Big Beat Steve

I have the 6-LP RCA Bluebird box set that Fer Urbina refers to. As for more recent reissues, all I know is that this box set for a long time was the most definitive word in the reissues of Hamp's late 30s small band sessions (these predate his big band which did not start until 1941 or so) since RCA CD reissues of this music used to be rather piecemeal affairs. Later on the master takes were reissued more comprehensively on the French CLASSICS label but currently only the 1938-39 volume seems to be available any more while the others seem to be OOP (see the Abeille website). So the AVID budget CDs might be the best possible option in every respect. I don't know where CLASSICS got their material from or how they did their remasters but I am willing to bet (thinking of the way those cheapo public domain CDs over here in Europe operate) that AVID took their material from other CD's and NOT from vinyls. So they probably used the Classics reissues as a basis.

I'd also recommend going for the late 30s/early 40s RCA small-group sessions as a matter of contrast with his later 50s small-group recordings that so many seem to be so fond of here (probably because they offersuch an immense lot of common ground with other mainstream or "middle jazz" acts and sounds that today's jazz listeners seem to be most accustomed to). Nothing against "Hamp and Getz" and similar small group sessions at all, but for sheer exuberance and vitality, I'd strongly recommend getting Hamp's 40s big band recordings he did for Decca too. There's a lot there that really burns! And his early 50s big band that recorded for MGM (with somewhat more brassy ensembles) is not negligible either. As for his live recordings, his 1947 Just Jazz All Stars concert recordings are a must. There also are a lot of Hamp's 50s concert recordings that are fine. You need not get all of them (to the more casual listener the recordings can become repetitive), but his Apollo Hall concert of 1954 and his Olympia Concert (Paris) recordings would be a nice treat. And a special mention to that IAJRC LP featuring historically important recordings of his legendary 1953 band that never recorded commercially (the one that included Clifford Brown, George Wallington, Annie Ross, etc. and a bunch of others that moonlighted in Paris and in Sweden - much to the dismay of Hamp). And for a special oddity, how about his "Hamp and the Old World" LP released in Europe on Philips in the mid-50s which features Hamp jazzing up European folk songs. Not sure if it's ever been reissued on CD but it's quite fun to listen to. As for "Flying Home", there are so many versions of this track recorded by Hamp that one really would have be more specific when looking for a particular recording. On a negative side, I'd rather avoid those 70s recordings with Hamp and other guests featured in the "Lionel Hampton Presents" series produced by Hamp himself. To me they are pretty lame and rehashes of old and well-worn ideas.

When I heard Cody's version in the 70s, it brought up vague memories of hearing Johnny Bond's version in the early 60s. I assumed that Bond's was the original, but when I did a google it turned out that a guy named Charlie Ryan wrote "Hot Rod Lincoln" and recorded it about five years before Bond. Trivia - I know. /O.T. mode on/ Not trivia ... ESSENTIAL "back to the roots" knowledge! :D Credit where credit's due (to the originators)! Commander Cody were revivalists ... /O.T. mode off!/

I can also recommend this book. One of the best jazz books I've read. Almost every page made me want to pull out the records. After this book has been seconded here, I'll herewith third it. D: And to go on in a different vein (following up the Chess ansd Atlantic recommendations), how about doing you book reading online for a while? This site http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~campber/rsrf.html will tell you a lot of details about a LOT of Chicago blues and jazz labels from the golden era. More than you could possibly ever put into a printed book. But beware - it IS geared towards collectors who a sticklers for details too.

This may be a subject of IMMENSE controvery, but if you are looking for other reissues of more obscure West Coast jazz originally released on minor labels, you cannot bypass FRESH SOUND (true for a lot of more obscure non-West Coast 50s and early 60s jazz too). I cannot help it but for the most part I do not find the reissue sound quality on those vinyls I've got all that shoddy. (Don't have too many FS CD reissues so cannot comment on their fidelity, but the Fresh Sound box they did on those Nocturne 10in LP's does sound quite nice, and since the inevitable "ripoff" word is going to crop up in this debate sooner or later too, this box seems to be the real thing anyway since it was done in cooperation with and endorsed by Harry Babasin's heirs). So, long live Fresh Sound, IMHO! Incidentally, there were quite a few vinyl repro reissues of similar 50s indie label jazz that appeared in the 80s/90s and that carried neither the Fresh Sound nor the VSOP reissue tags. E.g. Bob Florence Trio, Dorothy Donegan, Johnnie Pate (on the Stepheny label), etc., etc. Anybody got a defiunite clue as to where these reissues came from?

