lipi

Well, let me join the fray, too! I'm afraid I don't have any sets I don't enjoy and want to get rid of, but I'm definitely willing to buy one or more currently in-print sets for someone if they would like to unload one of the following (on CD): #109 The Complete Edmond Hall/James P. Johnson/Sidney De Paris/Vic Dickenson Blue Note Sessions #110 The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Sidney Bechet #132 The Complete Blue Note Recordings of George Lewis #135 The Complete Roulette Live Recordings of Count Basie and His Orchestra (1959-1962) #149 The Complete Roulette Studio Recordings of Count Basie and His Orchestra #168 The Complete Capitol Fifties Jack Teagarden Sessions #206 Classic Columbia Condon Mob Sessions And someone ought to jump on the OP's Venuti/Lang and Manone/Prima sets. Those are two of my favourites! In other news: I just got the Condon CBS set off ebay sans-box and booklet--were these ever released as promotions without the booklet and box or were they just owned by Philistines?

ella by a mile. then the rest: nina simone, lil hardin (she really swung hard sometimes), mary lou williams, sassy, alberta hunter, lady day, dinah, bessie smith, ...

O.K., near the top of my wishlist it stays, then. Thanks for the info!

Can anyone give an audio comparison between this set and the definitive records releases? I have the definitive, and if there isn't too much difference, I'd rather go for some of the other Mosaic sets I'm drooling over first (the bix/trumbauer/teagarden and the goodman). The completist in me will likely scream out for the Armstrong eventually, but I have to prioritise here.

just listened to #7 a few more times. it sounds a lot like the hot club of san francisco--could it be them? i have most of their recordings, but not quite all, so i can't be sure. a wonderful group.

HAHAHAHA! i just read your post and thought more or less the same thing. as for track 11: embarassingly enough, i found i own it! it's from here. i was way, way off. should have recognised the man, but kept thinking of his duo stuff. ah well.

some of this is great stuff. thanks, durium! some brief notes upon first & second listen. instead of just trying to guess (which i'm terrible at), i'll ramble on and on (which i'm excellent at) and give some highly subjective ratings out of five. 1. "looking good, but feeling bad", a modern recording. could be bratislava hot serenaders--did they record it? singer doesn't sound like a native english speaker, so i don't think it's one of dean mora's things. ondrej havelka is a little sweeter, usually. good track. 4/5 another thought: could be the dsc. i can't tell whether that's a dutch accent, because the guy is distorting his voice so much. 2. our hero is walking through the fog or rain, after his partner has been shot and the dame has disappeared. wouldn't be out of place on one of those "jazz after midnight" discs. no idea who this is. 1/5 3. some modern guitar bad-ass, i guess. parts sound classical, parts are flamenco-ish, and a lot of it feels like a 60's folk song somehow. 2/5 4. drummer is annoying. his brushing starts and ends abruptly. 1/5 oh, it gets livelier in the middle. and it sounds like a live recording. pianist can keep his job. drummer's fired. 5. 1/5 6. this reminds me of dave van ronk in style, though not in sound. fun stuff. that sounds like a ukelele, but for once played like almost a real instrument. so that's good. 3/5 7. judging by the recording quality, some modern gypsy band. i like it. is that a vibe hit at the very end? 4/5 8. too broadway-y for my taste. 2/5 9. "sugar foot stomp"/"dippermouth blues" at quite a relaxed tempo. i could take wild stabs in the dark, but really i don't know who this is. very new orleans. i like it. 4/5 10. latin beat into "salt peanuts". whatever. 2/5 11. "jumpin' at the woodside"--or at least, that's what the riff sounds like at the beginning, but then it's gone. sounds like two pianos at times, but is probably just one. basie & peterson played closer to the melody and with more breathing room. i don't think it's tatum, but perhaps it's teddy wilson? more, please! 4/5 12. two basses? really? i have no idea who this is. they get 3/5 for novelty. 13. krupa he is not. a minute in, and there's no music to be heard yet. ah, a piano. i don't like this at all. 0/5 14. 1/5 15. reminds me of quincy jones, maybe because of the era it was arranged in? film music. (actually, a lot of this stuff sounds fairly film sountrack-ish to me.) 1/5 16. "our love is here to stay", played by two trombones! is there a hidden two instrument theme? 17. 0/5 18. "looking at the world through rose-coloured glasses". 2/5 19. six seconds (i assume that's the right length) of jabbo and a rubber ducky. no, i have no idea. it's not bix and it's not armstrong, but i can't tell you more than that. i listened to it twenty times, though. )

probably not. i just sort of eyeballed it.

