mmilovan

Maxine Sullivan... well I don;t know anything about that Razaf tribute disc, but, still that version of "Everytime We Said Goodbye" with Norvo and Teddy Wilson is high on my list of perfect takes. Teddy is doing his famous "downward figure" while backing her vocal. Oh man, wish I could listen more of that material, not just single 3 minute take...

Hi Agustín, so nice to hear there are nowadays people and musicians who listened and prepared for modern listeners Kirby's music! I'm really excited to hear this! And Shavers, oh, he is one of my favourite trumpet players, also. Milan

Hello to all, I was happy as a child when I've received two CDs with this great small band. These CDs so beautifully recorded on 16 inch discs for later broadcasting, show how they played in their peak form: beautiful Charlie Shavers with phrases and tone to remember, clever Billy Kyle that played like Teddy Wilson, O’ Neal Spencer brushes, with added bonus of Maxine Sullivan all they were supported by Kirby strong bass lines. And, something untruthful was said about Kirby's wish to play light European classical music. It wasn't an imperative, it was way to defeat copyright in those days. So they started to play folk tunes and light pieces that was public domain then. They can play blues as hell… At the end, I will recommend those discs to everyone: http://www.jazzology.com/item_detail.php?id=CCD-47 http://www.jazzology.com/item_detail.php?id=CCD-125 John Kirby ended as poor man, diluted in alcohol. He and Maxine were divorced around 1942, or so. O’ Neal Spencer was sent to some hospital, he suffered from mental illness.

AllenLowe, there is other sample of his playing also - around Feb. 1941. in Lester's First Band. He is even smoother than on those Vanguard session.

And for those who missed it: Eugene DeAnna, head of the Library’s Recorded Sound Section, said that no one previously knew about this hidden jazz treasure, and he spoke about the compelling story behind the discovery, which was simply labeled “Jam Session, December 29, 1940”: “The outer sleeve had some pencil marks showing first names that would be of great interest to jazz aficianados – Doc, J. C., Shad and, most intriguing, L. Young,” DeAnna recalled. “When our audio engineer cued the disc, we were delighted to find a jam session featuring Lester Young leading a small band in an unidentified nightclub.” Young was accompanied by Shad Collins on trumpet, Doc West on drums, J.C. Higginbotham on trombone and Sammy Price on piano. The recording is especially significant because it was recorded during a vital period in Young’s career, when little of his work survives. According to DeAnna, it is speculated that Young was performing at the famous Village Vanguard in New York City. “At one point the emcee announces that the chile con carne is ready,” DeAnna said. Still, we have to wait for Jan. 12, 1941!!!

Thanks, Guy, many thanks! Unfortunatelly, it wasn't game... just a few hard thigs happened in life... About the date: form links attached on this thread it can be Dec. 29 1940. Listening to sound qualities, it can be some direct to cutter head recording for delayed broadcast.

After long period of inactivity (and non visit of our board), this thread encouraged me to write just a few words. I don't mean to talk about tastes, our tastes, or my taste, but according and judging from small portion of what I've heard from this session (and that is about 10-20 SECONDS, right), I found that Pres' playing is Terrific, Awesome, Brilliant!!! Anyone heard some careful motivic playing in phrases he throws, or that famous mastering of dissonant tones in bridge of that tune (I'm not so sure it is blues at all)? I don't know if the overall balance of miking session was precise (for example - Doc West, good drummer, played with Bird also - is too loud), and I'm not sure if all those musicians behind blew theirs top, but Lester is simply great! Anyway, despite few unperfections it is probably some good sounding low noise, full freq. range acetate, and it will be pleasure to listen... And we all have to listen more... About the musicians: it can be Pres First band – Shad Collins and Doc West played in it. This is one of the most exciting “finds”, comparable to Bird and Diz 1945. Town Hall Concert. Maybe it is even greater.

Just saw tracklisting on this set, and, as far as I can tell (knowing some of material by heart, already) it features his first (1938-39) and second "string" (around 1940 and further) band and prewar Gramercy Five (there are few tunes of that band as well) These are probably master takes only. But, gee... 238 tracks... Nice to see all of them gathered together.

If you're using Sound Forge then it is very simple: you can add markers on any place you want, and later convert them to regions. The second thing to do is to extract regions as separate wav files, and there it is...

Must say I'm with you while reading this post all the way. Benny Goodman is musican so often connected with somewhat mediocre context, and his band, although had no briliant musicans as those of Duke and Basie is something everyone should be listen to. For me it's pure joy to listen to Goodman's recordings from the first years of his band (1935-40), pure joy, fun, swing, name it... It's another level (some will say it's descending, I wouldn't say so) of understanding Fletcher Henderson's arrangements. And, BG, his music and heritage he left to us, lead me to all those greats we often mentioned, BN giants, Parker, Monk and even to free.

