Big Beat Steve

Quite true AFAIK. If I remember correctly, this book... http://www.amazon.fr/Jazz-Societe-lOccupation-Regnier-G%C3%A9rard/dp/2296101348/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327650296&sr=8-1 ... has some interesting insights, including of some close-up contacts with members of the German occupants who were swing-inclined after all. But I guess sensationalism-minded titles like this are all about "sales".

And all this is missing from the Django CD set series on FREMEAUX ASSOCIES too?

If you are satisfied with a BRIEF overview, yes. It all depends on the extent to which you want to explore his music. After all his Savoy, Dig and Capitol recordings have been reissued comprehensively and without overlaps.

Aside from the two "The Legendary Johnny Otis Show" vinyl twofers on Savoy (OOP but not impossible to find secondhand, I guess), you will be served pretty well at Ace indeed: http://www.acerecords.co.uk/content.php?page_id=53&searchtype=1&searchterm=Johnny+Otis This one has a very good cross-section of 50s Otis band and Otis dicoveries recordings combined with period radio spots and announcements (sometimes a bit contrived but well ...): http://www.acerecords.co.uk/content.php?page_id=59&release=849 This one also gives a nice overview http://www.acerecords.co.uk/content.php?page_id=59&release=8754 but this one looks tempting among the 50s stuff too as a lot of it is previously unissed and therefore should fill a few gaps: http://www.acerecords.co.uk/content.php?page_id=59&release=453

Thanks Brownie! This one went straight into my shopping cart.

This is very sad, though at 90 it was to be expected. Thanks for the great music and for all your talent scouting, Mr Otis! I read it quite a while ago and quite enjoyed it. He used to have a radio show in LA that I loved. He'd ask listeners to call in so I called and told him I'd just been listening to his band backing Ben Webster on Mercury. I agree that Upside Your Head is the one to go for if you primarily want the story of his music (though that one could have been fleshed out a little here and there but probably it never was meant to be a full documentary in the stricter sense of the word). Have started reading Midnight At The Barrelhouse but put it away for the time being as the "sociological" doings became a bit overbearing a bit too early in the book (and in places where the story of teh music ought to have predominated) IIRC but will probably pick it up again shortly. Have never read Listen To The Lambs but understand this dwells pretty much on societal issues too (understandably, considering the time it was written).

Isn't the point rather this? Do the Eames and their products need endorsement by rap figures? Those who are really into that kind of Mid-Century Modern architecture and other everyday art (and style) objects of that era will be able to appreciate it anyway (and there are LOTS of ways to get into it). But people picking up on those objects or styles just because their rap "heros" endorse them all of a sudden? What kind of appreciation is this that cannot stand on its own and/or on the attraction of the products as such? Marketing ploys - O.K., I can see that. But is there any need to be impressed by it? BTW, it's not necessarily about 1% vs 99% at all (you sure can ride an "argument" to death there ...) unless you are dead set to buy new all the time. Far from it. My own Lounge Chair, for example, has been in the family since 1967 (and the money it cost then wasn't spent easily either but was saved up because my uncle just wanted THAT piece of furniture). And while having most of its leather and cushions refurbished the other day cost me a bundle I still consider it far better lasting value for money than what any run of the mill no-name piece of furniture would cost in any furniture store just to depreciate more each day and be thrown away 8 or 10 years later (if not earlier). So who's buying thriftily in the long run? And again, quality doesn't need cheap promo arguments to attract people who are REALLY interested.

Uh oh ... do I now have to feel like a rapper when I relax in my lounge chair (+ ottoman) after a day's chores? Can't say I really associate Mid-Century Modern or California Cool with anything even remotely resembling ghetto beats and senselessly worn baseball caps. Oh well, if he feels like branching out into new areas of (hip?) awareness ... to each his own ... But pointless to those who've been aware of the Eames' before he even was on the scene, even if it was only mere average mortals who were aware ...

There were plenty of non-DSM Verve covers from the Norman Granz era thogh they did not have those femme selling arguments yet . But as for (later) Verve lookalikes, European vinyl hoarders might look among 60s FONTANA covers. Will try to dig out a few among my vinyl.

