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Getting back to the original inquiry in 2006 (OMG ten years ago) I note some of the history of Robert Scherman's Skylark and Tampa labels in my discussion of the first recordings of the Lighthouse All Stars:

http://jazzwestcoastresearch.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-first-lighthouse-all-stars.html

and

http://jazzwestcoastresearch.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-first-lighthouse-all-stars.html

Peter Jacobson, V.S.O.P. Records, acquired the Skylark/Tampa catalogue in 1986 and has sustained a steady reissue program of that material on vinyl initially and now on CD. Peter is working on the CD reissue of some of the Dick Taylor and Bob Tulley sides. He is also preparing the CD reissue of the 10" Tampa 12 LP with the original recording of "Big Boy" along with the Vivien Garry material on that LP.

 

 

 

Tampa 12-Ft.jpg

Edited by JamesAHarrod
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  • 2 weeks later...
11 hours ago, The Magnificent Goldberg said:

Mine's on Skylark, too.

What are the advantages of a 78 over a 45?

(Oh, let the fact that my latest turntable can't play 78s be irrelevant.)

MG

I've got the Skylark 78 of "Big Boy" as well as a live version on a Modern 78. I actually don't really enjoy them, because I hear them as Jimmy Giuffre's parody of R & B tenor saxophone style - not as the "real deal."

Here's my answer to your question. Everboddy else's mileage gonna vary.

The question of 78s being superior to microgroove is an amped-up version of the "vinyl is better than CD" issue. A lot of folks here consider the sound of LPs superior to CDs. Maybe, but only with some "ifs" - if the vinyl is near mint; if the vinyl is well-pressed; if it's played on good equipment.

I love 78s, and often hear a "presence" in the music that I don't hear in other formats, and I'll go so far as to say that they sometimes sound better than other formats to me. But I recognize that the "ifs" all line up more rarely with 78s. Almost all 78s have more surface noise than LPs or 45 (although I have a few from the 1950s that have nearly silent surfaces.) But a 78 in excellent condition, played on the right equipment, produces a vibrant sound with minimal surface noise. And as Jim said, the big old fat groove and the faster speed often combine to let the music really sing - at least if the record is in good shape.

That's a lot of "ifs" to expect from 60- to-120-year-old records. But there are other reasons to love shellac, like the chance to hear rare, hard-to-find-otherwise performances, and the experience of hearing recordings in their originally-issued form, which is sometimes a very different experience from hearing them reissued as part of a CD.

But I'm also willing to consider that my love of 78s might be just a quirk or personality flaw.

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I'd like to think of it as parody, but he does it too well, without malice or mockery, and he's from Texas. So I feel it more as "observation" than "parody", which, really, might have been true of all Giuffre's music, and I mean that as a compliment.

Oh, 78s...I picked up a McShann 78 of "Sepia Bounce" at a flew market for grins, like, late 70s. Took it home and got goosebumps when Bird's break came...was not expecting THAT coming out of a record that sounded like that. Probably all "psychological", but I think that sometimes the "cleanness" of "best quality possible" sound of older musics takes away the artifacts of age. Does this happen anywhere in nature?

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About this being parody or not:

I'd tend to agree with what JSangrey said about this being "observation" rather than parody. There is another example of it on their 1st Lighthouse All Stars 10in LP on Contemporary: "Big Girl".

And then, for some more samplings of this, try to listen to more or less the same crowd of West Coast jazzmen having a ball as "Boots Brown & His Blockbusters" on the "Rock That Beat" LP on Groove (RCA). Half of the tracks are by this West coast crowd, the other half by the East Coast equivalent (Cohn, Travis et al.) sailing under the flag of "Dan Drew & His Daredevils".

Not quite the real (black) deal, of course, but not really caricaturesque or parody to the ears of this fan of Honking Sax R&B either but more a case of good natured "hey, we can do it too" rampaging.  Just some fun and far better IMHO than many other attemps by white bands at sounding like the real (black) 50s R&B deal back then.

 

 

 

Edited by Big Beat Steve
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8 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

About this being parody or not:

I'd tend to agree with what JSangrey said about this being "observation" rather than parody. There is another example of it on their 1st Lighthouse All Stars 10in LP on Contemporary: "Big Girl".

And then, for some more samplings of this, try to listen to more or less the same crowd of West Coast jazzmen having a ball as "Boots Brown & His Blockbusters" on the "Rock That Beat" LP on Groove (RCA). Half of the tracks are by this West coast crowd, the other half by the East Coast equivalent (Cohn, Travis et al.) sailing under the flag of "Dan Drew & His Daredevils".

Not quite the real (black) deal, of course, but not really caricaturesque or parody to the ears of this fan of Honking Sax R&B either but more a case of good natured "hey, we can do it too" rampaging.  Just some fun and far better IMHO than many other attemps by white bands at sounding like the real (black) 50s R&B deal back then.

 

 

 

I'm with you all the way on this view, Steve - and Jim.

Sometimes - well, mostly - I like music to be authentically what it's supposed to be. But sometimes you get something that's authentically NOT (or not quite) what it's supposed to be and it's nonetheless great. This cut, I think, is one of those times. Quite a bit of Perez Prado is like that and I love it.

MG

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Giuffre's always seen like an "observational" guy to me. Again, very much meant as a compliment. I suppose it's possible that he grew up in Dallas as he did and never got exposed to the elements that went into the overt R&B style of "Big Girl", but something like "The Train & The River" suggests that no, he knew "what" it was but did not feel compelled to try and "own" it in any kind of literal/career way. That's a pretty cool thing, actually, imo.

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