JamesAHarrod

Ken's recollection is that Shelly Manne suggested Max Roach.

The person who might have the answer to that is Ken Poston who interviewed Howard numerous times over several years. I will drop Ken an email and ask if he knows the background on Max's appointment.

Taking a stab at answering your question, the jam session in September of 1953 that was recorded by Cecil Spiller and released years later when Ed Michel was working at Fantasy marked a turnover in personnel at the Lighthouse. Shorty Rogers, Jimmy Giuffre, and Shelly Manne departed. My guess is that Shelly was not interested in a regular job that required a long commute from his home in Northridge. At that point in time and for many years, Shelly was THE drummer in demand in Los Angeles. Like his days "chopping wood" for Kenton, keeping time behind Howard Rumsey was a chore. I have made some additions and corrections to the blog. After adding details from the GNP compact disc reissues I realized that I should do the same for the EmArcy sessions.

Transcribing Bobby Bradford's comments could not do justice to his oral description of that experience hearing Clifford Brown. It was also difficult to put into words his vocalization of Max's drumming, or the growl he emitted to describe Clifford's attack on the trumpet. Thanks for your kind words.

The latest post to my jazz research blog examines Clifford Brown's arrival in California in 1954 and the genesis of the Max Roach/Clifford Brown Quintet including club dates, concerts, and recording sessions for Gene Norman, Bob Shad, and Dick Bock. Nailed down many dates that have floated for years in the discography literature. http://jazzwestcoastresearch.blogspot.com/2016/06/clifford-brown-in-california-gene.html

You're right. Just read the liner notes to C3505, Hawes first album for Koenig. I do not believe that Dick Bock recorded at the Police Academy. I write about two other venues, The Forum and Music Box Theaters, that Bock used frequently in my post about the Touff/Kamuca sessions: http://jazzwestcoastresearch.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-cy-touff-richie-kamuca-sessions.html

I seem to recall that this session was recorded at the L.A. Police Academy in Chavez Ravine, but seeking out a copy of one of the volumes on Ebay the liner note credits Contemporary's studio at 8481 Melrose. Maybe I'm thinking of another one of Koenig's sessions?

The latest addition to my Jazz Research blog examines the Art Pepper Discovery sessions. http://jazzwestcoastresearch.blogspot.com/2016/04/art-pepper-discovery-sessions-james-a.html Over the years many discographers have wondered why there were no alternate takes from the first recording session on March 4, 1952. I think that the answer lies with the fact that the session was financed by Robert Scherman using his Skylark Records license. Scherman was a thrifty producer and saving alternate takes was not something he practiced.

Can't add much. The AFM contract lists Fischer, and tune detail. After reducing contract jpeg size to 84kb still getting "file too large" message. Unable to attach. Jim

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.

Barnes and Noble (Nook) has it available this morning at $16.99. I imagine that Amazon will follow and reduce the price to compete with Barnes and Noble's price. I was pleased to see that it is #42 on Amazon's Kindle bestseller list, but this ranking is updated every hour throughout the day.

When Tampa expanded, reissued the catalog in the pink label format, acquired the Mode masters, etc., Scherman was unable to pay his pressing bills. Under California law that property transferred ownership to the pressing plant, Alco Engineering. V.S.O.P. purchased the lot from Alco with the exception of RS 1000 (Tampa TP-20) The Art Pepper Quartet, that was acquired by Laurie Pepper. V.S.O.P. has issued most of what was acquired on vinyl (initially) and now, compact disc.

I went with an ebook as I wanted to keep the color album covers and color photos. A print edition might be in the future, but it will be B&W. I anticipate that some discounting will happen, especially when B&N has the title up, and Amazon is notorious for aggressive discounting.

My history of Herb Kimmel's Jazz:West label has finally reached the marketplace. Die hard Art Pepper fans will find it of interest. Sorry for the shameless promotion. https://store.bookbaby.com/book/JazzWest-Records Jim

The LAJI edition is a CD with an eight page booklet of notes by Ken Poston. I believe that Laurie Pepper's edition is a download only with a pdf. of Ken's notes. Over The Rainbow is the twelfth limited edition CD release by the LAJI. Ken produces these as a fund raiser for the institute and offers them as a member bonus. Annual membership is $50. Here are the details from the tray liner.

