kt66brooklyn

T Very nice finds! Boogie McCain is harp master Jerry McCain. Thankfully "Stay Out of Automobiles" has been reissued on LP. According to the Leadbitter-Slaven discography, Sticks Evans had two more releases a bit later on. One on Zebra 118, one on Soul (no number). The one you found is indicated as having been recorded in 1957, i.e. relatively late for a 78. Yes, I found a sales record for the Zebra 45 after I posted. The Riviera label, a subsidiary of Rainbow Records, was started in 1955, so all the titles would be fairly late. The Five Crowns title on Riviera is a holy grail Doo Wop disc. ""Tanglewood Waltz" is one of the songs that earned Almond the scathing remark by Lillian McMurry I quoted in post 689." --No doubt partly because the label went out of business shortly thereafter. The failure of this record may have contributed to the failure. The Art Pepper record is the gem for me. It sounds substantially better than any other version I have heard. The Jamal record holds up well to repeated listening. Initially, it sounds somewhat lightweight, but both tunes are intricate constructions with many interesting details.

I had an interesting haul this week. I usually stay away from 1950's 78's, because I like to focus on earlier stuff, but these followed me home: Lucky Joe Almond, Tanglewood Waltz/Every Day of the Week, Trumpet 233-- Not an exceptional Trumpet, but one of the last. Herby Shozel, I Can't Believe it's True/Your Gonna Pay, Sarg 116-- A fun one in great sound. The Preston Brown Trio, Lullaby of the Leaves/Night Flight, Baton 203-- Good, not great, organ trio. "Boogie" McCain, Stay Out of Automobiles/Love to Make Up, Trumpet 231-- Excellent guitar! Sticks Evans Orch. w/Alvin Clark , Go-Go-Go Blow/Don't Stop!, Riviera 950-- A great R&B record! Art Pepper Quartet, Surf Ride/Holiday Flight, Discovery 158-- I'm happy to have this one! Ahmad Jamal, But Not For Me/Seleritus, Parrot 810-- Nice record previously unfamiliar to me. Sarg is the label that introduced us to Willie Nelson. The label has been anthologized on a Bear Family CD set. The Boogie McCain record is apparently rare because Trumpet folded shortly after this record was released, though the Almond record with a higher number is fairly common . The Preston Brown record features good sax and drums, but is let down by intrusive comping by the organ. The Sticks Evans record, his only one as a leader, is a bit of a novelty for having Go more than twice in the title. I have not found any info about the vocalist, who does a fine job here. There weren't many of these Riviera's pressed, apparently. Art is great, needless to say and it's nice to have a clean copy of this complete with the original Discovery sleeve. I dove in to this pile of records because of the Jamal record, which was just sitting on top of the pile without anything to protect it. I have seen other 78's by him, but never a Parrot, so I sprung for it. I wouldn't bother with any of these unless they were clean. They all look and play mostly in near mint condition with only a couple of scratches on Pepper's Holiday Flight (creating four light ticks) to remind me that these records are around 60 years old. All for a buck a record.

I've enjoyed a nice run of interesting finds recently: Kenny Burrell: Midnight Blue on a clean original (stereo Blue Note, ear) pressing-$15. Jackie McLean: One Step beyond on a clean original (stereo Blue Note, ear) $20. Andrew Hill: Andrew! a clean Liberty pressing: $18 Willie Bobo: Spanish Grease on a clean promo pressing $10. Machito: Kenya on a stone mint mono Roulette pressing $20. Jimmy Smith: The Sermon on a clean (stereo Blue Note) second press with the ear in the dead wax $15 Miles Davis: Workin' a first press with clean vinyl. The best part: someone wrote 'Miles: "The Baddest Dude"' on the cover. $1 Jackie McLean: The complete 1964-66 Blue Note Sessions (Mosaic CD) $20 Coleman Hawkins: The Hawk Flies High on a clean mono London (UK) pressing $11. Opus De Funk: on a clean London (UK) pressing, trashed cover $4. Wes Montgomery: Full House, one scratch on the 'a' side that plays with some light ticks, original mono Riverside $10. Miles Davis: Kind of Blue Two track reel to reel tape. Only two of the songs are present, the first song is almost completely gone, but what remains sounds pretty stunning $20.

I've liked this record ever since I found a vinyl copy lying on the floor of a record store years ago. I think Chambers and Hutcherson are one of the great Blue Note pairings.

Thanks, king ubu, I have that one on order. Marcello, the 1953 interview is a dead link. Is this the "Fresh Air" interview from St. Louis? I've only been able to find the first part of it, but it's more or less exactly what I am looking for. My goal is to find as much as I can from the 1953-55 period.

I know, I know, he's not a subject upon which more ink should be spilled than absolutely necessary. Anyway, I'm looking for interviews with Miles done in the 1950's. I've found the Leonard Feather stuff, the Nat Hentoff interview in the Jazz Review, and a few other interesting tidbits. Of course, I've also been hunting around through liner notes. Do you folks have any other suggestions? Thanks, and Happy Holidays! Jason

I found a copy of the 10" Jazz at Massey Hall, Volume One. The cover is completely seam split, it's just two pieces of cardboard, but the artwork looked OK. I didn't even look at the record because I expected it to be trashed beyond all recognition. THe salesman priced it at $10 bucks so I bought it for the cover. The vinyl was covered in muck, but there was only one scratch and it plays beautifully (after a cleaning) with only a few ticks from the scratch. I particularly like that there are no bass overdubs on this pressing.

