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What 78 are you spinning right now ?


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More of yesterday's haul:

Butterbeans and Susie - Construction Gang/A to Z Blues (Okeh). I increased my King Oliver 78 holdings by one side - King Joe plays on "Construction Gang." Parts of the record are in really rough shape, but Oliver's solo comes through loud and clear.

I brought home a half dozen 1920s/30s dance band records "on spec," because you never know what will be good. Most aren't keepers, but these are nice:

Art Landry and His Orchestra - Camel Walk/Everybody Stomp! (Victor). 1925 sides - very credible (and enjoyable) second-tier hot jazz.

Gil Rodin and His Orchestra - Hello Beautiful (Crown). A nice 1931 side with solos by Jack Teagarden, Benny Goodman, and Eddie Miller. The flip side is by Jack Albin's society orchestra and is of no interest.

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Just spent an enjoyable half hour listen to some records featuring Charlie Shavers and reading Boris Vian's 1953 essay on Shavers which discusses these very sides.

Herbie Haymer - Laguna Leap / Black Market Stuff (Monarch)
Herbie Haymer - Swinging on Central / I'll Never Be the Same (Monarch)

Charlie Shavers - Serenade to a Pair of Nylons / Broadjump (Vogue)
Charlie Shavers - If I Had You / Musicomania (Vogue)
Charlie Shavers - She's Funny That Way / Dizzy's Dilemma (Vogue)

The Haymer sides were issued on some other label as well - Sunset, maybe? They have some nice Nat Cole piano. The Vogues are all picture discs, and have Buddy DeFranco on clarinet.
 

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2 hours ago, jeffcrom said:

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Just spent an enjoyable half hour listen to some records featuring Charlie Shavers and reading Boris Vian's 1953 essay on Shavers which discusses these very sides.

Herbie Haymer - Laguna Leap / Black Market Stuff (Monarch)
Herbie Haymer - Swinging on Central / I'll Never Be the Same (Monarch)

Charlie Shavers - Serenade to a Pair of Nylons / Broadjump (Vogue)
Charlie Shavers - If I Had You / Musicomania (Vogue)
Charlie Shavers - She's Funny That Way / Dizzy's Dilemma (Vogue)

The Haymer sides were issued on some other label as well - Sunset, maybe? They have some nice Nat Cole piano. The Vogues are all picture discs, and have Buddy DeFranco on clarinet.
 

Where did you find the Boris Vian essay?

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2 hours ago, medjuck said:

Where did you find the Boris Vian essay?

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Round About Close to Midnight: The Jazz Writings of Boris Vian (Quartet Books, 1988). As a jazz critic, Vian was one of those interesting, exasperating, occasionally very insightful writers - like Philip Larkin, in a way, although Vian was a modern jazz advocate, not a moldy fig like Larkin. The Shavers essay does a good job describing the recordings, but keeps branching off into Vian's speculations about Shavers' personality and character, based on the music. I found this entertaining, but I suspect many folks would find it annoying.

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6 hours ago, jeffcrom said:

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Round About Close to Midnight: The Jazz Writings of Boris Vian (Quartet Books, 1988). As a jazz critic, Vian was one of those interesting, exasperating, occasionally very insightful writers - like Philip Larkin, in a way, although Vian was a modern jazz advocate, not a moldy fig like Larkin. The Shavers essay does a good job describing the recordings, but keeps branching off into Vian's speculations about Shavers' personality and character, based on the music. I found this entertaining, but I suspect many folks would find it annoying.

I've read one with the same (German) title (and another volume of Vian's collected essays) years ago in its German translation (which sometimes is very good, sometimes is awkward). Some time ago I obtained his "Ecrits sur le jazz" which has the contents of both of these two translated books ("Round About Close to Midnight" I suppose has the same contents as the identically titled German one) plus quite a bit more.  I am working myself piecemeal through these close to 700 pages whenever I feel like it now. Vian is a master of language and really has to be read in French if you want toget all the finer points of what he writes. Quite a bit of his style really is just about impossible to translate adequately, although I guess Mike Zwerin would be the one to do as good an English translation as you are probably ever likely to get. And Vian is one that you cannot grasp if you approach him with too much "benefit of hindsight". To do him justice, he really has to be read and understood in the context of his times. Of course some assessments are faulty (both his enthusiasm and his dislikes do go overboard at times ...) and lots of information is outdated (due to lack of background source material and available references, among other reasons) but it is evident that he BURNED for his music and really got into it.

