Big Beat Steve

Hey, please cut a non-native speaker of the English language some slack, will ya? (Or write better yourself in a language that is foreign to you ;)) No doubt he meant to say "underLine". Isn't it so, Mike?

Uh oh ... this is going to be a long, long list if you really want to get into details. Starting with Satch (of course), and even before .. carrying on through the Harlem Hamfats and their ilk, plus danceable big bands such as Chick Webb, Andy Kirk, Erskine Hawkins, Lucky Millinder, Buddy Johnson, etc. etc., Louis Jordan of course, Louis Prima (he had done much more before his Capitol/Vegas days), small groups such as Leo Watson's groups, The Cats & The Fiddle, Slim Gaillard (Slim & Slam and well beyond), yes, and bebop can be fun and uplifting too, starting with Dizzy (and I for one find a lot of early Gene Ammons quite exuberant too), and a lot of R&B too (examples to numerous to mention), and so on. As for more recent acts, I might mention certain less-punkish and jazzier neo-swing acts of the 90s but that might only get me into the line of fire with purists (who insist on jazz as serious sit-down concert hall music) so I'll pass for now ... Honestly, the premise of such a query about jazz might be a bit out of focus if you approach jazz from the angle of a listener who's been weaned on hard bop of the "Angry Young Men" faction (and onwards into more recent decades) and understands this to be what jazz is ALL about. True, hard bo and post bop are part of the many-faceted aspects of jazz. in fact the core of jazz joyful as it was (and is again these days in certain subcultures) is intended above all as DANCING music (which doesn't usually take place in the form of slow fox steps so is bound to be rather joyful).

Interesting to see what hapens if they really try to revive most of the 765 items, and possibly a good opportunity to act fast and grab the ones you missed the first time around and realize NOw that yu want them. BUT - any word on where they will be available except from Worlds Records? Because it does sound odd to start such an ambitious project if you are all set on closing down. And it might not the that worthwhile cost-wise for non-US buyers to have to order them from the US.

By coincidence a couple of days ago I received a recent auction win - all 1964 issues of the Swedish jazz mag Orkester Journalen, and the March issue happens to have a (three-star) review of this record: Katie Bell Nubin's voice is well-suited to the gospel style. The orchestra is said to be under the direction of Dizzy Gillespie but he can be heard only in a scant few tracks and has a more prominent role only in Where's Adam and Come Over Here which thanks to his efforts turn out to be the best on this record. Gillespie is all himself here but the other orchestra members appear to be restrained so their playing lacks the personal touch. Katie Bell is no great singer, at any rate not in the class of her daughter Sister Rosetta Tharpe, but she presents her music competently. A nice and engaging record. Opinions do differ, as you can see.

Judging by his liner notes alone, I agree he is excellent. As for his book writing, did he ever do something corresponding to "Country Music Originals - The Legends And The Lost" (which I for one find really excellent) on the BLUES?

I would have included both of these as well but on the one hand I understand the book by Alan Lomax (which I found very interesting) is seen critically by some who have a problem with the persona of Alan Lomax as such. And "The Story of The Blues" was an excellent, one-of-a-kind book for a very long time (I remember I borrowed our local "Amerika Haus" library copy countless times in the mid-to late 70s and early 80s) but I am not sure whether it is still that easily available. But if you can pick up a secondhand copy at a nice price -- grab it and use it as a history source book along with "Nothing But The Blues" They complement each other well.

I fully agree with Paul Secor's recommendation of the Penguin guide and the discographies for reference (am not familiar with the other bios he mentions so cannot comment no them). For a general history of the blues that gives you the overall picture both with excellent and vivid (and therefore not overly scholarly) texts as well as great illustrations, I strongly recommend "Nothing But The Blues" by Lawrence Cohn (Abbeville Press). As I assume you lean towards the older forms of the blues the following books may be of interest: - "In Search of the Blues" by Marybeth Hamilton - "Escaping the Delta - Robert Johnson and the Invention nof the Blues" by Elijah Wald (I bought it upon recommendations on this board and the consensus seems to be that this book is less controversial on this complicated subject matter than other well-known books on Robert Johnson) - "Screening the Blues - Aspects of the Blues Tradition" by Paul Oliver (looking at the topics of the blues through its lyrics) - "Voyage au pays du blues - Land of the Blues" (bilingual French/English) by Jacqes Demetre and Marcel Chauvard (covering a trip by two French blues enthusiasts to the key places of the blues in the USA of 1959 - puslished in book form quite a few years ago but should still be available through the website of the French blues mag "Soul Bag").

