Big Beat Steve

Well, unsurprisingly so - according to her biography Vera Auer (unrelated to pianist-vibist Pepsi Auer, BTW) married an American and emigrated to the USA in 1960. And even her "Austrian period" seems to have ended early - according to Wikipedia she played mostly in West Germany from 1954 onwards "due to the bad economical climate for jazz musicians in Austria at the time". And yes - she certainly figured in the media coverage of the German jazz scene back then.

Not sure if this hits the spot for Mrs Big Al, but the below one seems to be an all-time favorite out there: https://www.discogs.com/master/123332-Ella-Fitzgerald-Mack-The-Knife-Ella-In-Berlin

No doubt that's a useful recommendation for those who do not have much at all from those (split) periods (and do want ALL the vocals too ). But for those (like me, admittedly) who have a pretty fair chunk (and are no obsessive "upgraders-by-way-of-Mosaic" ) it is over the top and inefficient moneywise. What also turned me off from being a completist (though I still regret the fairly silly programming of previous Mars-label reissues that kept re-recycling mostly the same tunes) is that I'm inclined to find it to be true (from the few tunes I've heard) what Russ Chase wrote in his liner notes to the Giants of Jazz (GOJ-1022) LP of "Woody Herman Live in New Orleans" (Oct./Nov. 1951), i.e. the MGM sides being "not as exciting" as previous and later recordings. I can see why the programming of that Mosaic box happened the way it did (sidestepping the Columbias and Capitols) but it does reek a little of "and then there also were ..." and if you already own a certain percentage of the contents you tend to think twice.

Interesting article, thanks. As it happens, I've recently started reading her book "Mama Said There'd Be Days Like this".

Started reading this recent chance purchase now: "Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This" by Val Wilmer. Very interesting and fascinating, and exploring the jazz scene of that period (and its place in society) from a somewhat different angle.

I have lot of such live recordings on vinyl by the 40s and 50s Kenton bands, e.g. on First Heard, Duke, Artistry and other 80s labels (one reason being that they were/are all over the place in the secondhand shops for quite a while - at prices you can take chances at). So does that make me a "stan"?

Time to pass on some duplicates ... I have the following jazz books for sale: 1) Keepnews/Grauer,”Pictorial History of Jazz”, Spring Books (UK), revised edition 1966 - 12 EUR Dust jacket is tatty round the edges and torn in places (see pic below) but inside of book is in solid, good condition, spine is tight 2) Charles Delaunay, “New Hot Discography”, 1948 edition (Criterion, New York), fourth printing (1966). - 12 EUR Exact match of the 1948 edition except for a slightly different color of the cover. Good condition inside and out, numerous light pencil annotations by a previous collector-owner (but they can be erased very easily) 3) “Jazz in Österreich 1920-1960” by Klaus Schulz, Vienna 2003, enclosed CD with an overview of Austrian jazz from that period is present. - 6 EUR German-language (obviously …) pictorial history of jazz in Austria, book in as-new condition. 4) “Esquire Jazz Book” of 1944, hardcover edition (i.e. not the large magazine-type edition), 15 EUR Dust jacket is flaking round the edges and spine (see pic below), book otherwise in good condition 5) “Jazz in Deutschland” by Horst H. Lange, Berlin 1966 (original edition) – 10 EUR German-language book on the history of jazz in Germany up to the early 60s. Excellent condition. Some light pencil annotations inside that can be erased easily. 6) “Down Beat Record Reviews” Vol. II (reviews published in DB in 1958) – 20 EUR Front cover slightly faded, rear cover and final 2 pages were missing but have been replaced with clean photocopies, inside in good condition, very minor browning. 7) Leonard Feather, “The Encyclopedia of Jazz”, 1980s DaCapo paperback reprint republication of the original 1960 “New Encyclopedia of Jazz” – 15 EUR Good condition, some insignificant creases in spine. 8 ) Also available: - Metronome Jazz Yearbooks 1954 to 1958, 18 EUR each - Big Book of Swing (Ed. Bill Treadwell), published in 1945, close to as-new condition, 18 EUR (but these probably would be of interest mostly to domestic collectors due to international shipping rates) Shipping rates: EU: 12 EUR for small parcel up to 2 kg, 19.50 EUR for parcel up to 5 kg “Rest” of world: 17 to 20 EUR for small parcel up to 2 kg, rates for larger parcels varying depending on destination country German shipping rates to be negotiated (4.80 EUR for small parcel up to 2 kg, 7 EUR for parcel up to 5 kg, book parcel (“Büchersendung”) at reduced rate might be feasible)) Send PM if any questions. Thanks!

