Big Beat Steve

VERY true! I made huge and fast progress in learning English at school when I was in my "soccer" phase at age 13-14 and literally DEVOURED English soccer mags that I had gotten hold of. And half of the progress I made in learning to read and write in Swedish came from my Swedish jazz books and mags (the other half came from classic car magazines ) Have been trying for some time to get my son to go the same way in learning French in a more entertaining way (by buying him the occasional Heavy Metal music mag when I am over in France) but this is only now beginning to show some results - he even bought himself a rock guitar tuition manual in French when we were on holiday in France recently. BTW, "toi toi toi" is in common use in German too - in the same sense.

The plight of being a "mod", isn't it? Mere human mortals like the rest of us can't do that, I think ...

I would have guessed this to be a Boris Rose label too. Maybe European-pressed, but Boris Rose source material. The covers look familiar to others in that vein, e.g. CARACOL.

Very flattering ... but my reading and writing knowledge of Swedish is FAR superior to that of Dutch. I can cope with reading Dutch as it does have its similarities with German but still it is a struggle ... BTW, do your musical interests also extend beyond jazz (even if only in a casual way)? Just in case you ever feel like delving into some specifically Dutch part of rock history, you are likely to come across those "Indo" rock bands from the late 50s and early/mid-60s. "Rockin' Ramona" (the title obvously referring to that worldwide MONSTER hit by the Blue Diamonds) by Lutgard Mutsaers (SDU uitgeverij, 's-Gravenhage 1989) is a nice book on this subject.

@Niko: Orkester Journalen is Swedish ... different call ... If you can find original copies of DE JAZZ WERELD, consider yourself lucky. As for Berendt's book (I grew up with the 1974 issue, BTW, which I still have - in addition to the 1953 and 1959 issues), if you only have the 1970 issue at this time then the 1953 issue (which was the 1st edition, actually) should be sufficiently different. But of course reading differnt language versions of identical issues side by side is not the worst way of learning some basics the easy way (or just using the German edition to crosscheck what you think you understood), and even those older editions aren't hard to get secondhand.

Niko, no doubt you are familar with (and own) one or the other edition of Joachim Ernst Berendt's "Jazzbuch". This book did exist in Dutch. I have the Dutch version of the original 1953 edition (bought on a whim at a "vintage fleamarket" im Amsterdam close to 20 years ago). So if you would also like to go the "comparison" route to learn Dutch after all (sometimes it helps - I know it has helped me in similar setups with other languages), drop me a line and I will be happy to mail it to you. I don't really need it actually and it is just taking up space in my crate of music books and mags for sale. On a jazz-related aspect, just in case you are interested in Rhythm & Blues to some extent you may remember a reissue series of Mercury masters done by Polygram in the early 90s ("Back Beat - The Rhythm of the Blues"). A Dutch book to accompany this series (and elaborate on the subject) written and compiled by Eddy Determeyer was published at the time by Van Hoeve publishers: "Back Beat - De Gouden Jaren van de Rhyhtm & Blues". To the extent that I can cope with reading Dutch (more or less ... ;-) ) it really is very well done as an introduction to the subject.

FWIW, the original Contemporary LPs do credit Roy DuNann throughout ("Sound by Roy DuNann").

Remember the discographies by Brian Rust and Horst H. Lange, to name just two? They were pretty big at this. Sometimes you can reasonably draw a line but often this reeks of personal preferences and narrowed-down views of the world: "outside the scope of this book" "no jazz content" "of no interest to the collector" etc. etc. Didn't you get the message: THOU SHALT NOT COLLECT THESE UNWORTHY ITEMS! That said, I agree with you all the way about what fairly recent recordings (from the period when a lot of what did not fit into any other categories tended to be lumped in with "jazz") that are not exactly jazz either find their way in up-to-date discographies.

To get some "period" insight for background info, try to get a copy of "The Jazz Scene" by Francis Newton (first published in 1959). The Down Beat "Music '63" Yearbook says this about the book: "A fine, new thinker in jazz probes without cant or bombast the origins and directions of jazz and has much to say about social and business aspects of the music."

You're on a PLYMOUTH ride?

I remember seeing that one in the racks and bins for quite a while back then but never picked it up. I remember I was quite unsure what that mix of country and R&B was supposed to amount to, and besides, somehow R&B guitarists that might have gone "all funk" in their later days (I'd been licked in other cases - cf. Bo Diddley and Johnny Guitar Watson) caused me to be overly cautious at the time . I probably was wrong in this case but at the time I thought that NOTHING EVER among his output could top Gate's "San Antonio Ballbuster" album on Red Lightning (a record I still cherish, FWIW).

Very nice anyway. "very nearly lost Balmoral". ... Hee heee ...