:g

A seminal figure and cult personality among German 60s music fans, even beyond Beatlemaniacs. Though the packaging of his Hamburg recordings for reissue at times led buyers to believe that certain recordings were with Beatles backing when in fact they weren't (No, not My Bonne and Ain't She Sweet- this one with Lenn on on vocal - , that WAS the Beatles). The LA Times obit, incidentally, is also wrong about the "Beat Brothers" moniker, that WASN'T the Beatles, only Tony Sheridan's recordings with that backing group are often lumped in with the Beatles recordings in reissues (My point ...) RIP

Just in case anybody's interested: This is also available as a VINYL 2-LP set. Not listed on amazon (at least not on amazon.de) but where I picked it up (yeah, at a real brick-and-mortar record store - one of the last ones locally) it wasn't that much more expensive than the CD at the "going" Amazon rate + shipping. And of course this format allows the booklet to be presented much better.

I wouldn't say so: 1) You've got an AWFUL LOT of leeway in what would be "acceptable" in English one way or another. Or so it seems to me anyway. I work with the English language day in, day out, and quite often I have a hunch this or that phrase or wording that crosses my mind just doesn't sound right to me (that "how" thing above on the face of it would have sounded a bit too "German", i.e. translated verbatim, to me too, BTW, and I'd have opted for one of the two other versions as well). But after googling I've often found these "suspicious" phrases actually are in frequent use, and not even primarily on shoddily written blogs or forums or awkwardly translated sites only but on relatively "respectable" genuine English-language sites). 2) The problem with French as used by native speakers in writing does not look like a problem of "past decades" to me. I'd say written French is mistreated and abused TERRIBLY these days by an awful lot of "native speakers" (and writers). The ability of writing that language correctly as a "native speaker" seems to be going down, down and yet further down all the time. O.K,, many English native speakers seem to be incapable of differentiating between "principle" and "principal" (and the like, for example), but among the French? Ugh ... sometimes it's really garish what you read on forums, etc. This problem is getting pretty bad these days with German too and you have a feeling many schools spawn a generation of semi-illiterates as far as their writing skills go, but French seems to be even harder hit. Small wonder ... I've been told by friends in France that from a certain level in school the teachers aren't even supposed to correct any of the faults of their pupils anymore in their written tests (and of course are not to downgrade them for their faults either).

Boone's Jumping Jacks made 4 tracks on that recording session, but according to Bruyninckx this was the only session they ever did. You can listen to all 4 of them on HEP CD 1066, "Sounds of Harlem Vol. 2". And it is indeed "our" Buster Smith (who came up with the original arrangement of One O'Clock Jump).

Could it really be that over here the press and newspeople are faster? We've had obits both online as well as in today's local daily newspaper (and IIRC even yesterday's special Sunday edition ran a brief obit). So ...??

His Arhoolie, Folklyric and Old Timey LPs (those comparatively few that I was able to aford at the time) helped enormously to expand my musical horizons and awareness of a lot of what was out there in Hillbilly, Western Swing, R&B, Cajun and Norteno music in my early collecting days in the late 70s. And browsing through the Arhoolie catalog always was a revelation (though in many cases it would be years before I'd get my hands on certain items).

Thanks for the info! Seems to be another piece of legislation that was really badly executed. The practice of tearing off front covers for those printed items returned as remainders was practiced here at the newsagents since the 60s when they returned unsold magazines (monthly, weekly etc.) after their "display until" date had passed but I think it is no longer done that way. Given the short "shelf display life" of books imposed by this taxation of inventories, it is amazing there still are so many niche books published (and selling, aparently) in the US anyway. Internet-based distribution and sales channels seem to be a good thing in this case after all ...

