Big Beat Steve

And a great and entertaining read. Terry Gibbs' candid personal recollections of certain jazz celebrities he worked for and with are priceless and would not be out of place in Bill Crow's "Jazz Anecdotes" either. Watch out for "the Fog " aka "El Foggo"!

Does your friend go by the name of "Nosey Joe"?

Don't tell me you actually EXPECTED Lena Horne and her backing to sound as "boppish" as the Eckstine band on its own? (But FWIW that particular recording did hint more than just a bit at that "new" big band sound alright IMO) You never saw the "Stormy Weather" movie? Not to mention that even the bebop era had its share of (to use period terms) "warblers" and "thrushes" that had a very balladesque repertoire (not least of all Mr B himself). As for the subject of the OP, 'bout time for the honors. She was in a class of her own.

Congratulations! Unsung heros receiving some documented recognition is a very worthy cause. And I can imagine how annoying it must feel when an "editor" interferes with the contents and makes matters worse. Has happened to me and friends of mine in a totally different "special-interest" area too.

At the sole fleamarket I was able to set up a stall at this year the buyers' audience had gotten significantly younger, despite my "oddball" offerings (jazz, pre-1960 styles only - and then mostly Swing, plus some Jump blues/R&B as well as a bunch of 40s U.S. pop 78s). Not that I had tons of sales but what I did sell pleasantly often went to young'uns more or less well below 30, including several girls who were hip to R&B as well as 78s. And not all of them looked they were part of the swing/retro subculture set.

Confirmed by how seamlessly his Sun recordings were repackaged and marketed for Country sales way back in the 60s and 70s and did not sound out of place one bit but in fact added a special touch - like you describe it. So in the end it doesn't matter if you listen to his recordings as rockabilly or country- they do fit in each time because he always (well, almost always) was himself. And somehow I can even understand that fan author who (back in the late 70s) wrote in a R'n'R/roots music fanzine here "I'd gladly shell out for a 10-LP box set of Jerry Lee brushing his teeth." RIP - Time to read "Hellfire" by Nick Tosches again, I guess ...

The "Bixology" series on the Joker budget label. I remember that one. I held off buying that Bix record series back then because even though they were budget-priced the sheer amount of records added up (more than what I wanted to shell out for that budget series - and as for fidelity, the NORK LP on Joker I had bought indeed had rather poor sound beyond what you can expect from reissues of acoustic-era recordings anyway - so I was warned). Several years ago I finally took the plunge, though (just for completeness sake), when a NM copy of this box set came up in a local record store sales bin. 10 EUR for a 14-LP box is no big outlay. Over time I had bought a couple of vinyl reissues of Bix recordings on "official" labels (CBS-affiliated), and after an aural comparison of a couple of identical tunes on both vinyls I did not notice any significant sonic difference. Recent digital remastering may make a larger difference (as in the case of those relatively recent Louis Armstrong remasterings) but apparently not so in the vinyl era.

Re- false starts, etc. The above reminds me of that Sonny Boy Williamson Chess compilation LP (re)issued in 70s that had one lengthy track with the small print "This track not suitable for airplay" on the back cover - because the "length" of the lengthy track for some reason was made up of a false start and studio chatter and you can hear one apparently disgusted Sonny Boy at one point exclaim "motherfucker" and something like "li'l bitch" or so ... Oh those poor AM radio listener souls confronted with those oh so lewd words in - of all eras - the 70s! What shocks the execs must have dreaded ... Yes, that would be a good idea. Even on single items such as some of those on the Circle label, for instance. Scholarly study is all very well, but is this really what the majority even of diehard jazz collectors does on EVERY listen, even with Bird? Doing one part of the box set with the master takes and then the other part with runs of the alternates, or in fact several runs with alternates (as long as they last, as not all of them have survived with the same number of alternate takes), etc. would be more customer-friendly. It would really be interesting to see a box set with CD1 made up of "master takes", CD2 with "#1 alternates", CD3 with "#2 alternates", and so on. That might actually be fun, with maybe the music becoming more "raggedy" from set to set! Though I don't think it will ever happen anywhere, as of course the scholar fraternity will probably complain.

