Cotton Club broadcasts, 1938

[EKE BBB]

The remastering of a Jazz Unlimited/Storyville vintage Ellington release is in the making. It´s a double-set with all the surviving 1938 Cotton Club airchecks and bonus tracks including (the previously unissued) Skrontch (24Mar38) and Solitude (17Apr38).

Carl Hällström, who located some of the original acetates, including 24Mar and 17Apr, wrote this in the last issue of DEMS Bulletin.

EDIT: to change thread title

Edited May 6, 2005 by EKE BBB

[LAL]

EKE, do you know if it overlaps this 2-cd set? If it does, I guess the Storyville should be a superior release in all aspects.

DISC 1:

1. Echoes Of Harlem (Cootie's Concerto)

2. Prelude In C Sharp Minor

3. If Dreams Come True - (vocal version)

4. It's The Dreamer In Me

5. Ev'ry Day (I Fall In Love)

6. Three Blind Mice

7. On The Sunny Side Of The Street

8. Dinah's In A Jam

9. If Dreams Come True - (instrumental version)

10. Have A Heart (Lost In Meditation)

11. Rockin' In Rhythm

DISC 2:

1. Harmony In Harlem

2. Dinah

3. At Your Beck And Call

4. If You Were In My Place (What Would You Do?)

5. Oh, Babe! Maybe Someday

6. Downtown Uproar

7. Birmingham Breakdown

8. You Went To My Head

9. Rose Room

10. Gal From Joe's

11. Riding On A Blue Note

[EKE BBB]

According to the last DEMS Bulletin, Storyville keeps on preparing the release of this double CD on which (among other material) all the available Cotton Club broadcasts from 1938 will be issued. Liner notes will be written by Andrew Homzy.

Carl Hällström has supplied with the details:

CD 1

From a CBS broadcast "Saturday Night Swing Club" 8May37

1. Swing Session

2. Medley: Solitude/In a Sentimental Mood

previously released on LP Fanfare Records 17-117

Broadcast from the Cotton Club 24Mar38

3. Harmony in Harlem

4. If You Were in My Place

5. Mood Indigo

6. Theme: East St. Louis Toodle-O

7. Theme: East St. Louis Toodle-O

8. Oh Babe, Maybe Someday

9. Dinah

10. If Dreams Come True

11. Scrontch

3/8 previously on Bear Family 16340 (DEMS 04/1-22)

9 previously on Archives of Jazz 3801122 or 3891122

10 previously on Archives of Jazz 3801132 or 3891132

11 FIRST TIME RELEASE!

Broadcast from the Cotton Club 17Apr38

12. You Went to My Head

13. Three Blind Mice

14. Solitude

15. Downtown Uproar

12 & 15 previously on Archives of Jazz 3801122 or 3891122

13 previously on Archives of Jazz 3801132 or 3891132

14 FIRST TIME RELEASE!

Broadcast from the Cotton Club 24Apr38

16. Dinah's in a Jam

17. On the Sunny Side of the Street

18. Demi-Tasse

19. Azure

20. Carnival in Caroline

16/17 previously on Archives of Jazz 3801132 or 3891132

16 & 18/20 previously on Recording Arts 5-304-2 (CD 3)

Broadcast from the Cotton Club 1May38

21. Harmony in Harlem

22. At Your Beck and Call

23. Solitude

24. The Gal From Joe's

25. Riding on a Blue Note

26. If Dreams Come True

Previously on Bear Family 16340 (DEMS 04/1-22)

CD 2

Broadcast from the Cotton Club 8May38

1. Oh Babe, Maybe Someday

2. I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart

Previously on LP Max 1002

Broadcast from the Cotton Club 15May38

3. Birmingham Breakdown

4. Rose Room

5. If Dreams Come True

6. It's the Dreamer in Me

7. Lost in Meditation

8. Every Day

9. Echoes of Harlem

Previously on Bear Family 16340 (DEMS 04/1-22)

Broadcast from the Cotton Club 22May38

10. Theme: East St. Louis Toodle-O

11. Jig Walk

12. In a Sentimental Mood

13. I'm Slapping 7th. Avenue

14. Lost in Meditation

15. Alabamy Home

16. If You Were in My Place

Previously on LP Max 1002

Broadcast from the Cotton Club 29May38

17. Prelude in C Sharp Minor

18. Rockin' in Rhythm

Previously on Archives of Jazz 3801132 or 3891132

From concert at the Konserthuset in Stockholm 29Apr39

19. Serenade to Sweden

20. Rockin' in Rhythm

21. In a Red Little Cottage

Previously on LP Max 1002 and on Caprice Records CAP 21452

[jazzbo]

A, thanks so much for that detailed news.

Wow! I can't wait!

[brownie]

Many thanks EKE BBB for providing the details.

Always loved those Cotton Club broadcasts! I missed the Bear Family release and will be happy to have it when Storyville release their volume with the new material!

[jazzbo]

I've had the two Archives of Jazz volumes. . . but suspect that they will be transformed by Storyville sonically as well as the joy of having the other material which I have not had!

[Clunky]

forgive my ignorance but, was Jimmy Blanton in the band by this point ?

[jazzbo]

Not quite.

From this page http://www.vincewallace.com/Words/Jimmy_Bl...my_blanton.html

In autumn 1939, the twenty-one year old Blanton started playing on a regular basis at the Coronado Hotel Ballroom in St. Louis. According to Miles Davis, Blanton sat in one night with Davis during his stint with the Blue Devils, the house band at the Rhumboogie Club. It was on this night that Duke Ellington, in town for a concert, stopped by and impressed by the abilities of the young musician who was to become his most famous bass player, signed Blanton immediately. Ellington was impressed with Blanton's advanced techniques that belied his young age. Also, by this time Blanton had developed a new bass technique of playing lines that sounded more like a horn than like a bass, which until then had been primarily for keeping time. Blanton agreed to join Ellington's group, but did not own a four-string bass at the time. Gene Porter, who played the saxophone, clarinet and flute in the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra with Blanton, served as the guarantor. Blanton shared the bass duties with Billy Taylor until Taylor left the Ellington orchestra in January 1940.