I have most of the VSOP reissues mentioned here, but on VINYL - the way it's supposed to be, as these make great replica reissues of the original LP's, and then even the playing length makes sense. My particular favorites are all those MODE reissues (where you can split almost the whole cataloge between VSOP and jap. reissues) as well as those from the Tampa and Andex labels (Bill Holman, Dempsey Wright, etc.). In fact the entire VSOP catalog fills gaps in the reissue catalogs very nicely due to the obscurity of the original releases (in the same way Fresh Sound does - yeah! ;-) ) Another favorite of mine is that Art Pepper LP ("The Art of Pepper"?) that was originally released on some reel-to-reel tape only so never got much listening and for the first time made it to vinyl on VSOP.

Anyway, your Freddie Kohlman is indeed the one who later was involved with the New Orleans scene (read this in the liner notes to some reissue of his 50s R&B stuff such as "Hole in the Ground").

May I add a word about New Orleasn sur Seine... I agree that it is a very interesting book to read, but a word of caution to those who are looking primarily for a rundown of musicians, e.g. in the style of Ted Gioia's or Robert Gordon's "Jazz West Coast" books. The accent is surprisingly little on the French jazz musicians and their musical output. The big names (including foreign stars on tour in France) and their exploits do get mentioned but beyond that the emphasis is rather on the position of jazz in the cultural surroundings in France, the French media, the organization of the jazz scene, concert and festival promoters, jazz as seen by the public at large, the French jazz federations (including a fairly detailed account of the schism of the Hot Clubs and the endless Panassie-Delaunay feud which makes for hilarious reading today but clearly was anything but funny back then), etc. So you get to know a lot about the French jazz "scene" but if you want to check fast for a capsule of the accomplishemnts of French jazzmen such as Noel Chiboust, Robert Mavounzy, Jean-Claude Fohrenbach or other names no longer well-known today you will have to wait for another book. Or, Brownie, is there a book that treats this subject more like the abovementioned West Coast books or, in fact, the way Alain Tercinet treats his subject in "West Coast Jazz"?

Me too. I'll be over in France next Saturday and have scheduled a stop at a few major bookstores so I'd like to know if it is still in print and readily available and if it's worth the money for those who do not (!) have everything else yet. Or to put it another way, what other books (beyond 'New Orleans Sur Seine' and 'Boris Vian, Jazz A St. German', Ed. du Layeur - not the other, apparently similarly titled one) on (preferably) the history of the Parisian (or French) jazz scene, i.e. on the golden age of jazz in France, would be worth checking out, provided they are still available at all? Thanks beforehand for any suggestions!

Because you played (or wore) out the vinyl grooves in the course of time or because the vinyl pressing and/or mastering quality was oh so crappy in the first place? I know a few cases of crappy reissue vinyl pressings too and have therefore opted for CD reissues too (but those hardly ever duplicate the material 100% so you keep both) but there have been a few cases of CD reissues (or pre-LP era material, i.e. pre-1952 or so) bought in the 90s whee I was unaware of long-OOP 70s or early 80s vinyl reissues of EXACTLY the same tracks (often in the same sequence) so when I did discover those vinyl reissues later on I quickly dumped the CDs (i.e. sold or gave them as birthday presents) and have NEVER regretted it soundwise.

Really sad to hear ... I never got into his Oriental and world music stuff but I like his earlier work a lot. Will play one of his RCA or Coral albums tonight (or maybe his Ljubljana festival reocrdings with the Horst Jankowski trio from 1957).

Ha, what I said all along. Strange that jazz buffs should get into alliances with hip hop and house DJ's but as long as these subcultures are around and focusing on vinyl the medium is gonna hang on. Vinyl rules! Getting back to my 90% vinyl collection now to spin a black 12" one ...

To fuel this debate a little, just a hint that JD has been discussed extensively elsewhere: http://forums.allaboutjazz.com/showthread.php?t=18394 Enjoy!

What I particularly like are his early 40s recordings with the small band co-led with J.C. Higginbotham. The way he plays circles around Lucky Millinder's "Ride Red Ride", for example (showing off in the process how much more cumbersome a trombone was compared to a trumpet by the playing standards of that time) is a gas!

My day job is editing copy written by people who think that "nuke" is the funniest verb imaginable in a joking context. This leads me into arguments over nuclear metaphors and images quite often. As you can see, I'm getting pretty good at it.

All these covers are nowhere near as bad as MANY of the typical 70s reissue covers of a lot of fine 50s music, e.g. the entire nondescript "standard" covers of the "Jazz Lab" series on German MCA that featured reissues of 50s Coral jazz albums or some of those 80s Jazzline series reissues on French RCA . Or is there anything worse fitting the contents of the album than 70s/80s cover shots of artists that look sooo old and sooo long-haired, bearded and tired and wear funny flower-power garb in the worst 1973 fashion style while the actual contents of the music are prime 50s or even late 40s stuff? Worse than any of the funky 70s covers of original releases shown above. A related question to those who may have been around and into record production in the 70s/early 80s: Whatever was it that kept record companies from reissuing 50s records with their ORIGNAL artwork covers (like the Japanese did early on) back in the 70s? What were they afraid of? Would a bearded, worn-out looking long-hair viking named Gerry Mulligan really promise that much more sales of his early quartet sides in those long-hair days than a repor of the original cover showing a crisp-looking young dude?