I'm not alone! I've liked his stuff up to the move out of his parent's house for a long time now. The Lexington Avenue Blue Notes and the 10" Prestige stuff sound very well balanced with a nice piano tone. After that, he begins to make some ear bleeding choices. All the way through, sound quality varied quite a bit. Some recordings sound great while others sound muffled at best. I have a Hank Mobley record, recorded in his parent's living room, that sounds abysmal even on the Lex pressing.

They are open from 10 AM to 4 PM Monday through Friday. Call and make an appointment. They'll fit you in to a one or two hour time slot. I wound up staying for the entire afternoon because it was a slow day. They are located on East 126th street in Harlem, right next to the Metro North station. Thanks. And are there limits on what you can listen to? There are no limits on what you can listen to, though I'm not sure their listening iPod has all the tunes that have actually been processed, I think it only contains the tunes that have been 'cleaned up.' In most cases, the raw digital files are presented under the same heading as the corrected files. I quickly learned that the corrected files are the way to go. Doug Pomeroy really knows what he is doing. Cool, are you playing a show? I meant to go last time you were in the city, but my mother fell ill (she's better now), so I'll have to wait till next time. BTW, I'm Jason, Ginger's friend.

They are open from 10 AM to 4 PM Monday through Friday. Call and make an appointment. They'll fit you in to a one or two hour time slot. I wound up staying for the entire afternoon because it was a slow day. They are located on East 126th street in Harlem, right next to the Metro North station.

I listened through all of the Berigan they had. There is a good deal of well captured material. The fidelity is better than I've ever heard him. The one Chu tune I heard was great. I think a sax player could analyze things better than I could, but I think there was something to the cadence of his delivery that worked well between slow and quick passages, seamless rhythmic transitions. I could see why musicians would take an interest. There is a clip online, I think at the Newsweek site. I was thinking that Commodore did more or less the same thing, combining great musicians in new contexts, but I think the Savory stuff hits the mark more solidly. Perhaps it's because of the increased fidelity, or it could be the live club settings that most of these folks were playing in, but so many of these performances 'click.' The collection is really addictive. I wish new music was this good. The Carnival of Swing is stuck in my head! Allen, are you planning to come down to NYC any time soon? You should hear this stuff.

Has anyone else gone to hear this collection at the National Jazz Museum? I went to a Tuesday night listening session and I went back for an afternoon's worth of listening today. I brought my own headphones which I plugged into an iPod clear taped to a metal CD rack (hopefully, this will discourage theft). Don't let this method of listening scare you. Here are a few thoughts on what I have heard, since no one other than the critics/academics seem to have written about this music, I figured I'd fill the gap. One of my favorites on the day was John Kirby's "Rehearsal for a Nervous Breakdown." It's a perfect performance and perfect recording, even with an announcer at the start and then again at the end of the second tune, which I don't know the title of. It is more atmospheric than the first and it shows, clearly, the range that Charlie Shaver's writing brought to the group. The Carnival of Swing, at Randal's Island, is represented with the full Count Basie set and one tune from Stuff Smith. The raw energy of the Basie set is something that surprised even the WNEW announcer. I think the performances could become hits even today. The discs are not in great shape, but the wild and virtuosic performances shine through anyway. Smith turned in a great performance as well, with some surprisingly experimental noise-making amid a madly swinging band. Hershel Evans is not to be missed. In one of the links posted in August, there is a snippet that suggests his last solo was relatively short. Not so, he plays through the entirety of "Stardust" with Lionel Hampton + band backing him up. It is a real treat to hear him. He's not quite as polished as Lester Young, but he's no clone either. He plays in his own relaxed style. It's really impressive and we are lucky to have this final document from him. The Benny Goodman stuff goes on and on. The available recordings are mostly 1938 performances. Both the orchestra and the small groups shine. There's some really well captured concert hall material too. The sound quality is unbeatable for the 1930's Expect to hear "Honeysuckle Rose" often, even Martin Block expresses a little bit of frustration when he says that no one hears the tune all that often on his show. No worries, they are all great performances. Bunny Berigan is all over the place on these recordings. Of his performances of "I Can't Get Started," this one is my new favorite, he's relaxed and confident, with a great obligato, played by Slim Galliard, behind him. This is merely a preliminary report, but I intend to go again, I suggest you folks do so as well if you can.

I have a couple of these titles, Jackie McLean, Paul Chambers and Kenny Dorham, I have also heard a couple that I don't have. First, these are mostly stereo titles to be compared with stereo originals. Mono originals will sound different. I have made comparisons between 1st pressings and some of the Music Matters titles which are mastered by the same team. They really do capture the Blue Note sound. The comparison that really jumped out at me was Dolphy's "Out to Lunch." The original is a great record. The reissue adds detail to the sound without altering the balance or tone of the original. As for sound on cheaper systems, I heard one of these played on a Technics SL1200 turntable with a Stanton cartridge and it sounded great. Over all, they don't improve on the sound of the 1st pressings, but they are just as good, even if they are presented in a somewhat different way.

Allen, I joined up here after our conversation on the night of your session. I look forward to hearing the results! -Jason

The post echo is present on my Okeh 78 pressing from the 20's.