Amazing that it should be that unknown. This was one of the very first Miles Daivs Quintet records I ever bought (back in the early 80s, I think). German Bellaphon license pressing, of course, but this cover always looked like "THE" real "period" thing to me. Exactly. Both series were all over the place when I started out in the mid-70s (but of course not always all that affordable due to their sheer mass of material, even if you were selective). And yes, the liner notes were a bonus too. It was a real changeup and upgrade compared to many, many other 50s jazz reissues from the 70s too (that seemed to have made point of awkwardly "modernizing" their covers), so very welcome indeed. I actually found that cover artwork fairly timeless and certainly not depressive, so no complaints here. And apparently it was considered"definitive" enough in the minds of some others out there too, so a variation on this theme was revived for the Onyx and Xanadu reissues (with Don Schlitten being the common denominator). I'd be hard pressed naming a real standout favorite among those Prestiges (and the Debut), though. I have 11 out of the 14 LPs (plus an EP's worth of "Walkin'") in the OP's post but pull them out fairly evenly in turns to spin them.

Didn't see this thread until now, but the T-Bone Walker connection looks indeed very much like this must have been "the" ("Drifting Blues") Charles Brown from the start. He played piano on his 40s and 50s sessions so this was the first step towards "doubling" on organ. According to Bruyninckx, he recorded on organ at a session for King in July, 1961, and again for Mainstream in 1963, as well as on one track of his session for Johnny Otis' Blues Spectrum label in 1974. The chapter on Charles Brown in the "Blue Rhythms - Six Lives in Rhythm and Blues" book by Chip Deffaa first published in 1996 specifically refers to his session with T-Bone Walker for Reprise in 1973 among his 70s recording dates.

Indeed ... No trace of it in the Navarro biography by Petersen and Rehak.

I THINK I understand what you are getting at. As a non-musician, what always strikes me about Fats Navarro's recordings is how there are catchy little melodies and riffs here and there and elsewhere woven into the tunes, and they make the music flow and somewhat "easier" to follow, regardless of how "frantic" bebop may sound to the uninitiated or beginners. Of course a good deal of the tribute for these "melodies" must go to Tadd Dameron (on those sessions where he was involved or actually the leader) but still they also sum up the Fats Navarro "style" IMO. P.S. According to the usual (source) suspects,"Bebop In Pastel" is the original title of a tune later recorded by Bud Powell (feat. Fats Navarro) under the title of "Bouncing With Bud". But when "Bebop in Pastel" (recorded by the "Be Bop Boys" under the nominal leadership of Sonny Stitt) was first recorded (3 years before "Bouncing with Bud" but released later) it had Kenny Dorham on trumpet, not Fats Navarro.

Just for the record (literally ): The late 60s/early 70s French BYG reissues of Savoy material were no bootlegs but the REAL DEAL. BYG was the license holder for Savoy masters at that time and thankfully reissued a lot (though sometimes in obscure combinations and often with shoddy cover artwork - but they were there and must have filled a lot of gaps before the arrival of the much more comprehensive twofers and singles in the Arista period of Savoy from the late 70s onwards). (Musidisc incidentally also reissued a number of Savoy records and sessions - apparently after the BYG period, and sometimes with the original Savoy cover artwork, under the Savoy-Musidisc label - licensed from Savoy, according to the fine print on the back cover). The Italian budget LP labels were a differeent matter, and not limited to Savoy.

RIP indeed. Given her age, I had figured she had already passed. Her "Sophotocated Lady" book only touched the surface of her photo-documentary treasures. Let's hope her archives will end up with someone who will be prepared to make really good (publishing) use of it. Not like in the unfortunate case of her contemporary colleague (10 years her junior but deceased many years ago), jazz photographer Hanns E.Haehl (whose photographer credits also appeared under the "Jazz im Bild" name for a time in the 60s). His legacy of photo documents unfortunately sits in an archive storage basement without much (or any) hope of ever being worked into a book. They would very much deserve it too.

Zack isn't included in the 1960 edition of the Encyclopedia of Jazz either. Neither is (to name one pianist of a similar caliber) Tut Soper. (A blank for both in the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (1994 ed.) too, BTW. ) But it would be a poor jazz world (documentary-wise) if the musicians with an entry in Leonard Feather's Encyclopedia (which I do consult a lot too for jazz data up to c. 1960) would be the only ones (up to that period) worthy of consideration by the historically minded, wouldn't it? John Chilton had a different approach, concentrating on artists born before 1920 (i.e. usually pre-Modern Jazz, with the exception of Dizzy Gillespie and a few others) and (much to his credit) clearly made a point of including as many "unsung heros" from those eras as possible.

It's been quite a long time since I saw that film but one scene that stuck in my memory (because I found it somewhat unsettling) was when Loretta (i.e. Sissy Spacek) in her very young years was introduced to the public on stage by a eerily aged- and weary-looking Ernest Tubb (whose decades of life on the road had become engrained in his face by his later years - as in 1980). It was an impressive scene because Ernest Tubb DID have a huge stage presence but this age mismatch of someone who clearly would have appeared more zestful in the early 60s was painfully obvious.

