Daniel A

I asked pretty much the same question on another board, a long time ago. I had just found a sealed first pressing of Duke Pearson's "Sweet Honey Bee". Along with a few hearty congratulations, the general attitude was that I should play the record. If I didn't, was it really the music I was interested in, or...? Well, I played it. It sounded great. And a few years later Kevin B lets it be known that if someone, somewhere in the world could present an unplayed first pressing of "Sweet Honey Bee" to be used as the source for the new RVG remaster (the master tapes were long gone) that would be great. Since the Waldo Williams album has been out on CD, apparently from a tape source, I'd say that it should be safe to break the seal from that point of view. But, on the other hand, perhaps there are extra-musical arguments for keeping it sealed, no? I believe the risk for record warp depends on the vinyl quality, and how tight the shrink wrap is. The LPs from the 50s were quite sturdy, and the shrink wraps not yet as tight as they would be, so it might be that you could keep it sealed.

Terrific story, Marcello! I realize I've been away from Organissimo for too long...

Thanks! To stand a chance against Lord it appears as if Bruyninckx could perhaps do with some more exposure on the web.

How does one actually order the Bruyninckx CD-Rom? Despite fervent use of Google I can't find any good resource.

Newbie, are you sure you're spinning your records at the right speed?

You're probably right. Anyway I'll try to hide a sound sample somewhere on the web. Or is it even possible to attach a two second MP3 file to a post on the board? (It says "You may attach a file to this message. Maximum file size: 100k") I suspect Jim may get into trouble then, though.

Thanks for confirming, rc! I'm now determined I must keep my VHS player forever to be able to view the film in its original version!

Was watching Hitchcock's classic 'North by Northwest' on TCM with my parents yesterday; I've seen the film many times, but when I happened to switch on the TV just as it began I was again too absorbed to do anything else. When it aired on Swedish television a few years ago I noticed that a line by Cary Grant appeared to have been completely erased. I wasn't too sure about it, but since my parents have it taped from an early 80s broadcast I could do a comparsion this time. It's the scene where Cary Grant is in the hospital after the fake shooting. He lures "the professor" away so that he can sneak out to save Eva Marie Saint from the villains. He tries to get out through the door, but discovers that he's been locked in. After having tried to open the door with force, but without success, he mumbles something that sounds like "What the ehhrm...!" - this is quite audible in the old taped version. However, in the recent broadcasts there's just the background score and nothing else. You can even see Grant's mouth moving, but his words are edited out. Is someone with the recent (well, actually late 90s) DVD edition able to confirm if Cary Grant's voice is missing from that version as well? No big deal, but I find this intance of censorship completely unneccessary. Are lines like that considered harmful in the US?

Bad news indeed. A man who decided to spend his inherited fortune on producing jazz records deserved a better fate.

Thanks, guys! I'm doing raher fine these days; back in Stockholm for a few weeks on a job which demands some legal knowledge for once. And with cable connection available at home in December, I will hardly be able to resist making a comeback here at the forums... For a few months now I've been largely off the web alltoghether. Refreshing in some ways, but I also miss the contact with people I only know though message boards. Me and Karolina had a wonderful trip through 11 European countries in September, during which we found enough time to stop by Luxembourg and let Claude (of the Organissimo forums) give us a quick tour of the city. Thanks for a great evening, Claude! Since then different kinds of professional work have taken up most of my time. Now I feel I'm beginning to get things together, and I'm very happy that I've once again time for playing and listening to music. And soon talking about it too, it seems!

I think there will always be some private collector willing to pay a fortune for every session reel. If the master tapes for just about any jazz session were put up on eBay I can imagine some collector with deep pockets (probably from Japan) would spend considerable money. Then the tapes would most probably be stored in a suitable manner. The result would unfortunately be the same: almost noone would ever see those ttapes again. Regarding "major" or "important" artists, I don't think the record companies would dream of letting go of the tapes. Improbable headline: "Concord trashes Miles Davis' legendary Prestige sessions, 'They just take up too much space' says comapny spokesman"...

