It must have been 1946 when I first met Don Ewell at the Moose Hall on North Dearborn Street in Chicago during a warm-up session preparatory to a Bunk Johnson concert. I remember we hit it off at once, because we were both deeply interested in Bunk, and Don mentioned that he had read one of my books, which established him in my mind at once as a scholar and a gentleman. I am writing this foreword in Topeka, Kansas, where I am for the time Sloan Visiting Professor at the Menninger School of Psychiatry. Since I am attending so many case conferences and psychiatric lectures, it is difficult to resist the temptation to talk about Don’s music in psychological terms. Don Ewell's interest in traditional and "classic" jazz results in part from a revolt against the constricted gentility of his childhood surroundings as the son of a Methodist minister in Baltimore. Of course the music is intrinsically interesting. But it also has for him, as for many others, the meaning of "something of which my parents would not approve." From what Don has told me, his father was an upright and conscientious man, but one who had difliculty expressing warmth and love — a fact which left the son in constant doubt as to whether or not he was approved. The results of this situation are familiar—we have all been through it in one form or another. There is the rebellious escape into the for- bidden area, in this case Negro jazz, along with intermittent reactions of anxiety and guilt about the new life. Having cast his lot with the jazz world, he turned naturally to the founding fathers of the art formeto King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, James P. Johnson; to professional association with Bunk Johnson as well as with Albert Nicholas, Lee Collins, Baby Dodds, Sidney Bechet, Kid Ory ; to warm friendship with Jimmy and Estelle "Mama" Yancey, to whose home he took his new girl friend, Mary (now Mrs. Ewell), on their first evening out together.
S. I. Hayakawa, March 24, 1961 (from the original Liner Notes)
Don Ewell
Man Here Plays Fine Piano !
Tracks
1 Everybody Loves My Baby (Williams, Parker) 3:56
2 Blue Turning Grey Over You (Razaf, Waller) 3:49
3 Am I Blue ? (Akst, Clarke) 6:02
4 Frisco Rider (Ewell) 3:06
5 You're Driving Me Crazy (Donaldson) 3:46
6 Green Swamp (Howard) 3:38
7 I Want A Little Girl (Mencher, Moll) 4:57
8 My Home is in A Southern Town (Morton) 2:19
9 Save it Pretty Mama (Razaf, Waller) 4:25
10 Keepin' Out Of Mischief Now (Razaf, Waller) 4:00
*
Personnel
Darnell Howard - cl
Don Ewell - p
Pops Foster - b
Minor Hall - dr
Recorded in San Francisco ; June 21 & 22, 1957