GERMAINE BAZZLE! Hour One with Her in Our 'Spiritual as Music' series. "The Neighborhood Was Your Other Family" Interview, Full-Fidelity Music, and Images.

Germaine's voice and mind remind us of how great human beings can be.

THANKS again for the Subscriptions! Communities keep growing.

I’m so GLAD to present here a combination of media in a quality that Maryse and I have long watned to offer. Below you’ll find the first Hour of three that focus on New Orleans great musician and singer GERMAINE BAZZLE. Between sections of responses from Germaine, as our interview progresses, come Tracks of music from and her and bandmates.

In this Hour Germaine sings “One Of Those Things”, “Route 66”, “Mood Indigo”, and “There Is No Greater Love.” The Hour also features:

Bunk Johnson and Sidney Bechet, Sidney alone as leader, Papa Celestin, Ella Fitzgerald with the Chick Webb Orchestra, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Monk, Mingus, Miles, Curley Russell, J.J. Johnson, Woody Herman’s Third Herd, Stan Getz, Carmen McRae, and June Christy.

Lots of superb Tracks! The star of the Hour is nonetheless Germaine and her artistry and memories. Her character! Germaine was age 85 when we did this interview in 2017. She was then performing two sets every Sunday night the Jazz Playthouse with her band of Larry Sieberth piano, Peter Harris bass, and Simon Lott drums. She stlll excels whenever she sings on stage these days—more nuanced and affecting than ever and still like a child in love with music and songs. In this Hour we go with Germaine from her childhood in New Orleans’ 1930s 7th Ward to wonders from her in the 21st century.

And we get to make the trip in full fidelity! Thanks to SUBSTACK—oh, SUBTACK—the excerpts you’ll hear hear are ‘lossless’ files—not mp3, not ‘streaming’. You’ll hear, I bet, even more! You may also recognize forever after what a degradation to our ears and other senses mp3s and ‘streaming’ are.

0:00—5:27 Maryse introduces Germaine. Germaine sings “Just One Of Those Things”. She tells us about growing Up in New Orleans’7th Ward during the 1930s … “The Neighborhood Was Your Other Family. ” And: “Milneburg Joys”—Bunk Johnson, Sidney Bechet

0:00 Maryse introduces

1:30  "Just One Of Those Things". Germaine with her band of Larry Sieberth piano, Peter Harris upright bass, and Simon Lott drums-set.

2:00  Germaine on her early years in New Orleans’ 7th Ward. “The neighborhood was your other family.” 

3:42   “Milneburg Joys”, Bunk Johnson with Sidney Bechet.

5:27—10:34   Germaine on the lady who was “like our neighborhood watch” … so much that her face was like an etching on her screen-door. And: “Really The Blues”

7:00   "Really The Blues", Sidney Bechet

10:30—14:23   Germaine on growing up in the 1940s, new Lafitte Housing Project. The communities there … amid “Swimming, Tennis, Second-Lines”. And: “Didn’t He Ramble”, Papa Celestin.

12:18  "Didn't He Ramble", Papa Celestin.

14:27-21:22   Germaine: Musicians were respected in the Projects; her first job as a schoolteacher took her—straight after Graduation—to Thibodeaux. And: “Route 66” from the 1991 album Standing Ovation.

15:58   "Route 66", Germaine Bazzle, Standing Ovation, 1991. With George French bass, Victor Goines saxophone, Emile Vinette piano, Brian Blade drums-set.

Germaine Bazzle, 1978.

21:23—26:39   Germaine begins as a ‘music-teacher’

21:23  Like Kidd Jordan, Germaine began as an educator in “the country” of 1950s’ Louisiana.

21:58  "St Louis Blues", Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb Orchestra, live at Savoy Ballroom, NYC, 1936.

Check the difference between. mp3.

And lossless format!

26:40  "Could you tell us the music that first touched you?" ..."When I got to college is where I really started hearing all the jazz." And: “Now’s The Time”, “Bemsha Swing”, Woody Herman’s Third Herd, “Peanut Vendor”

28:07 "Now 's The Time", Charlie Parker with Dizzy Gillespie (piano), Max Roach, Miles Davis and Curly Russell, 1945, excerpt.

1953, Massey Hall, Toronto. 'The Great Jazz Concert'--Max, Dizzy, Charlie (with Bud Powell and Charles Mingus).

29:40  Germaine: "We did not talk while the music was playing."

30:15  "Bemsha Swing", J. J. Johnson

31:22   Germaine: "Big Bands ... "

31:28   "Woody Herman's Third Herd", 1954, excerpt.

33:02  "Peanut Vendor", Stan Getz, 1950

33:39  Germaine: 'The records I grew up with …” And: “At Xavier University, the Co-op, these were the kind of records that were on the jukebox." And “Passing Fancy”, Carmen McRae; “Something Cool”, June Christy.

34:19   "Passing Fancy" excerpt and "Yesterdays" whole, Carmen McRae on the --Steve Allen Show" with orchestra, live, 1958.

Carmen, video-still, while singing "Yesterdays".

37:21  "Something Cool", June Christy, 1951, excerpt.

June Christy and Bob Cooper, 1947

38:51  Germaine: "We'd sing the songs that were playing ... If you really wanted to learn to sing, ... you learn everybody's solo  ... That was the. joy ..." And: “Just One Of Those Things'“. And: “Koko”.

Now who. who, who could that "Izzy Goldberg" be?

39:43   "One Of Those Things", Germaine, scatting

40:20  Germaine: "That's what we learned, just like kids learn what's on recordings now."

40:36  "Ko-Ko"  Charlie Parker with Dizzy Gillespie (piano and trumpet), Max Roach, and Curly Russell, 1945, whole.

Two of the greatest artists of our times.

43:04—50:14  Germaine: "There were other things that we did, because we liked to dance, ... and that dancing helped us to get our emotions out."

Learning music in a home where her parents and all played.

44:22  "Sweet Sue", Mills Brothers, 1932, excerpts.

44:40  Germaine: Xavier Prep, many classes, Ellis Marsalis clarinet then, and learning to imitate the trombone to harmonize.

50:15-59:50   Germaine introduces “Mood Indigo” in tribute toAlvin “Red: Tyler with the New Orleans CAC Jazz Orchestra, conducted by David Torkanowsky. She speaks of knowing greatness as a New Orleans’ legacy and her community encouraging . Closing: “There Is No Greater Love.” first job as a schoolteacher took her—straight after Graduation—to Thibodeuax. And: “Route 66” from the 1991 album Standing Ovation.

50:15  "Mood Indigo", Germaine Bazzle with George French bass, Victor Goines saxophone, Emile Vinette piano, Brian Blade drums-set , Standing Ovation, 1991.

54:03  Germaine on knowing Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, ... and their greatness as a matter of course and also being encouraged to excel and being held to "high standards" as she and friends were growing up.

56:01  "There Is No Greater Love", Germaine Bazzle with Larry Sieberth piano, Peter Harris bass, Simon Lott drums-set, and Todd Duke guitar, Swingin' At Snug, 2018.