Born of The Great Depression, the 1936 song “Pennies From Heaven” offers the promise of riches if you know where to look, perhaps a distant cousin of “On The Sunny Side Of The Street” from 1930 or even a descendent of 1926’s “Blue Skies.”
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In Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music 1955-1965, author David H. Rosenthaul points to the 1960 album Battle Stations by Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and Johnny Griffin, with its remarkable rendition of the Norman Simmons tune “Abundance,” and he mentions of a segmented pronunciation for the song's title, although it is unclear where the hip slang first appeared.
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Not to be confused with Sonny Rollins’ “Pent Up House” or the Burton / Jason song “Penthouse Serenade,” Bennie Green’s composition lacks any identifying features to set itself apart from the crowd; there’s no significant melody, it’s a straight-ahead Bb blues, and no virtuosic performance by any individual. Yet, this recording of “Penthouse Blues” captures a small group dynamic that one would expect to hear from a big band.
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In the third chorus of Green’s trombone solo, he trades a riff with saxophonist Jimmy Forrest in a call and response manner that mimics the shout backgrounds of the big band era. Whether it was an improvisational or a pre-arranged section to launch the piano solo, the use of shout rhythms provides the music and dance with a frenetic energy.
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Recorded in 1959, “Been Walkin’” is perhaps a reaction to the 1954 Miles Davis version of the Richard Carpenter tune “Walkin’,” which itself was most likely a version of the 1950 tune “Gravy” composed by Jimmy Mundey, credited to Carpenter, and recorded by Gene Ammons, as noted by jazz historian Gordon Jack who also points out that trombonist Bennie Green played on that original recording of “Gravy.”
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The parade music of New Orleans is rooted in the war chants of Native Americans, specifically the Mardi Gras Indians, combined with the Afro-Cuban rhythms of Congo Square, and presented in the form of European and American military bands.
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In the early 1980’s, the 2 Tone ska band The Specials recorded “Ghost Town” as an examination of the economic strife throughout the United Kingdom. A generation later, the Hot 8 Brass Band adopted the #1 hit song to rebuild the cultural voice of New Orleans, a city washed away by Hurricane Katrina.
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Hot 8 trombonist Joseph “Shotgun Joe” Williams was unarmed when he was killed at the age of 22 by the New Orleans Police Department, but no reasonable explanation has ever been provided.
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