Big Beat Steve

Interesting ... A one-owner-drum kit from 1940 to the present (and a celebrity owner before that). Can't be many like that. And this here ... "Though an antique dealer offered her family $15,000 for them, Schinella said they didn't want the drums to go to an individual. The chance for more people to see them was more important, she said." ... of course is a highly commendable attitude. Wish there were more like this.

Considering how long serious jazz mags such as the French JAZZ HOT insisted on writing about one Dizzy GILLEPSIE for YEARS after 1946 it is not hard to see how such mixups occur. "The loneliest Monk" is a classic, of course, but several others from that list do have all the potential of becoming both unwittingly wise statements and running gags for years to come.

OK, OK, OK - my order for this set (along with those by Ocie Stockard, Leon Chappel and W. Lee O'Daniel) went out this evening. That enough of a plug for the label??

To an extent I agree, Jazztrain. However, I seriously doubt that "we" are in the minority as far as complaints about duplications (no, make that triplications or quadruplications, really ) are concerned. Western Swing is real minority interest field even amoung Country music collectors, and I'd venture a guess that among those interested in this field the share of those who belong to the "DIEHARD COLLECTOR" category is disproportionately high (cannot be a coincidence that most of those I know, many of whom are outside jazz in their collecting preferences, are of that calibre). That means that there are bound to be LOTS of duplications in the collections of most lovers of this niche of music, especially since quite a few of the key artists/bands (such as milton Brown and Cliff Bruner) have already been covered by what certainly is the definitive word on the subject. And collations such as Bob Dunn's are bit too "special" to attract lots of total newbies too. Of course I can understand the Origin Jazz (and similar labels') approach. When doing their Ocie Stockard reissue I guess it would have been too much for them not to re-reissue their long-OOP vinyl (OJL-8103), especially since this one seems to be among the rarer of those earlier reissues. Owners of the ZirconVert 702 CD reissue will have to live with the fact that this means 8 duplicated tracks. I'll take the plunge anyway (as I will with the Bob Dunn set, I guess). The (almost-)completist wins out but still it is a bit dissatisfying, especially since there still is a lot of music from that segment that has never been reissued. Which is why I openly welcome the Krazy Kat series, even if this means pops and crackles here and there (and the BACM reissues too, though fidelity is an issue there sometimes). In short, narrowing down the arguments in favor of "new" (re-)reissues primarily to remastering questions is a bit meagre in the long run. What about cutting down a bit on duplications and resurrecting more items AND doing top-notch remastering? Contrary to other collectible musical styles I'd venture a guess that we still are FAR from scraping the barrel here when it comes to reissuing never before reissued items.

OTOH Mance Lipscomb was INDEED featured exhaustively on Arhoolie. My 1980 catalog of the label (which I keep for reference) lists SEVEN LPs by the man. And since the Arhoolie catalog lists him (with a section of his own) in the "Country Blues" part, what would you expect of a journalist trying to get into the subject. Songsters may be on the fringe of blues in the stricter sense but where else would you "catalog" them after all?

THANK YOU!!! for making this known. But ... some closer comparison of the track listing with what one may already have (Mmilton Brown etc.) would be called for as for the most part they were not released under Bob Dunn's name but by other (well-known) bands. As I for one have most of the 80s vinyl reissues on the Old Timey, String, Rambler, Texas Rose etc. labels as well as the full run of WS-related CD reissues on the Krazy Kat label and sundry other items I need to find out beforehand and I guess I am not the only one. If these were all by Bob Dunn's Vagabonds it would be easy to check if one already has them or not but so ...? Anyway, the Original Jazz reissues by Leon's Lone Star Cowboys and by Ocie Stockard (despite the likely duplications with ZirconVert 702) from the same series look like worthwhile purchases to fill more gaps too.

High school French won't get you very far with CAJUN French anyway ... Will spin the record later today and see if I can make something of it.

Agreed with the previous recommendations. I wasn't overly fond of those 70s Pablo jam sessions earlier on (had heard lots of them on jazz radio shows in the early 80s but somehow they didn't click with me all the way) but the Basie and Zoot LP was the first of the Basie Pablos I ever bought, and I havent' regretted it one bit. A very solid and valid addition to my array of Zoot Sims records (which for the most part cover his earlier years, though).

As John L's listing from Lord (with a huuuge tip of the hat to Jepsen and Bruyninckx, of course )) indicates, both sessions have been around on lots of period releases and reissues. For example, I have the Pettiford session on Prestige 7813 (O.P. Memorial Album) and the Duke Jordan session on a 70s U.K. 2-LP set titled "The Be-Bop Beyoboard masters"§ (also featuring sessions by George Wallington, Al Haig and Wade Legge that had originally been produced by Henri Renaud). The Duke Jordan items were also reissued on Prestige (PR 7849). Don't know what the present connections are between Prestige and OJC but maybe this OJC project of the "Birdlanders" did not have access to material from the Prestige (reissue) catalog??

Very sorry to hear about that. It's happened to two members of my family (LONG "before their time had come") too so I am afraid I do think I know how you feel. Hang on!

Well, if you'd read "The Birth of Bebop" by Scott DeVaux... http://www.amazon.com/Birth-Bebop-Musical-History-Foundation/dp/0520216652 ... while listening to the music on this box you'd soon think differently. This author turns the Hawk into a seminal bebop figure that towers so sky-high above everybody else in the development of bebop that it borders on the unfathomable. :D

The criticisms of the Proper label are more aimed at a certain species of Proper box buyers. Many seem to take offense at anything that comes out of certain Spanisch and/or Andorran labels (even if they clearly are within the 50-year Public Domain limits) yet drool heavily over those Proper boxes that go just the same route. An extreme case of double standards IMHO. I haven't heard much criticism about fidelity of those boxes, though. Those boxes that I've heard (not this one, though) are quite OK, though to my ears some of the 78-rpm era recordings on some of those boxes sounded a bit "unnaturally clean" (not disturbingly so, and of course I do not know which source of previously reissued AND remastered tracks they had dug into for their own "re-reissues".

Thanks for the reminder! Would fit in well with what I am curently listening to so I think I'll give mine a spin too:

Listened to the Quincy Jones LP last night (after not having dug it out for a long time), indeed nice vocals, nice lyrics (that are an ear opener and it is all the better that the lyrics are printed on the cover ) etc. and they do swing, though I must say that the extreme vocal(ese) gymnastics thrown in liberally really are an acquired taste. Straight after that I put on the reissue of the EmArcy LP by the BLUE STARS http://microgroove.jp/mercury/MG36067.shtml Probably relatively conventional compared to the Double Six, but at least as highly enjoyable for the vocal quality and the reworking into French lyrics too IMHO.

Well, the "Six" sure look "Double" here: As for how the name came about, this ad from the June, 1960 copy of JAZZ MAGAZINE may give a clue: "6 voices x 2 = one jazz group" An article on jazz vocals in the same issue of the mag implies that this calculation has to do with the voicings of the individual vocalists. The article says something like this: "The Double Six have an advantage over Lambert Hendricks and Ross in being twice as numerous so they have a wider scope of double voicings... Where a member of Lambert Hendricks and Ross has to sing four parts, a Double Six sings only two parts." I.e. Two times six = Double Six. But no doubt Brownie will be able to pin this down more accurately.

Not so sure about the release dates of the LPs. No. 3 (Whiteman) - the lowest on hits list that I have - has a production (P) date of 1979 on the cover, No. 72 (T. Dorsey) - the highest No. I have - has a production (P) date of 1987. Which ties in with the 1983 catalog that Brownie mentions.

Jazz Tribune #3 Paul Whiteman 'Jazz à la King' (1920-1936) Hope this pic helps you for the cover of #3: Can try to get a crisper pic if needed. As for #66, see here (taken from a listing on the inside cover of #72): Hope this helps.

They (i.e. the "Tribune" CDs) were one of those cases that really left me wondering if collectors really felt like they'd dump (or were expected to dump) their vinyl THAT fast. I mean, the "Tribune" LPs had hardly disappeared from the FRONT rows of the jazz corners of the record stores (but definitely still were around for those who were prepared to look) when the first CDs of that very series were already all over the place. O.K. - end of O.T. ramblings

Will check the LPs from that series that I have (far from exhaustive but quite a few) tonight to see if the sleeves contain listings of the entire series as released up to that time. BTW, is that you?? http://rateyourmusic.com/list/almofada/jazz_tribune__rca_

Reminds me of the stuff that used to be gathering dust and cobwebs upstairs in the overhead racks at Mole Jazz. I dunno ... I picked quite a few interesting Basie, Kenton and other LPs there to fill some gaps in my collection in rather a targeted manner so every now and then I did my best to brush off the cobwebs . But I think I know what you mean. And no doubt this collection gave its owner lots of listening pleasure. But if you are of the kind where with many artists that have maybe 10 or 20 LPs or merit you are content with 2 or 3 or 4 (which may not even be among the most essential or sought after ones) because you just happened to like those for very personal and individual reasons then it is going to be hard trying to find somebody who, of all records, is just DYING to fill his own collection by adding these. As for "idiosyncratically" compiled collections, I suppose most of us collectors are of that kind. Referring to the above Firehouse Five vs Ellington comparison, I for one make no excuses for the fact that my Louis Jordan LPs outnumber my Coltrane discs by a factor of about 10 or so, and I do have more Goerge Wallington and Claude Williamson discs than I have discs by Monk, but OTOH if broken down in smaller stylistic lots the picture would be more even and I would not expect to see my discs disappear in ONE go anyway after I am no longer around.

Yeah, and no Trane and no Electric Miles either. How could he - ever?? And claim this is a JAZZ collection?? In short, you kiddin', right? Seriously, this would be quite interesting for someone who is deeply into trad-style jazz or more trad-oriented swing or "Mainstream". Problem IMHO - it is a VERY personal collection based not only on tastes but apparently also on whims of what one came across at a given moment. I.e. a quick glance didn't reveal too many artists where this collector seems to have made a deliberate effort at rounding up something like a COMPREHENSEIVE array of discs on a particular artist - in the sense that many collectors who, even if they are not completists, discover one artist and then work themselves continuoiusly through that artist's records. A lot of the records that many of the artists here seem to be represented by seem to be fairly spotty, just as if some record caught the buyer's fancy so he bought it and that was that (maybe many purchases made at live gigs? Who knows?) Quite a few artists are probably represented by what one would consider "non-essential" recordings. They may be very nice in their own right but would they be first choice for somebody who'd want to get started with a particular artist? OTOH that "Best of" type of albums in that list would probably be fine for starters but once these "starters" explore the ground more thoroughly they would probably outgrow that kind of albums really fast. Still very nice all in all but the owner would need a buyer who REALLY is deeply into this and STILL has not a comprehensive collection himself. Otherwise it really would be a shot in the dark if there would be anybody out there who'd be able to fill MANY gaps with that collection. A rare beast, that kind of potential buyer ... And honestly, I think to most of today's collectors those cassettes and tapes unfortunately are largely deadweight. Unless one would have the equipment and be prepared to transfer them all to CD-R. It would be different if there were huge amounts of otherwise undocumented live recordings of "key" artists made privately by that collector back in the day. But are there?

Sorry, the link doesn't seem to work (leads to some generic "http" site). Maybe a link spelt out instead? P.S. Found the text now on your blog. Any chance this will appear on CD somewhere sometime in the future?

To stop anyone else having it? It's very good, and odd it hasn't had a life on CD outside the Mosaic. No, to pass them on to where they apparently would be wanted (if only one knew everybody's wants ). Because where these records sat and may not have been sold off fast I figure they eventually ended up in an even larger clearout bin where they got totally inundated in a huge mass of pop/MOR/light classics clearout fare.

If I'd known that Clickin' With Clax album is still clicking that much with people here I ought to have picked up those 2 or 3 dirt cheap vinyl copies that turned up in the secondhand clearout bins at a local record store here those past 2 years or so. Too bad ...

Nice article, and don't we all sympathise with some of the problems and odd experiences mentioned? But talking about 400 CDs and all of THIRTY-FIVE LPs (or even 150 LPs)? Space must really be at an extreme premium when that kind of figure warrants mentioning at all. (Yes, hopefully I'll NEVER have to move house. )