What we need is one of those spoof Blue Note covers, with a small Reid Miles'ish photo of City of London high-rollin' ex-finance guys with bowler hats and umbrellas then 'BFT 60 Tickety-Boo' in nice big black font underneath it. pardon the rough edges and such. i was in a hurry.

I haven't played one of these in a while, because the music tends to be decades newer than what i listen to. If people are interested in something a little older (like Berigan's a few months ago) I'm happy to have a go at compiling one, though.

well, the only track of his i "know" off the top of my head is "720 in the books" (love the ella version, too). i looked through my library tonight, and i found the track you picked, though: "blues in the groove", from decca's excellent "anthology of big band swing". so i had it. oopsie. thanks for helping me rediscover it. )

Not a Basie band, but again either the Bandleader or arranger had heard a fair bit of Basie. A nearly unknown band(Except for Stereojack and me!) that put out some very interesting music. hah. i looked at stereojack's answers. i actually have a savitt cd--but just one. I'll be curious if you guessed right, or not! i guess not! my googlification suggested it was helen kane, but your reply to stereojack suggests it's annette hanshaw.

elated, in fact. ) i liked disc 2 better than disc 1, though i still don't recognise most of it. i foresee a trip to amoeba records once you post the answers. 1. awesome. no idea who this is. sounds a little like some of the hrs sessions. new orleans style trumpet. upon re-listening: it sounds like jabbo. it's not a track of his i have, though, so it must be post-1929. 2. is that stuff smith? actually, yes, that is stuff. and now i can find it online: stuff and jonah, "old joe's hittin' the jug". i like it. aside: i put this on in the car this morning, and two measures in, my girlfriend says "that's jonah jones." yes, she's awesome. yes, she's taken. sorry. ) 3. live basie? oops! no, because there's a guitar break! and that piano is not basie. late 1940's? there are a lot of notes in those sax solos and i can hear a lot of hitting of the open high-hat, i think. wish i could figure out what is being yelled at 2:16. trumpet player is good. if you told me this was the tommy dorsey orchestra, i'd believe you. 4. i love this stuff. it's from here: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&a...10:3pfyxzl5ldje 5. tempo changes would drive dancers mad. trumpeter has listened to a lot of louis (that's of course as useless as my earlier comment that some guy sounded like he was influenced by tram!). 6. sweet (as in, not hot) sax. honky tonk piano. boring guitar. trumpet out of nowhere! lullaby ending. weird. 7. absolutely no idea. it's o.k., but not something i'd listen to often. guitar doesn't sound like the usual suspects (reinhardt, aleman), but that leaves me with no one else to guess. 8. i like the chuggachugga rhythm guitar. i wish the alto (?) would go a little wilder. i wish all of it was a little rawer, actually. electric guitar sounds awfully clean. i have, again, no idea who these guys are. i know django went electric for a little while at some point. i've never heard those sides, but i imagine they sound something like this. 9. opening horn made me go: "duke?", but i quickly recanted. are those vibes or a marimba? what on earth is going on? oh. 1:31. someone found a beat. annoying vibe/xylophone/marimba is back. i don't like it. i feel like i'm in the rain forest with a bunch of fellow explorers who sing out of tune. 10. hawk? any electric guitar, i automatically think it's christian. so i'll just say christian. 11. this is really fun. mid to late 20's again? 12. man, i really am terrible at identifying bands. dorsey, perhaps, but i have no good reason for saying that. it's too sweet for my taste. 13. i can see this as part of a soundtrack, behind the montage where we see the killer do his evil deeds and hide all the evidence. not my thing at all. 14. but this is! late 1940's? again with my inability to identify a band. the riff hits at the very beginning (0:03 and 0:06ish) remind me of lunceford, but the rest of the track sure doesn't, and it goes all modern crazy 20 seconds in. at times just a little too modern for my taste. 15. aaaaah, there's chick! this time it really is him. "liza". love this. (what a great intro--right up there with "will git it".) 16. yeeeeeah. another great track. basie, i bet. sounds like they're quoting "swingin' on nothing". 17. and another winner. what is this? i need to get this. what a great bounce! love those reed riffs and the way the trumpet breaks in at 0:32 or so. the bouncy rhythm reminds me of basie again, but it clearly isn't. some other kansas city band, perhaps? 18. the pianist reminds me of morton because of those little ragtime figures. it's someone who learned to play early. the rest of the band sounds more modern, though. the four beats to the bar ("and no cheatin'!") rhythm suggests it's at least 1930, probably closer to '35. kinda fun. 19. cool. more for the "to buy if i don't actually already have it somewhere" list. mckinney's cotton pickers, or one of the other territory bands, if i had to guess. 20. ick. ) i'm fine with the fiddle, but the clarinet trill and the other squeakiness kills it for me. 21. is that "honeysuckle rose" being quoted there? i like this, but i can't identify anyone on it. i like the piano player. sounds like a condon jam session, but the guitar player isn't condon. (for one, he's soloing. for another, well, he doesn't sound like condon.) 22. latin influenced swing is not my thing. 23. with a beginning like that, i have to think of duke--again. 24. boswell sisters? or is it the king sisters? ah, i looked it up. cool. i like it. 25. it doesn't sound like connie (who of course i have to think of because of that last track), and the recording is really early. i don't really know the early female vocalists. so who is it? reminds me of a hollywoody thing--like a cross between ginger rogers and betty boop. oh. wow. lyrics & google led me to it online. that's wild. it pretty much is betty boop. 26. this is really early. 1918-1921ish? odjb? morton's peppers? no piano. hmm, not morton, then. could be odjb. also reminds me of jim europe, noble sissle, etc., but it sounds like a small group, and i don't know that they recorded in a small group. great fun! thanks again.

