Saul

I agree all the way. I never understood how any real jazz fan and record collector could ever shell out any money for those Time-Life series. Note-for-note carbon copies of the original records probably made just because some hi-fi geek managed to convince the casual mom and dad record club subscriber of those 50/60s that the sound of the originals was oooh so bad and hi-fi was all the rage and the way to go. How could those records ever pretend to be the real thing anyway to collectors ...? As for the Maxwell Davis series, they are indeed much more original. The Bright Orange covers really make them look like budget cash-ins and it's taken me some time to warm up to this series but eventually I've learned to appreciate them on their own. As for the high-end pressings, I have the Charlie Barnet album from this series on Crown CST 131 (with full "Stereo" and "Technical Data" liner notes on the back) and red vinyl (black Crown label). Now would this be the first pressing or a somewhat later budget pressing? I cannot see any "Recorded at Sound Enterprises" mention. Did some checking on the Leo De Gar Kulka / Sound Enterprises connection. His nephew David wrote me back ... and according to David, Leo's Hollywood studio was "International Sound" -- located @ Sunset & Western. He also said that Leo did some engineering at Gold Star. To his knowledge, Leo didn't have anything to do with these Crown big band recordings. Okay ... it appears that we have some agreement here on the musical merit of these sessions. I'm not going to take anything away from the efforts of Billy May for Time-Life, but Maxwell Davis -- and these excellent, respected sidemen -- really did put a lot of especially great performances on tape. And now, they have made it on to CD. The only two men who could answer the question of where & when they were recorded are Joe Bihari, who is still alive -- and B.B. King, who could at least answer the question concerning the Basie and Ellington albums. I do not know how to get in touch with either one of them. And would King even want to talk about it? Seriously,we know the titles of the tunes, and the musicians. All we need to complete the history of the discography are the dates, the location, and personnel. Hmm.

[Picture of 5810 Normandie Avenue] What a ... lovely ... "building."

Frankly, I consider the Crown series to be superior to the Time-Life series. Time-Life are note-for-note recreations of big band classics, with little room for creativity. The Crown series are loosely based on the originals, with arrangements that vary from similar to radically different, and with many great soloists - not only many members of the original bands, but guest appearances by top soloists, and even a couple of vocals by BB King! In a number of instances, arrangements are expanded to allow more solo space. While these may not please the nostalgia audience, the music stands on its own much better. The original pressings of this series were packaged like audiophile recordings, with a lot of space on the back touting the stereo process, and the records are on red vinyl. I don't know if these were sold at budget prices originally, but within a couple of years they ended up in the cheap Crown series with the noisy pressings. If you can find clean copies of the originals, they sound great! I've even seen reel-to-reel tapes of some of the early Crowns, so clearly they were going after the growing audiophile market originally. They also say "Recorded at Sound Enterprises". Has anybody ever heard of this studio? Thank you all for the commentary and the information. I agree ... in many ways, the Crown series is superior and deserves its own slice of the spotlight. Please keep this line-of-thought going; perhaps we all might eventually find out the studio and the engineer that produced these excellent recordings, now some fifty years ago! As I said before, my exposure to these Crown recordings began with the "Bright Orange" phase, whenever that was. All the albums I had featured each and every musician's name on the session, but little more. I am hoping we can eventually fill in those missing gaps. A lot of good music was recorded half a century ago, "budget label" notwithstanding.

Thanks for this advisory. Are there any TL Jazz Discography paid subcribers out there who could possibly look up those eight to ten sets of information?

If someone can help me out with this, I would deeply appreciate it. I noticed that last November, there was some discussion here about those eight to ten LPs that were once known as the Bihari Brothers/Crown Records "Members/Compositions Of ..." series, that were later released on "Bright Orange Records." It was during the Bright Orange phase that I discovered them, now many years ago. Of course, the musicianly participation was duly noted on each album cover ... but no record dates or studio location. As a kid, I didn't know the names of most of these sidemen ... But now, I have come to realize that these albums were recorded by a lot of the cream of the crop, and now many of them have passed on. I also noticed on this forum the inclusion of some record dates for some of these sessions ... but as of right now, no other "logistical" information: The studio, the engineer, the producer, etc. Can anyone fill in any of the logistical gaps [dates, location, personnel, etc.] about these sessions? Considering the quality of the musicianship, it wouldn't surprise me to find out the engineer was someone like Wally Heider or Bones Howe ... It is a shame these recordings are so poorly documented. The tracks make for excellent listening, and quite frankly -- again, considering the musicianship, these albums really should be as celebrated as the Billy May-produced series for Time-Life. IMHO. Also, could someone definitely clarify where the master tapes are now? I know they wound up in the U.K. I think Ace had them for a while -- but it looks like the CDs are coming from a companies known as "Classic Fox Records" ... "The Orchard" ... and "Crownstar." Anything anyone could do to clear up as much of this confusion as possible ... would be deeply appreciated. Thanks!