Very nice finds! Will make a mental note of that Superfly Records store if i should ever hapent to make a trip to Paris again. Good to know PJC has gone up even further in its pricing. Pity but if they survive anyway (maybe with the buying power of US and Asian customers during their stays in Paree?) then all the better for them. About that Jazztone (Guilde du Jazz) LP (J-1001), I wonder if anyone has ever tackled documenting in detail the cover artwork of all these ... I have two copies of this one - one on (German) Jazztone, one on Concert Hall Society - same contents, same catalog no., but with two totally different covers, and different from yours again. But your cover looks familar too - I must have a differnt Jazztone LP or EP somewhere that uses the same cover design.

Absolutely. I've been smitten by "Mohawk Special" ever since I caught it on a radio show in my university student days. I later found that session on one of the "Swing Sessions" series LPs (which I later replaced by the reissue on Prestige). But overall these sessions are scattered on lots of different discs (unless you have the Classics CDs). I had to search hard for the sessions of 13 and 27 Jan. 1947 but see I have them on the "Bebop" CD (Vol. 72) of the "Jazz in Paris" series. Time to spin them again so thanks for highlighting these sessions.

Get well soon!

Digging out this thread (in search for info on that man).... What triggered it was that last weekend I scored a copy of the "Sal Mosca on Piano" LP (Wave LP8) for the princely sum of 1 Euro at an overstocks clearout sale held by a local record shop. With my eye almost constantly on obscurities off the beaten tracks of the usual suspects, I could not pass this up, of course ... I haven't listened to the entire LP yet but my first impressions find this very intriguing. Workouts (from private recordings taped in 1955 and 1959) a bit like a mix of Tristano, Albany, with a touch of Marmarosa, etc. ... Anyone here familiar with that record? How does it stack up in his overall discography? Is anyone familiar with the "other" of these two LPs released on Wave in the late 60s? BTW, the history of this record seems to underline the obscure character of its contents. The shop stickers still present on the cover show it was originally priced at 20 DM when new, but no takers so eventually reduced to 8 DM by the same shop. And the secondhand shop it now ended up at placed a price tag of 20 EUR on it a couple of years ago, whereupon it sat (I had not noticed it there before either), was marked down to 2.50 EUR for the special offer bin a couple of months ago and now was sold off in the "all at 1 EUR" sale day. A steal ...

Hoots Mon! An occasional favorite of mine for almost as long as I've been collecting records ... Agreed about some of the recommendations such as Big Jay McNeely and the Treniers (if you disregard the vocals as per your query ) - BUT ... If you consider (understandably) the "Honkers & Bar Walkers" comp a bit too "mature" in the sense of "advanced" or "real" R&B (i.e. almost too "jazzy"?) then I wonder if maybe certain other (well-intentioned but even more advanced) recommendations might be too "mature" as well. In your particular case where no-frills straight-ahead simplicity that "gets" to the guts of a KID is preferred, I'd just as strongly recommend these: 1) Boots Brown & His Blockbusters / Dan Drew & His Daredevils LP on Groove (RCA Subsidiary). IIRC "Double Cutch" and "Breakfast Ball" on Youtube are excerpts from that LP but many other Boots Brown clips on Youtube are from their 45s from the later 50s. Not quite in the same league. 2) The "Big Boy" tracks done by Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All Stars (yes, them!!) in c. 1953 3) If it's a lengthy car ride (and if stuff like the above doesn't wear out your kid ) then I'd suggest you invest in a copy of the Joe Houston "Corn Bread and Cabbage Greens" CD on Ace. It should even get the elders' feet tapping ... Here's the title track. The tunes on the CD aren't all that up-tempo but the groove is there throughout: And in case, going beyond Lord Rockinham's XI, your kid progresses to vocals embedded in these sax sounds then why not try Frankie Ford's "Sea Cruise"? Like one author-historian put it, "the fog horns of the Queen Mary as the sax section - who'da thunk of that ...." Enjoy! P.S. RE- "Rag Mop": For your son, may I suggest you try this version as well? I wouldn't be surprised if he'd find certain "details" catchy beyond expectation:

Anyboy want some Uptowns? I have the below items for sale (though I realize that due to todays's postal rates for shipping abroad this offer might be of interest mostly to addresses in Germany and possibly in the EU). 1) Serge Chaloff - "Boston 1950" - Uptown UPCD 27.38. With inlay and booklet, of course. - 7.00 EUR 2) Allen Eager - "In The Land of Oo-Bla-Dee" - Uptown UPCD 27.49. Inlays, booklet and cardboard box are all there. - 7.00 EUR Shipping inside Germany = 4 EUR for parcel up to 2 kg (will check if a cheaper option is manageable) Shipping inside EU = 12 EUR for parcel up to 2 kg Please send PM if interested (and leave a message here if you want to).

So this is a re-re-reissue (or more) - on vinyl alone? Which speaks for the record. I bought a new copy of this record (like others, apart from the music and my faible for Scandinavian post-war jazz, I was drawn by the cover photo) in 2009. This particular reissue really looks totally like I suppose an original would look - right down to the "feel" of the cover paper that very much matches that of typical 60s Scandinavian original LPs. The only detail that gives it away as a reissue is the small print of (C) (P) 2001 Oktav Music underneath the (probably true to the original) reference of (C) (P) 1965 Oktav Music and an "n(c)b" marker above the OKLP 111 catalog number on the red label. Nice job - according to Discogs this must be the Japanese reissue mentioned in an earlier post. But it definitely does not look like a typical one. And I cannot imagine the cover being strangled by an OBI ... and compared to the current asking prices on Discogs it was cheeep ...

BTW, Acrobat isn't "the Andorrans" but "dem Brits".

Interesting, Niko. 👍 I have the vinyl release of this and became aware of the George Johnson part only now during my Discogs search. Time to find a copy of the CD too, then? (An added reason would be that I also own the Jazz En Barcelona 1920-1965 book and CD set)

+1 I have it on the original Onyx (ORI 208) LP. The French recordings by Don Byas from the 50s are fairly ballad-heavy which may not be to everyone's taste at every moment but they have their merits overall. Another one that falls straight between the U.S. (+ European trip by Don Redman in 1946) period and his years in France is the below one which I find very interesting: https://www.discogs.com/master/919653-Don-Byas-1947-Those-Barcelona-Days The CD has additonal tracks by the George Johnson expat band but according to Bruyninckx these do not feature Don Byas.

Exactly! In short, either they pay all your return shipping expenses - or else ... (and you just keep the item, then ...). And them allegedly being unable to create prepaid return label (that you can atach to your return parcel so shipping is free for you) is just lame! Who knows how long reimbursement would take, and given the previous in-transit time experience I wouldn't trust that 14-day time frame either.

This problem occurred elsewhere too, including some of the majors when they finally decided to reissue their twofers on CD. But as far as coupling original LPs on a CD goes, overall that must have been in the day before CD reissuers a) decided to REALLY give the customers some value for their money, and b) dared to approach the 80-minute playing time limit that fits on a CD. I am far from sure that playing time systematically was above 40 minutes on 50s LPs.

The (mostly John Hammond-produced) 50s mainstream sessions on Vanguard? There were at least two major reissue series that I personally found comparatively sensibly programmed and packaged. Example: https://www.discogs.com/release/7100734-Vic-Dickenson-Vic-Dickenson-Septet This was a UK reissue but came with various covers and countries of origin (see listing under the above link) and was re-reissued not long after in the UK in the Vogue Jazz Double series distributed by Pye : https://www.discogs.com/release/4045920-Vic-Dickenson-The-Essential-Vic-Dickenson This BTW was one of the blatant cases of totally different covers and artwork where a buyer too far from home to check (like me ) can be lured into thinking he doesn't own it yet. So after two trips to London in the 90s I ended up with copies of both of the above (took me a while to pass on the Vogue/Pye reissue). There were plenty of other mid-50s Vanguard releases reissued in the RCA-distributed series. But as they originated in the UK they may not have made it into too many US shops at the time.