Ha, "already R&B-ish" is putting it nicely... :D I was thinking of that CD too when I read MG's question. Check out Ray Abrams and Sam Butera fighting it out on their "Dueling Tenors" - THE honkin' sax battle to outhonk all honkers! :D Anyway, Ray Abrams got around elsewhere too. He was part of the 1946 Don Redman big band that was the first U.S. jazz big band to come to Europe after the War when they toured Denmark and Sweden and he also recorded a few 78s for the Sittin' In With and Jax labels in 1949.

At any rate it looks like the Musidisc JA 5176 LP that Chewy inquired about (and that I also happen to have) exactly duplicates the contents of Ozone 5.

I have the French pressing of the original Warner vinyl LP of this. A great session IMO with a real all-star lineup. I don't always agree with magazine reviews but in this case I think the 4-star rating by Down Beat was well-earned. BTW. I seem to remember this record (and the Trombones, Inc. session) was discussed at length in a previous thread here.

Kenny Hagood outdated? Maybe ... these were different times so the singing styles have changed too. But at any rate he still comes across COOL and HEP - and certainly not quite as outdated as many of those sentimental, operatic, not really very swinging big band era chorus singers, including many of those with the "name bands" of the late 30s and early 40s. Pure corn in many cases!

According to Walter Bruyninckx' discography, all tracks on side 1 of this Musidisc LP (JA5176) were recorded on 29 Aug. 48. The (male!) vocalist is identified as Kenny Hagood. Tadd Walk is from 9 Oct. 48, Our Delight from 16 Oct. 48. Wahoo might be from 30 Oct. 48 (same lineup listed in the discog though this issue is not stated). And all of this comes from broadcasts at the Roost, and part of the LP duplicates the Milestone twofer reissue of Navarro/Dameron live recordings.

Thanks for this background info; I am shocked at the fact that you were not involved in the booklet design and indeed did not get a chance to proofread. I cannot see the good sense of such an approach but I realize the blame apparently lies over there, then, for a good deal of what I've mentioned. Anyway, it's a real pity because the music and the booklets just belong together to complement each other IMO. Re- the Georgie Auld recording date I assume to be correct was given like this on the Hep 27 LP and is listed accordingly in the Bruyninckx discography. Anybody out there got the more recent Hep CD27 CD reissue of Georgie Auld's 1944-46 material to check if the date was changed there? My comment on that mistitled Cliff Bruner recording was (maybe ineptly) meant to be tongue in cheek. This "New Falling Rain Blues" immediately brought to mind that late 70s "Stompin' At The Honky Tonk" compilation LP released on the String label that you probably took this track from (hence the recording date being given only as 1940, as in the liner notes of the String LP? - the Cliff Bruner box on Bear Family Records - compiled and researched by Kevin Coffey - has the exact recording date I quoted). Anyway ... very rewarding listening, those sets!

Totally agree. I would like to add the liner notes to the Prestige reissues from the late 60s/70s as well as the liner notes to the Onyx and Xanadu LP's the layout of the back covers of which closely matched those of the Prestiges. Often very informative and a prime source of information. I'd like to add certain liner notes done by Alun Morgan for various reissue projects to that. However, liner notes that are clearly aimed at the discerning collector are one thing, but liner notes intended to "sell" a brand-new release are quite something else altogether, especially if you go back into the 50s and early 60s. And maybe one should not expect too much from the sales babble on those "new" releases anyway. Some labels just provided useful info, others didn't, and in that case the scribes called in to splurt out the words just did a hack job and nothing else.

