Big Beat Steve

Further discussion here:

I haven't read Larkin's book (though I might be tempted if it came my way cheaply) but have read other in similar situations: It all depends on whether you are inclined to read books on your favorite hobby as a document of its times and are willing to make allowances for those "times", i.e. you are not dead set on wanting to read everything with the benefit of hindsight. Honestly ... I have read several of Hugues Panassié's books (as well as two volumes of his HCF "Bulletin" of the early 60s) and while I definitely disagree with a lot (the vast majority, in fact) of his evaluations and judgments of specific artists and styles of jazz I do find quite a bit of interesting reading matter and judgments there that can help your understanding of specifc artists after all - and in some aspects as late as the late 50s/early 60s he was fairly right on the ball where others flawed constantly and came up with evaluations that from today's point of view are just as dated. Similar with other "period" jazz publications. You just need to take them for what they are - a mirror of their times - and apply a grain of salt and your own judgment. But I feel this often is more helpful in understanding the history of the music than if you were to read only publications that look at it from today's point of view and - above all - that permanently work in their own TODAY'S agendas. And from what I have read in John Litweiler's 1985 review of Larkin's book above, the same will probably be applicable there too.

You mean you've changed your opinion since?

So ... a question to those whom might be able to judge: How would the Bird book by Chuck Haddix rate overall (and in comparison), then?

You nailed it. Trying to go for effects, and pouring those effects on by the ladle. Nuff said ...

Well ... if the book review in the opening post is anything to go by, Vian's jazz writings are much more valid. They may often be lopsided and biased and they are a sign of their times (and need to be seen in the contexts of the times, like MANY jazz writings need to) but at least they are witty and poignant in a progressive and clear-cut way and not as much a matter of "trying to grasp the subject matter at all" as in the case of what Larkin had to say about Oliver's book.

RT, I'm not familar with the examples you quoted in your opening post so cannot start from there, but along the lines of Jimmy Raney, how come nobody has mentioned the TAL FARLOW-Eddie Costa-Vinnie Burke trio dates yet? Cannot fault him for what you might call excessive volume (unless turned up on your unit) but he's certainly fast and harmonically interesting, I'd say. Or would Eddie Costa be too "busy" for your taste? (His percussiveness sometimes might come across as a bit busy but certainly not here, I feel) Or how about the Tal Farlow-Red Norvo-Red Mitchell dates? (Of course if you are afraid other office passers-by might object you might have a point because vibes can indeed drive the unsuspecting non-jazz listeners up the wall ))

Among 50s jazz (and before, of course, i.e. in the pre-LP time) there must be dozens if not hundreds of jazz sessions that fall into this category. Just one example: The Hall Daniels Septet session recorded on Feb. 14, 1955 and released on Jump JLP9. Later reissued on Zim as by Zoot Sims/Dick Nash (with Zoot Sims receiving primary billing, of course). Understandable re-crediting in cases like this (Hall who? ) but still ...

:D :tup

Could this indeed be the reason why Avid omits certain tracks (as indicated above)? They stuck with the orignal LP programming? I haven't checked the discographies in detail but the Goldmine Price Guide to Collectible Jazz Albums 1949-1969 states that Tony Scott In Hi-Fi is made up of two 10-inchers: Music After Midnight (BL-58040) and Tony Scott Quartet (BL-58056). (No mention that the third 10-incher, Jazz for GI's (BL-58057) is included too.) So this statement seems to be wrong and "Tony Scott in Hi-Fi" is a mixture of all three? At least it sems to include PART of "Jazz for GI's".

You're not talking about the "West Coast Jam Sessions" 3-LP box on the Scarecrow label, are you? That would be different live Wardell recrdings.

Great job. Says this Wardell Gray fan. Looking through your research at a glance and in a nutshell, did I get this right? "Tenderly" remains the "odd track out" throughout these releases as 1) it does not feature Wardell at all 2) is a studio recording and not something taken from the "Just Jazz" concerts? Any idea why this was retained? (Apart from the arbitrary programming and crediting on a lot of Crowns) I have the Just Jazz tracks on a 70s UK Vogue double LP featuring the Just Jazz recordings, but apart from the various Way out Wardell" and "Shades of Gray" Bihari-related releases, have there been any other vinyl reissues of those recordings where the vinyls were credited specifically to Wardell Gray?

Somehow I am at a loss as to finding out what is so special or cultish about making "mix tapes". I've always thought this was the main purpose of having blank cassette (or K7, as the French cal them so fittingly) tapes. I've made them most of my life, not least of all to have my very personal mixes of my preferred music to keep me company in my car(s). Don't know how many hours it sometimes took to fill one C90. But it was fun and indeed more stimulating than the simple digital copying via the program on your Pc you can do today. In fact I still have cassette players in my cars and the last time though it's been close to two years now that I made the last mix tape. Never really got too much into the cassette format for prerecorded albums (don't think I ever bought any, and the only prerecorded ones I still have are a couple of band demos from the late 80s). The winding process to skip tracks turned me off most of the time, and though it was convenient to be able to copy LPs to K7 to at least be able to listen to the music if you could not get the album somewhere else this always was a stopgap measure to me. I tried to replace those self-copied "LP to K7" items with the real deal at the very earliest opportunity. Anyway, nice article in the Grauniad - brought back some memories and was interesting to read up on the early development. How come MG hasn't had his say here yet about the ongoing importances of cassette sales in Africa?