That Charlie Shavers piece that you mention must be the one originally published in Jazz Hot No. 75 in March, 1953, and reprinted in these books. Will read it in detail during the weekend (I have the music too - on one of those Onyx LPs). But from what I have seen in glancing over the piece is that this - as usually - is not something to be taken as a documentary opus but as an example of the IMPRESSION that the music left on the listener and capable writer. Again something to be judged in the context of its times.

His monthly "Revue de presse" in Jazz Hot was quite something else too. Outspoken in a way you can hardly imagine nowadays, and in its intensity something you have to take in in small doses only. When something grated with him he really took no hostages and luckily he lived at a time when there was no such thing as "P.C." yet. :lol:

 

BTW, the Herbie Haymer tracks indeed come from the Sunset label.

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  • 3 weeks later...

checkin out that paramount records set, its huge, i think its like 800 tracks or something like that- 

--so i was wondering if paramount had 2 billion records how come there only like 1 or 2 copies of a lot of them--- it just doesnt seem to add up

Edited by chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez
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Do we know the usual pressing runs on most of them? What was considered a "seller" in the black community then? Paramount experts should know.

And how many may just have been discarded in the years afterwards? Those records sold before the Depression and I doubt that preserving recrods was on the top of the priority list for many of the families who found themselves in trouble when the Depression hit.

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Just spent an hour with a relatively neglected (by me) area of my 78 collection: more formal spiritual records, as opposed to gospel. I really enjoyed these records tonight.

Pace Jubilee Singers - Stand By Me / Leave It There (Victor, 1928)

Sandhills Sixteen - Hush! Hush! Somebody's Calling My Name / Down By the Riverside (Victor, 1927)
Sandhills Sixteen - Shine on Me / What Kind o' Robes Do the Angels Wear? (Victor, 1927)

Dixie Jubilee Singers - I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray / Roll, Jordan, Roll (Brunswick, 1924)

Tuskegee Institute Singers - Swing Low, Sweet Chariot / Steal Away (Victor, 1916)
Tuskegee Institute Singers - The Old Time Religion / Heaven Song & Inchin' Along (Victor, 1916)

Morris Brown Quartet - I Can Tell the World About This / Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (Bluebird, 1939). Incidentally, when I met my wife she was teaching at Morris Brown College.

Roland Hayes - Steal Away / I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray (Vocalion, 1922)

And not quite the same, but related, and because it's one of my favorite 78s:

Blind Willie Johnson - Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning / Lord I Just Can't Keep From Crying (Columbia, 1928)

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  • 3 weeks later...

A stack of Benny Carter, on Decca, Bluebird, Capitol, Deluxe, and Manor. I particularly enjoyed Carter's imaginative solo on "There, I've Said It Again" on Bluebird; the side is mostly a vocal feature for Roy Felton, and I probably never would have heard it had I not found the 78 at an estate sale.

The Manor disc (All Alone and Daddy Daddy, from 1945) is billed as Savannah Churchill and Her All Star Orchestra, and of course feature Ms. Churchill, who was Carter's regular female vocalist during this period. The labels helpfully identify "Trombone Solo by Jay Jay" on "Daddy Daddy" and "Tenor Sax Solo by Don Byas" on the flip.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 31.12.2016 at 10:37 PM, jeffcrom said:

A stack of Benny Carter, on Decca, Bluebird, Capitol, Deluxe, and Manor. I particularly enjoyed Carter's imaginative solo on "There, I've Said It Again" on Bluebird; the side is mostly a vocal feature for Roy Felton, and I probably never would have heard it had I not found the 78 at an estate sale.

The Manor disc (All Alone and Daddy Daddy, from 1945) is billed as Savannah Churchill and Her All Star Orchestra, and of course feature Ms. Churchill, who was Carter's regular female vocalist during this period. The labels helpfully identify "Trombone Solo by Jay Jay" on "Daddy Daddy" and "Tenor Sax Solo by Don Byas" on the flip.

