Folks, some truly exciting news to announce in the world of traditional music! This past week, the record label Jazzology released “World Recording Sessions 1944,” a hugely important collection featuring the late work of legendary Sligo fiddle player Michael Coleman. Coleman, who is widely considered one of the most important musicians, if not the most important, in Irish music history, recorded just under 100 commercial sides over the course of his life. This release, recorded in 1944 by the World Broadcasting System, comes from his final recording session, completed less than a year before his untimely death. It is an important and rare archival release, and one I urge you to buy if you're a fan of traditional music. It's absolutely superb.
Going in, people should be aware that Coleman’s playing here is different from his earlier sides. It’s slower and world-weary in a way, but the lift and expression that always characterized his music are still very much apparent, making this recording an interesting and important document of his celebrated approach. This release also includes an unidentified piano player, whose presence is reasonably unobtrusive, although I’m sure there are purist listeners out there who will object on principle.
It should be noted that this 1944 WBS session is not unknown to Coleman completists. Sometime in the last two decades, an original copy of Coleman’s WBS disc was found and transferred to digital files. Passed around among musicians and collectors ever since, it consists of the ten tracks WBS released. Unfortunately, it suffered from substandard sound quality: not only is there an annoying buzz that can be heard throughout, the transfer was done at the wrong speed, making Coleman’s playing both accelerated and pitched too high. Jazzology’s release remedies each of these issues and allows us to hear Coleman’s playing as it was captured on the day.
Indeed, it’s likely that we’ve not heard Coleman more clearly. The transfers here were made from the original 16” transcription masters, which means there is no better quality source material. And not only is the sound exquisite, this release includes two additional tracks, a pair of alternate takes of “Maid on the Green” and “Clark’s Highland Fling” that collectors never knew existed. Both are a gift to have.
To better understand how these recordings came about, we need to take a brief look at the World Broadcasting System, Inc. From its founding in 1929, WBS was a recording service for the broadcasting industry, supplying pre-recorded discs to radio stations that lacked in-house orchestras or their own music programming. These discs were provided to stations exclusively for broadcast use and were never sold or made available to the general public.
Decca, for whom Coleman had famously made 20 sides between 1934 and 1936, bought WBS in 1943, and it was probably late that year that they initially reached out to Coleman about a WBS recording session. On January 4, 1944, Decca sent Coleman a letter about having to reschedule a session, which I imagine had first been arranged prior to the New Year.
When Decca sold WBS in 1948, it was serving over 640 stations worldwide. WBS was sold a couple more times in the subsequent years, and once more again in 1971, when it was purchased by jazz aficionado George H. Buck Jr. Buck, who founded the Jazzology label in 1958, died in 2013 but today he’s remembered for his tireless efforts to preserve American recorded music. Today, these archival efforts continue through the George H. Buck Jr. Jazz Foundation and the Jazzology label.
Incidentally, Jazzology has an astonishingly interesting and diverse catalog that represents a very broad range of styles from several different historical eras and labels, including jazz, blues, country, and more. A quick perusal of their artist roster shows recordings by folks like Ma Rainey, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, Charlie Patton, Big Bill Broonzy, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Louis Jordan, James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, the Mills Brothers, Ernest Tubb, Machito And His Afro Cubans, and Wilmoth Houdini and His Royal Calypso Orchestra, but there are literally dozens and dozens more to explore. If your tastes extend beyond traditional music, Jazzology’s catalog is well worth an extended look.
"World Recording Sessions 1944" is an incredibly satisfying and significant release. We very rarely get new Coleman recordings, and none have ever sounded this modern. Coleman's playing is, of course, exceptional. The "rough edges" in his music are an artifact of his declining health at the time, but his performance, enhanced by superior sound quality, is brilliant regardless, making this a rare opportunity to hear a side of the maestro's music that was previously available mainly to insiders. I give this album a no holds barred recommendation for serious fans of traditional music and it’s one that should absolutely be in the collection of any fiddle player interested in Coleman’s music. Run, don’t walk, to buy it. Michael Coleman’s “World Recording Sessions 1944” can be purchased through Jazzology’s website, https://jazzology.com/.
