank you. Oh, and at long last I have heard at least a part of Rev. Kazee's Lady Gay. It had been eluding me for such a long time. It is like catching that crafty, big and legendary fish- except I can't throw it back.

And RG, I have thought about it and listened today, and I stick by my opinion on Crisp and Kazee. However, I am even more certain that we can both be correct here. To my ears, it has something to do with a (excuse my terminology) kind of linear banjo drive with singing that lays almost flatly on the melody being produced by the instument. Neither of them breaks out of the box much at all. It is very straightforward. Pure. I think a good example is Crisp's Fall, Fall, [Pa, Pa?] Build me a Boat.

"Where the Whangdoodle Mourneth for her Firstborn"?!

I have so much to learn.

-Boyd




***************************
Anything you can imagine is real. - Pablo Picasso

RG - Posted - 11/16/2008:  12:38:35

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Boyd1
And RG, I have thought about it and listened today, and I stick by my opinion on Crisp and Kazee. However, I am even more certain that we can both be correct here. To my ears, it has something to do with a (excuse my terminology) kind of linear banjo drive with singing that lays almost flatly on the melody being produced by the instument. Neither of them breaks out of the box much at all. It is very straightforward. Pure. I think a good example is Crisp's Fall, Fall, [Pa, Pa?] Build me a Boat.

---

Boyd - you know I would have to agree with you, listened to Rufus & Buell this morning and I like your description of a "linear" drive, straightforward approach with the vocals "on top"...think that description captures it pretty well...and also noticed the similarities...anyway got to listen to some good music I haven't heard in a while! I love Crisp's "Trouble on My Mind, Ball and Chain", especially with those brushes, both up and down if I hear it correctly and the well timed drop thumbing...what drive & rhythm! Read on one of those sites that when Kazee recorded later in life that he was very particular about his vocals, and was somewhat disatisfied with the vocal mix on the Folkways album...

BTW Burton Fork KY is approximately 32 miles from Allen KY and about 70 miles from Lexington...

An lastly, Buell has a myspace account, I kid you not...(well maybe a little)...

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cf...did=80472715

RG

"I''m too drunk to taste this chicken..." The Late, Great Colonel Sanders

Boyd1 - Posted - 11/16/2008:  13:45:41

---

Well, thanks. And thanks for the geografic info. Interesting...

Yeah, from all that I gather he was not satisfied with the Folkways Lp at all. It seems to me though that there might have been more recorded later on than '58 or '59. But I just can't figure it out. His catalogue seems to me to be a puzzle. I am stumped by this December 1972 date that Kentucky Old Time Banjo has. Blind Man's Lament is certainly wrong, but the others songs.., for example Soldier's Joy doesn't seem to show up anywhere else. And my ears suggest it is later if it is indeed Rev. Kazee at all. I think I am just over looking something obvious...

By the way, where did you get your Rufus Crisp. Is it back in print? I got mine, and a couple of other things including some wonderful Pete Steele (Woodbine, KY), from Folkway Records maybe 15 years ago. They burnt everything that I wanted that was then out of print to cd especially for me. How cool is that!


***************************
Anything you can imagine is real. - Pablo Picasso

RG - Posted - 11/16/2008:  15:05:57

---

Boyd - My dad was a long time music biz exec, and at one time he was a distributor for Folkways, back when Moses & Marian still ran the label...so I was one lucky kid! He also distributed Rounder, County, Sugar Hill, Yazoo, Flying Fish, Tradition, Fantasy (Bluesville, Riverside etc.) and on & on...needless to say I was a kid in a candy store when I worked in the warehouse, so got most of the stuff in LP form in the early & mid-seventies...but like you I used their custom CD function a couple of years ago to replace a lot of my vinyl which was taking up too much room...when Moses sold Folkways he stipulated in his will that every title would remain available in some configuration...pretty cool! By the way, if you don't have them check out "Bluegrass From the Blue Ridge" (not bluegrass at all, it's Wade Ward, Glen Smith, Uncle Charlie Higgins, Fields Ward & more...)...

http://www.folkways.si.edu/searchre...ype='phrase'

and "Traditional Music from Grayson & Carroll Counties Virginia"

http://www.folkways.si.edu/searchre...ype='phrase'

Not Buell Kazee and slightly off topic but 2 very cool OT albums, couple of my favs...

