Big Beat Steve

Strange coincidence ... I'll be giving myself the Kenton biography "This Is An Orchestra" by Michael Sparke for Christmas, and when reading it will no doubt delve into the "Artistry In Rhythm" bio by William F Lee too that came into my possession a couple of months ago (I haven't tackled that one yet, although glancing through it I have some misgivings - e.g. about how contemporary press coverage is worked into it, and excessively quoted at length). But I now did print out that Guardian writeup about Leslie Kenton's book as well and filed it in the Lee biography "for permanent reference". This thread from 2010 had in fact slipped my mind, and the link in the opening post is dead anyhow. So thanks for posting this, Andrea! (Though admittedly I am not sure I'd want to get the book - yet ...)

Yes, that's quite possible. I was just "echoing" and confirming what John L said about discographical information being available throughout for what had been released previously.

Re-recording dates on BN - what is more, the JEPSEN's Jazz Records discography (published from 1962 onwards) listed the recording dates almost throughout for these releases. I just did a quick check on some of the BN acts (Blakey, Sonny Clark, Donaldson, Silver) and the'yre there. So visibly this info had been "salvaged" by researchers (Jepsen or whoever contibuted this info to him) and saved for posterity at a time before it may have got "lost" (for a time). And some renowned labels such as Contemporary did list the recording dates even on the original releases, starting back in the 50s.

Not any worse than Dan Grissom with Jimmie Lunceford. And I don't think it is so much a matter of being a "purist". Even tearjerkers can be swung (in a way). But I guess they were part of the repertoire (dictated by popular tastes back then) of the big bands (Black ones included) that they did play at live dates but that otherwise never got recorded (waltzes, etc.).

I agree, this has very often been the case, and the rule rather than the exception. There are countless reissues that reproduced the facsimiles of the front and back covers of the originals but often have a few lines with personnel and recording dates added somewhere (wherever there remained some free space) in the original layout of the back cover. And I do not even count the number of original (or very early rpressing) LPs where I've added the recording dates in pencil (so erasable ) on the back cover somewhere near the lineups. As for "new jazz", I cannot really comment because there is not much brand new jazz releases I am buying. But overall, among those I did buy (most often CDs) I'd say it's about 50% with and without recording dates. But indeed the recording studio always seems to be mentioned (and the recording dates - if indicated - buried somewhere nearby), as well as the lists of thanks to a milion people out there.

Someone who digitized the recordings, I guess? So wasn't Mosaic involved at some point (remastering, for example??) in this process for each of these recordings that went into their releases? Even if they weren't the first to have digitized the music.

Don Byas? Pop?? This??? What were they thinking at Mosaic?? I could understand the "pop" tag with some of his French ballad recordings from the 50s, but here??

The Hank D'Amico session you are referring to has been present on the reissue market since the 80s on the 2-LP anthology "The Changing Face of Harlem Vol. 2" (Savoy). A very nice compilation, and along with its Vol. 1 companion volume it occupies some space in the "Second copies" corner of my record shelves (which I guess is saying something ). Additional listening suggestion for Hank D'Amico: "Holiday With Hank" (recorded for Bethlehem in the 50s and reissued most recently in Japan).

I realize tastes do differ, but overall I find this series certainly not bad but a somewhat lukewarm affair. Many years ago I had a small number of them (that came my way almost by accident) but sold them off again at a time when I did not yet do this with items that were NOT duplicates. These LPs do not seem to be that rare in the secondhand bins either. So apart from the historial angle such as Mingus' last bass work being for that series I am not sure there is a huge market for these recordings given the Mosaic treatment at Mosaic prices. In hindsight somehow I also feel the radio man (who presented these newly-released records in a jazz radio show here) wasn't all wrong when he wondered publicly and with less than maximum appreciation what the producers behind this series (or Lionel Hampton) were possibly thinking with titles such as "Lionel Hampton presents Gerry Mulligan" - as if someone with the status of Gerry Mulligan needed to be presented by someone like Lionel Hampton - certainly a major figure too but no longer as hot in the running as Mulligan conceivably still was at that time. So ... a mixed bag, I'd say.

