Swinging Swede

No Sweden this time.

I was thinking of 1945 too. Let me add another good year: 1947.

The Lord discography shows John Carisi as being present on Glenn Miller sessions between July and October 1943.

Also: "guy" and "his" are sexist! Perhaps one should only say that it was a person or a human. But that could be seen as speciesist. So one should probably only say that it was a being or a creature.

The civilian Miller band could swing. Here are some tracks they never recorded commercially.

Sidney Bechet recorded in London 1920. Unfortunately these sides were never released. Benny Peyton's Jazz Kings : Sidney Bechet (cl,sop) Fred Coxito (as) George Smith (vln) Pierre de Caillaux (p) Henry Sapiro (bj) Benny Peyton (d) London, c. January/February 1920 High society (unissued) Col Tiger rag -

A very disappointing missed opportunity. The original CD releases were seriously flawed for two reasons: 1) They were just straight reissues of the LP configurations. But, apart from the 1943 concert which was a 3-LP set, the others were 2-LP sets on which a number of tracks had been omitted due to the LP space limitations. But CDs have a lot more space, so those tracks should have been restored. 2) The sound on the CDs had been nonoised to death. What they should have done is thus to restore the omitted material and to make new and good transfers that make these historical concerts justice. That is what I have been hoping for all of these years, and to just reissue those seriously flawed CD editions is a missed opportunity that is incredibly disappointing.

Cole Slaw is indeed the only one that hasn't been put on CD (if we include Andorran needle drops). It has however appeared in blogland. There is also an unissued album recorded in July 1965. Most but not all of the tunes were repeated on later Cadet albums: Lou Donaldson (as) + others New York, July, 1965 14121 Greasy papa (unissued) Cadet 14122 The thing - 14123 Fried buzzard - 14124 The best things in life are free - 14125 Stella by starlight - 14126 The wig blues - 14127 Just friends - 14128 Over the rainbow - Then there are a few additional unreleased tracks: Tommy Turrentine (tp) Lou Donaldson (as) Big John Patton (org) Roy Montrell (g) Ben Dixon (d) New York, July 17, 1963 [signifyin' session] 12553 Bossa nova [Lou's new thing] (unissued) Lou Donaldson (as) Herman Foster (p) Sam Jones (b) Leo Morris (d) Richard "Pablo" Landrum (cga) New York, September 7, 1966 [blowin' In The Wind session] 15116 Untitled (unissued) 15118 Blues no. 1 - 15119 Chasin' a fox - All of this may have perished in the Universal fire.

Gotta Be This Or That was a popular tune at the end of the Swing Era and was recorded by several bands. Benny Goodman recorded it for Columbia in 1945 in an extended arrangement on a double-sided 78. That original version, which also had Red Norvo and Slam Stewart present, is actually on YouTube too: Benny Goodman - Gotta Be This Or That (1945) BG's Columbia recording of it seems to have had a troubled history. It was first recorded in March 1945 at a slower tempo in a regular 3-minute version, with Jane Harvey and Benny Goodman taking the vocals. This version did not have Red Norvo or Slam Stewart, and wasn't released until the LP era. Then the following month no less than two different extended versions were recorded at the same session. One heavily featured Trummy Young, both as a singer (in addition to BG) and in an extended trombone solo. This was also not released until a lot later. The other version was what was released at the time and is the now famous version with BG as the only solo singer, and featuring Slam Stewart and Red Norvo. All three versions can be found on the Classics CD 1945.

You would think. But despite the fact that the bull won fair and square, they killed it afterwards anyway. How fair is that? Surely they should have let it live, since it won. There are videos of it at YouTube. The bullfighter was badly injured, but with his history as a professional animal torturer, I can't say I feel too sorry for him.

It's worth keeping in mind that it's not always clear what's an alternate take and what's a master take. A case in point is Charlie Parker on Dial. One take may have been chosen as master take during the session (usually but not always the last take), then Ross Russell would issue a different take on the 78. It was not uncommon that different takes would appear on 78s, 10" LPs and 12" LPs. In earlier days (I'm thinking of primarily the 1920s), it was also not uncommon that several different acceptable takes would be recorded and two or even three of them would be used on the same catalogue number. There was nothing indicating on the copy which take you would get; it all depended on which pressing you happened to pick up. For example, Lester Young's "Tickle Toe" was based on a Bix Beiderbecke solo, but a different take, where Bix doesn't play that line, was also released, and if Young had happened to buy a pressing with that take instead, what would then have happened? It's usually easier when you reach the 12" LP era, but not always, because sometimes different takes were used on the mono and stereo releases. In all these cases, which take are you going to go for, if you have a master take only philosophy? Sometimes there may also be substantial differences between takes, like changes in the arrangement, tempo, solo order, solo instrument and vocal or instrumental. The takes may also have been recorded on different sessions, with different musicians. Sometimes the term "alternate version" is used rather than "alternate take" in these cases.

Can't dwell on past presidents only!

I was actually listening to this one earlier today.

They forgot to include the Capitol recordings!