Rod Cless Quartet - Make Me Pallet On The Floor (1944)

Personnel: James P. Johnson (piano), Rod Cless (clarinet), Sterling Boze (trumpet), Pops Foster (bass). Recorded in New York, September, 1944. It is one of the very last recordings by Rod Cless.
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Clarinetist Rod Cless (1907-1944) seems to have emerged from the middle of a potato field somewhere in Iowa and died in the mid-’40s after falling several stories from the balcony of an apartment. Named George Roderick Cless, he was related by marriage to the much better-known reedman Bud Freeman, but certainly had a respectable career in the Dixieland ensembles of leaders such as Muggsy Spanier and Bobby Hackett. He began playing in bands in college including the Varsity Five, darlings of Iowa State University. In the mid-’20s he relocated to Des Moines where he first came into contact with an important influence, bandleader Frank Teschemacher, known as “Tesch” to his musical cohorts. The two went to Chicago together and began playing with groups such as the orchestra of Charlie Pierce. Back in Chicago, Cless squatted at the Wig Wam Club and enlisted with the combo of Louis Panico, a fairly calm bandleader despite contrary indications suggested by his surname. The spring of 1939 marked in many ways a return to pure jazz work, Cless joining up with Spanier’s band the Ragtimers for the balance of the year, followed by two years with pianist Art Hodes. Other gigs in the ’40s included work with Marty Marsala, Ed Farley, Georg Brunis, and Wild Bill Davidson as well as the aforementioned Hackett. In 1944 he was associated with Max Kaminsky with whom he was employed at New York City’s Pied Piper Club when Cless suffered catastrophic injuries toppling over the railings of an apartment, subsequently surviving for only four days in the hospital.
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James P. Johnson (1894 - 1955) was a highly influential American jazz pianist who also wrote popular songs and composed classical works. A founder of the stride piano idiom, he was a crucial figure in the transition from ragtime to jazz.
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Bose, Sterling (Belmont) (Boze, Bozo) (1906-1958), early jazz trumpeter, cornetist (singer). He sat in with various New Orleans bands in early 1920s (including Tom Brown’s). Late in 1923 he moved to St. Louis; gigged with various bands, then with Crescent City Jazzers and Arcadia Serenaders until 1927. He joined Jean Goldkette in Detroit and during winter 1927-28 played a season for Goldkette at Pla-Mor Ballroom, Kansas City. Then he worked for Radio WGN house band in Chicago until autumn 1930. He joined Ben Pollack in November 1930; played there on and off until May 1933. He was with Eddie Sheasby in Chicago. Then in N.Y., he did extensive studio work with Victor Young. He was with Benny Goodman in August and September 1936; left through illness. Early in 1937 he was a member of Lana Webster Band in N.Y., then joined the Glenn Miller Orch. until October 1937, then was with the Bob Crosby Band until early in 1939. He played regularly at Nick’s in N.Y.; had a short spell with Bobby Hackett Big Band in spring of 1939. He was a member of short lived Bob Zurke Big Band until April 1940, then he spent six months with Jack Teagarden until taking his own trio into Muggsy McGraw’s Club in Chicago (December 1940). He played with Bud Freeman’s Big Band in Chicago (February 1942). He moved back to N.Y during early 1943, and worked with Geory Brunis at Famous Door, then with Bobby Sherwood’s Band from July until November 1943. Freelanced in Chicago, N.Y., and Mobile before moving to Fla. From March 1948, he led his own band at the Municipal Ballroom, St. Petersburg, Fla., then various club residencies before playing at Soreno Lounge, St. Petersburg, from 1950-57. Bose suffered a long illness before dying of self-inflicted gun-shot wounds.
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George Foster, popularly known as “Pops” Foster, was a jazz musician for more than 70 years. Born on a Louisiana plantation and raised in New Orleans at the turn of the century, Foster was inspired by the musical culture of that legendary city. He started playing instruments as a young child and dedicated his entire life to music. Foster played both tuba and string bass, but is best known for solidifying the predominance of string bass in the jazz music orchestra. Foster was known for his musical imagination and his unique bass slapping technique, which was later copied by other popular musicians. Foster performed and recorded with some of the biggest names in jazz musical history, and had one of the longest and most prolific careers of the jazz musicians of his era.
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... stumbled across your page just now. Congrats from Vienna, Austria - so many great blues songs you have uploaded here. I gotta spend some days listening to it ... cheers!