[EKE BBB]

Looks like this long-awaited relese is nearer...

According to someone from Storyville Records, involved in this project, "The Duke to be released later this year after the relaunch of Storyville."

[BruceH]

"Relaunch"?

[Christiern]

How does one relaunch a label that never un-launched, as it were?

[EKE BBB]

I guess what they mean is that they´ve been "un-launched" because no new CDs have been released for a few months, and their website hasn´t been updated.

[EKE BBB]

Reportedly, there's a scheduled release date for early 2008.

[ghost of miles]

Not quite.

From this page http://www.vincewallace.com/Words/Jimmy_Bl...my_blanton.html

In autumn 1939, the twenty-one year old Blanton started playing on a regular basis at the Coronado Hotel Ballroom in St. Louis. According to Miles Davis, Blanton sat in one night with Davis during his stint with the Blue Devils, the house band at the Rhumboogie Club. It was on this night that Duke Ellington, in town for a concert, stopped by and impressed by the abilities of the young musician who was to become his most famous bass player, signed Blanton immediately. Ellington was impressed with Blanton's advanced techniques that belied his young age. Also, by this time Blanton had developed a new bass technique of playing lines that sounded more like a horn than like a bass, which until then had been primarily for keeping time. Blanton agreed to join Ellington's group, but did not own a four-string bass at the time. Gene Porter, who played the saxophone, clarinet and flute in the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra with Blanton, served as the guarantor. Blanton shared the bass duties with Billy Taylor until Taylor left the Ellington orchestra in January 1940.

There's another version of this story in Steven Lasker's notes to the new Duke Mosaic... that Blanton was playing with Fate Marable's band at the Club 49 when Duke came through St. Louis that autumn, and that Duke asked Marable if he could sit in w/Blanton. Ralph Porter, a bandmate of Blanton's at the time, said that Ellington and Blanton immediately hit it off on the bandstand..."The tune ended and Marable called out 'How do you like my bass player?' Duke coyly said 'I was just going to ask you the same question.'"

[Brownian Motion]

Reportedly, there's a scheduled release date for early 2008.

Uh-huh.

[brownie]

What's one more year to wait

[Lush Life]

I'm new to this forum, and it's pretty obvious it's going to be a costly experience.

I didn't know about the existence of the Duke Ellington Treasury Shows, so I just ordered up the entire set. Sadly, the 12 different discs will come from several different sellers, thus announcing themselves to my wife in repeated fashion over several days....in other words, I'm going to have some 'splainin' to do

[bluesbro]

Any news on this one? Was it ever released or is it still on schedule for 2008?

[Jeff]

Can any of you gentlemen recommend an 'interim' substitute for the upcoming Storyville release of these 1938 broadcasts?

I currently have the 1938 'anthology' pictured elsewhere in this topic. Also a small boxed set on the Frimeaux (sp?) label called Cotton Cub.

How about the Bear Family Cotton Club set? Any feedback? It's still available for about $59 from several sources.

[Christiern]

I just asked my friends at Storyville about this and the news is not good. The set has been ready for several years, but was held back due to the release of the Duke Box set. At the present time, there is no date set for release, but I have the impression that it won't be any time soon. I should add that my friends, who are in charge of what is now a division of a much larger concern, seem eager to see this set released, so I gather that decisions are being made higher up (and farther away).

A petition?

[Swinging Swede]

"held back due to the release of the Duke Box"?

That's a bummer. The Cotton Club set is so much more important than the Duke Box which just rehashed previously released and readily available material. I have no interest in the Duke Box, but the Cotton Club set would be such a definitive and important set of what essentially is Ellington's earliest live recordings; at least his earliest good-sounding live recordings. The material has been scattered over several different releases on different labels, and the Storyville set would immediately replace all of them, and would have at least one new track and presumably better sound too.

If they won't release this, then what are the chances of more D.E.T.S. volumes? Volumes 13 & 14 have also been ready for several years I think, and the discographies posted in the DEMS Bulletin. Not to mention additional promised releases of the stockpile recordings.

Thanks for asking your friend anyway, even if the news were disappointing.

Edited December 20, 2007 by Swinging Swede

[bluesbro]

Bummer

I ordered this one instead. Anyone heard it? Is it any good?

2 disc set on Cleopatra. Appears to be OOP, but available used.

[gslade]

yep bummer

never heard the Cleopatra release

I have the bear set

Who can we petition?

[Pete B]

I have the 2-cd set above but it is on Stardust label. It is a straight re-release of 2 lps on Jazz Archives Label (JA-12 and JA-13). There are 22 tracks on this release. According to DESOR, the following remain: 4/29/38 1 title, 5/5/38 1 title, 5/8/38 titles, 5/22/38 7 titles. Most of these are on the Jazz Panorama LP JP-14. I don't know if they are available on cd. There are also 6 titles listed as unreleased.

I too have long anticipated the Storyville release. I would order a copy the minute it bacame available.

[Swinging Swede]

I investigated this once, and came to the conclusion that the Stardust/Cleopatra set depicted above omits two tracks compared to the original Jazz Archives LPs. I therefore decided to get the Archives Of Jazz CDs, which have 12 tracks each, 24 in total, and truly are straight reissues of the Jazz Archives LPs. The sound is sensationally good.