Yes, bunch of infos here. Especially that it brings to consious fact about that famous trumet section!

Colin, I'm not speaking from any experienced level, but I've hear that lineouts are disabled due to - yes, copywrite protection.

I am glad that place as such exist on earth (virtual, that is) where people can share few words about theirs parents and relatives - famous jazz musicians and sidemen. Thanks mrjazzman...

I'm with you all, people...

(infos taken from 78-online list and various other sources) Chris Griffin - the last survivor from "the best trumpet section of all time" (these words from Duke Ellington and from interview that aired on the BBC in 1977) - Benny Goodman's band around 1938 - passed away on June, 18th. While other members of that section - Harry James and Ziggy Elman - delievered Armstrong-like trumpet style, Griffin remain more in Beiderbecke area. "All three members could solo and play lead. They memorized their parts, played matching Selmer trumpets, and tuned slightly sharp for a more brilliant sound. Nearly seventy years later it is still thrilling to hear their roar on classic recordings like ”Roll 'Em,” “Life Goes to a Party,” and the Stravinsky-inspired frenzy, “Sing, Sing, Sing.” In vintage footage they toss out their valve hands with a flourish, point their bells high and rip through their parts with the proud nonchalance of young men who know they are the best at what they do." - from interview with Chris Griffin made by David French

Although the suggestion to make back-ups of your high definition audio as data (wav) is entirely correct, you shouldn't worry that your audio is lost forever, you can in emergencies use the optical or co-ax digital outputs from your stand-alone DVD-A player to record digitally back through your sound card, provided your sound card allows you to do this. Obviously this only happens in 1:1 time but it means you can 'rescue' stuff. I've done this a few times already with perfectly good results. Colin AKA SeeWhyAudio ←

and oh yeah, you can also play your DVD-audio discs on your computer. ← ? I don't think so. Only InterVideo WinDVD 6 have that opportunity (it is marked on ots splash screen as such, I did not try), and you must have sound card capable of decoding DVD-A. As far as I know only (crappy) Soundblaster Audigy 2 have that logo, don't know anything about the others sound cards. And you can not extract back to the wav DVD-A disc, so it's good advice to keep wav tracks as wav (data) DVD in case you want later to do more processing with them.

It's important to emphasize that Columbia period covers Lunceford transfer from Decca to... er... Brunswick... whatever the label was... and from early to mature period with so many brilliant, yet undocumented (on CD) sides. On the other hand, Decca sides are almost complete (big THANKS Decca/MCA/GRP for doing all this, and not only for Lunceford, but Basie (yeah, they did it in complete), McShann, Armstrong, Goodman etc.), and it is the best sound on 78s ever.

Konitz, Tristano, Marsh and Bauer... the music so mellow at the same time complex and - beautifull. R.I.P. Mr. Bauer!

Thanks - I'll keep that in mind and look for more Pell. But not his group of singers... Don't know how I survived listening to tracks on that pop Coniffesque LP from 1960's-70's, Flurin linked us to

Now this is pure CRAAAP! Reminds me of the same thing going by Ray Coniff, and he was in Artie Shaw's trombone section. Well, how much garbage once good jazz musicians produced later in theirs years when departured from jazz...?

You can listen when you follow my link - extremely crappy of-its-time music in the worst sense! I only have that Blue Note Pell disc (with the added Fagerquist session), and I would like to hear a few more! Will have to save some money, I assume... How does Dave Pell sounds to you, like Lester? These recordings I own from undocumented compilation has that reed player all the way, and he is very good while doing that emulation of Pres...

Hello people, I've just obtained one CD (one of them crappy labels with no discographical infos), and was amazed by the quality of music. It's Les Brown. I think very little is known about him, but soloist and arrangements were very fine. He had some perfect tenor sax soloist that reminds of Lester Young so much, and other good trumpet players that played just as Harry James or Roy Eldridge. Arrangements for that band were simmilar to Kenton's charts, still some of them were more dance oriented, but not mellowed and melt into strings section like Tommy Dorsey's. More swing oriented, and always with strong jazz content, even they played that old dance tunes such as: Ramona, Amapola, etc - what is quite rare among all dance band not to step in banality of the tunes itself. Section work was on highest levels, and the band can swing! As far as I know, Les Brown had that "Sentimental Journey" hit... Any fans? Any more facts? Was Les Brown only chief figure or he played some instrument as well... Recommendations? BTW I begin to discover that fantastic world of long-forgotten swing-jazz bands...

Think I've read Ted Kendall's name on the first set as well... Whoever it was, Kendall or J.R.T. Davies, it's real pleasure, especially while listening to "Chicago" played by Django and Stephane - with no noise at all (transfers of 78s metal parts pressed in vinyl), at full range audio spectrum.

And the graphic design of covers themself - not always on highest standards, IMO....