garthsj

I was about to add something to this thread, but suddenly I felt like William Burroughs about to address a group of high school potheads who have only been toking for a year or so ... been there, done 'that' .. doing 'that' still ... for fifty-two years! (I am 64). Garth

We seldom disagree, but on this occasion we do. I think that the Mulligan album is better, mostly because it seems more "coherent" to me, and swings just as hard as the Beehive album. But both albums are neglected gems ....

I can tell you with some certainty that the Buddy DeFranco big band material is extremely rare, and I think this is certainly the first reissue of any sort that I am familiar with ... What is the best (easiest) way to order these albums? Garth, Houston.

At one point a giant French Hypermarket here in Houston (now closed!) was selling these for $4.98 .... I loaded up on them at the time. As I recall, the price in Europe at the time of the first edition, based upon the current value of the U.S. dollar was equivalent to about $8.00 ... One friend in New Zealand(!!!) sent me copies (the rare Chet Baker etc.) that he had purchased there for the equivalent of about $4.00! I guess that there is quite a lot of dumping going on ... I wonder what the size of the production run was? Garth.

... and this is a wonderful 3-CD boxed set compiled by Steve Voce of more swing oriented British jazz originally on the Nixa Label. Much of this features the wonderful trumpet work of Kenny Baker, but there is also material by Don Rendell, Joe Harriott, and Kenny Graham, among many others. (I am particularly fond of the clarinet work of Vic Ash).

There has been a revival in interest in the history of modern jazz in Britain. I lived in London in 1958-1960, and going to the Flamingo on a Friday and Saturday night was one of my great joys, and took about a third of my paltry salary at the time ... but to hear live jazz of this calibre was worth every penny. Here are some recent sets that are very useful historical compilations of rare material. Each is a 4-CD (in two, 2-CD volumes) set.

Thanks Larry .. now I know what "self-aggrandizing journalism" means ... it makes academic writers seem almost modest by comparison ...

... and finally .. the last Eastwind recording and one of several very good Soulnotes ...

still more .... these are the great Eastwind recordings with Cedar Walton, Sam Jones, and Billy Higgins...

more .....

Mike just beat me with some of his scans.. but as I made them, I thought that I would put them up anyway .... Art Farmer was one of three musicians whose work I tried to be as "completist" as possible during my vinyl collecting years. I currently have about 50 CDs of his .... here are a few....

I promised that I would never again say, "I used to have a copy" ... so I won't... I think that ALL Jubilee albums came out of their sealed covers sounding like they were "pre-owned" .... for years I tried to find a clean copy of "Fat Jazz" with Jackie McLean ... remastering can only improve every Jubilee recording .... Chuck, I agree that Teddy Charles was not the most "swinging" vibes player, but in his younger days, when he was still using his real name, Theodore Cohen, he did some nice things with Buddy DeFranco on Capitol .. I am sure that you have those sides in your collection ... Back in April in this thread I pointed out that he was a great teacher of the "four mallet technique" to other vibists ... Maybe Allen can give us the benefit of a preview of his manuscript and tell us how he assesses Teddy Charles's overall contribution ... I am very eager to hear this.

Allen, Welcome to the wide, wonderful, wacky, weird, world of publishing ... !!! I once had a manuscript rejected because one out of four outside reviewers did not like the fact that I did not take an "ideological stance " with which he could identify! .... I quickly found another publisher .... so don't give up hope. The subject matter sounds fascinating, and given much of the garbage that does get printed these days in the name of jazz scholarship (Leslie Gourse, et. al.), your book appears to make a genuine contribution to the field. Hang in there, as I am eager to read it someday soon. Garth.

Thanks Mike for reminding me of "Whats New" (Columbia 842) ... that album went early in my LP sale, and I had totally forgotten about it .. it could easily be paired with "Something New, Something Blue" ... to make a wonderful remastered CD! Maybe the folks at the Collectables label could be persuaded, as they do some "strange" reissues from the Columbia catalog. I wonder if TEO Macero would go for it.

Yes Late, Bob Prince did several really interesting albums in the "early" avant-garde vein .. most notably "Events And N.Y. Export: Op Jazz" (RCA 2435), and another "Jazz Ballets From Broadway" (Warner 1240). These are really quite "out there" in jazz terms .... Garth ... AND I AM GOING TO COPYRIGHT "'EARLY' AVANT-GARDE" ...

Allen, I am very interested in your post, and your forthcoming book. I have long been an admirer of this early "avant-garde" school myself (I started my own jazz odyssey about his time), and your brief historical overview intrigued me, However, I am interested also in why you did not mention the "west coast" experimenters ... notably Shorty Rogers, Jimmy Giuffre and composers such as Bill Holman, and Bill Russo. Their body of work, so thankfully documented on those great Contemporary label recordings would certainly fall into tis category in some way. In Roger's seminal recording "The Three" with Giuffre and Shelly Manne, I was always impressed that the improvisations were not bop based. Clearly Giuffre was gearing up for the path that he would follow ten years later, while Rogers moved back into more conventional big band jazz. When I was doing a jazz radio program several years ago, I did several shows featuring these early experimental jazz groups, and they never failed to elicit astonished response from then current avant-garde enthusiasts who had never been exposed to these early recordings. I remember in particular the strong response to "The Three" ... as well as to that strange (but beautiful) album of Jimmy Giuffre's. "Tangents in Jazz" (Capitol T-634, now in the Mosaic Giuffre Box). I should also note that while I know your list was not meant to be complete, it would be amiss not to include Hal McKusick, and Bob Prince. And when will Columbia (Sony) reissue a remastered version of "Something New, Something Blue" (CS8183)? ..... [i see that JohnS above just beat me to the same conclusion .. clearly this is becoming a 'movement'!] Thanks for the interesting post ... I know that there several others on this list that are intrigued by this little niche in jazz history ... Garth.

