Volume two in the complete works of
Clara Smith as reissued by Document during the 1990s presents 21 selections recorded over a span of 11 months beginning on January 31, 1924. "My Doggone Lazy Man" preserves the kazoo technique employed by composer and pianist
Porter Grainger in the company of harmonica handler Herbert Leonard and guitarist
Lincoln M. Conaway. The singer's ongoing collaboration with
Fletcher Henderson and members of his jazz band bore plenty of fruit during 1924, with the quintet consisting of pianist
Henderson, cornetist
Elmer Chambers, trombonist
Teddy Nixon, clarinetist
Don Redman, and banjoist
Charlie Dixon identified as
Clara Smith's Jazz Band on "The Chicago Blues" and "The 31st Street Blues."
Henderson strummed the ukulele on tracks six, seven, eight, and ten; his rising star, tenor saxophonist
Coleman Hawkins is heard on tracks eleven and twelve. "The Freight Train Blues" features
Redman operating a mouth organ/saxophone hybrid known as the goofus; this gadget is usually associated with the adventurous exploits of multi-instrumentalist
Adrian Rollini. Other players who accompany
Clara Smith on this collection are Clarence Conaway, who plays ukulele on "Don't Advertise Your Man"; reed players
Ernest Elliott and
Cecil Scott, and pianist Charles A. Matson. In addition to the ukulele, goofus, and kazoo passages already mentioned, highlights herein include the percussive sound effects apparently generated by
Porter Grainger during the sexually charged "Steel Drivin'Sam." ~ arwulf arwulf