Big Beat Steve

What's your experience with previous dealings (promptness of shipping, 100% fulfilling of orders, etc.) with jpc, if any? I am considering placing an order with them for 1 or 2 CDs that for some reason are significantly more expensive on Amazon (even with their marketplace sellers).

I think that goes for just about any "famous" jazz musician who ever emigrated to Europe!!! Except that many of those emigrated jazzmen unjustly forgotten or neglected in their country of origin turned out some darn good (if unpretentious) music in Europe because in many cases they were backed by truly sympathetic rhythm sections or bands that really played FOR (and supported) their "star" soloist instead of indulging in "every man for himself" delusions.

Hopefully that'll wash off. I love the chair, though (we have one with dark brown leather, which is where I'd probably be parked right now if I had a laptop). We have one, too. Desperately needs new cushions, though. Mine neded new cushions too (and new leather on 3 of the 4 elements). Had the refurbishing done the other day by the authorized distributors of the Lounge Chair range. Set me back a hefty amount but compared to the price of an entire chair (which would not have the "period" flair - mine has been in teh family since 1967) it was totally worth it. More furniture:

So this is what Charlie McCarthy used to munch all the time?

These seem to be "rare as rocking horse manure", to quote from a diplay sheet attached to the "rare items" bin at Ray's Jazz Shop up in Shaftesbury Avenue, London.

Same here (more or less, with an accent on European equivalents too). As for the reference resource, IMO reading up on jazz history can hardly ever be more fascinating than if you do your reading in those "period" mags. Jazz seen "as it was" and not always with the benefit of (a historian's predigested) hindsight can be quite instructive. I pull out my late 30s, 40s, 50s and early 60s copies of Orkester journalen and Estrad (Sweden) and Jazz Hot (France) as well as the 50s/early 60s copies of Jazz Podium (Germany) and Jazz Magazine (France) quite regularly and they are a mine of information indeed. 65 issues for $40 at any rate is a very good deal. Congrats!

In that case, is it readable, or is it bogged down by "theory"? That book has been quoted from elsewhere so often that it must be quite readable, informative and well-written. I must admit I've never had a thorough look at it because once you get into that 50s music really deeply this kind of general overview will be a bit superficial for you and will not add much new, especially since every facet of those "early years" and of the evoution up to the beginning of the "British Invasion" have been covered from almost every angle imaginable elsewhere in the years since this book was originally written. Besides, it does dwell too much on the post-"r'n'r era" music up to 1970 for my taste. But you can check the contents through the Amazon preview function here, for example, for yourself: http://www.amazon.com/Sound-City-Rise-Rock-Roll/dp/0306806835/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318316936&sr=8-1#reader_0306806835

Second the "Before Motown" book above! Though I would not only call it "decent", but in fact very thorough. BTW, speaking of Billy Mitchell and looking at the cover pic (and the pic inside that identifies the persons), is it only me or is there indeed a striking resemblance betwen Billy Mitchell and Wynton Marsalis?? Second "Honkers and Shouters", "Nervous Man Nervous" and "Upside your Head" too (haven't had a closer read of Lipsitz' book yet. And thanks for making us aware of the "Chitlin' Circuit" book. Looks like one to check out ...

All of which prompts me to pick up the ball about what might lurk in the elders' belongings to give you a boost in your own collectionitis anyhow (and I am not kidding with this ...) to mention that among the vinyl items my mother passed on to me was this oddity (at last by our middle-European standards) ... An odd kind of party record even by 50s standards, at least in this neck of the woods ... and this from somebody who normally listened to classical music only and whatever jazz there was was essentially confined to the "Third Stream" kind (yet the other day I finally managed to talk her into passing on her copy of that black-label DG original pressing of the MJQ's "Fontessa" on Atlantic to me as at 87 she doesn't really listen to that stuff anymore anyway). But OTOH, in my very early collecting days in the mid-70s she did consent to parting with this catalog of hers ... ... which won't mean much to collectors outside Germany, Austria and Switzerland but ever since that time (the above one was the 2nd ed. ever published) this annual catalog of the Jazz records currently in print and available has served generations of collectors as guidance, and it certainly did advance my awareness of early (c. 1960) jazz vinyl a whole lot in those pre-internet, pre-INTERNATIONAL mail order days. In a way it was more essential than any of those SCHWANN catalogs could possibly have been. Which only goes to show one's elders can advance your own collecting bug in more ways than they'd care to ... :D

Would inheritances from their mothers qualify too?

As Sensation 5 apparently is not on the OJCCD reissue, I guess you are referring to my above post. Am just listening to "Ratio and Proportion" and cannot complain, really. Some minor background hiss but overall quite good presence and sound. Really very nice. Incidentally, the back cover reads thus : "The sound quality on this release has been greatly improved over prerious issues of the material. We have been able to go back to 1948 master and session discs (many of them in superb condition) and remaster directly from them." Coming to think of it, this is no big surprise. Boplicity is/was a subsidiary of the (U.K.) ACE label that has done a HUGE amount of King (mostly R&B and hillbilly boogie) reissues as they have acquired the masters etc. from the King vaults.