That Manor is wonderful: Just played it again - after years ! Although pressed on a kind of sand-paper like most early Manor/Regis-78's, it's the music that matters. And it IS great !

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  • 2 weeks later...

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Mid-40's New Orleans Jazz:

Baby Dodds Jazz Four on Blue Note:  Winin' Boy Blues / Careless Love and Feelin' at Ease / High Society - with Albert Nicholas, Art Hodes, and Wellman Braud

Punch Miller's Stompers on 12" Session:  Boy in the Boat / West End Blues and Muscle Shoal Blues / Sugar Foot Stomp, - Artie Starks, Richard M. Jones, John Liindsay, and Snags Jones.

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5 hours ago, chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez said:

is that west end girls, excuse me west end blues, one of the heaver 78s in yr collection?  i have a ben webster on session and it is by weight significantly heavier than any other 78s i have, any other

It's funny - the West End Blues disc is indeed a little heavier than an averaage 12" 78, but the other Punch Miller, Muscle Shoals Blues, is even heavier - very noticeably.

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440px-Farewell_Blues_Friars_Society_Orch

I just spun Gennett 4966, 4967, and 4968 - the first three records by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, then known as Friars Society Orchestra. Hearing that first record in 1922 must have been amazing. The "A" side is one of the band's weakest sides, an ordinary dance tune, "Oriental." But I can imagine the record owner turning the disc over and being hit with "Farewell Blues." It must have stunned some folks back in the day.

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  • 2 months later...

Just spinning record #1 ("Them There Eyes") of this 4 x 12in 78 rpm album on the Signature label:

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This pic is from the web, my album is in better shape. Not sure if this ought to figure here or in the "Great Finds" thread ... I picked this up at a clearout sale at a local secondhand record store yesterday for the huge, huge investment of 1 (ONE) Euro. :excited: Why so cheap? Well, record #4 (Sunny Side of the Street/Time On My Hands) has a chunk missing, so only the final two thirds are playable. But THREE Signature 78s in quite good condition at one Euro altogether still are an EXCELLENT find. And never mind that crack -  I have the music on LP anyway (these sessions have been reissued on LP numerous times, often under the name of Shelly Manne who apparently was considered to have the greatest drawing power later on).

Normally this shop does not have any 78s to speak of at their annual clearout sale but this time I scored this and a few others (Benny Goodman Sextet "The Sheik " - 1940 Super Rhythm Style Series on Parlophone, Harry James "James Session" on red Columbia, Louis Prima's version of "Civilization" on RCA, plus two Sidney Bechet Blue Note Jazzmen 78s on Climax). Of course the Signatures were the bees knees of the day but a 1 euro apiece you cannot go wrong with any of these IMO. 

 

Edited by Big Beat Steve
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  • 3 months later...

If you don't have an old-style grammophone to use (not really recommended anymore due to the - average - weight of the stylus) you just use a turntable that still (or again) has a setting for 78 rpm (and not just 33 and 45). Some turntable manufacturers still produce these (or in some cases - produce them again). So getting a turntable to spin 78s is not really a major problem - contrary to 16 rpm records.

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Not uusually. It used to be so on older turntables (up to late 60s or early 70s) that the cartridge could be flipped over (33/45 on one side and 78 on the other) but on the system I use these days (turntable manufactured by DUAL, bought in the very early 2000s) the cartridge tip with the stylus can be pulled off easily and replaced with the one you need - one for 33/45s and one for 78s.

Other manufacturers may use other systems again.

 

 

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Found a copy of Detroit saxophonist George Benson's debut on the Regent label, Nearness of You / Begin the Beguine.

Surprisingly the seller included another 78 and I wonder if this was actually by mistake.

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I found a website offering this one for $25?! I think I am just going to keep my mouth shut about this one ...

I am sure these won't sound as good as they could, I only have a 33/45 turntable, no special stylus, and I dumped the audio into the PC and used the Time Warp effect to get it to 78 speed. But it sounds plenty good for me especially when I get rid of the clicks.

