Big Beat Steve

Not true, chewy. Parrot did record and issue a LOT of their own material (see the label story under the link above). However, Parrot followed an older label - Old Swingmaster - where the same persons (including DJ Al Benson) were involved. So they took over some of the leftovers of that one. And they certainly weren't the only indie label of that time that made use of masters from other (even smaller) indies that had gone bust. At the same time they leased some of their own masters to other labels that may have had better distribution. And after Parrot went OOB a lot of their leftovers went to Chess that had leased recordings from them before (so it's actually the other way round from what you wrote). Not a copycat practice but normal procedures at that time. As for Crown, they were a cheapo offshoot of the Modern/RPM label group (run by the Bihari brothers). So obviously they reissued that material again. But it all remained within the same company. It's a bit like reissue or budget sublabels with the majors, such as the Wing subsidiary of Mercury/EmArcy, etc.

Brownie, the source quoted by Chewy is this: http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~campber/parrot.html Great site, great info on a HUGE number of R&B artists!

Maybe somebody sneaked them out of the P.X. and off the huge U.S. base that used to be at Chateauroux or some other U.S. base? I guess that's why I was able to find the occasional Crown LP over here at fleamarkets WELL before the internet came along (i.e. because at some time in the past somehow some G.I. Joe dumped or resold/gave them away off base outside one of the U.S. posts here so they eventually ended up in fleamarket bins)

I have it and am not overly impressed. As with other Gleason Capitol albums of that period, it is fairly conventional. If I can find it quickly I will post a period review here for your amusement (I think it was a 1 or 2-star rating ) Maybe these recordings were a nice change from TV work for those studio hacks who participated in the Gleason sessions but by 50s big band jazz standards there are better items around. Re- Dave Pell: His LP's on the Kapp label are quite enjoyable. If I remember correctly he did a Rodgers & Hart LP for Kapp too so the one you saw might be similar.

In my quest of getting the entire MODE LP series (minus a few vocalists' items I can do without) I also got Al Viola`s LP. Nice as a study object for budding guitarists but must admit I found it a bit too subdued. Maybe I will have to give it a closer listen once again.

And if you want to go the whole way, check out the chronological works of the Moten band on the CLASSICS label.

Tom, if the positions of Stanley Crouch that you sum up here are the reasons why his writings so often meet with hostililty, does this mean that Stanley Crouch is commonly seen as the Rudi Blesh or Hugues Panassié of the 21st century? :D

Well said, Clunky. I am not the biggest M.B. fan but like her to some degree and it also struck me that her voice has stood the test of time a LOT better than the voices of MOST of the other female white swing vocalists of the pre-Anita O'Day/pre-June Christy era. On a side note, what do the liner notes of the Mosaic set say about Mildred Bailey's birth date? (Surely these liner notes must be the result of thorough research) There was/is a discussion on another forum on this subject and some biographical details just make the commonly quoted date of 1907 HIGHLY improbable.

Another disc worth checking out: LOCKING HORNS feat. Joe Newman and Zoot Sims (originally on RAMA, reissued on Fresh Sound - where else? - both as vinyl and CD) Stylistically I'd say it's between his 50s mainstream recordings and his more advanced dates on Prestige/Swingville.

Stan Getz did a session in Warsaw on 31 October 1960 for a "Stan Getz in Poland" album released on the Muza label. This might be the one. However, according to the discographies this session was reissued later again on Muza but also on CD on a Japanese CD (TKCD) and on an Italian label (Bandstand).

Another Thumbs Up from me. I tried to get this through eBay for some time but my bids were insufficient each time, and then I finally landed a clean copy of the original Vik release at quite a good price. I haven't been disappointed - great guitar, great scores, but as was to be expected if you search for an item almost for ages, son aftereards a local record shop got in a stack of the Fresh Sound reissue LP's at a significantly lower price so all of a sudden the record was all over the place ... Any, no regrets at all, and unless you are a vinyl junkie, go for the CD with the extra tracks!

I don't have the box set either but most of the individual Jam Session LP's. My favorite is Jam Session #1 with Charlie Parker, of course (Jam Blues, Ballad Medley, Funky Blues, etc.). Put on the record, take out Esther Bubley's "Charlie Parker" book with the full pictorial record of that session and the music really comes alive - almost as if you'd been at the session ...