Yes, excellent site and information. Thanks!

Quite something else. 60s (and onwards) Chicano rock, to sum it up briefly. An odd mixture of styles IMO. Almost as odd as the band name. Would probably strike you, as someone from Britain as a bit odd too that such a group (in PROPER English) would call themselves "You Midniters", isn't it? BTW, Wikipedia says that this "Thee" was indeed intended to avoid confusion with the Ballard group. But all in all "Da Midniters" maybe might have been more like it.

Thanks for that link! That brings back memories even to me who only caught the later period (1992 to 2000) at Shaftesbury Avenue. Nice to be able to put names to faces of those whom I encountered regularly at the counter when making my purchases there. Apart from Ray (whom I did indeed picture to be the boss), I remember dealing with Glyn Callingham and Mike Doyle (who at one occasion went out of his way to give me the 10% discount on the purchases I had made, though I made my purchases in 2 instalments (visits) durnig the day) most often during my visits. If In had known I'd regularly bump into Glyn Callingham there I'd probably have brought my California Cool cover art book for him to sign. That stock of US 78rpm orignals on Savoy, Dee Gee etc. that according to that blog came from Chris Barber as early as 1974 must have lasted an awfully long time. I remember buying several mint Savoys, Dee Gees and Bops as late as 1998 or 1999 there in the basement Blues & Roots store where a separate "Special Offer" bin had set up for them. Wish I had picked more now, but i limited myself to those where I was quite sure they had not been reissued on thoese Savoy twofers. Don't remember seeing them there during my preceding visits though. The Blues and Roots section downstairs sometimes held rather odd items (judging by the standard so the jazz fraternity up there). In the late 90s I once did a London shopping spree with a girlfriend who of course was pressed into coming along when I checked out Ray's. There she picked an LP compilation of late 50s/early 60s black rock'n'roll (one of those outright bootleg LP series that in the 90s were regularly turned out by London DJs of the Rockin' scene and normally were sold only at record stalls during concerts, festivals etc.). Of course she wanted to get an overall impression of what this particular volume was about so asked to listen in. I think Ray and his staff lasted for about one half each of two songs before Ray pulled it off with disgusted looks on his face (but he did make a sale )...

Well, to give you an example, one 40s R&B artist who comes to mind is BILL JOHNSON (vocals/sax) who recorded a fair amount of tracks with his band (Bill Johnson & His Musical Notes) for RCA Victor in 1947 (plus a few for various indies before and after) - enough to fill one CD to the brim (and possibly more). It's a relatively nondescript artist name (that doesn't immediately remain etched in your memory) for sure, but I'd say he'd rank pretty well alongside Chris Powell, Bil Samuels, Felix Gross or Marvin Johnson etc. in the above mentioned "diehard collectors'" reissue series. And if he managed to wax 20 or more tracks for a major at that time he cannot have been a total flash in the pan. I've only come across the occasional track by him on R&B/Jump Blues compilations and liked them but am not aware of any comprehensive reissues of his recorded output (though I'll be glad to be proven wrong ).

I was wondering that myself, but some of their latter releases were pretty obscure. Maybe they've run out of good material? MG Good point. But if you combine their Blues & Rhythm series with the reissue series on BLUE MOON you've got pretty good coverage of those who aren't already covered by major R&B reissues/reissue labels elsewhere. Though I agree that some gaps seem to remain wherever you look and some artists (who probably weren't THAT obscure back then) seem to be passed by everywhere.

I assume you are talking about copyRIGHT, right? Or what would we be "writing copy" for otherwise?

