Wilton Crawley - Wishing

Crawley is an early jazz artist who sadly is largely forgotten, although he had an extremely inventive playing style on his instrument, the clarinet, that utilized unusual speech-like sound effects and extended use of slap tonguing. One of his sidemen, pianist Jelly Roll Morton, went on to become an everlasting jazz legend, which meant that many of the recordings originally done under Crowley's name have all been reissued in various Morton retrospectives. Crawley formed his first band with fellow reed-playing brother Jimmy Crawley. During the '20s and '30s, this clarinetist had success with a variety act. In the late '20s, he made many of the aforementioned recordings, most of which include Morton. Some earlier sides from 1927 and 1928 combine Crawley with guitarist Eddie Lang, which is the case in this moving, plaintive ballad. As for Crawley's playing, it is very effective on this record. Much of this music reveals Crawley attempting to recreate jazz sounds from other instruments, particularly typical muted trumpet effects. Besides being a musician, he was also known as a contortionist! Although some of the membership in his bands, Wilton Crawley & His Orchestra and the Washboard Rhythm Kings also remains unknown, the clarinetist did have many fine sidemen in his employ besides those already mentioned. Trumpeter Henry "Red" Allen, banjoist Johnny St. Cyr, and fine blues guitarist Lonnie Johnson all played with him or one of his bands. Finally, he also was a gifted songwriter. It should be noted this record features Crawley's own composition, not any of the more or less contemporary, homonymous songs. As said before, we hear Wilton Crawley performing the vocal and on the clarinet, accompanied by guitarist Eddie Lang. This record was waxed in 1928.