I think the Ray Bloch and Johnny Long sides, for example, can safely be forgotten for the jazz listener. Beyond that, it all depends on what Mosaic would be wiling to accept as "jazz" (according to THEIR reissuers' terms which IMHO sometimes seem to conflict with the period's evident understanding that jazz was primarily for dancing and entertainment). The (post-McKinley) Will Bradley sides (at least those I've heard on 78) are worth a listen, the titles of some of the Bill Stegmeyer tracks look promising, the Johnny Bothwell sides (some of them already reissued on Doctor Jazz LP and Hep CDs) may be an acquired taste but have their merits, there also is quite a bit of blues in there, Yank Lawson for mainstream traditionalists, as well as Hazel Scott, Mary Osborne, an often-overlooked period of Anita O'Day (though also covered by previous reissues), Flip Phillips before his JATP period (also reissued before, though), Sam Donahue, Page Cavanaugh, Nat Jaffe, Ray Linn (for a touch of modernity), Bill De Arango and so on ... In short, a set off the beaten tracks of the usual suspects could be made up that aims straight at those who bought the Black & White box set. Likely???

Thanks, Romualdo. About the King Cole tune - a nice way to get the kids started with this kind of music! About the two tracks of the alleged Signature 15005 disc: Interesting to see that Billboard clipping referring to this record. The "review" texts do look like the release plans were definite. So did pre-release review copies exist after all? And the key question after all this: If Mosaic lists this session as deliberately having NOT been included, does this mean that they knowingly omitted them because it has too little Byas soloing to their ears? (But so they have had access to them to confirm the reason for omitting them?) Which would be a real pity, given their scarcity. Or are all four tracks in fact not just unreleased (as it seems) but definitely LOST? Bob Thiele seems to have recycled his Signature masters often and widely, not only on his Doctor Jazz reissues, but quite a few even showed up on RCA. So wouldn't it be interesting to know about the definite fate of this session? BTW, curiosity got me .. So I checked the Billboard issue of 19 Jan. 1946 (on the World Radio History website) as well as several issues before and after that date. Signature 15007, 15008 and 15009 were listed in their "Advance release" listings (indicating records to be released within about 2 weeks) in the 12 Jan. 1946 issue, but no trace of earlier Signature release numbers in these lists back to mid-December 1945, nor up to mid-February 1946.

As for Signature 15005 or 15006, does this mean that even the two tracks listed above as "NOT unissued" are the ones metioned as having been announced but not released? So in the end none of the four were ever released? BTW, Jepsen indicates Signature 15005 for the two tracks that "seem" to have been released. I wonder if "Flogalapa" is the same tune as "Fla-Ga-La-Pa" recorded both by the King Cole Trio and the Count Basie Orch. (Ann Moore, voc.).

O.K., explanation understood. So although I for the life of it cannot remember which recordings/artists it exactly were that combined to shape and define my music preferences at the age of 14 or so and thereby got me on the track of both (real, i.e. 50s) rock'n'roll (and rockabilly) on the one hand and jazz (at first primarily swing and some classic/oldtime jazz) on the other, all this DID change my life plan. Because thanks to my contacts with and presence in these subcultures I not only got into collecting of "large quantities of records" (oh yeah ... ), researching musicians and the music etc. (plus getting a feel for contemporary history and historical research in general), and meeting extremely interesting people but also eventually met my future wife in the rockabilly scene (though she admittedly wasn't as deeply into this as I was). So yes - this music exposure did "direct my life plan" in a bigger way than it would have seemed at first glance.

Probably the ones like the character a local record shop owner told me about years ago: An interior designer had been called in to furnish a client's newly refurbished home in a sort of "updated" Mid-Century Modern style and then dropped by that shop to have the owner compile him a set of Blue Note LPs for his client.