Big Beat Steve

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

Yes - hats off to that seminal figure Louis Jordan. An influence in many ways. Any Louis Jordan is fine. But say, Durium, you mentioned those who claimed "Saturday Night Fish Fry" was the fist Rock'n'Roll record (Jim Dawson and Steve Propes, in fact ) but still there is no need for you to say you like the tune "anyway"?? Especially since you picked the cover of his 50s Mercury album cover (or the Bear Family reissue in your case) that came from a period when he clearly jumped on the R&B/R'n'R bandwagon to give his career some new impetus. Louis Jordan was one of those who straddled the stylistic fence of swing, R&B and R'n'R without really altering his style all that much, and that's quite some tribute to his music.

Take ANY noted jazz scribe now in his 60s or late 50s and have a look at pictures of him taken in the early 70s and then ask that question again. :D Or, for that matter, take a look at pictures of any jazz or blues musician (especially if he's black and/or if he's been on the scene since the early 50s, i.e. was well past the age befitting the "young ghetto dude image" by the 70s) taken at about that time. Aren't some of them just painful to look at? In short, those were the times, for better or worse ...

The "Bird Symbols" and "Bird Is Free" LP's (U.S. pressings) (and probably more which I didn't pick up) still were available new in a local record store here in the mid-70s when I had just begun to explore Bird, and as they were fairly affordable they were some sort of door opener to Bird for me. Still have them, BTW, and my copy of a Cecil Payne LP (UK pressing) isn't too bad soundwise either. Now was this a bootleg label or not? One of my C.P. Records LP's is made up of Dial masters (no doubt not in the public domain then), and these were circulating in numerous other guises and labels elsewhere but on the same markets at the same time too.

Agree with what's been said. Fast drying is essential. And even then ... Over the years I've come across quite a few LP's with evident severe water damage to the jackets but pristine vinyl. And this even in cases where even the INNER SLEEVE was water damaged and all wavy. Figuring that somebody who went to the pains of getting a record dried and cleaned properly would also invest in a new inner paper sleeve, this makes me wonder if records sometimes even survive O.K. even without further treatment. Not that I would trust this, but it does mean not all is lost. Good luck!

What's keeping you from going BOTH ways, i.e. buying vinyl whenever you prefer THAT medium and keeping and/or digitizing your CDs at the same time? Dumping all your CDs in order to go the vinyl-only route is just as silly as dumping all your vinyl in order to go "all CD" (as many did in the 90s). I can't really consider those who are dead set on sticking to one single medium (and dumping their other media in the process) "real" collectors - they're just music consumers or maybe music bookkepers IMHO. Digitizing your music for convenience is another matter (and where's the problem with buying your vinyl (or CDs) AND digitizing your music whenever you want it on an iPod etc.?) but I'm still not convinced ALL digitized media are going to last as long as vinyl does. And having to do backups of increasing data volumes on additional drives ever so often also leaves me wondering where all this is going to end. As for making one's existence easier, carrying thousands of tunes on iPods is an advantage, of course ... but as for home listening ... honestly, I really cannot see how things get easier if I have to select tracks and artists from PC databases (especially if I do not fancy leading my entire home existence in front of my PC anyway ) instead of just having to pull a record or CD out and put it onto the turntable/CD player? To me it's a bit of an "emperor's clothes" thing, all this ...

John, this was the Paris Festival in 1949. Modernism or not, I guess a weedhead was a weedhead (no matter waht the musical inclinations were) and meant good company if you were in for some weed. So backstage friendships might make any sort of alliances possible. :D

We may not be talking about exactly the same period. Revolutionary Blues with Bechet was c. 1944-45 IIRC. I was referring to somewhat later dates, including some recorded in France. But be that as it may - it may be a matter of "agree to disagree", I guess, and besides, it's the book that alocis asked about.

Yes, the book is fun and great reading. I guess some details in it need to be taken with a grain of salt, though. But those biographical sources that stated that "Mezz was a major figure in classical jazz not so much for his playing but as a purveyor of almost unlimited quantities of marijuana to the musicians and for writing "Really the Blues"" are spot-on. Some of his mid-40s King Jazz recordings with Bechet may be quite OK (I only have part of them) but a lot of what he forced into record grooves after that period was just some laughable noodling and doodling of scales. Nice amateur attempts but if it hadn't been for his earlier behind-the-scenes presence and the continued (and just as laughable) patronage and hero worshipping by Hugues Panassié he would have been nowhere overall. But that's beside the point here. The book IS enjoyable.

That's the very thing I LOVE about the "teenager" tracks that appear in 50s and 60s films . They sound nothing like real rock and roll - thankfully. Yes, the contrast IS fascinating. That's why I go for that kind of 50s soundtracks too (though I love all facets of TRUE 50s r'n'r as well). Listened to the entire LP again last night, and actually a few of the tracks give a fairly passable imitation of danceable instrumental R&B (OK, the West and East coasters among the jazzmen did better with their Boots Brown and Dan Drew lineups ) but some of the score is really a bit weird if you picture it as the background to r'n'r-inspired 50s teen action.

Druid jazz musicians? How about MOONDOG? (of "Improvisation in 4/4"/"Improvisation in 7/4" etc. fame on Coral / c.1953) He certainly looked the part, and his music was waaay out there too.

Enzo Iannacci? I DUE CORSARI!! But hearing them sing in English is a VERY acquired taste!