I would like to thank both of you -- Larry and Clememtine -- for your responses. Not living on the favored coast, and therefore not as needful to monitor the activities, lliterary and otherwise, of people like Gopnik and Denby, (or Frazen and other New Yorker writers) I was genuinely interested in why Larry's take was so ... well ... "negative." I am now duly enlightened, and will play closer attention to their work in future, bearing in mind what has been said here. Of course, in my own little academic world (I teach communications, with a speciality in film history and propaganda studies), I know many such people, and I have learned a long time ago to be wary of their veneer of intellectual superiority. In my time I have been hissed and politely booed at several academic meetings for daring to suggest that "the emperor has no clothes"! So, once again, thanks for the clarification .... Garth.

Brownie, thanks for posting this ... this series has always interested me, and I have picked up about sixty of them over the last few years.. I resisted buying the two "big boxes" that were once on sale ... Do you know what ever happened to the EMI series "Americans Swinging in Paris" ... I have about half of the original series; has any more been issued? Garth.

A lot of the reviewers need the money more than the book. In fact, selling off review copies keeps some of them fed until their next assignment. B-) That's bee a longtime tradition of the freelance-- and not so freelance-- writer/reviewer/critic. No reflection on the book at all. As someone who reviews lots of books, I am well aware of this tradition (although in academic circles it is considered a questionable activity, nevertheless widely practiced when the "used book man" comes around with ready $$$). My comment was basically suggestive that this book is one of those exceptions that should remain on the library shelves of any reviewer who claims to have an expertise in jazz ... in other words this is not a review copy that I would have sold to Strand for about $5. His loss, my gain, though! Over many years of experience with publishers of all kinds, I am often mystified about how their publicity departments work or don't work. I can regale you with many horror stories ... but that is a subject for another time ... Garth.

As a writer myself, non-fiction variety, I am more than interested in your take on Gopnik's piece ... I wonder if you would care to elaborate on this critique of yours. I must admit that I don't really understand/see it in this review of the Django biography. I do understand his inaccuracy regarding Django and the electric guitar, but your critique's references escape me. Most of us write about things the we have "prepped" on ... and as far as "power and advancement of self" is concerned, I would like to know more about why you feel that way, and where you perceive this in this particualr review. Garth.

The Rogers set finally went for $212.50. Are many other Mosaic sets going for $50 a disc? Interestingly enough, fifteen years ago you could not have given anything by Shorty Rogers away! I am really impressed how much you "younger" folks on this board appreciate west coast jazz for what it is, unlike the previous generation that was very disparaging of that genre. It almost made me cry when I read a comment on here recently praising the Curtis Counce albums on OJC/Contemporary ...

On his deathbed Buddy will play better than Kenny P on a great day. I guess I should say IMOP. B-) ad infinitum .... The man has a very ugly portrait of himself in his attic .... but having sold his soul to the devil he is every bit as good as he was fifty years ago ... but I do agree, the quality of the rhythm section can often push him into more of a "swing-Goodman" mode, while a bop-oriented section will cause you to hear some of the most harmonically advanced bop you have ever experienced. DeFranco has always been my God! Of course, all of this is IMHO .... <----------- see my avatar! Garth.

A major contribution to the jazz literature .... the collected wisdom of someone who knows and understands jazz and musicians. I managed to get a "used" copy through Amazon from Strand Books (how I miss that store!) for less than $20.00. It was obviously a mint "review" copy, as it still had the publisher's info sheet inside. A pity that some reviewer did not enjoy it enough to make it a permanent part of his/her library. I have delved into various parts of the book, and particularly enjoyed the piece on Charlie Haden, written in 1967, which told me a lot a I did not know. Larry Kart's book in next in my acquisitions list, but I also have to remember to meet my own publisher's deadlines this holiday season ... Garth.

Hmmmmmmmmm ..... as a former clarinet player myself, I would be concerned about exposing a young, innocent player to Buddy DeFranco .... as I indicated in another thread, it can be either an inspirational or a daunting experience .... just kidding. DeFranco is a good place to start for anindication of what can be done on the clarinet .. the purity of tone, control of the instrument, etc. On the other hand if you want to show how far the instrument can be taken away from its natural beauty then go to Don Byron. Who knows, given the nature of teenagers these days, the subversive, alternative interpretation of the clarinet that Byron so aptly provides might be just what she needs to inspire her. If I had ever played with Byron's tonal qualities my clarinet teacher, a formidable Teuton, Herr Doktor Wolfgang Feuerbach (he was the principle clarinetist with the Cape Town Symphony) would have had me thrown out of the Conservatory at the University of Cape Town . He was angry enough when I started playing in dance bands at age 14 ... "all zat vaving ze instrument around in ze air..." The sight of Goodman, Herman, Shaw, et. al. with their instrument lifted skyward sent him into paroxyms of invective ... It was verboten to mention their names to him! Basically clarinet players are a weird bunch ... the instrument is so damned demanding to play well ... Garth.

I started playing clarinet when I was 11. My father played the drums in a strict-tempo dance band, and I was always surrounded by music, mostly pop stuff, which in those days featured lots of big band music. When I started playing clarinet I acquired some Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw 78's, and then a kindly record store owner played some Buddy DeFranco 78's on the MGM label for me ... I was hooked. So, even before I owned an LP record player, I used my pocket money to purchase this 10" DeFranco album in 1952. I used to play it at my friend Ralph's house, and even then his technique intimidated the hell out of me. It was a daunting experience for a young aspiring clarinet player. I still have this album, the only LP that I currently own ... it is in a special glass frame and hangs on the wall of my study ... a reminder of all of the years of joy that jazz has brought me. Garth.