Durium, there must be some confusion. I wasn't referring to the pic you showed twice in this thread (Brew in his characteristic pose) but to the pic of the cigarette-smoking guy you have just underneath that pic inserted ni the text on your KEEP SWINGING BLOG (not here but under the link in your thread). As I did not see the name of Tony Fruscella in that article on Brew Moore I figured there was a mixup. And there is ... see the covers of the Spotlite LP's (Nice stuff on these, by the way - the Fru'n'Brew LP is just getting a spin here - very relaxed session!). BTW; the Vocalion issue you mentioned above is indeed a European release of Fantasy 3-222 ("The Brew Moore Quartet and Quintet"), his first solo LP. P.S. (see below) Brownie - thanks for clarifying this once and for all (so we can finish that part of the discussion and get back to Brew )

Seeing that Bill Grauer is mentioned here and that people are not exactly unanimous about Orrin Keepnews' merits, does anybody have the inside info on to whom that legendary "Pictorial History of Jazz" book by Keepnews and Grauer should actually be credited? I guess I am not the only one who got exposed to this book early on in his jazz collecting days and was (and still is) immensely impressed by it. And this is why Orrin Keepnews' name of course has been VERY familiar to me all along (aside from his Riverside involvement - but I never really took that much notice of his liner notes). A 1951 issue of Record Changer (where Bill Grauer was involved) ran a lengthy feature on a pictorial history of jazz that sort of predated the later book. Now just to get the credits right: Who did the major work in that book? Anybody have any inside info?

Niko, Spotlite SPJ151 shown by you above is indeed the LP I was thinking of when I mentioned Tony Fruscella. The photo on Durium's blog is on the back cover of this one, I think (or on that other Spotlite Fruscella LP - will check tonight when I am home from work).

The record you have must be the U.K. pressing of one Brew's mid-50s Fantasy albums (haven't got my discography on hand right now). Also, about that b/w pic of that cigarette-smoking dude in your blog: Are you sure this is Brew Moore? Looks more like Tony Fruscella (who did record with Brew) to me. I think it is on one of those Spotlite LP's (will check later today). Is this where you got it from?

Don't forget the Japanese internet invasion that snaps up a LOT of anything that even remotely reeks of !Euro-jazz". Anyway, what you said is also true for most other European jazz-producing countries, i.e. France, Germany, Sweden, etc. Almost all you ever found in used record bins (even in the jazz racks) or on fleamarkets were the umpteenth 50s compilation by Miller, Satch, Bechet or that 50s trad/revival stuff. Apart from the tiny production runs of the more interesting European jazz productions, those who were well-to-do or discerning enough to afford any sizable collection of locally produced jazz at that time apparently weren't of the kind whose belongings end up on fleamarkets or garage sales.

Nicely said, Hot Ptah! The paranoid fear of cover wear really goes to funny extremes sometimes ... :D Or should I just consider myself lucky for being outside the U.S. and therefore owning a larger percentage of non-U.S. pressings? IMO a lot of wear can be avoided just by halfway careful handling and a minimum of common sense (e.g. by not cramming your shelves too full so you have to squeeze your records in and drag them out), and all this without any fancy separate storage tricks, etc. I don't like storing EVERY single album in plastic sleeves; this makes it pretty hard to see where everything is anyway once your collection exceeds a certain (sizable) limit (as the spines of the covers become hard to read inside the plastic outer sleeves). Anyway, in my collection my 50s and early 60s originals (all bought secondhand) all go in plastic sleeves to minimize further rubbing and ring wear but the records ALWAYS go inside the sleeve where they belong. Sole exception: Notoriously tight fits such as some of those Crown LP's. And with more recent (re)issues that are not really going to appreciate much in the long run anyway it does not matter that much. After all the way your collection stays in good shape also is a matter of handling; most of my records have stood up pretty well (even many U.S. pressings), and even on SECONDHAND records bought years ago the covers haven't deteriorated any further at all in MY possession ... ... that is, with one major exception: those shoddy 70s U.S. cardboard thingies... Those DREADFUL U.S. cardboard covers used ever since LP's came along really were lousy indeed compared to many European pressings of the late 60s/70s/80s. Those hyper-flimsy paper strips that folded over the edges and onto the rear or front end to hold everything together practically BEG for seam splits to happen. How can you seriously expect TWO cardboards AND something more or less thick in between to be held together by a thin PAPER strip if you continuously ply those cardboard layers open at one end to remove the contents? Would cardboard or reinforced paper patterns of twice the LP size that fold over and just are glued together along their flaps (made of the same thicker material) have been outside the maximum size of what U.S. printing plants apparently were able to handle for decades? Not very flattering for that industry in #1 among the industrialized nations. ;) And then to top it all, those 70s U.S. pressings with their awful printing ink quality that caused ring wear by rubbing off in practically NO time at all. I've seen lots of them literally develop ring wear in the shop racks as soon as they remained in the racks for more than a couple of weeks. With that kind of shabby cover printing quality I'd not even be sure ring wear can be avoided by storing the record outside the cover (as recommended here). Not much difference if your record rubs against that lousy priner's ink from the outside or inside (witness the color of a ring-worn front cover found on the back of the adjacent cover against which the cover has been rubbing on the shelf... ; in that case it'd just end up on the inner sleeve now stored outside). Prestige and Fantasy albums of that time were particularly bad among jazz labels. Quite a few of my U.S. Prestige twofers of the 70s bought brand new back then have developed considerable ring wear through the years in my vinyl rack from rubbing against their neighbors on the shelf (not ideal, I know ... now I know better ...) YET LOTs of German or French printings bought new at the same time are almost as pristine as they were when purchased. (Note I am talking about 70s or early 80s issues - 50s European pressings often had quite thin and fragile covers - yet even the ring wear on those older covers hardly ever caused any loss of printer's ink or discoloration, just shading of the record contours on the covers) Funnily enough, ring wear was nowhere near as much of a problem with those LAMINATED 50s EmArcy LP's and similar labels. Even VG copies I cam across looked pretty good, ring-wear wise ... A prime example of how you can save in the wrong place ...

