Big Beat Steve

Unless you instinctively keep thinking of "R&B" as another term for SOUL (as it may have been the case from a certain point in the 60s onwards), I'd guess that the boundaries between "Blues" and "Rhythm & Blues" in the 50s were relatively blurred both stylistically and under marketing aspects (at least in the years before the revival of the "real" blues - i.e. "down-home" blues - happened in the very late 50s/esarly 60s) and likely did not matter THAT much to the black community.

I think you have already named most of the main exponents of 60s/early 70s bluesmen who picked up on then-current soul-R&B/rock music that would supersede straight blues/R&B as the black pop music of its time. I am not that familiar with many of those later recordings as I normally cringe at "funked-up/souled-up" (read: contrivedly modernized/updated) R&B/blues and really prefer 50s R&B/blues (though I can understand the artists' desire to show they still were "with it"). One that comes to mind (as I have both earlier and later recordings by him), apart from Slim Harpo and Jonny Guitar Watson, are Earl Hooker's LPs from the later 60s where his guitar work really shows the signs of the times (more rock than soul IMO, though). I wonder, OTOH, how to rate Hound Dog Taylor there. He did go beyond the black audience "electric blues" (to my ears, anyway) but how to categorize him? Electric blues-cum-garage rock? Great to my ears but really rather unclassificable.

Indeed. Good finds. Picked up a few 10in originals (with decent vinyl but dog-eared covers) myself during our recent holidays in Southern France. As was to be expected, nothing but SIDNEY BECHET (on the Vogue and CfD labels). But dirt cheap so worth shelling out anyway just for casual listening.

Am just listening to it right now (via a CD-R - as it is relatively hard to find indeed - so I cannot give you a pointer as to an accessible CD source ). I consider myself a fan (sort of ...) of those white 1st generation bop pianists (Wallington, Marmarosa, Haig etc) and while I have almost all 40s/50s Wallington recordings I find this fairly non-essential. It is a nice record to study for those who are very much into pianistics and you cannot say it's saccharine but yet it appears fairly subdued to me ... about 9 or 10 of the 12 tracks (all featuring strings) are rather balladesque. OTOH I've never been a huge fan of string backgrunds in bop. In short, it all depends on whether you value piano chops above all and on the degree to which you are willing to listen to not very jazzy string backgrounds.

@Larry Kart + Dan Gould: Of course I was exaggerating deliberately in my above post (in view of the seemingly endless number of name musicians rattled off while only touching the tip of the iceberg ... or so these posts read ...)

Not wanting to spoil your fun at all, but following this thread and the increasing number of names mentioned here, somehow it is beginning to seem as if EVERY jazz musician of note got better with age unless he a) "died before he got old", b) limited himself to commercial work and remained happy with that, c) swallowed drugs to an extent where the physical limits of what any human organism can stand really had been transgressed for good, d) lived to an old age where for inevitable physical reasons the chops just COULD not be there any more. Sort of predictable, isn't it?

:tup

Had no idea she was still around but this is sad at any rate ... RIP. She participated in many intersting and intriguing 40s small-group jazz recordings that were gems and pointed in new directions. Too bad jazz had not really been ripe yet for INSTRUMENTALIST women (other than pianists) at that time.

Ranting about the outward and superficial meaning of "cool" as a sign of approval IMO misses the point. I think this way of using "cool" is just a fad, just like in the US everything that got the nod of approval way back in the 30s was "swell" (AFAIK). Being, feeling and acting "cool" in the sense of being aloof, detached, independent, untouched by and not realy caring about what others think (and therefore being untouched by passing fads), in short, doing one's own thing and being one's own man, is quite something else. And much more difficult to achieve and to live. Because with many exponents of this latter sense of the word "cool" the way they act makes it clear it is just a superficial masquerade but not something deeply engrained and felt inside. Hard to put it any other way in brief, but in fact I have come to wonder about this myself. Being the father of a 12-year old son (who's now at the age where everything and everyone that gets the nod of approval needs to be "cool" , I am getting ready for the right moment when to get him to reflect on what he thinks "cool" REALLY is (or whether he knows what it in essence really is). Might turn out interesting ... But short of that - never mind, it's just a fad word IMO.

Any opinions on PW's "Birds OF A Feather" (Antilles ANN 1006) rec. in 1981/82? Bought this very cheaply just for curiosity's sake at a record shop clearout sale a while ago. I own his 50s "Early Quintets" and "Four Altos" LPs as well as his pairings with Quill on Prestige, Epic and RCA but am otherwise largely unfamiliar with his work form later decades.

Like this?

Received my copy of this 3-CD set (from a very affordable Amazon Seller source) today and am very pleased. CD 1 with releases originally issued under Maxwell Davis' name only has SOME overlap with the earlier Aladdin/Official and Ace reissues (so quite a few tracks remain for discovery) and CDs 2 and 3 avoid many of the more obvious hits that Maxwell Davis appeared on and manages to fill quite a few reissue gaps by including lesser-known and previously (to my knowledge) unreissued recordings, ranging from straightforward R&B to boogie woogie combos and very boppish "crossover" tunes that reach right into the all-out jazz field of the 40s. The sound is quite OK to me, considering almost all of the tracks come from 78 rpm sources, the packaging and booklet are very nicely done, including details on original releases, lots of label reproductions and very much to the point liner notes by expert Dave Penny. And all this at an affordable price. I don't know who or what exactly is behind this "Fantastic Voyage" label (of which I have an also well-done Ina Ray Hutton 3-CD set) or its "Future Music" parent but at any rate as far as track compilation and overall presentation go, IMO this is a well-done release that avoids duplicating too much of the obvious.

