Big Beat Steve

Straight from the horse's mouth (just received the Bear Family catalog a couple of days ago): WEST INDIAN RHYTHM - Trinidad Calypsos On World and Local Events Featuring the Censored Recordings - 1938-40 10-CD box with hardcover book (including 33 masters never released before), order No. BCD 16623 JM These ARE Decca masters indeed and the Dick Spottswood mentioned above was involved in writing the accompanying book.

Amusing thread, this one. Now I'm pretty new to this forum but certainly not to jazz listening and record collecting - in fact I'm into my 32nd year of buying and collecting Jazz records (I started at the age of 15) so I figure I'm not that dumb as far as the music, its makers and its history are concerned. And yet - even after all these years, I gladly admit the AMG Guide to Jazz (2nd edition) I got hold of sometime in the 90s came in very useful to me indeed, as did the Third Ear "Essential listening companions" on Swing and Bebop, and I have been consulting them from time to time ever since I got them. I don't quite get it why so many around here seem to have a bone to pick with Scott Yanow (but then I can't and won't read all the threads that mention his name) but just to get my 2c in on this: I never would have thought any of his guides (or any other guides, except maybe those old, yellowed writings by that irascible Hugues Panassié ) might have been intended to tell the reader (and jazz fan) what he is SUPPOSED to buy and appreciate. I realize newcomers would use Yanow's books to guide them through the flood of reissues, bit I, for one, use Yanow's books rather as a more or less rough check list on what there was available (again) at the time of writing and just to see if I may have overlooked any major work of any artist that might fall within the scope of the kind of jazz I am most interested in. I certainly don't go along with all of his judgments and there are a few glaring errors and omissions (I admit I once could not resist the temptation of mentioning this in a reader's review on Amazon ), but his comments on a disc he either likes or dislikes in most cases give at least a hint of why one might want to obtain it or not. And I am certainly grateful to Scott Yanow for tipping me off to the existence of this or that LP or CD that from his description filled a gap in my collection (nobody knows'em all - is there anybody out there who can claim he is familiar with ALL reissues worldwide of the jazz, say, of 1930 to 1960 released during the past 35 years or so?). On the bottom line everybody ought to make his own judgments anyway. Sometimes I even find myself browsing through those early Down Beat Record Reviews yearbooks or the review sections of old copies of Orkester Journalen or Jazz Hot and compare their reviews with those of Yanow's guide - it is amazing and highly amusing to see how you sometimes get three or four totally different assessments! So what ... those of us who've been into jazz for a while, we all are able to judge for ourselves, aren't we, so do we always have to agree with Scott Yanow anyhow? In short, nobody's perfect, but if you need some extra written information on the recorded music and if you refer to and rely on more than one source, Yanow's books aren't that bad as ONE of these sources. And then you decide for yourself and you know where to go from there. By the way, Mr Yanow, if you read this: Is there any likelihood we'll ever see the WEST COAST JAZZ volume of the Third Ear Essential Listening Companion mentioned as a "forthcoming" volume in one of the other books (Swing or Bebop)? How about it? So long - and take it easy, everybody, it's only music ... -_-

Referring to Mikeweil's posting, Wilton Gaynair was active on the German jazz scene in his younger days (late 50s, i.e. around the time of Blue Bogey record) as a member of the George Maycock combo. His only recorded legacy from that spell in Germany, however, was one single track with George Maycock on the „Berlin Calling“ LP (Bertelsmann 61161) featuring highlights from the „Jazz Salon Berlin“ festival in early 1959 in Berlin (one of those “Eurojazz“ LP’s that tend to fetch silly prices on eBay). Incidentally, the March, 1959 issue of the Swedish jazz magazine ESTRAD carried the following note on the George Maycock combo in its coverage of the Berlin Jazz Salon 1959: “The other surprise of the evening was a small, slightly rough negro band, the George Maycock combo that has had its home base in Europe for a long time, and it was mostly its rhythm section that accounted for the roughness. The trumpeter has a lively but somewhat bland, modern style but the tenor sax man came as a nice surprise. His style was no aping of John Coltrane but rather a parallel, surprisingly complete development. At any rate he became the evening’s topic number one and it can only be hoped that some record company will record him in the right setting. His name: Wilton Gaynair – an name to be remembered!“ Nice words, but unfortunately in a language unintelligible to almost all the jazzheads across the Big Pond!

The Red Norvo Trios (both the one with Tal Farlow and the one with Jimmy Raney) are just great but apart from the Savoy reissues there is more addition from the Tal Farlow/Charles Mingues trio period that deserves a hearing: "The Red Norvo Trio featuring Tal Farlow/Charles Mingus" on Natural Organic 7001. The tracks on this LP (which I guess was released sometime in the late 70s or early 80s) seem to come from transcriptions and do not duplicate the Savoy sessions. I've no idea if any CD release of this is available (I guess I am what some call a Vinyl junkie - one of those who buy CDs mainly to fill gaps in their collection when the vinyl is either unavailable or unaffordable) but it's a nice addition to the Savoy tracks.

While we are at it, is there any reissue available of the "Rusty Bryant Plays Jazz" LP (Dot DLP 3079) from 1957? I must admit (now call me names if you want to ) that within my collection of blues and R&B I have a certain liking for the "Honkin' Sax" school, including the very first Rusty Bryant LP (DOT DLP-3006), and tofollow things up in sequential order I'd like to explore his next item where he got more seriously into jazz. Any info appreciated!

How about trying this one for a start? Latin Jazz - The Perfect Combination by Raúl Fernández Chronicle Books, San Franciasco 2002 (ISBN 0-8118-3608-8) It does cover more recent latin jazz artists too but has a heavy emphasis on the 30s, 40s and 50s - and splendid photos and background info! I found my copy in the sale bin of an art bookseller over here in Germany so it should be available Stateside too. Good luck tracking it down!