As promised in my initial mail, my preorder for both of your books just went out through P'pal. Hope you will be able to round up enough preorders for both books soon..

O.K., so if I got this right I'd need to pay $50 for both of these books plus shipping to Europe, right? WIll send a mail during the weekend with my formal reservation and payment. BTW, did I overlook something or is the Really The Blues Vol. 1 (1893-1929) CD set the only set of the projected 4 that has for far been released?

This one should fit the bill for comprehensive coverage of the MGM years (European P.D. reissue). No idea about how the sound rates compared to other (piecemeal or older) releases, though. http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Quintet-Studio-Sessions-1949-1954/dp/B007JYQTEG/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1376860267&sr=8-11&keywords=George+Shearing+complete

Yes - any news about the Jazz Before Motown project since it was last discussed here in 2007?

Jeff has nailed it. Other voclaists under whose names Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm recordings were released are Raymond Hill, Johnny O'Neal, Dennis Binder and Bonnie Turner.

Aaron gave me a burned copy of the Bethlehem LP he made with Jimmy Raney and Hall Overton, so Fresh Sound probably put that one out. That sounds like the LP on the RAMA label ("Clarinet & Co."), not the Bethlehem LP which had Urbie Green, Danny Bank, Barry Galbraith, Clyde Lombardi and Osie Johnson. And yes - the RAMA LP was reissued by Fresh sound both on vinyl and CD. Otherwise, I agree with jazztrsin. Lots of obvious items there that have already been reissued a couple of times whereas others seem to be overlooked constantly.

Have you tried to get him interested in the not quite so obvious names (compared ot the examples you mentioned)? Elmore James? Earl Hooker? Hound Dog Taylor? Or even T-Model Ford? Should have enough wild guitar solos to suit his tastes ... OTOH, your buddy does not quite sound like one who would really be open to exploring blues (even electrified blues) on its own terms but rather on the lookout for blues-tinged rock. But if he owns that many hard rock albums he ought to have a good dose of Ten Years After, Cream and the like anyway (must invariably have come across them, I'd guess). And that should have made him aware of Johnny Winter, Roy Buchanan or Albert King. Or else he has managed to evade this "blind spot" (without being aware of it) for a long time in accumulating that many albums. Reminds me of a couple of friends of mine (who are out and out 50s rockabilly diehards) when it comes to advancing their interests in black 50s R&B (Tarheel Slim and his ilk aren't the worst starting points - works every time ... so do classics like "Shake Your Moneymaker", "Strange Kinda Feeling", "Boogie Chillen" etc.)

Thanks, Bluenoter. That might be a way out. I wil keep it in mind.

Have you made an aural comparison with Dragon DRCD369? According to the online discography of Swedish jazz (on www.visarkiv.se), three of the tracks listed above are on that CD: - Chircorenes (spelled Chicarones here) and Sweet and Lovely rec. live in Rönneby, Nov. 10, 1964 - Absolution (spelled Ablution here, could this be the correct title, i.e. the Tristano/Konitz tune recorded by Lars Gulin in 1953?) rec. in Skelleftea, Feb. 23, 1965 Maybe the Anagram CD includes additional tracks from the above dates?

My initial thoughts too... But are there still THAT many libraries overall that still have the funds to indulge in this kind of extravaganza today?

For some reason the link that the thread starter provided is flagged as being "risky" by my PC security system so better use this one: http://www.bear-family.com/en/folk-world/world/va-black-europe.html?force_sid=fca1fad7ee331d3593426ba45fdcc081&&listtype=search&searchparam=black%20europe I've read about this set in BF's news blurb before, and whatever they do in the way of box sets is tops and spells QUALITY but this one defintely is way over the top for me too. Early music in some ways is fine but this is too much prehistoric musical archeology for me. They deserve to be commended for taking on such a project, and no doubt there will be a market (or some internal reason for cross-financing such a "labor of love" from the revenues of other sales), or else they would not have done it at all.

Well, they definitely date back to the 78 rpm era. And they were around from the day that 33 rpm vinyl (in the form of 10in LPs) started. They were far less comprehensive and not something for the completists but many reissues did follow a programming pattern (such as reissuing maybe a dozen series of LPs - or corresponding sets of EPs - from a label's back catalog, each dedicated one major artist and picking their recorded highlights). Just check out the 50s reissues by labels such as Coral, Decca, Capitol and the like. And due to the fact that pressings were much more "national" (and imports were a costly commodity) you'd tend to get a lot of reissues at the same time on different markets. German Brunswick, for example, had reissue series of swing-era music from the old Decca catalog in the late 50s/early 60s that were specific to Germany (they seem to have been marketed elsewhere too but did not have exact matches on other markets AFAIK but rather different reissues, the contents of which of course overlapped in part). And of course even the minors repackaged their 10in releases in 12in form as soon as the 10in format became obsolete among the longplayers (cf. Prestige). Nothing new under the sun there, really ... just an increasingly prevalent "completist reissuing", re-re-repackaging and "scraping the barrel" attitude IMO