jazztrain

FWIW, I remember that Volume 7 was the most elusive one of the lot. For some reason, it either went out of print or sold out before the others. Of course. Since I have the Masters of Jazz cds I never needed Vol 1 & 2 and thus the omission.

Agreed. The Razor & Tie compilation is well worth having if you don't want to spring for the box (which I eventually picked up).

Yes, it's definitely worth it. I picked this up about a month ago and have enjoyed it more than I expected. It includes a beautiful version of a rarely recorded Henry Mancini tune ("Silver Tears"). There's another version of that tune recorded around the same time by Shelly Manne. .

He's also an excellent clarinetist.

I second (only because you mentioned them first) the Sjowall-Wahloo series of books featuring Martin Beck.

Allen: You thinking of Harlan Leonard? Never mind, didn't see your parenthetical addition. The recording ban started at midnight of July 31, 1942.

Rooster_Ties: I remember Jay Brandford from years ago. He lived in the Boston area and also had a jazz radio show for several years on the same station (WMBR-FM) that I'm on and that Stereojack was on (prior to his long stint on WGBH). I recall that Jay initially concentrated on alto saxophone but appears to have added baritone saxophone in later years. He was in the Artie Shaw orchestra directed by Dick Johnson for several years and ended up leaving the Boston area for New York in the early 1990s. I've come across his name occasionally on a variety of sessions, including some David Berger CDs and a Ben Riley Monk tribute. A nice guy as I recall.

No. I've had the same problem with a few of the discs. I'm particularly cautious now having recently broken disc 1 of the recent Bob Dunn box when attempting to remove it from the spindle (that's what I call it). I've never had this problem before. It makes me wonder if some new sort of prongs (tines?) are being used on the spindles. I've had the opposite problem at times with multi-CD boxes (CDs coming loose too easily). I remember disc 2 being very hard to remove.

Yes, I like him. I have the Paul Guerrero LP with James Clay as well as two of the cds on Leaning House.

Loren Schoenberg had been scheduled to discuss and play samples from the Savory collection yesterday in Boston at the Berklee College of Music. Due to a family emergency, the presentation was postponed, probably until some time in January or February.

Number 711 has landed at my doorstep. Well, come on in out of the cold!

Nothing (sigh). Phono pre-amp has been in the shop for the last 2.5 weeks.

Here's a link to some information on Irving Joseph: Irving Joseph

I share the frustration, but we may be in the minority. Recognizing that some of Dunn's groundbreaking and early influential work was with groups like Milton Brown, Cliff Bruner, and Roy Newman, they would have been subject to criticism if they did not include some of that material. I think the box is meant to be an overview of Dunn's career, not a "fill in the gaps" issue and not a complete issue of everything that he was on (which would have resulted in even more duplication). Duplication is a long time bane of collectors. You learn to live with it. You also learn to appreciate it when something that really is complete (like the Milton Brown box that they issued previously) is issued. I'm just glad that it is out, since it was a very long time coming.