Sure, Kamiblue, I see your point, and of course ome man's meat is another one's poison. It just is that I find it a pity certain images are all too omnipresent and have been used almost to death in innumerable superficial modifications. BTW, talking about 3-D, as I am almost sure you guessed I was not talking about creating a 3-D rendering per se but rather about being able to "imagine" 3-D views. Because if you draw or paint portraits and can combine different views of one and the same person and work them into a new image of that person from yet another angle YET manage to capture this person's features so everyone knows who this is supposed to show, then this requires the ability to IMAGINE objects in 3-D in order to transpose them into something new in 2-D images. No mean feat and something where artistry comes in, and THIS is something where "I doff my hat in sincere appreciation". Now, as for photographs seem a million times before in various modifications ... well, the novelty wears off there IMO and I for one am underwhelmed. But again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder so to each his own ...

A (geographical) outsider's comment looking in: What's so great and even desirable about reaching one's self-imposed artistic ceilings only after becoming high (and then ending up being invariably strung out before the vicious cycle starts again)? Celebrating shooting dope as an achievement in reaching artistic heights? Hey, is this still the dope-worshipping late 60s/early 70s in music? (Yeah, I know, dope had been shot by other artists, including musicians, well before that time but was there ever an era when shooting dope and getting high was ever that close to being "respectable" and "the thing to do" well BEYOND musicians' circles?) But strictly personally speaking, what I find rather tiresome is that seemingly endless desire by whoever wants to put in an artistic touch to come up with drawing, painting, pastiching (whatever ...) the same faces, poses, postures of oh so well-known PICTURES over and over again. How often, how dreadfully often have we seen the pics (the REAL photographs) before that were at the heart of these three graphic reworkings? And how often are these graphically altered renditions of the actual photographs already being used in (relatively speaking) "pedestrian" advertising art (posters, record covers, etc.) without any pretenses of high art anyway? Isn't it so that in the end the musicians in question are recognized primarily because people recognize those VERY photographs and automatically associate the musicians shown there? Hey, instead of all this, how about selecting 5 o r6 or even 10 photographs of the musicans in question and then combining the faces, features, characteristic elements, expressions, typical body postures of those musicians into a NEW drawing, painting (whatever ...) of those VERY musicians from an angle or in a pose that has NEVER before been captured in a photograph yet shows the respective musicians in the same unmistakeable and immediately recognizable way ? IMO THIS will show the world that one can REALLY draw, paint, etc. Because it will demonstrate that the artist can extract the three-dimensional features of a face or body from two-dimensional source material and TRANSFER them into an accurate yet different two-dimensional image that is NOT based on a preexisting picture available for use as as a source for copying or painting over. Otherwise, beyond pure technicalities of how these prints are made, and given today's technical and software possibilities, IMHO this trend of rehashing of utterly well-known photographs will entail the risk of pushing such efforts (however noble they may have been at heart) into the nowhereland somewhere between "another Warhol imitation" and "clever Photoshop or other graphic software use" in the minds of very many who've seen exactly the same pics (either the original photographs or grahically altered renditions) a zillion times before. Sorry if this comes across as somewhat harsh, but again - how about creating something NEW instead of altering all too well-known source documents? (Give or take that monkey on Chet's back ...

That's what I imagined if the book focused on the recordings rather than on the (not totally inaccessible) record releases... JR Monterose on Jaro ... before the Xanadu reissue (wait ... was that Xanadu released before or after 75? ) or the facsimile reissue ... originals really must have been "rare as rocking horse manure" (a they said in the basement dept. at Ray's ) even in the 70s. So it seems that in a way, that book is almost more useful today with the wider availability of many reissues on CD.

OK, OK, folks, your avalanche of plugs for that book has convinced me. I'll be on the lookout for that (should complement other jazz record guides i have, ranging from "The Jazz Record Book" to the "Essential listening companions" published by Third Ear). Not wanting to derail this thread further, just one more question: I assume this is a record guide compiling the "essentials" from what was IN PRINT in 1975? (i.e. directing the listener to specific records/reissues) And not a listing of essential recordings/sessions regardless of whether they were long OOP in 1975 or not? (We all know that there may be records that from a musical/historical point of view were essential in their first pressings but shamefully were not reissued for decades). Not that I would mind working on recommendations current as of 1975 (an awful lot of my vinyl is from that era and I think I am fairly aware of what was in print and/or accessible then).