This thread should answer your question: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=32444

I guess I forgot to add a smiley. But seriously, it is tragic if it's the end of the program. Even without a smiley you weren't that far off the mark. Somewhere (and quite a while ago) I read that it was the proclaimed final goal of the DOCUMENT label to make EVERY pre-war blues recording available again in reissue form.

Ha, so the Japs now have latched on to this one as being particularly collectible too! My, how time fades ... This one caused quite a laugh among the European rockabilly subculture (U.K., in particular) in the late 80s. :D (Can't recall the music on it, though...)

Don't you believe it! In the vinyl days anyway, this clearly was not an issue. Document and those other Austrian and Dutch pre-war blues reissue labels went to GREAT lengths in trying to avoid duplications and expressly listed "other recommended listening" (i.e. other company's LP's that completed the total output) on their sleeves. And this is a policy I would have LOVED to see among LOTS of jazz reissue labels where the same stuff is regurgitated over and over again in ever so slightly different combinations. And you certainly can't fault the (Dutch) AGRAM label for the booklets they included with many of their releases. Not something they could have ripped off somewhere else. I admit I haven't seen that much of the CD's of these labels but the "complete recorded works" CD releases by Document on many pre-war blues artists certainly went well beyond what other labels (including Yazoo) did so a lot of their own work must have gone into all that.

There's still a ENOOOORMOUS amount of blues and R&B recordings from the first post-war (WWII, that is) decade that has never ever been reissued or resurrected from the vaults of unissued masters. But I guess that's much too lowly and sophisticated for those Paramount and Gennett lovers. Ace, Classics Blues & Rhythm and Blue Moon are trying to rectify this situation but still there is much too much for them to handle it all ...

An oddball label name if there ever was one! According to the Bruyninckx discography (again!), Out of Nowhere is from an unknwon location in 1946. Moon, I'll Never be the same and Beguine are from The Click, Philadelphia, 27 May 1948, Sometimes, Kept on Dreaming, Gee Bop, Lover, Still of the Night, DJ Jump, To Be ... are from the Hollywood Palladium, L.A., April 1949, Gone Side is from an unknown date in '49, Leave Us Leap is The Steel Pier, Atlantic City, 20 Aug. 49, Yesterdays is from the Arcadia Ballroom, NY, 9 Nov. 1949, Southland is from the Ted Steel Show, NY. 3 Ovt. 1950. Oh well ... how many Leave Us Leaps, DJ Jumps and G-Bops do you need? Gona play me Leave Us Leap by the Eraldo Volonté Orchestra for a real change now (Italian recording form 1947 - pretty good punch in the brass and reed sections ...)

Try Alamac QSR-2450 (airshots of April 1949 from the Hollywood Palladium).