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On 11/18/2016 at 3:22 AM, jeffcrom said:

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Spent the afternoon hunting 78s, with a surprising level of success. I decided to start with the bop / modern sides:

Charlie Parker - Billie's Bounce/Now's the Time (Savoy)
Charlie Parker - Warming Up a Riff/Thriving On a Riff (Savoy). The second side, aka "Anthropology," is credited to The Be Bop Boys, not Parker - something I would never have known without seeing the original 78. "Warming Up a Riff" seems particularly magical on 78 - an amazing studio jam that wasn't supposed to be recorded.
Charlie Parker - Klaunstance/Stan Getz - Slow (Savoy)
Little Jimmy Scott - I'll Be Seeing You/I Won't Cry Anymore (Roost)

 

Always loved "Warming Up a Riff" - perhaps my favorite snippet of studio Bird. Live fave would probably be "All the Things" from Apartment Sessions.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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I came home from my west coast trip with a stack of about 25 78s, found in Bellingham, Washington. Included were half a dozen 1927-29 Red Nichols Brunswicks in original sleeves. I cleaned and spun the Nichols discs last night and really enjoyed them - interesting arrangements, great clarinet by Pee Wee Russell, Benny Goodman, and Fud Livingston, trombone by Miff Mole and Jack Teagarden, and plenty of Adrian Rollini's bass sax.

It's funny how I enjoy some music more on 78 than on CD. I have all this Nichols material on a nice Jazz Oracle set which I seldom crack open. This music gets wearing to me at extended lengths - 70 minutes of it is just too much. But a few records, in three-minute chunks, worked perfectly for me, and I enjoyed this band perhaps more than I ever had before.

The hot Kansas City band Coon-Sanders Nighthawks has the same effect on me - I gave away the CD I had by the band, but I really enjoy spinning a couple of 78s at a time by them.

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Jeff, it's not really that surprising in some respects.  As a friend pointed out to me many years ago, the music was meant to be played one side at a time.  Listening to 20 cuts in a row by almost anyone can get tiring and monotonous. 

Listening to a single 78 forces you to get up every few minutes.  It also tends to lead to more focused and careful listening (at least for me).

Also, there's the aural pleasure of listening to music on 78s when it was originally recorded for that purpose.  It can be a remarkably different experience.

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On 26.7.2017 at 7:54 PM, jazztrain said:

Jeff, it's not really that surprising in some respects.  As a friend pointed out to me many years ago, the music was meant to be played one side at a time.  Listening to 20 cuts in a row by almost anyone can get tiring and monotonous. 

Listening to a single 78 forces you to get up every few minutes.  It also tends to lead to more focused and careful listening (at least for me).

I've often heard this remark about pre-war blues reissues which many reviewers find really fine if taken one (or two) at a time but not a whole CD in a row. For the reasons you named. And I've adjusted my own listening habits somewhat to this with quite a few pre-war (or 78-rpm/single era) records.

It can happen elsewhere too if people get into the music based on records. A friend of mine who is very much into older styles of country music and is a pretty good steel guitar player has got a new band project going (a side project for several of the other band members who play in other bands - mostly leaning towards rockabilly) that focuses on 50s "honky tonk" country music (Hank Williams, Webb Pierce, Lefty Frizzell, Ernest Tubb, etc. etc.). Real hard-core honky tonk, expressly not leaning towards hillbilly bop (as other bands on the circuit do when they dig into these precursors of rockabilly). 
The other day they had their first gig. Well done, nicely played and with a real feel, each tune taken by itself came across well. But listening to the whole set left rather an overwhelming impression of sameness - hardly any song taken at more than mid-tempo (mostly leaning towards the slower side of mid-tempo, in fact), so listening through all of them their act somehow did not really make you get on fire, except with diehard country buffs, maybe, who find anything taken at a pace above sentimental "country weeper" slowie tempo really exciting.
I am pretty sure those honky tonk acts from the 50s had their hitmaking formula for their records too and exploited it to the full (I for one could not stomach listening to a Bear Family completist set of Lefty Frizzell and his ilk, for one) but when they appeared on stage no doubt they had their repertoire of more catchy, uptempo and hotter tunes too (like earlier bands had had) to keep not just the lonely souls weeping into their beers happy in those roadside joints but the dancers too. So the records they left behind may not show their FULL on-stage versatility. Hard to get this point across to my buddy, though (so far, at least) ... ;)

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