I had seen the music from this LP listed on Youtube last winter and listened in here and there. So as a stopgap solution I now downloaded the 8 tracks from Youtube. So at least the music of this LP is on my PC now.

That "A Cool Yuletide" by Urbie Green so far has eluded me. Apparently never ever reissued. At least not on tangible media. But there will be more Christmases (and buying occasions before that) to come.

A sedative indeed. Going to spin Kenton Christmas now, I think!

I know, Colin, I have plenty of these sheet-type booklets in other Folkways LPs from the 50s and 60s. Except that the printouts of the scans from their site turn out somewhat smaller than the originals.

Thanks very much, Niko! That's exactly what I was looking for. Printed out, cut to size, stapled and placed into the record jacket right away. That Folkways site really is amazing for this kind of info. Bookmarked now, not least of all to check if there are any other Folkways records on my shelves that are missing their booklet. (And to see what to look out for elsewhere )

This is a wide shot, but I am giving it a try anyway ... At a recent clearout sale at a local record shop (each item priced at 1 EUR) I bought a copy of "New Orleans Jazz: The Twenties" on RBF 203-1 (Record Book and Film Sales - an offshoot of Folkways Records, released in 1964, not the 2-LP set but Vol. 1). Excellent condition, but the booklet is missing. The scans in the Discogs listing of this release unfortunately are hardly readable at all once they are printed out. So if there is anyone out there among you forumists who owns this record (or the 2-LPs set or the Folkways pressing which should have the same booklet) and would be prepared to send me a scan of the booklet I'd love to hear from you! Thanks a lot in advance!

I must have expressed myself badly. What I meant about the Gullin CD was that apparently things had already come full circle for this CD - though it looked brand new it must have been part of a collection this shop bought up and then sold off that way. Which surprised me as it seems to have been a comparatively recent production on a collector/collectible label that does not normally finish in the "sale" bins yet. This shop does stock certain new Sonorama vinyls too, BTW.

Ouch ... sorry to hear about those sad things. Good luck to you that everything will stay on the positive side from now on!

Wintry grey and overcast here too, so I might well be tempted to follow your recommendation and put this one in the CD player next.

But you DID take note of that Don Byas bio here, Gheorghe ... ?

Thanks very much, Mike. To reply briefly to Mr Fleischhammer's comments: 1) Pity about the Swedish jazz, as there still is quite a bit of territory that is uncharted reissue-wise. But I'll agree that this is a niche market probably not easily exploitable if you are not that close to the Swedish market. 2) Understandable but still regrettable. Provided that recordings remain at all, the 1960 festival, for example, might have yielded the very first documented recordings by Gunter Hampel, Alexander von Schlippenbach and Joe Viera, among many others; each one of them had applied for participation with their own groups. 3) Yes, a real obscurity, that "Modern Jazz Group 60" from Pforzheim. After I had discoved this news item in the JAZZER mag I wrote to Wolfram Knauer of the Darmstadt Jazz Institute but he had no knowledge whatsoever of this either. But since Sonorama seems to have a knack of unearthing unreleased tapes off the beaten tracks of the "usual suspect" artists I figured a question might be worth it. BTW, the list of applications for the 1960 German Amateur Jazz Festival lists a "Hard Bop Group Pforzheim". This might well be them. As for the sales or non-sales of Sonorama records, is there any indication which ones, for example, are particularly slow movers? I have bought several new Sonorama vinyls at our preferred local record shop through the years, but Lars Gullin's comparatively recent "Liquid Moves" CD, for example, already showed up there in the 1 EUR "secondhand odds and ends" special offer bin (and, needless to say, is on my shelf now ).

