So you've never heard of Jimmie Rodgers before? The Blue Yodeler? The Singing Brakeman? The Father of Country Music? You can bet that a young Hank Williams (someday to be) Sr. did.

Rodgers, born the son of a railroad foreman in 1897, followed in his father's footsteps, working his way up from waterboy to brakeman. Rodgers contracted tuberculosis in 1924, and the illness forced him off the rails in 1927. Rodgers then used the banjo and guitar playing skills learned from hobos and other railroad men to begin a meteoric rise in the music business.

Rodgers recorded over 100 songs between 1927 and 1933. He toured the country with Will Rogers, made a short film for Columbia Pictures and, in 1930, recorded his "Blue Yodel No. 9" with Louis Armstrong (here's Pops playing it with Johnny Cash four decades later). Rodgers tragically succumbed to TB in May of 1933, ion New York City, after a week spent making his last dozen recordings.

Bonus: The Fendermen covering Jimmie Rodgers' "Blue Yodel No. 8 (The Muleskinner Blues)".

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PS. Our sister site Newstalgia has, back by popular demand, Grapefruit from 1968.

Since Hoagy Carmichael wrote the tune in 1927 (lyrics added by Mitchell Parrish in 1929) this song has been recorded 1,800 times! I won't claim that I've heard even 1/10th of those recordings, but from those I have heard, Pops Armstrong's version is my favorite.

What are your favorite standards or covers? Don't be afraid to go outside the jazz world.

What a Wonderful Christmas
	Artist: Louis Armstrong

I'll admit that there aren't a lot of Christmas songs that I like much. But this one? I could listen to it all year long.

What are your favorite versions of your favorite holiday songs?

After sixteen years of depression and war, Sachmo sings Johnny Mercer, New Year's Eve in Zanzibar, 12-31-1945.

You've got to accentuate the positive

Eliminate the negative

And latch on to the affirmative

Don't mess with Mister In-Between

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum

Bring gloom down to the minimum

Have faith or pandemonium's

Liable to walk upon the scene

Let us know what you're listening to tonight.

Along with Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis was one of the most influential trumpet players in contemporary music. By the time he died in 1991, he was widely considered the greatest and most respected jazz player in the world. Tonight's piece, comes from his early Columbia Records recording sessions and includes John Coltrane on tenor sax, Philly Joe Jones on drums, Red Garland on piano and Paul Chambers on bass. It was the lead track on Relaxin' With The Miles Davis Quintet (1956) and the two recording sessions resulted in enough material for 3 other albums that year... Cookin' With, Steamin' With, and Workin' With. "If I Were A Bell" wasn't a Davis composition but was written by Frank Loesser for the Broadway show Guys and Dolls.

After Louis Armstrong, he was the next instrumental voice to change the sound of Jazz. It was a huge awakening for me to have come out of the '70's Rock era and start to spend some time with "Bird." I played a club date with an old bass player in the mid-eighties who told me Charlie had still owed him ten bucks.

Wikipedia: Parker is commonly considered one of the greatest jazz musicians. In terms of influence and impact, his contribution to jazz was so great that Charles Mingus commented, "If Bird were alive today, he would think he was living in a hall of mirrors."...read on