Thinking about some magnificent virtuoso organ playing heard last weekend I am struck by its fearlessness. Why not take risks except for fear that someone will disapprove. What more disapproving environment than church? Well, try the music school or the concert hall.
That wasn't the only fearless music making I heard last weekend: Saturday evening Phil Schaap was celebrating (on WKCR) the Luis Russell orchestra recorded in 1929 and 1930, just at the time Louis Armstrong had begun hiring them as "his" band. These recordings predate the invention of magnetic tape, so it is recorded the way they played it and man! do they play. These sessions can be heard on-line: http://www.philschaapjazz.com/index.php?l=page_view&p=radio. If the link doesn't get you there scroll down the home page to the link to radio archives.