Art Pepper and Warne Marsh completists will want to acquire Laurie Pepper’s joint release with the Los Angeles Jazz Institute of rare and unissued Art Pepper sessions. The Pepper/Marsh track is an alternate of AVALON, the master take (Ed Michel’s choice) was issued on the Victor (Japan) Art Pepper With Warne Marsh CD (VDJ-1577) 1986. The release also has previously unissued tracks from Art Pepper Plus Eleven, Gettin’ Together, Smack Up, and Intensity. Laurie Pepper’s version is Antique Art Pepper and the LAJI version is Over The Rainbow - Rare and Unissued Art Pepper 1949-1960. This alternate take of Avalon brings the total timing of music from this session to sixty minutes, music that could have aided the careers of Pepper and Marsh if it had been released back then. John Litweiler gave The Way It Was (6 tracks from the session) a five star review in Down Beat when it was released in 1973.

I have begun final entries to my Pacific Jazz/World Pacific Labelography that will feature front covers and back liners of all of the releases of the company. The first group covers the 1200 series. http://pacificjazz.blogspot.com/2014/09/pjwpstereo-1201-1225-jackets-james-a.html I have also added two blog sites, the first devoted to Liberty’s “Jazz In Hollywood” series (releases connected to Harry Babasin): http://liberty-ljh.blogspot.com/2014/09/blog-post.html The second devoted to Aladdin’s Jazz:West, Intro, and Score releases (releases connected to Herb Kimmel): http://jazz-west.blogspot.com/2014/09/blog-post.html Jim

I have Fantasy 78s 501 through 537 and Fantasy EPs 4001 through 4069. I do not have 540 as a 45 single either.

I recently bought the Kindle edition of S. Duncan Reid's Cal Tjader biography (highly recommended by the way). I decided to load all of my Tjader collection into Music on my iPad so that I could listen to items noted in the biography and was surprised that I had not acquired the Fantasy reissue of Tjader's early Galaxy sides (I have all of the 78s and 10" LP Fantasy 3-9). In checking Lord's discography I also noted that he did not list the Fantasy CD reissue of these sides. I just emailed Tom giving him the details from my 78s as well as details from the CD reissue that I just acquired, and I also advised that the entries for master numbers 11170 and 11180 were probably bogus and should be dropped unless he has some documentation or solid references to support their existence (the same conclusion that Michael Weil notes in his discography in the book). Jim

No relation. Got the session details from Local 47. Other details from Herb Kimmel, the founder of Jazz:West. Even beat up copies of original Jazz:West releases seem to fetch high prices at auction, especially the Art Pepper and the James Clay.

I can provide some details regarding questions raised about Jane Fielding's second album for jazz:west, EMBERS GLOW. The first recording session was held at Capitol's studios at 5515 Melrose on January 21, 1956, from 3:00 to 6:00 PM. Jane Fielding was not a member of Local 47 and she is not mentioned on the contract. Personnel listed on this first date were: Kenny Drew, Lawrence Marable, Teddy Efantis, Paul Chambers, and Joseph Maini, Jr. The second session was held on February 15, 1956, again at Capitol on Melrose, from 5:00 to 8:00 PM. Personnel were the same except that Leroy Vinnegar replaced Paul Chambers. Kenny Drew is listed as leader for both sessions. On her first album for jazz:west Red Mitchell was the leader. Herb Kimmel recalled that he split his double-scale with Fielding since she was not registered with the union. Don't know if the same arrangement was made with Drew to share his wages. I will be contacting Tom Lord to give him many corrections regarding jazz:west discographical information. Have any members heard updates regarding Jane Fielding? Jim

I am guessing that the Biharis included TENDERLY as Erroll Garner was getting a lot of attention around that time with his CONCERT BY THE SEA album on Columbia. Wardell is credited on the Crown JAZZ CONFIDENTIAL album for BLUE LOU. I also have the Vogue two LP album and the Japanese King three LP set that features an artist rendering of Wardell, front and center on the jacket. I will probably do a follow up piece on these albums as well as the Japanese CD reissue of WAY OUT WARDELL. All of these masters are now owned by ACE in the UK. They recently reissued some of the DOOTONE albums that they also own, perhaps we will see some quality reissues from ACE as well using the Just Jazz masters.

My research on the various releases of WAY OUT WARDELL appeared in Names & Numbers No. 53 in April of 2010. I have completed additional research on additional releases of WAY OUT WARDELL and posted the update to my Jazz Research blog at; http://jazzwestcoastresearch.blogspot.com/2013/08/way-out-wardell-james-a.html I suspect that there are variations out there that have yet to be discovered, so another update is probably in the offing. Members interested in the Bihari record empire will note that I have provided a link at the end of the post to the film documentary on the Bihari Brothers, MUSIC BY THE POUND.