Swinging Swede

Yes, it combines his two 1964 Argo albums Mo' Rock and Behind The 8 Ball, and both have indeed been out on Japanese CDs not that long ago. Those are the editions I have. The two Blue Notes and the two Argos were the only albums under his own name that were released. There is however also an unissued Argo session from 1965. I remember that at the old Verve board (anyone remember that?), we suggested to Mark@Verve that they release it, and he had no idea what we were talking about. That's another question. What about Andorran releases of material that's available on Japanese CDs? They too are properly licensed, and with royalties going to the musicians and their relatives, I suppose.

Different from the November session? Yes, absolutely. Here are the track listings: The Bee Hive, Chicago, Illinois, June 30, 1955 1. After You've Gone 21:52 2. Blues 15:07 3. Jordu 14:07 4. The Song Is You 17:37 5. Ballad Medley 10:14 -a. My Funny Valentine -b. Darn That Dream -c. It Might As Well Be Spring 6. What Am I Here For? 13:04 The Bee Hive, Chicago, Illinois, November 7, 1955 1. Cherokee 19:44 2. I'll Remember April, Part I 22:05 3. I'll Remember April, Part II 8:47 4. Woody'n You 13:20 5. Hot House 12:24 6. Walkin' 20:00

Here is one, released last year, that seems to have pretty much slipped under the radar of this board, although it should have attracted a lot of attention: Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet - More Live At The Bee Hive (RLR) 1) This double CD contains a previously unissued (and unknown to the general discographies) live session with the Brown-Roach Quintet from June 30, 1955, which supposedly has much better sound than the later previously known Bee Hive session from November 1955 (which has been reissued on Lone Hill Jazz). One of the tracks is a 22-minute version of After You've Gone, a tune that the group never recorded elsewhere. How often do we get an hour and a half of previously unissued Brownie? I think this is an amazing find! (Perhaps it has circulated among collectors, but I can't remember having seen any reference to this session before.) 2) As a "bonus" we get the entire Pure Genius album which was on an Elektra/Musician LP. It is thought to have been recorded in early 1956, and has the later version of the group with Sonny Rollins instead of Harold Land.

I'll start with this, a Fresh Sound release from 2005: This double CD contains: 1) The complete Hampton Hawes Memorial Album on Xanadu (three live sessions from 1952 and one from 1956) 2) The Hawes half from the Xanadu album The East/West Controversy (a live session from 1951) 3) Hawes' first studio session under his own name from September 10, 1952, recorded for Discovery, and later issued on various Savoy anthologies, including Black California. 4) Hawes' second studio session under his own name from December 1952 recorded for a Prestige 10-incher, and later released on a 12-incher, coupled with a 1955 Freddie Redd session, titled Piano East/Piano West. This is the most readily available material since this album has long been out on an OJC CD. 5) A Harry Babasin session from 1952 cut for Discovery 6) A lone trio track from a 1955 Bud Shank/Bill Perkins session for Pacific Jazz. It was included on the Shank/Perkins West Coast Classics CD. Another way of putting it is that this release contains Hawes' complete pre-Contemporary leader sessions, both live and studio (plus four tracks from 1955-56 and the Babasin session). This is the type of release that seems to have been done with knowledge and care.

An excellent idea for a thread! There is such a plethora of releases from this conglomerate of labels, and with different titles than the original releases that a guide certainly is needed. The labels just get more numerous too. Recent additions are Groove Hut, apparently devoted to organ-based soul jazz, and Essential Jazz Classics, which should be avoided since the material is guaranteed to be available from official labels. I'll try to make some contributions to this thread.

Do not sleep in Japan!

Actually you can listen to Bull Frog Blues over at the Red Hot Jazz site: http://www.redhotjazz.com/pierce.html My CD says February 1928, but Red Hot Jazz lists it as January 1927.

The Now's The Time/Hucklebuck riff had certainly been around a long time. It turns up on altoist Charles Pierce's recording of Bull Frog Blues from 1928. Pierce himself is credited as composer. Muggsy Spanier and Frank Teschemacher were the most prominent participants on that session, and they both solo.

Nah, it's Eddie Vinson.

I took a look at my copy, which I bought several years ago, and damn, it has the same errors! I hadn't noticed before. My copy says "Printed in Holland", so perhaps only European copies are affected? European and American copies have differed before in typos ("Handcock" comes to mind). Anyway, once again an example of the legendary Blue Note Quality Control. Two actually.