Big Beat Steve: I had a lot of the material already (the Milton Brown, Roy Newman, and Cliff Bruner sides, for example) but still went for it. Some of the other sides are somewhat more obscure, although you might some of it if you have the earlier western swing compilations that you mention below. There's also something nice to have so many sides with Bob Dunn solos together in one place. I would mention that the mastering is by Mike Keiffer and is first rate. The sound is really stunning on some of the sides, especially when compared to the work of some of the other labels that you cite below (e.g., Krazy Kat). There's a nice booklet as well with lots of photos, many of them apparently never published before, and biographical information. Note that the package is an odd size (approximately 5.5 inches x 8.5 inches)and may need to be shelved by itself. Here's some additional information, cut and pasted from the Origin Jazz Library website, that might help you or others decide what you might or might not have already. The name after each song title is the group, not the composer: Western Swing Chronicles, Volume 5 - Disc 1 1) Taking Off (Milton Brown) 2) I Love You (Milton Brown) 3) Wabash Blues (Milton Brown) 4) Who's Sorry Now (Milton Brown) 5) You're Tired of Me (Milton Brown) 6) The House at the End of the Lane (Milton Brown) 7) Somebody Stole My Gal (Milton Brown) 8) Ida, Sweet as Apple Cider (Milton Brown) 9) Beale Street Mama (Milton Brown) 10) An Old Water Mill By a Waterfall (Milton Brown) 11) Everybody's Blues (Roy Newman) 12) She's Doggin' Me (Roy Newman) 13) Takin' Off (Roy Newman) 14) Catch On and Let's Go (Roy Newman) 15) Over Moonlit Waters (Cliff Bruner) 16) Yearning Just for You (Cliff Bruner) 17) When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles with You) (Cliff Bruner) 18) I'll Keep on Loving You (Cliff Bruner) 19) Star Dust (Cliff Bruner) 20) Easy Rider - Easy Rider (Buddy Jones) 21) Just Because You're in Deep Elem (Shelton Bros.) 22) A Precious Memory (Leon Selph) 23) Some Day (Leon Selph) 24) Mama's Gone Goodbye (Bob Dunn's Vagabonds) 25) Blue Skies (Bob Dunn's Vagabonds) 26) Mean Mistreater (Bob Dunn's Vagabonds) Western Swing Chronicles, Volume 5 - Disc 2 1) When Night Falls (Bob Dunn's Vagabonds) 2) You'll Pay Some Day (Bob Dunn's Vagabonds) 3) You Don't Know My Mind (Bob Dunn's Vagabonds) 4) Graveyard Blues (Bob Dunn's Vagabonds) 5) I Want the Whole World to Know (Bob Dunn's Vagabonds) 6) Stompin' at the Honky Tonk (Bob Dunn's Vagabonds) 7) I'll Tell the Wolrd (She's a Good Little Girl) (Bob Dunn's Vagabonds) 8) Juke Box Rag (Bob Dunn's Vagabonds) 9) Marcheta (Bob Dunn's Vagabonds) 10) There Must Be Someone for Me (Floyd Tillman) 11) I Never Felt This Way Before (Floyd Tillman) 12) Swing Steel, Swing (Bill Boyd) 13) I Don't Get It (Bill Mounce) 14) From the Start (Bill Mounce) 15) It's Just My Imagination (Bill Mounce) 16) Kickin' It Off (Bill Mounce) 17) I Found a New Baby (Bill Mounce) 18) What's Bob Done? (Bill Mounce) 19) Bugle Two-Step (Sons of Dixie) 20) I'm Always Dreaming of You (Sons of Dixie) 21) Don't Ever Go Wrong (Sons of Dixie) 22) Mary Jane (Modern Mountaineers) 23) Takin' Off (Modern Mountaineers) 24) Baby, You've Let Me Down (Modern Mountaineers) 25) San Antonio Blues (Cliff Bruner) 26) Blue Over You (Tommy Dover) 27) I've Quit My Cattin' Around (Harry Choates)

To transition from one post that mentioned OJL to another, I've been meaning to make note of the following new release, the long-awaited 2-cd set on Bob Dunn: Bob Dunn (click on new release tab and follow). Highly recommended!

Yeah, OJL makes more sense for him. I caught up with many of those artists first on Yazoo and only heard some of the OJL releases later. It's clearly a generational thing. Didn't want the Buick anyway.

Sounds like he's talking about Yazoo rather than Arhoolie.

I think he's originally from Boston and probably went to NY with Ruby Braff. Chuck covered all of his recordings that I can think of.

For the early years, there's some information (but not as detailed as what you're looking for) in Burt Goldblatt's book "Newport Jazz Festival." Even so, there are listings of groups by date as I recall and some good photos.

Columbia put out a lot more box sets. Here are some of them. There proably are more. Eddie Lang/Joe Venuti Billie Holiday (2 boxes) Gene Krupa Benny Goodman Original Sound of the 20s Fletcher Henderson Woody Herman Swing Street Thesaurus of Classic Jazz Jazz Odyssey (Sound of New Orleans, Harlem, Chicago in separate boxes) Jack Teagarden Echoes of the 30s Sweet Bands of the 30s Duke Ellington (2 boxes) Rare Big Band Sides Boswell Sisters There also were some French CBS boxes that may or may not have had U.S. counterparts, such as a Fred Astaire/movie soundtrack box, Jimmy Lunceford, and later Duke Ellington. Oh, and there were two large Count Basie boxes.

Allen: I'm almost certain that I remember seeing him in New Haven at a concert with Leo Smith in 1972 or 1973.

Most of the 78 era Affinity reissues (Harry James, Frankie Newton, Red Norvo, etc.) sounded kind of thin to me. I've generally replaced them with better sounding issues on other labels (Mosaic, hep, etc.) where possible.

I saw them as well. I seem to remember the dealer had several odd colored vinyl issues, some of them multi-colored. Can't remember now if the multi-colored one was on Blue Note or not. Can't recall for certain, but I think they were different colors.