But according to the back cover liner notes they seem to be aware of the existence of that United LP as they do mention it (see above). So ... ? And if Popsike has listed it before too (as Chewy said) ...

At that kind of money this would have been a great find even in G- condition even if only for the cover. BTW, just for the record, this LP is listed (correctly, it seems to me) in the Bruyninckx discogrpahy, and the full contents of that United LP were reissued in 1978 here (Delmark DL 435. Yeah, sure some nondescript 70s cover): And just to hint at the relative rarity of this United LP, the liner notes on that Delmark reissue state that 3 of the tracks were "previously issued only on the very rare United LP 002". Which is confirmed by the Bruyninckx listing.

A real, real beaut in every respect. Recommended! While I still tend to believe you (see our earlier discussion of this series in this very topic), there are a few BEWARE's. This past summer I bought the JIMMY SPELLMAN CD from that series (BCD 16528 AH) mainly because this is one artist where you are unlikely to have too much on previous hillbilly bop/rockabily compilations. So I bought it unheard and on the strength of it belonging to that series (and of course the dynamic cover photo also conjures up images of music with a "GO" ). But sorry to say, if the music on that CD is meant to REALLY "shake the shack" then this just is lame. Really ... A handful of uptempo, rocking tracks but all too many MOR C&W, pop, ballad, tearjerker, teen angst and other relatively subdued ditties (often marred by saccharine girl choruses which does not improve matters one bit in a series such as THIS) that really won't shake even a splinter of that proverbial shack. Fine for those who love those "country weepers" and teen ballads that were recorded and released aplenty in the 50s but beyond that ...? I dunno ... So how am I to know there aren't more like this buried in this particular series BEYOND the "name" artists (i.e. with those artists that you would welcome as "discoveries" because they would not overlap to any significant degree with previous reissues and would therefore fill another gap)? Really, really sorry to say this about a thoughtful and meritorious reissue label such as B.F. but as far as "The Great Rocking Unknowns" seem to go, we really seem to be well past the "scraping the barrel" stage when it comes to rounding up previously unreissued or unheard-before UPTEMPO material that warrants a FULL CD by such an artist.

Just being curious: How many Cumberland Ridge Runners were there after all? When reading the above post by Kenny Weir (I admit I did not notice it the first time around and have not noticed that release in the recent fat Bear Family catalog either), the name of the group immediately rang a bell. Sure enough, a relatively detailed description of the "Cumberland Ridge Runners" including a photo figured in Bill C. Malone's "Country Music USA", the first history of country music I ever bought (in my teens in the mid-70s). But this was a totally different (earlier, larger and all-white) line-up that (at various times) included the latterly famous duo of Karl & Harty as well as Red Foley. So what's what and who's who? Maybe the doubling of group (band?) names clouded the history of that duet if they REALLY went under that name at their appearances (the Bear Family release is credited to "Allerton & Alton" only)? And if they had a regional audience only, maybe contemporary writeups would have appeared in papers such as "Country Song Roundup" (where many local radio favorites were covered) at best?

It sure does but I cannot answer your question about noise reduction as I am not familiar with the Milton Brown Texas Rose CD reissue you metion. Am spinning the Milton Brown tracks right now and I still like the overall sound but definitely won't go nitpicking about what one just MIGHT PERHAPS find to sound "dead" on the umpteenth "ears-stuck-in-the-speaker" listen. I am quite satisfied with this package. (Though I must admit the others I ordered from that series - Stockard, Chappelear and O'Daniel - have received many more spins in the CD player)

Take a guess, Chewy. Whose records were selling better in the mid-60s?

