#11 – Countdown – One

ONE…

Miff Mole was one of the most influential trombonists of early jazz. In the New York of the 1920s, he recorded regularly with trumpeter Red Nichols. Mole and Nichols’ style was classified by many critics at the time as a cool, urbane take on hot jazz. Later, jazz historians referred to this style of playing as the “New York Style.” For an example, listen to One Step to Heaven, recorded by these musicians on July 1928:

• Red Nichols: trumpet
• Miff Mole: trombone
• Frank Teschemacher: clarinet
• Joe Sullivan: piano
• Eddie Condon: guitar
• Gene Krupa: drums

As early as 1928, Max Valier, Friedrich Wilhelm Sander and Fritz von Opel were jointly experimenting on a car powered by powder rockets. At the end of May 1928, Fritz von Opel achieved a maximum speed of 238 km/h (148 mph) in the RAK 2 on the Berlin AVUS race track. On the frozen Lake Starnberg in 1929, Valier achieved a speed record of over 400 km/h (250 mph) in the RAK BOB rocket sled. In January 1930, he was granted a laboratory at the Heylandt-Werke in Berlin, which specialized in the production of liquid oxygen. There he conducted successful tests with liquid fuels, which became fundamental for further rocket development in Germany. On May 17, 1930, Max Valier died as a result of an explosion during the test run of a new type of engine, as he had agreed to also carry out tests with kerosene for the Shell Company. He is thus regarded as the first victim of “space flight”.

Harold Land was a saxophonist of the West Coast scene. He is best known for his recordings in the quintet of Max Roach and Clifford Brown, for which he also composed. In 1956, he moved back to his hometown of Los Angeles, where he also recorded his album “The Fox” in August 1959. In addition to saxophone, Harold Land also played flute and oboe. This album features the track One Second, Please, played by:

• Harold Land: tenor saxophone
• Dupree Bolton: trumpet
• Elmo Hope: piano
• Herbie Lewis: double bass
• Frank Butler: drums

With a Thor rocket, NASA launched Explorer VI, the prototype of the later “paddlewheel” radiation-measuring satellites, from Cape Canaveral on August 07, 1959. It was the first satellite to take a photo of the Earth from space.

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