It's an interesting read (and shows that - regardless of Wolfe's part in it - Mezzrow was a better writer (or narrator?) than clarinet handler - which of course ain't sayin' much ) but in this category of "early memoirs" I definitely find Eddie Condon's "We Called It Music" more compelling ...

And another one (a peripheral figure in the "musician" sense but nevertheless a very important female personality in spreading swing-era jazz as part of popular culture): Norma Miller (with Evette Jensen): Swingin' At The Savoy. The Memoir of a Jazz Dancer. Temple Press, N.Y. 2001

You didn't like the Burnett James bio on Lady Day? http://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/billie-holiday/author/burnett-james/

I find Sherrie Tucker's "Swing Shift" an exceedingly mixed bag. Though the subject matter is very interesting (and I still don't regret buying the book, though mainly for want of something more readable throughout on exactly this subject), this is one of those books where the author clearly has an agenda and goes out of his (her, in this case ) way to make the narative and the facts fit that agenda. Ho hum ... (and yes, all those "second wave feminist" references in there do get on this reader's nerves - and no, I was NOT influenced by Chris Albertson's opinion on that book in writing this! ) As for additions, there also was a biography of Billie Holiday by Burnett James (called just that - "Billie Holiday", though I have no other info on the English-language edition(s) - my copy is a French translation and publication by Garancière (Paris) from the 80s .

47 years. Way too early. Can't recall having consciously heard the NDR big band featuring him but can imagine the loss. R.i.P.

Amazing that the obit to linked to in the initial post should expresly mention the 1956 European/Swedish tour with Rolf Ericson. It's easy to imagine this was an eye-opener as far as the open-mindedness of the audiences and general public was concerned but on the other hand it must have been a surreal experience in other ways. Rolf Ericson was forced to replace all four instrumentalists after less than one month because they were so junked out as to be unusable for the demands of such a tour. According to the news coverage in Swedish jazz mags Ernestine Anderson was the one who tried to hold things together (and of course stayed on for the remainder of the tour) but to no avail ... Quite a personality she must have been ... R.I.P.

Thanks for clarifying this, John L. On seeing the opening post (the Count is fine any time) I was very tempted but I have all three volumes of "Count on The Coast" so will probably pass this up after all

FWIW, there seem to be quite a few websites out there these days with biographical data of "the" Gene Harris that assume that this Jubilee LP actually was his recording debut, stylistic differences notwithstanding. Also FWIW, there are several sites showing the original Jubilee pressing (including the back covers) and this confirms that the liner notes on the FS reissue LP that mention his classical training, Juilliard plus concerts in classical settings etc., do match the original liner notes so are "period correct". http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GENE-HARRIS-TRIO-Our-Love-Is-Here-To-Stay-LP-JUBILEE-JGM-1005-US-1955-JAZZ-MONO-/262288404615 http://page9.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/k209563353 http://karyoubinka.blog93.fc2.com/blog-entry-163.html

Interesting thread. (Had not yet lurked around here the first time this was current some 11 (!) years ago now). Actually, whenever a Gene Harris Thread comes up here (which is not exactly a rare occurrence as we know) I wonder when this "other" Gene Harris will be brought up. I bought his "Our Love Is Here To Stay" LP on Jubilee (FS facsimile reisue) some 15 years ago and do like it quite a bit. So I'll be interested in the outcome of this further research.

Not quite yet, actually. 45 years, to be exact. The book first appeared in 1970. And updated editions are around (and they did not suffer from this updating IMHO, so what holds up today often is not even 45 years old yet).

Rest in peace, and thanks for the groundbreaking work at a time when not many others cared. And thanks for holding some very worthwhile jazz and R&B books in stock at your Bloomsbury Book Shop when I shopped there in 1977 and through mail order in the years thereafter. Providede me with some excellent input (and impetus) for my future collecting "career".

Copies ARE around: Maybe the experts who run the Red Saunders Research Foundation website can be of assistance? See this page .. http://myweb.clemson.edu/~campber/aristocrat.html About two thirds down in the Aristocrat entry there are label shots and some descriptions.

A fine 'LP for all those who are not too "brain-heavy" in the appreciation of jazz from that period and like to take their music with a grain of light-heartedness, appreciating examples of what ACTUALLY made the African-American community shake a leg to in those years. "Que pasa Chica" and "Shotgun Boogie" by the Cab have proven their worth as excellent record hop fare among those around here who are into swing and jump blues. I doubt, though, that Yusef Lateeef is in the Ernie Fields band lineup. I cannot see any "Bill Evans" credited there BTW, two tracks by a Jimmy Hamilton-led pickup group from (probably) 1953 are also on that record. 5 more reissued Ernie Fields tracks from 1949 (originals recorded for Gotham) can be found on Krazy Kat LP KK 814 ("Big Band Blues").