RG

"I''m too drunk to taste this chicken..." The Late, Great Colonel Sanders

---

Edited by - RG on 11/16/2008 15:06:43

Boyd1 - Posted - 11/17/2008:  01:16:34

---

I have neither of the collections you mention, but am familiar with them. Important stuff. I am intrigued by the histories of all the old record companies, especially Paramount/ Wisconsin Chair Company of course. There is an interesting article about the mysterious inventory of Paramount by Alex Van Der Tuuk here:

http://www.mainspringpress.com/nyrl.html

Here is a quote from it. It sounds like something I could have done as a bored stupid kid, before I knew who Blind Blake or Geechie Wiley was, just to name a couple:

Brian Wilburn, June 2002:
“When we were kids, Chair Factory # 2 was closed and all they used it for was storage. Of course we found our way into it. Kids were going in and out all the time, we weren’t supposed to be, but we were. Empty buildings are a magnet for kids. There was no security at all. In those days Port Washington had a police force of three cops. Nobody knew the meaning of the word security in those days. We were in that plant all the time and I probably destroyed two to three thousand records. We made frisbees out of them, we sailed them off the roof. And when we got a little older we used a shotgun. You could get away with it, using a shotgun in city limits. The building was right next to the railroad tracks. There was nothing around it so it was not dangerous.” [Close to the Chair Factory # 2 there was a small garage-like building next to the railroad tracks that was used to store records, and these were shipped from this building after orders came in. In the 1960s collector Dennis Klopp saw a wood eagle-on-a-globe on top of this building which resembled the Paramount logo. It was one foot high and orange in color. Klopp took it off the building and still owns it.]



***************************
Anything you can imagine is real. - Pablo Picasso

RG - Posted - 11/17/2008:  03:25:18

---

Boyd - very cool link, Bob Koester is an old and dear friend of my dad's going back to St. Louis right after WWII, Bob was quite a character in his own right, he is a walking history book for this kind of stuff...

I know the Phillips family pretty well (of Sam & Sun Records fame) and Sam's nephews tell a similar story at the old Sun warehouse, lot's of Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash etc. 78's and 45's were smashed in their youthful "frisbee" contests...a collectors nightmare...

RG

"I''m too drunk to taste this chicken..." The Late, Great Colonel Sanders

jhandsfield - Posted - 11/17/2008:  07:16:15

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by brokenstrings

Say, we seem to have quite a few banjo-playing ministers!

---

I don't recall if it was in Earl's book or Pete Seeger's, but there's a quote from a mountain preacher: "You might as well give a boy a ticket straight to hell as give him a five string banjo."

Jim Handsfield
jhandsfield@mindspring.com
Always preach the Gospel - use words if you must (Francis of Assisi)

harvey - Posted - 11/18/2008:  13:41:04

---

I have a CD called "Buell Kazee Legendary Kentucky Ballad Singer". It has 22 tracks including Lady Gay

Here's one link to it I found (no idea about the store): http://www.countysales.com/php-bin/...358&next_id=

That store also has a volume 2: http://www.countysales.com/php-bin/...next_id=3444

The packaging of the CD I own is cheap in the extreme, but the music is great, of course. I can definitely recommend it.

Edited to add: As a caveat, I should perhaps add that not all of the tracks on the CD above feature Kazee on banjo. Some feature guitar accompaniment, for example.

---

Edited by - harvey on 11/18/2008 13:46:01

Boyd1 - Posted - 11/18/2008:  14:05:22

---

Thank you Harvey. I knew about the first one from this thread, but was unaware of Vol. 2! I've already ordered the JSP set though. I think it is all on there with a little bit more maybe- I gotta look closer. I would love to know how you first found out about Kazee, especially if you are German. Even if not. I hear Rev. Kazee is HUGE over there. Over here- the Spanish seem mostly indifferent. Go figure.

Oh, by the way, your link is to County Records and they are great. At least in my experience.

***************************
Anything you can imagine is real. - Pablo Picasso

harvey - Posted - 11/20/2008:  10:11:42

---

I'm not sure about Kazee being huge in Germany. May be so, but I don't really know that many oldtime fans here, so I couldn't tell. I got to know him through Harry Smith's Anthology (as I'm sure countless others did too). He was actually *the* player that really inspired me to learn to play banjo, although I don't listen to him all that often these days.

Boyd1 - Posted - 11/20/2008:  11:30:41

---

I was just goofin' about him being HUGE in Germany. Although, if he is not, he should be- here in Spain as well! Of course, I too first heard him on the Anthology and I though, "Wow, what is that?"

***************************
Anything you can imagine is real. - Pablo Picasso