I have the Boplicity CD that has virtually all of these tracks (and then some ...). It does list "3rd song" as part of the "Royal Wedding"/"Be Bop Blues" session. The two "Lord Nelson" sesions are listed there as follows: The sessions are split differntly from what your listing indicates, and this discographer did identify the entire rhythm section but evidently (judging from your Zan Stewart source) the recording dates are not any more accurate. (As you can see, I've alreaday scribbled a note about the possibly incorrect date at the margin.) I agree that the final two stray tracks are either duplicate listings or alternate takes released elsewhere for the first time and therefore not immediately associated with the Sensation release.

The text of the bio mentions the session but not in extreme detail and only speaks of the presence of a "horn section" among the backing musicians. If there had been any indication whatsoever that Pete Brown was among the horn men according to the state of knowledge at the time the bio was written and published then no doubt he would have been mentioned in the session lineup.

This is not of Proper's doing ... this is the personnel listing included in the Wynonie Harris bio "Rock Mr. Blues" by Tony Collins (published in 1995 by Big Nickel Publications - not a publisher renowned for sloppy work ). And until DEFINITELY proven wrong, I am inclined to go along with what those who really went to the pains of researching the life and times of the artist in question to the extent of writing a book about his life wanted to see published. And the discography does look fairly thorough and detailed. If the biographer saw fit to publish a listing that is quite different from the Bruyxninck listing that in turn came from the 60s Jepsen discography (with ONE major difference - see below) and appeared on the late 70s Route 66 reissue LPs the I assume he must have had good reason to do so. BTW, Bruyninckx stating "similar to above" (refering to the Nov. 30, 1946 Aladdin session) omits ONE crucial detail in the way he took the entry from Jepsen: Jepsen clearly says about the July 1947 session in referring to the previos Nov. 1946 one: "Similar BUT NOT THE SAME" (my capitals) which IMO does read like the lineup likely was QUITE (and not just a bit) different.

Wasn't it the Dials (including alternate takes) that Saga reissued in those distant 70s?

Would this count? Drums enough? "Native" enough?

Believe it or not, that vocalist 1) actually WAS female, 2) actually went by that name (and by the subtitling moniker "Hip shakin' Mama"). Haven't heard the tracks on the above set so cannot comment on what she sounds like there but at any rate she was no imposter, imitator or latter-day crossbreed of Frankie Half-Pint Jaxon or his ilk. And on the cover of Official 6020 LP "The Orignal Hip Shakin' Mama" (which includes her studio output from 1948 to 1957) she appears to be fairly good-looking, actually.

That's exactly what I meant ... Vol. 1/2 = 1st set Vol. 3/4 = 2nd set Vol. 5 = 3rd set And you actually depicted the two LPs I was referring to.

Indeed - same here too. In fact, they e-mailed me on Monday, advising me of delivery on Tuesday, and if it hadn't been for my absence I would have received it that day. Am just spinning the Fru'n'Brew disc. Very, very nice, and worth the wait. I wonder at what stage plans for releasing this session were abandoned. The titles of the tunes read very much like (non-definite) working titles, but the music has a fascinating after-hours club atmosphere about it that needs no further processing IMO.

I am not quite sure what the "full and complete" Panassié sessions would look like but basically there have been two different versions around in vinyl days: One where the "master tracks" (i.e. one each) were included (which was in some RCA Vintage series pressend in various guises and country-specific pressings in the early 70s, maybe even before), and then there was another one a bit prior to those RCA twofers mentioned above: It was one of the many single-LP volumes in that RCA series with the BLACK front cover (what was the name of that series again? Black & White?) and included alternate takes of several of those "Panassié session" tracks. Can look up the exact issue numers tonight. As I have not seen Vol. 5 of those 2-LPs Jazz Tribune sets (or the respective CD issue) I don't know if they included the alternate takes there too (but there is a good chance as this series overall did include its share of alternates).

Ordered mine directly from Fresh Sound on Sunday, Paypal'd at the same time, got a shipping notice from them by mail yesterday (Monday) and UPS tried to deliver today (but nobody home so will receive it delivered to my office address tomorrow - Wednesday). Can't complain about speediness of shipping and am looking forward to giving this one (and the others) a listen.

Which sounds very much like a case of "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine (even if only posthumously)". Just the ways of the world, I guess ... Ater all, networking often only amounts to creating dependencies.

Placed my order for it (along with a dozen or so more from Fresh Sound/Blue Moon) today directly from Fresh Sound. Last time I ordered from them their shipping was pretty quick. Was a while ago, though.

I like plays on words so I don't mind most of these album titles. Many in fact make me snicker a bit ... That said, is "Six Pieces of Silver" a bad album just because of its allegedly "dumb" title? Or "Shelly Manne at the Manne Hole" (although this would be stretching the topic a bit - or maybe not, since in a way the leader's name was actually "reworked" twice: for the club AND for the album )? And I freely admit I like Pete Jolly's "Jolly Jumps in", Shorty Rogers' "Short Stops" and Serge Chaloff's "Blue Serge" (to name only some that come to mind immediately).

To be pronounced just like Otis SPANN.