nah, not losing sleep yet. well, not much. o.k., quite a bit, but it makes a man strong. the faq doesn't address it, but past 2-disc discussion threads seem to have been created at the same time as the disc 1 threads (see bft 48 and bft 54). it is, after all, easy to not read the thread for disc 2 if you haven't listened to it yet. it's harder when fools like me start accidentally posting their comments on disc 2 in the one and only thread. so i'm lobbying for a creation of a disc 2 thread. i had another thought for track 8 of disc 1: could the soprano be buster bailey? still don't know who the band is, unfortunately. doesn't sound like oliver or sissle to me. could be one of the clarence williams recordings.

nope, he might be on one of the 2 cds though.... speaking of jabbo, i think i know what track he plays on. i listened to the discs a bunch more this weekend. are you going to make a new thread for disc 2, or are we going to put it all here? i'm itching to have some guesses confirmed. )

Not a slide trumpet. Don't know much about clarinets. We should all listen to more slow things, IMHO! sorry, i should have been clearer: "chalumeau" is the name of the low register on a clarinet (the warm, woody one), not of a type of clarinet. so my notes just said the guy played in the low register. i don't even know why i wrote that down. btw, berigan, do you play guitar? i noticed a lot of guitar in these two discs. (or perhaps i just noticed a lot of it because i know about five jazz guitar players, and i can identify, at most, on a good day, one of them, so i kept thinking "man, i wish i knew more about these guys".) [disc 2 guesses deleted. will paste in the other thread, when it appears.]