But then most jazz labels are currently owned by media companies which are more or less obliged to offer their shareholders maximum profit. One thing I'm curious about though: are there any reissues at all of 50+ year old albums from the original rightgholders? There appears to be at least some, which would speak against the claim that the recorded material would be completely worthless.

Yes, thanks for posting this, Claude!

A search for VME in the "Pop Musik" category at amazon.de was fairly successful.

Why is it that the task of producing the reissue (research, perhaps unveiling additional material, remastering etc.) is not considered worthy of any protection? Admittedly, the "work of art" is already there, created some 50+ years ago. But if there is considerable work which affects the performance itself involved - like restoring solos which were edited out - why shouldn't that work be subject to some immaterial protection? I can hear what someone will say; that you're not creating anything by restoring what was once there. Perhaps the solution could be to insert completely new solos instead, just to get 50 more years of protection...

Any chance they're open on a Sunday, Hans? I'm passing through the Netherlands on a Sunday - Tuesday morning...

Nor would a Swedish one! I can tell, because I've done some bus driving myself. The Swedish driver would put down a request for an unscheduled stop in his customary straightforward manner, referring to reasons of security, and - should someone be willing to take the risk anyway - add that there would be passenger insurance complications and that he, the driver, would ultimately be blamed. There you have it: the Swedish model!

OK, I see. Panasonic presented a machine some 10 years back that allegedly could play all video formats in the world, the Panasonic W1. I can't find any details on the web, but it's possible that it could produce an output signal in any format too. It belive it's long discontinued, though.

Many European VCRs can play NTSC tapes too, at least the models above the absolute entry-level stuff. Allthough I think many of the major brands are ceasing to produce VCRs at all, I think you can still find a couple of models with NTSC playback capability in almost any store. However, they cannot record in the NTSC format, if that's what you mean. I can't give you any specific model numbers off hand, but I know my Panasonic has NTSC playback, as well as the 15+ year old Panasonic of my parents. An American VCR won't work in Europe anyway, since the current in the States is 60 Hz while most (all?) of Europe uses 50 Hz (not to mention the 120/240 Volt problem).

Just for comparsion, these are the (actual) track timinigs of my LP: 1 Stompin' at the Savoy 4:36 2 Things ain't what they used to be 5:45 3 This Is Always 2:47 4 Thanks for the memory 5:14 5 Tangerine 4:28 6 Stella by starlight 3:55 7 9:20 special 5:41 8 Deep in a dream 4:30 9 Look for the silver lining 5:03 10 Seven come eleven 4:28

That seems to be true. Wasn't the most recent CD reissue dubbed from vinyl? According to some of the posts in this thread from our excellent Discography forum ( ): http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=4639 it appears that both the US and Japanese CD issues featured edited tracks.

It's said that the original master tape of Jazz Guitar is edited beyond rescue.

As I don't have a discography, I just tried to figure out the scope of the set by using the AMG and the Pacific Jazz album listing found here: http://jazzlabels.klacto.net/pacific.html The albums I listed were only LPs. Perhaps all of Twardzik's sessions were on the CD release a few years back, no?

I suppose these albums would be covered by the Select: Richard Twardzik The Last Set (1955), Pacific Jazz PJ-37 Richard Twardzik / Russ Freeman Trio (1956), Pacific Jazz PJ-1212 Clare Fischer First Time Out (1962), Pacific Jazz PJ-52 Clare Fischer Surging Ahead (1962), Pacific Jazz PJ-67 and, if World Pacific counts as Pacific Jazz: Clare Fischer So Danço Samba (1964) World Pacific WP-1830 The only Jimmy Rowles I've found on Pacific Jazz is JWS-506 (Jazz West Coast Series), a compilation named Pianists Galore!, shared between Freeman, Al Haig, Hampton Hawes, Pete Jolly, John Lewis, Carl Perkins, Rowles, Bobby Timmons and Twardzik.

In response to a mail I sent Mosaic regarding the nature of a possible Jazz Crusaders set, as well as some kind of Select of Clare Fischer's Pacific Jazz albums, I got this: