Big Beat Steve

See ... what you describe as being sniffy happened to a friend of mine at Ray's when she had picked a (rather rambunctious) R&B/R'n'R compilation from their downstairs "Blues & Roots dept." and asked to listen in (briefly) just to make sure ... The staff upstairs visibly winced at every note coming from the speakers. And I'd had slightly less extreme reactions once or twice before. But ... hey, no need to sneer at what you stock yourselves in your own (specialist) store, gents! :D So as you can see you're right about individual experiences. As for Dobell's, I remember in '75 to '77 there were 2 shops within a few steps from each other (though I seem to remember one was billed the "Jazz" shop and one the "Folk" shop, even though the selection they stocked really overlapped), and one or both seem to have been a sort of "downstairs" shop. Cramped, but full of goodies!

Can't say so. My trips to Mole Jazz (between 1992 and 2000) were always exceptional not only in what I found there but also in the way the staff were helpful and obliging (to the extent possible at all). Dobell's brings back fond memories to when I was there in 1975 to 1977 during 2-week stays there while still in high school. I found the staff (both in the Jazz and the "Folk" store, one of them must have been Doug Dobell himself) always very helpful and above all patient with the young budding collector that I was, rummaging through the discs for hours on end and ending up with picking 2 or 3 LP's (from my tight 15 to 17 year-old schoolboy budget). I can't have been their best customer, and the questions I asked cannot always have been the most enlightened either (as I was really just getting started) but I was always treated with utter courtesy (OK, maybe ol' man Dobell figured I wasn't that clueless as I literally jumped on that Cyril Davies LP on the Folklore label I discovered there - a Dobell production, as I found out a bit later - and there cannot have been many school kids from abroad buying THAT one ). At any rate, I often wished I'd been able to spend much more there. It was too bad I never made it back to London until 1992, and I remember my disappointment at finding out Dobell's was long gone by then. Anyway, on record stores in general, what's been said above is what happened here too. Our equivalent of Virgin or Tower used to have good stocks in the jazz and blues departments up until the late 90s but everything has been going downhill fast ever since. Some stores got bigger but "niche" departments got smaller and smaller. Maybe they just figured they needed not bother anymore after another independent local record store that used to stock a lot of major AND minor labels (and had a firm reputation as #1 for all jazz/blues/rock collectors) went belly-up around 2000-2001. Apart from the "Special Jazz Offers" bins in one secondhand record store and the local glance at the local 2001 shop my local record/CD buying in brick-and-mortar shops has virtually stopped years ago. Sadly ....

Nice idea, and amusing cover photo. Sounds like this band would be great fun to listen to, on record and also on stage, though their attire (and therefore visual impact) leaves a bit to be desired, compared to other roots bands such as the "Bo Weavil Blues Band" from France or your own "Ranch House Favorites". BTW, I wonder if they'd have ventured to breathe some "roots music" life into a society band ditty such as "FDR Jones" (and succeeded in doing so), though ...

Indeed. That was the point of my using Don drummond as an example. This example IS troubling. I'd use Frank Rosolino as another example. As will be known he ended his days by killing himself after having killed his sons (that is, one died and the other survivied with severe injuries which left him blind). What are we to make of this, seeing that even his peers were unable to figure it out, wondering that something must have been SEVERELY amiss with him for a long time because he had been known as a joker and funny face all his life, but as one musician said, "there must be something deeply wrong if you keep cracking jokes at a rate of about two per minute day in, day out!" I like his 50s and early 60s work a lot and have not really explored his much later work but admit in view of what happened I have little incentive exploring it deeply because I've asked myself the same question: How should I rate his music in the light of what happened soon after? Did he just play a role? Something must have been wrong for quite some time. While killing oneself is tragic enough (and not something we ought to try to judge), can excuses really be made for killing one's own children? I don't have the answer ...

I've found myself in the same situation that MG describes here and there. If you really like the music you do tend to make excuses but it all has its limits. I remember Allen Lowe had quite a bit to say about serious flaws in the character of Al Haig (a piano player I appreciate immensely), seemingly following the publication of a biography that gave some "insights" (that's putting it mildly, from what I've read here). It does disturb me too but I find myself making excuses in that most of what I really dig of his music are his 40s/50s recordings so maybe this was well before he developed this "nasty behavior". But am I right in thinking so? Do I want to find out? I don't know (yet). Similarly, I remember another thread here that focused on the same topic, including one backstage incident involving Dizzy Gillespie who seems to have behaved like a jerk towards Valerie Wilmer (to the point of T-bone Walker knocking him flat). Hard to imagine, but do we know everything that happened? And what else happened? On the other hand, there have been soooo many detailed accounts of the often downright cheap ways and manners of Benny Goodman (stating with reports on his cheap non-defense of Wardell Gray against racially motivated insults in his c.1951 band playing Vegas, going on with what Terry Gibbs had to say about "The Fog" in his autobiography, and up to the troubling and VERY detailed report of that 1962 Russia tour) that while I have no trouble enjoying his music for what it is I find it very, very hard to stand to see all that hero adulation that is showered upon him. Somebody who treated his fellow human beings like that through, it seems, most of his life just does not qualify for hero worshipping IMHO. A modicum of decency in everyday life is not something that hard to acquire. And if you don't have it, well, your music can still be enjoyed on its own terms, but elevating the PERSON on a pedestal? Nah! This is where I join Seeline in what he had to say about Miles Davis earlier in this thread. Of course artists are only human too, and none of us are 100% perfect, but being in the limelight (for better or worse) places some kind of obligation on you to either behave at least halfways decently or ignore everything that might be considered "minimum standards of human coexistence" and face the consequences (as quite a few rock "stars" seem all out to do these days, maybe working on the principle that bad publicity is better than no publicity). But a jerk is a jerk, artist or not.

Not a valid argument. 1) Does an importan European have to be an expatriate living in the USA to become "the most important European jazzman"? By the time he has settled down permanently in the U.S. (and in its jazz scne) he is no long a "European" jazz musician but an "American" jazzman who happens to be of European descent. Did Zawinul bring a specifically European touch to U.S. jazz throughout his works there? 2) The guys you name (with the exception of Ben Webster et al., and this was a minor occurrence overall) cover only a part of jazz that started with fusion, etc. There WAS jazz (probably MAJOR jazz, style-wise) BEFORE fusion. Can a Johny-come-lately be a MAJOR factor in the ENTIRE history of jazz? (Seems to be one of the problems with forums like this where too many just don't go back beyond Trane in their awareness of jazz) Therefore I'd also vote for Django. Next up, how about Lars Gullin? Or any of the major European Free Jazz musicians (Dauner, Brötzmann, etc.) (as an example of Europeans becoming a dominating and therefore pacesetting stylistic factor in a particular stream of jazz) (BTW; I've never dug Free Jazz but I acknowledge its importance within the history of jazz, and hence Europeans' contributions - that much for Van Basten's reminder to look beyond one's own tastes )

This was made in 1963-64. Haven't heard it but since none of the more commonly available recording guides (AMG, Music Hound, Penguin, Third Ear, etc.) mention this recording (which has bern reissued at least once by EMi on vinyl) it cannot have been THAT essential. The lineup say it was L.J. on as & voc. acc. by tp/ as/ts/bs/p/2 el-g (!!)/e-b/dm I must admit the thought of having an electric bass plodding away behind L.J. makes me wince. In John Chilton's bio L.J. is quoted as complaining bitterly about the shoddy treatment he received from Ray Charles, stating he had ben made all sorts of promises but the record just never got any plugs from Ray's company, making him feel "he must have signed me as a tax deduction or something". The book then says ""... was right in saying that there were plenty of good performances on the album, but as with other sides that Louis made in his recent past the material was not uniformly strong. ... his tone is not as quite as full as hitherto, but his fingers are as nimble as ever ... Most of the neat arrangements are by Ernie Freeman, they are contemporary examples of that period's studio music, redolent of quasi-rock drumming, electric bass figures and punchy brass interludes. ... It remains a good album but not a great one." At any rate, the Pzazz record from the late 60s definitely is to avoid.

:tup :tup As you say ... the byways off the trodden paths of "mainstream taste" provide the most enjoyable listening to us INDIVIDUALS.

Yes, sounds like a lot of money by any standards. But just for the record (i.e. vinyl ): Louis Jordan's DECCA period has been reissued countless times and you can get most of it it (close to 100%, according to the L.J. discography by Danny Garcon and Jacques Lubin) on 5 or 6 MCA LP's (including those in the "Jazz Heritage" and French "Jazz Stars" series)And then there were 2 on the Swingtime label, 2 on Charly and 3 on Jukebox Lil, and that leaves the ground well covered. Might be worht searching the secondhand bins for them. If they come up, the MCA LP's, in particular, are likely to be cheap. Also, I'd venture a guess that some of those reissues had been among the most thoughful compilations with the collector in mind, i.e. very little overlap, and the Jukebox Lil LP's, in particular, specifically sought out those tracks not included on the MCA reissues. And though I am a bit wary of that label (because, as opposed to Fresh Sound, the DO take advantage of other collector reissue labels' previous efforts), in those CD times, I'd be very surprised if no Louis Jordan Proper box exists ANYWHERE ...

Retail price directly from Bear Family (as per their current mail order catalog): 141.62 euros (+ shipping, of course).

At any rate, it looks like the label is HIS ROOSTER'S VOICE!

I think I see what you mean. Not essential for me, then ... (I've been sopiled in a BIG way by Tal Farlow )

Eh ... Durium, what's that story on your blog about a 40s Chuck Wayne album recorded on the VIK label and distributed in AFGHANISTAN??? Chuck Wayne DID record an album for VIK ("String Fever") in the 50s but Vik did not even exist yet in the 40s (Vik was one of the susidiaries that RCA launched in the 50s for certain acts - along with the X and Groove labels). So something somehow does not fit together here. "Tasty Pudding" was a reissue of a date that Chuck Wayne did for the PROGRESSIVE label (not the only Progressive masters that Savoy took over) but not likely in 1946. Don't know how Wikipedia made that up.

Ah yeah ... THAT newsreel speaker's voice is VERY well known to all Germans interested in that era ... Too bad the resolution is so poor. BTW, it is is interesting to see the differences in the reactions of the media to those concerts. While in cool Sweden the reviewer of Orkester Journalen stated flat out that Gene Krupa and his circus artistry left him cold (but admitted he made a hit with the kids in the audience), the JAZZ HOT review of the Parisian concert just drooled both about Gene and about his drum battles with J.C. Heard. And all the mags complained about the unruly behavior of many youngsters in the audience (who clearly in many cases had not come for the music in the first place - signs of times to come? ). Must have been hard for introvert artists like Lester ...

I was just referring to the fact that these JWC compilations seemed to come up fairly often on eBay.com. The vinyl record shop situation is just as bad in Germany these days as it is in Switzerland, I guess ...

I don't think it would. After all part of those JWC samples WERE out on other LP's (which are bound to be/have been reissued with their original contents on CD elsewhere, possibly even on Mosaic "complete works" of PJ artists, etc.). In short, this would be a Select that automatically leads to a considerable rate of duplicates among all seasoned collectors. Besides, what's the deal about the format? Those JWC samplers aren't THAT unobtainable. They must have been (comparatively) huge sellers in their day.

I'd bet somebody was around somewhere recording those concerts on tape. But if you ever unearth them, there would be a lot to listen to: That particular part of the 1953 JATP tour alone (late February, 1953) included some SIX concerts in Sweden, plus two in Oslo (Norway) and one each in Helsinki (Finland) and Copenhagen (Denmark)! And after that they hopped on over to the European continent, starting in Hamburg. And so on ...

Could it be that the "video" originally was a newsreel shown in Finnish cinemas? For THAT purpose this kind of editing would have made sense.

I will have to look through my 1953 jazz mags again tonight but unless I am VERY MUCH mistaken Charlie Ventura was not on that Scandinavian tour at all. Flip Phillips, Prez and Willie Smith were the reedmen.

I see what you mean. But out of sheer curiosity: What else does the "Space Age Bachelor Pad" section of your collection include?

Interesting to see such documents surface ... especially if you can put them into a wider historical context: The Swedish jazz mag ESTRAD wrote about the Scandinavian JATP tour of 1953: "Lester Young rehabilitated himself thoroughly after his rather weak appearance the year before, and it became clear that he certainly isn't finished as a musician - not at all, in fact. Norman Granz explained that Lester Young did not appreciate Moax Roach's drum work to the same extent that he likes J.C. Heard's backing, and there may be something to it ... Among the bigger group's appearances we warmly remember Lester's wonderful "I Cover The Waterfront" and his playing in "LEster Leaps In." ORKESTER JOURNALEN had this to say: "But there was Lester! Sure he played unevenly last year, but how about this year! Anybody who had been disappointed by his playing during his last visit will probably have changed his opinion now. What is more, he was featured much more than before, and I think, having listened to him through five entire concerts, this was for his own good. ... In the ballad solo features, Lester rated a fair bit above the rest, especially during the two final concerts where he put his special and inimitable stamp on "I can't get started." And he seems to be just as fond of melodies such as "I cover the waterfront" and "She's funny that way". So that's how it was, back then ... P.S. Yes - the alto player appearing on the 1953 JATP tour was Willie Smith.

Actually the one who "turned the tired Benny Goodman band inside out" in the early 40s was the other half of Sauter-Finegan: Eddie Sauter. Still very nice recordings that resulted. BTW, anybody know of a good facsimile reissue source of the Sauter-Finegan LP "Sons of Sauter-Finegan"? (Preferaby vinyl, because THAT zany Jim Flora cover you just GOT to have in its original size!)

Regarding that "Must Have" Lester Young stuff on CP, you are talking about the Royal Roost recordings from '48 and '49 (according to the liner notes), i.e. Be Bop Boogie/ These Foolish Things/ D.B.Blues/Just You Just Me etc.? (how many C.P. records with Prez were there, after all?) Re-"Bird Is Free", some of it really is incredible if this is your first exposure to "live Bird", e.g. "Sly Mongoose" or "My Little Suede Shoes". Did somebody say there was no melody in bebop? The club sound with talk, tinkling glasses, etc. would certainly be called "extra lo fi" by some but actually if you put that record on very late at night you can almost picture yourself right among the crowd. Somehow I've never had any trouble "listening through" that background noise.

"Paper Moon" by the Phil Urso Quartet was on JWC 505 ("Solo Flight"), also a one-off, according to discographies. Some of those compilations also featured tracks not issued elsewhere on individual artists' LP's so they weren't just "samplers" all the way. I wouldn't rate those "orphaned" tracks as session leftovers only, either.

Did I overlook something or did this really go totally unnoticed here? Famous arranger Bill Finegan left the building on June 4. R.I.P. http://www.artsjournal.com/rifftides/2008/...n_19172008.html