O.K., so here goes: A wisecracking question or hint about Sonorama C-100/L-100 (Cool Europa): Isn't a cover photo dating from 1949 (Fred Bunge blowing a lone trumpet to some kid onlookers in war-ridden Hamburg, photo by Susanne Schapowalow) a bit out of tune (literally ) with a record covering the 1959 to 1963 ("Wirtschaftswunder"!!) period? More seriously, a question about some rarities and obscurities that should fit the release program of the label: 1) As Sonorama has released or reissued a couple of items on SWEDISH jazz from the 50s and 60s, are there any more plans for reissues of other Swedish artists/groups that have consistently been overlooked by labels such as Dragon or Caprice? 2) LPs were released back in the day with music from the German Amateur Jazz Festivals of 1958 and 1959 (on Metronome) and 1962 and 1963 (on Columbia). But nothing ever for the 1960 and 1961 festivals. Neither for the very first Amateur Jazz Festivals in 1955, 1956 and 1957. Does Sonorama know anything about the existence of recordings/tapes from these festivals and if so, any plans for future release projects? 3) A real, total, absolute obscurity: The July 1962 issue of the short-lived German jazz mag "JAZZER" carried the below brief news item. Does Sonorama have any knowledge of the existence of any such recordings and if so, any leads as to where to track down the music for a belated release?

Looking at this thread now that it has been "resurrected", and following the question by Pim "how come there are so many incomplete sets out there", and the above reply by Jazzbo, I figure there are other reasons, but the above one by Jazzbo definitely is true. As mentioned in other threads, I obtained a lot of jazz books from the estate of a deceased jazz collector some time ago, and recently was able to make a first pick from his LPs and CDs. And there sat a box and large booklet of the Count Basie live Roulette set and the Stan Kenton Capitol set, but no discs at all. The heirs who had spent almost endless hours restoring 200 CDs (stuck in a CD jukebox in their father's music room) to their jewel cases so far have been unable to locate the CDs to the above sets. Sifting through the CD part of that collection I did not find anything either. So if I can eventually manage to get this Basie live Roulette box I might even be tempted to shell out for the CDs alone if the price is right. On the same shelves there also sat the box for the 1954/55 German Jazz Festival box set on Bear Family, and I was able to locate the CDs in the drawers holding all the CDs. So this one is now a spare copy at my home. But the booklet is missing, so I will have to complete it with a photocopy from my own copy of that set that I've owned since it was released. All this just to show parts of such box sets can indeed disappear in almost any way. and the problem is not limited to Mosaics. And it takes dedicated family members to restore any order among things that only the late owner knew how and where he had filed them. (Yes, that experience taught me a lesson too )

Thanks, Mike. So basically the history from 1959 onwards. So it would complement "Latin Jazz- The Perfect Combination" by Raûl Fernandez (about 70 to 80% of that book focus on the pre-1959 revolution era). "Cubano Beo Cubano Bop" by Leonardo Acosta also devotes more than 50% to the history of the pre-1959 period (which is fine with me, but at least to me it is marred by an awkward and overly stilted translation which makes reading a chore).

Underwhelmed ... "White Glenn Miller"? White(r)washed Glenn Miller, you mean? As for "The Girl I left Behind Me", I'll rather take any Bob Wills version anytime ...

Leafing through "BG On The Record" now (4th printing 1973, so admittedly maybe not totally up to date) and checking against the Goodman V-Disc recordings I have on Sunbeam and Dan (Jap.), I see that there were some sessions by the BIG BAND that look like they were specifically recorded for V-Disc: in Nov./Dec. 1943 (p. 352 in "BG On The Record"), as well as in February 1944 (p. 357) and July 1944 (p. 361). And these possibly weren't all but I did not do a complete check. So the reasons for omission would indeed raise a few questions. Overall I guess I'll pass. The major bands featured have been on the reissue market that often that the duplications just would have been too numerous for me. As for Kay Kyser, like other Sweet bands he may have had a few swingers that got recorded. And who knows - maybe Mosaic felt they just had to include his "Victory Polka" for its topical connotations? It's on a Time-Life V-Disc set, and listening to it and its girl singers now, I'd say there have been many Andrews Sisters tunes reissued under the "swing" flag that were not that much more jazzy either, for example. Any jazz listeners who'd already consider Bird old hat would of course shudder but would they be in the market for this set anyway? More seriously, though, checking the "V-Disc Catalogue" discographies (Vol. 1 by Wante & De Block, Vol. 2 by Teubig), I can see two tracks that might qualify for inclusion by their titles alone (no idea how KK treated them, of course): Bye Bye Blues on V-Disc 236, Limehouse Blues on V-Disc 318.