O.K., I’ll just chime in and add my 2c – though I guess this might be frowned upon (and yes, Allen, your replacement shipping arrived OK and safely once I was able to pry it out of the hands of the customs people... ) I can only comment on Vol. 3 and 4, and to sum up my overall impressions: A really fascinating selection of tunes that adds something new and welcome to the way jazz history is commonly presented. The selections prove there was a lot of jazz happening off the beaten tracks of what was considered „mainstream“ jazz at any given time. I especially like the inclusion of Western Swing samples and related but often overlooked jazzier genres here and there (long overdue in my view). The story of jazz as related in the booklets makes for quite insightful reading that should broaden the horizons of quite a few as it expands beyond what is often written about these periods (or just go the other way round, read the booklets and take the CDs as musical examples to illustrate „one man’s jazz history“ - which is just as valid IMO). All in all great value for money. Yet I must admit that as much as the selection of the tunes clearly is a labor of love, there are a few things that leave you scratching your head after having read both booklets (at least a good deal of both). Call it nitpicking if you want, but seeing how other reissues have been commented upon here and elsewhere some clarification might be in order anyhow: - What’s so special about the „Moonglow“ version by the Mississippi Mud Steppers that would warrant it being included TWICE in the box set? (Vol. 3, discs 1 and 2) - Cliff Bruner & his Texas Wanderers never were „falling DOWN“, what they recorded (on April 8, 1940, to be exact ) was the „New Falling RAIN Blues“ (Vol. 3, disc 6). - Is the recording date of Maxine Sullivan’s „Nice Work If You Can Get It“ (Vol. 3, disc 3) correct? Rust and Bruyninckx give it as Oct. 22, 1937. Could it be that the date given here is actually a repeat listing of the Charlie Christian entry that precedes it? - Interesting as the booklet texts are, what I find somewhat irritating is that the periods covered by the music in the respective box sets and by the accompanying booklet texts do not quite coincide. A good deal of the booklet text (including quoted musical examples) of Vol. 3 relates to the discs of Vol. 2, and to read up to the end of the period covered by Vol. 3 you have to go to Vol. 4 and read the first part of the booklet there. A bit strange if the liner notes are intended to illustrate the music of any given box set (or vice versa, in fact). - I realize with the amount of music of each box set it would have been difficult to include full session details, but if those are (regrettably but understandably) omitted it would have helped a lot for those who feel like cross-checking the details elsewhere if the artist credits had been given more accurately throughout. For ex. just listing Ivie Anderson doing „Oh Baby Maybe Someday“ (Vol. 3) is confusing, seeing that she did in fact record under her own name. „Duke Ellington Orch. feat. Ivie Anderson“ would have been more like it. Overly abbreviated credits like „Berigan/Waller/Dorsey“ are a bit odd too, IMHO. And in the case of more obscure recordings, artist details would indeed have been very welcome, e.g. for Lester Young’s jam session/airshot recording of „Benny’s Bugle“. - The 2nd pic showing Charlie Barnet as per the caption (Vol. 3, p. 25) looks suspiciously like Benny Carter to me, and the 2nd pic credited to Maxine Sullivan (Vol. 3, p. 67) reminds me more of a very elderly Gil Evans. - Speaking of the photographs, I wonder why Lee Konitz rates a picture entry in Vol. 3. This period (1934-45) isn’t exactly the prime period that he left his mark in. The same goes for Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman in Vol. 4 (which ends in 1951 after all). Surely there must have been a lot of jazz personalities (famous or obscure) from the periods covered by the music that would have warranted a pic instead. And speaking of the pic of June Christy (Vol. 4, p. 54), what a pity this particular one is only half the actual pic so the story that this pic tells is totally lost (see W. Gottlieb’s „Golden Age of Jazz“ book where I guess this pic came from). - The author of „The Making of Jazz“ (and others) who apparently does not meet with unanimity is called JAMES Lincoln Collier, not John ... - Valaida Snow definitely never was imprisoned by the German occupants in Sweden. This happened in Denmark, not Sweden. Sweden stayed strictly neutral throughout the entire war. I realize from a U.S. point of view this may be but a minor slipup like speaking of North Carolina when you mean South Carolina, but to Europeans the difference was considerable. Ask any Swede about it ... - By 1944 Sonny Berman, though he died young, luckily had a bit more than „less than one year“ (Vol. 4, p. 28) left to live, or else we never would have heard a good deal of his great solos in Woody’s Herd. - I also wonder about the recording date for the Georgie Auld recording of „Short Circuit“ quoted in connection with Sonny Berman on disc 9 of Vol. 3. This track sounds very much like the recording previously released on Hep LP 27. Discographies give its recording date as March 28, 1944 (this date figures in the tracklist alongside the subsequent track – Don Byas‘ „1944 Stomp“ which according to all sources was waxed on Aug. 17, 1944, however). The date of Feb. 16, 1944 given for the Auld track in the tracklist, on the other hand, seems to belong to the previous one in the list, to Coleman Hawkins‘ „Woody’n you“. Seems like the track and recording date listings got out of sync ... - Finally, I wonder how those numerous misspellings of artists‘ names throughout the booklets of both volumes came about. Surely that’s something easy to avoid... O.K., enough of this, and again, call it nitpicking of you want to, and yes – IMHO the box sets still offer great value for money, but judging by Allen Lowe’s CV in the booklets I feel sure that as a jazz historian, in particular, he will already have made a point of getting errors like this straightened out in second pressings/printings.

Great music, and one of my preferred bebop artists. Yet I agree that this amount of alternate takes can be a bit tedious; thank goodness I have this music on Wardell's Prestige twofer entitled "Central Avenue". Still the best packaging of this material, I think.