Whirly Bird is from 1957.

I seem to remember that Chuck Nessa had different information, to the effect that it really is the same guys behind all these labels. Maybe he can weigh in on this...

I think that it's a myth these days that Japanese CDs are expensive. The way to get them is to buy them directly from Japan, as many on this board do (from Hiroshi Tanno of Early Records in particular), in which case they are not expensive at all. There are many CD reissues priced at 1500 yen for example, and even if they have a higher price of say 2345 yen, that's fully comparable with many domestic CDs. Plus I've never had to pay duties when getting shipments from Mr. Tanno, which certainly helps too! With the reissue departments of Verve and other majors imploding these days, I see myself increasingly turning to Japanese reissues to get new stuff. You can generally count on them being high quality products too, in terms of audio quality and reproduction of cover art and original liner notes.

It seems as if the January 2006 LPR/Originals batch, which had Jimmy Raney, Herb Ellis, Howard Roberts and Eddie Fisher, really is the last one. A year has passed and nothing on the horizon either according to Verve's homepage. Then again, if Verve has downsized from 120 to 12 employees in ten years, maybe this development is to be expected. I suppose that the only 'new to CD' reissues of Verve-owned material we will see in the future will come from Japan, Mosaic, or possibly some other labels (like Water) that now may be able to license stuff. So we have had the straight Verve reissues of the 80s, the Take Two series in the early 90s, the VME/VBR/VEE series that started in 1997, the LPR series in 2002 and for a short while in 2005-06 the Originals. Verve CD reissues R.I.P.

Is the Black Lion CD in mono or stereo? I have a Japanese CD which disappointingly is in mono. I've noticed that some of the Japanese Jazztime/Jazzline CD reissues are in stereo and some in mono. Don't know why. That was a very shortlived label, btw.

Amazing clip: Lion hugging and kissing its rescuer

Actually, as of now, the Condon Mob set is in both the Last Chance category and the Running Low category! So perhaps when the Last Chance copies have sold out you may still be able to get the Running Low ones...

All Mercer sessions were included on Chronological Classics' Ellington CDs.

Someone commented that the Finnish video is from 1978 (sounds like it), rather than the 80s. That was before MTV, when the art of making videos was in its infancy, and there was nothing like the professionalism of today, especially not in a small country like Finland. I don't think it's much worse than a lot of other things from its time. For example, as big as ABBA was in the 70s, their videos are considered amateurish today. Anyway, this may be the right thread to post this gem: K-Fed - Lose Control "Don’t hate me cos I’m a superstar"...

What's the catalogue number for Portuguese Soul? I wasn't aware that it was coming out, and can't find it on hmv.co.jp for example.

The Soft Swing is one of the 50 POCJs that are being reissued on 13th January 2007.

Yes, it is out on a twofer CD called Mellow Moods, which contains both Everything's Mellow and All American from the year after.

Well, Anita O'Day was with with Kenton in 1944-45 and June Christy followed her in 1945-1948, so the original orchestra should be a given. Contrary to many other big band leaders in the late big band era, Kenton did very well and had his biggest hits in those years. His Capitol recordings 1943-47, both commercial and transcriptions were collected in a now OOP Mosaic set. Except some alternate takes, those recordings have been collected in two Definitive sets, a 4-CD set for the commercial Capitol recordings, and a 2-CD set for the Capitol transcriptions. Capitol had excellent sound in the 40s, so you don't have to worry about the sound issue. Kenton had many fine bands later, but his 40s recordings remain his most important, so it doesn't get any more essential than that. Some of his progressive 1947 charts may not be to your liking, though. From the hi-fi era I can recommend Easy Go which collects 20 jazz tracks from 1950-52, that are unusually swinging for being Kenton. That early 50s band had an unusually starstudded personnel too with people like Maynard Ferguson, Conte Candoli, Art Pepper, Bud Shank and Bob Cooper. I can also recommend Kenton In Hi-Fi from 1956 which has the Kenton band recreating his biggest hits from the 40s in hi-fi. Kenton's tenor star from the 40s, Vido Musso, sits in with the band again on this one.

Not from the movie: Borat in Arizona singing a Kazakhstani hit song. Listen to the lyrics and watch the crowd reaction! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbCUH8diDpQ

Drummers Dave Bailey and Donald Bailey and while not jazz: Singers Ryan Adams and Bryan Adams