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Mosaic's forthcoming James P. Johnson set


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44 minutes ago, Late said:

Check again. That's Royce Evans, one of the few castrati to make into the 20th century.

I assume that's a joke.  The recordings are with Roy Evans.  He was an early singer/yodeler who recorded in several contexts and genres.  An interesting figure as Allen noted.

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On November 19, 2015 at 12:38:53 PM, blind-blake said:

Seems like a lot of obscure vocalists on this. Gives me pause.

If you go through the Mosaic discography (James P. Johnson's) scanning for vocalists, and then go to YouTube, you'll find a large number of the tracks there (usually from Document discs). You can sample whole songs and see if you like/don't like the vocalists. (That's what I did at least.) Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, and Ethel Waters aside, there's:

• Lavinia Turner
• Sadie Jackson
• Perry Bradford
• Rosa Henderson
• Martha Copeland
• Gus Horsley
• Clara Smith
• Eva Taylor
• Spencer Williams
• Andy Razaf
• Chick Bullock
• Anna Robinson
• Ruby Smith

The piano playing is killer throughout.
 

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34 minutes ago, Late said:

If you go through the Mosaic discography (James P. Johnson's) scanning for vocalists, and then go to YouTube, you'll find a large number of the tracks there (usually from Document discs). You can sample whole songs and see if you like/don't like the vocalists. (That's what I did at least.) Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, and Ethel Waters aside, there's:

• Lavinia Turner
• Sadie Jackson
• Perry Bradford
• Rosa Henderson
• Martha Copeland
• Gus Horsley
• Clara Smith
• Eva Taylor
• Spencer Williams
• Andy Razaf
• Chick Bullock
• Anna Robinson
• Ruby Smith

The piano playing is killer throughout.
 

And the aforementioned Roy Evans.

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33 minutes ago, Late said:

If you go through the Mosaic discography (James P. Johnson's) scanning for vocalists, and then go to YouTube, you'll find a large number of the tracks there (usually from Document discs). You can sample whole songs and see if you like/don't like the vocalists. (That's what I did at least.) Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, and Ethel Waters aside, there's:

• Lavinia Turner
• Sadie Jackson
• Perry Bradford
• Rosa Henderson
• Martha Copeland
• Gus Horsley
• Clara Smith
• Eva Taylor
• Spencer Williams
• Andy Razaf
• Chick Bullock
• Anna Robinson
• Ruby Smith

The piano playing is killer throughout.
 

Good idea. I'll give it a shot. Thanks!

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On November 19, 2015 at 3:38:53 PM, blind-blake said:

Seems like a lot of obscure vocalists on this. Gives me pause. Sure, Bessie Smith was great. Nevertheless....

 

13 hours ago, Late said:

If you go through the Mosaic discography (James P. Johnson's) scanning for vocalists, and then go to YouTube, you'll find a large number of the tracks there (usually from Document discs). You can sample whole songs and see if you like/don't like the vocalists. (That's what I did at least.) Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, and Ethel Waters aside, there's:

• Lavinia Turner
• Sadie Jackson
• Perry Bradford
• Rosa Henderson
• Martha Copeland
• Gus Horsley
• Clara Smith
• Eva Taylor
• Spencer Williams
• Andy Razaf
• Chick Bullock
• Anna Robinson
• Ruby Smith

The piano playing is killer throughout.
 

Followed Late's suggestions.  Although I didn't go through the whole list, some are worth hearing but some like Lavinia Turner, in my opinion, are not.  This set will, on balance, be worth it for his playing. 

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6 hours ago, Late said:

For those that don't go in for vocalists, this disc provides a fine demonstration of Johnson's art in solo format ...

51H55OFZqEL.jpg

Absolutely!

 

Another James P. recommendation, for anyone still spinning vinyl:

JPJ_GiantsofJazz.jpg

I play this set more than any of the others in the Time-Life "Giants of Jazz" series. 3 LPs of TREMENDOUS music.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just got this email from Scott Wenzel (I preordered the set):

 

We wanted to update everyone regarding the release date. The James P. Johnson CD set is expected to ship by early January and the Gerry Mulligan LP set is expected late January/February.

 

We did plan on having an earlier release date and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Landed at my nest yesterday. On heavy rotation now! :tup

BTW: superb liner notes by Scott E. Brown who hopefully will have his expanded and updated James P. Johnson biography published at some point in time within the next years...

Edited by EKE BBB
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I ordered mine on December 29th and nevertheless got No 00006! (I hope   that doesn't mean only 6 people ordered it before me. )  BTW Mosaic says it's everything from the period controlled by Sony and I guess it is,  but I have a CBS cd entitled "From Ragtime to Jazz: The complete Piano Solos (1921-39) and it includes The Harlem Strut from 1921 which is not on the Mosaic.  Probably because it was recorded for Black Swan which is probably pd rather than owned by Sony.  

Even that CBS cd's subtitled may be a bit misleading since it doesn't include the flip side of Harlem Strut. 

 

 

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On 21-1-2016 at 6:28 PM, medjuck said:

I ordered mine on December 29th and nevertheless got No 00006! (I hope   that doesn't mean only 6 people ordered it before me. )  BTW Mosaic says it's everything from the period controlled by Sony and I guess it is,  but I have a CBS cd entitled "From Ragtime to Jazz: The complete Piano Solos (1921-39) and it includes The Harlem Strut from 1921 which is not on the Mosaic.  Probably because it was recorded for Black Swan which is probably pd rather than owned by Sony.  

Even that CBS cd's subtitled may be a bit misleading since it doesn't include the flip side of Harlem Strut. 

 

 

According to the Tom Lord online disco the flip side of Black Swan 2026 is 'The unknown blues' by Fletcher Henderson.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Over the years I've gotten real strange numbers on my box sets.  One time it is 146 although the set had been on sale for years and seemed to be a popular set.  I'm not sure if there's any relationship between the numbers and the inventory - has always seemed somewhat random to me.

Edited by Mike Neely
odd line breaks
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