A question to those (i.e. you ) in the know: Referring to this Sept. 9, 1952 live recording from the Haig: Xanadu 146 has 7 tracks: The Squirrel/Taking A Chance On Love/Jackie/Donna Lee/Pennies From Heaven/Get Happy/Bernie's Tune. Donna Lee also is on Jam Session JS 101 which has three more tracks: Lady Bird/Out of Nowhere/Keen and Peachy (aka Fine and Dandy). These 4 tracks (according to the Bruyningckx discography) also were on a Straight Ahead Jazz (SAJ) LP. Now if Xanadu bought the tapes directly from Bob Andrews, how come they did not release all of it (but let it be released one way or another on JS and SAJ - which I presume were sort of "grey" labels). Did they actually release only part of the recordings themselves or was there another Xanadu LP somewhere that even Bruyninckx fails to mention? Any ideas/background info? Thanks!

In this particular area MAYBE. Otherwise definitely not.

No thanks, no point having that material in triplicate!

Most of that was on the Xanadu LP 146 "Live In Hollywood" (and the rest - on vinyl too - was on Jam Session Records JS-101 as well as on the "West Coast Jam Sessions" Scarecrow SC-801/2/3 box set ). And no doubt these are nowehere near all of the reissues of this material. 94 bucks for that older Fresh Sound CD of course is plain silly (to put it mildly).

Seconded. That Bopland CD box is recommended indeed (incidentally it's one my few Wardell CD releases that I mentioned above (though I am still hanging on to my "The Hunt" Savoy vinyl twofer as well;)).

You may be right but the problem with recommendations in threads like the current one is that most of Wardell's recordings have (thankfully) been around in so many packagings and guises and formats and a zillion different combinations that it is really difficult to spell out concrete recommendations that would lead the newbie to the ACTUAL release still in print at this VERY moment. I, for example, have virtually all of Wardell's recordings (and treasure them and would wholeheartedly recommend any of them) but except for a few Basie and Gene Norman concerts they all are on VINYL in various packagings (pressings ranging from the late 60s to the late 80s and 90s) and what good would it do to recommend any of these to anybody starting from scratch NOW, seeing that even if the records were still around (quite a few are accessible in secondhand form) all too many would only go down the CD route nowadays. And sorting out which equals which TODAY in the most sensible packaging really would be a cumbersome chore. This obviously limits concrete discussion of specific releases to those who have bought their recordings in recent times. Or just play it safe initially and go the route of the budget boxes available these days (there is one on Proprer too, I think).

Did anybody ever notice what sounds like a major blooper in Joe Williams' recording of "ALright, OK, you Win" with the Basie band waxed for Clef on May 17, 1955? First he sings the line "I'll do anything you say - It's just got to be that way" and in the next stanza "Anything you say I'll do - Long as its's me and you" But then, when that line comes up again the next time he goes "Anything you'll do I'll say ... (which does not really make sense ) and there seems to be a split second of some snickering audible in his voice but then he catches up fast enough without losing his meter and finishes the line with "Just got to be that way" Intentional? If so, a strange kind of put-on IMO. I dunno ... I have this version on a 70s U.K. Verve LP ("Swiingin' With THe count" - Verve Select 231711) but according to the Bruyninckx discography this is the master take. Bizarre ...

Yes, that is REALLY far out!

Take it easy ... it's all just a hobby ...

Clueless ... it all depends. The kind of effect or hint at how the story might go on you seem to be alluding to comes up in a zillion song lyrics. But is this quite what the "Great American Songbook" lyrics examples cited are all about? I still feel you are stretching the subject of this topic a bit far No need to link a Youtube (of a watered-down version, what is more), BTW. In all modesty I would not be surprised if it turned out I am familiar with more versions ("white folks" or whoever else ...) of that song (and its connotations of those times - which incidentally aren't all finished yet as far as the contents of that song go) than you are ... So no need to be condescending and try to teach ... This song and its variants would make a nice topic by themselves (maybe to discuss how much life there can be in a song or where an answer song goes beyond that answer stage after all) but I still feel that HERE this song is a bit off-topic. YMMV of course ...

To the very best of my knowledge, this song is no way called anything like "Model A Race". And not every Hot Rod was built on a Ford Model A basis. Far from it. BTW, the "hopped-up" keyword won't do it either because the ENTIRE lyrics are about hopped up machinery. And no special play on the song title at the END of the song here, therefore, because the song is not about jalopies throughout either. So ... where's the "... all these songs from the so-called "Great American Songbook" that end with some sort of play on the song's title" angle here?

I guess in 1962 Jan Johansson wasn't as "far out" yet (comparatively speaking) as he was later in the 60s. His "Domnerus period" (see Dragon DRCD 186, for example) sounds relatively straightforward and in keeping with modern mainstream jazz of that period to me. @EKE BBB: What site would you recommend for purchaing within Europe? An Amazon search drew a blank.

I understand that's the way they talk "oop narf"? Or ithis in fact how the Northerners are referred to by the Southerners? Funny about that "err". Isn't that a supposed to be typical for a certain kind of U.S. English spoken as among the "hicks in the sticks"? Browsed through that reprint of Fontaine Fox's Toonerville Trolley cartoons the other day, and his collection of hinterland town characters such as "Uncle Chew Wilson" who likes to spit his "TERBACCER JUICE" all the time (and "termorrer" is another day, of course must have been the result of some keen observation ...