o.k. this is the first bft i participated in. thanks, berigan, for some great music. i really enjoyed some of these tracks...and really didn't like others. ) here my initial notes on disc 1. i listened to it at work, with interruptions and what have you, which i will use as an excuse for my absolutely embarrassing lack of knowledge and the stream-of-consciousness nature of the comments below. disc 1 1. electric guitar, electric violin, echo-y vibes. what on earth is this? i have no idea. it's later than things i usually listen to, i suspect. would love it if it were acoustic. it's seriously weird. the style is right up my alley, meaning it's 40s or so, but the instrumentation makes it sound 60s or 70s. 2. i've made sounds like that when practicing without a trumpet, or, for that matter, a mouthpiece, but i always had the good sense not to record them. tom-toms keep threatening to break into a big, wild break, but it never happens. i keep thinking "stan kenton", but that's probably not right. 3. is that an electric bass? someone is going to identify that tenor player, but unfortunately i'm not that someone. blaring horns; must be 1950s. 4. oh. i have this, or have at least heard it, but can't for the life of me identify it. god. argh! frustrating. nice trumpet (with plunger mute?). man. i want to get up and dance. yeah! some boogie woogie piano. could this be kirk? 5. crazy unison. what is that? a trombone and a bari sax? no. sounds like two brass. piano doesn't do it for me. sounds like it's off vinyl. anyway, too modern for my taste; where's the melody? goes on forever. i'm skipping. 6. a trombone or perhaps a slide trumpet. then a regular trumpet. a chalumeau clarinet. no idea. you'd think the guitar player would give it away, but i don't know enough to make the call. four bars of violin; that should narrow it down. i should listen to more slow things. 7. tea for two, that much is clear. and it's a-rockin'. i like this. the tenor solo is o.k., but doesn't blow me away. are those bones, as in the percussive ones, not the ones you blow? i'm not a fan of the piano player(s?), but the rest of the rhythm section makes this a fun tune. sounds like a movie soundtrack. i think it's that horn hit on the end that really screams "hollywood". 8. i should know this. late 1920's? what's that crazy reed? is that an abused alto? someone playing on half a clarinet? a sarrusophone? wait...is that a soprano sax?! who on earth played those back then? it doesn't sound like the obvious guy. anyway: this is fun to listen to. more, please! 9. chick? it has that crispness i associate with him. no piano, or i would be tempted to think of early basie, too -- though not with those drums. 10. you can dance peabody or one-step quite nicely to this. i can't identify the bass...is that a booming tuba or a booming string bass? it's so low that i can't tell. i suspect tuba, because it's mostly playing every other. 11. snooze. nothing happens until the trumpet wakes us up at 1:45. but i wish he hadn't. i don't like this one. is this some white folks trying to be duke? 12. hey, yeah! 1940's style boogie woogie, but sounds like it's newer; echo/reverb/something, and possibly a flute in there. i can't identify half the things the rhythm section is whacking on. *listens some more* i take it back. maybe this really is 1940's. 13. gypsy swing. tatum? whoever it is was influenced by tatum. christian? or is it grimes? is that even electric? i have to listen to it more carefully on better speakers. 14. this sounds pretty familiar. late 1920's again? the solos sound like 1920's solos. i guess it could be 1950's revival, though it sounds pretty "original" to me. god, that trumpet has a clear tone! fun to listen to. 15. 1935-1940. someone is drivin' that band hard. trumpet leader? bari-sax? weak guitar solo -- sounds like he was caught off-guard. 16. duke? that's always a good guess. 17. must be goodman. that band has the goodman sound. 18. i feel stupid for not recognising this, because i probably have it. do i hear a trumbauer influence? well, everybody was influence by him, i guess. but i don't know who this is. anyway: good track. 19. what? hawai'ian? either that, or they're singing backwards. 20. bass player sounds like he's on ritalin. i don't like this one very much. well. more question marks than statements in the above, i'm afraid. ) i'll try to do better on disc 2.

same here.

My tastes seem to run quite a bit older than the average here. various, "Jazz Band Ball" (Fantasy/Good Time) Bunk Johnson and the Yerba Buena Jazz Band, "Bunk and Lu" (Fantasy/Good Time), the last 8 tracks from 1941 Don Ewell, "Free 'n' Easy!" (Fantasy/Good Time) Don Ewell, "Music to Listen to Don Ewell By" (Fantasy/Good Time) Cat Anderson, "Plays W.C. Handy" (Black & Blue) Slam Stewart, "Slam Bam" (Black & Blue) Stephane Grappelli & Stuff Smith, "Jazz in Paris: Stuff and Steff" Coon-Sanders Orchestra, "The Best of Coon-Sanders 1924-1932" (Retrieval) Jabbo Smith, "1929 - The Complete Set" (Retrieval)

My favourite is the Armstrong-Teagarden-Hawkins version from the first Esquire all-stars concert in '44.

Steve Davis Joe Davis Gray Davis