Now that's a real oddity, this "Jazz in Deutschland" LP on the "Blue Song" (huh? ) label. The track listing as indicated on the blog linked above is the EXACT track sequence of the EAST German LP of Vol. 2 in the "Jazz auf Amiga" series released in 1981 (and probably earlier elsewhere on the East German Amiga label). This series was circulated fairly widely even in West Germany but West Germans bootlegging (or ripping off?) East German labels? Now that's sumpin' else. (I can't imagine this being the fruit of an official licensing deal. Amiga had their mutual licensing partners among the majors in the West) At any rate, though I've been around the block in buying jazz vinyl here quite a couple of times I've never come across such a Blue Song item. Must have been a bit in the mold of local "collector" pressings such as "Swingfan". That said, fine music and a milestone in early post-war jazz as promoted to war-stricken Europe. So may I just put in a plug for Rex Stewart's other non-U.S. recordings done at roughly the same time, e.g. his Paris recordings done in Dec., 1947 and Jan., 1948 and reissued e.g. on the "Rex In Paris 1947-1948" twofer LP on Barclay 80.972/973.

Holger, you did not realize what kind of targeted put-on (but certainly without any harm intended) this was on the part of Hardbopjazz, did you?

Here's a pic of Billy Mitchell the sax man with Joe Turner and members of the King Porter band (taken from the "Before Motown" book) in 1948. Is it only my imagination or does he look uncannily like young Wynton M., He Who Must Not Be Named On This Forum, here?

I have a dedicated music room too (but it certainly is not off limits to my wife ). One wall is lined with vinyls from floor to ceiling, the opposite wall has all the music books and mags, the audio equipment, turntables and speakers as well as part of the CDs and of the 78s. A table, the lounge chair (with ottoman) and 2 more chairs are in the middle. The rest of the CDs occupy a corner of the 3rd wall but I'm running out of storage space fast (some music books and the rest of the 78s already had to move into the room next door). Help!

As for the "Mellophonium orchestra", I can only recommend a listen to the 1962 transcriptions of that band released in the "The Uncollected" series ("Stan Kenton Vol. 6") on the Hindsight label. Pleasantly swinging, straightforward and non-bombastic within the framework of the brass-heavy big bands of that era.

The discographies give a recording date of 1956 for the Westchester Workshop LP (RKO-103) and Goldmine states the publishing date as 1957. Which sounds credible - the publishing date of another RKO-Unique LP I have (RKO-124, Herbie Fields Sextet - A Night At Kitty's) also is listed as 1957. BTW, does anybody know what the connection is between the Westchester Workshop session and the Johnny Glasel session on that Fresh Sound reissue? Any connection at all, or just a coupling of two fairly obscure sessions?

Ah, now I remember where Johnny Glasel's name last crossed my searches: I have the original RKO-Unique LP of the Westchester Workshop LP (and therefore half of that Fresh Sound CD) so for the time being (maybe wrongly) skipped that reissue. Yes, that Westchester Workshop is a very insteresting obscurity.

Agreed on both counts. Many celebrated musicians (incl. many jazzmen) weren't. A subject often discussed here. Why should the quintessence of those earlier discussions be handled any differently in Kenton's case? Some of Kenton's music is pompous and overblown - O.K., happens with others too. No need to spit venom (unless the spitters have a personal axe to grind or are out for cheap effects). As for dealing (or getting even) with that pompousness anyway, here is some recommended listening: Johnny Dankworth Orchestra, "Experiments with Mice" (Parlophone R4185, rec. May 10,1956). :D:

So to Herman Leonard, Prez was all about the hat? Which would mean that as a country boy in a perfect world you'd just as soon go bare-headed? :D Odd ...

See ... Just like the "pompousness" of Kenton is "another world" to you, to some the "noise" of certain Aylers and Tranes would be "another world" altogether too. Would make those musicians irrelevant, then, too. :D As for the "importance of the man" (provided this was what what the debate was about - which I doubt - it was about the Kenton BAND which you can like or not, like you are free to like Ayler etc. or not), at the very least he was a catalyst who brought persons, musical outputs and sounds together and made them jell and spark. Like others did in their field of jazz too. But, again, I cannot see this primarily is what appreciations of the Kenton MUSIC are about today. As for the telegram ... oh well ... IMHO it really just was the backside of the coin the other (front?) side of which spelled out "Crow Jim". Not very nice for sure but a sign of the times and to be viewed and assessed as such. And nothing to file in the "self-pity" category. "Crow Jim" did exist and was not a phantom. And it was just as silly as "Jim Crow" in the field of jazz. In short ... to each his own.