Alley Cat: Strut Oscar Holden |best|

Oscar watched him go, then turned up the hill. As he walked, he didn't hurry. He kept his head up and his pace steady, the heels of his boots clicking a steady, swinging beat against the slick Seattle pavement. The alley was dark, but the strut was bright.

The original 78 RPM recording of is considered one of the rarest "private press" jazz records in existence. Only three confirmed copies are known to survive in private collections. The fidelity is terrible—surface noise crackles like bacon frying—but the energy is undeniable. alley cat strut oscar holden

“My grandfather said he wrote the tune in 1927 after watching a stray tomcat walk down the alley behind the Pink Elephant Club. The cat was limping—he’d been in a fight—but he still held his head high. My grandpa said, ‘That cat has more dignity than the mayor.’ He hummed the bass line that night and never stopped playing it.” Oscar watched him go, then turned up the hill

Furthermore, modern "New Orleans bounce" producers have sampled the bass line from the 1954 Holden Brothers version. In 2006, underground hip-hop producer Madlib interpolated a four-bar loop of on a track for Madvillainy 2 , introducing a new generation to Oscar Holden’s swagger. The alley was dark, but the strut was bright