Noted John Chilton ("Who's Who of Jazz") sez thusly: (abridged - limiting it to his post-1951 activities): Moved to Tucson, AZ, and contined working there during the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1950s worked briefly with Ray Bauduc and Nappy Lamare and with Bob Scobey. Made regular trips to Chicago. During the 1970s worked in Tucson with Al Sanders and the Old Pueblo jazz Band. Died Arizona, 7 Nov. 1977 (aged 69). So as you can see he saw out many more of his later years than e.g. fellow pianolcoholic Bob Zurke.

After I had discovered Eddie Costa and had obtained several of his records I went on the lookout for the House of Blue Lights LP in the very early 2000s but of course no luck in finding a decent and affordable copy. So after a couple of years I picked up the Lonehill CD (though I already had the Costa-Burke trio LP on Jubilee). I never had been aware of (much less seen) the limited ed. LP reissued by Jazz Workshop/Blue Moon (i.e. Fresh Sound) two years before the Japanese UCCU-6158 CD and 5 years after the Lonehill reissue (reissued in 2005 acc. to Discogs, i.e. 7 years before UCCU-6158). Sound of the Lonehill to me is fine, visual presentation is ho-hum (but many "legit" reissues on CD are not better at all artwork-wise), and by European rules the Lonehill reissue IS legit (by now, anyway). So no qualms or quibbles. As for (re)mastering, considering the apparently huge number of previous vinyl reissues of this record in Japan (acc. to Discogs), who knows which one Lonehill used for "inspiration".

Pity ... RIP Hope his collection (or should I say "Archives"?) finds an appreciative home and doesn't all end uip with the $$$ auction vultures ...

Moon reissued a couple of the earlier Xanadu and Onyx LPs 1-to-1 on CD, even imitating the cover artwork. I had one or two but don't have them anymore (found the corresponding LPs so stuck with my vinyls).

You are referring to that "Tiger Rag" played by Bird? I have it on Musidisc 30JA5108 ("Charlie Parker - Live Sessions 1947") and according to the back cover this was recorded on 20 Sept. 1947 (though the session info on these Musidisc budget LPs of the 70s aren't always totally reliable). It has been reissued on numerous other LPs. See the Discogs entry: https://www.discogs.com/de/release/2305342-Charlie-Parker-Live-Sessions-1947 The announcer's blurb at the end of the tune and prior to the closing theme mentions the musical "battle" between The Rudi Blesh All stars and Barry Ulanov Modern Jazz All Stars recorded in the New York Mutual studios for the "Bands for Bonds" broadcast series. And at the end of the Tiger Rag track there is an audible comment (by one of the musicians - Dizzy Gillespie?): "We sure took that tiger out of the jungle of Jazz!" P.S.Never mind the "Thanks" (or not). That was not what I was after at all (regardless of by whom). I was just puzzled that the specfic reply to a specific question about a reissue did not lead to any follow-up comment of any sort.

You know I certainly wouldn't have wanted to solicit a "Thanks" but I am somewhat puzzled by that TOTAL silence. Ho hum ... Regarding the Ulanov radio show you mentioned, IIRC this was a good-natured match between modernist Ulanov and moldy fig Rudy Blesh, including that "Tiger Rag" played by Bird and other boppers on an episode of the "Bands for Bonds" radio show series. It's been out on a Musidisc LP and therefore no doubt elsewhere. Now as for Dixielanders getting mad if a modernist does that gimmick, well, yes ... musical awareness may sometimes have been lacking. But let's see if OTOH modernists can take their OWN music lightheartedly enough to enjoy THIS ... - without quibbling about "missed" harmonies or chord sequences or whatever ... https://www.discogs.com/de/release/2407757-Anachronic-Jazz-Band-Anthropology (The band had more releases, and in a way what they did was the reverse image of what Steve Lacy did in his very early days (with the Dick Sutton band) on the Jaguar label.) Re- that LP series on MGM that's the topic of this thread, I find it amusing and amazing anyway, though of course not earth-shattering.

Considering the overwhelming silence reigning here, did I maybe do something wrong in ANSWERING your QUESTION about availability "elsewhere"?

Indeed. And this probably is the definite reissue of his own works: https://www.discogs.com/de/release/9407353-Little-Willie-Jackson-Jazz-Me-Blues It shows he did not blow full steam all the time but also had other nuances to his playing, not unlike Earl Bostic, Joe Lutcher and others. Mention of the name of this often-overlooked sax man and looking at the cover of the CD above begs this question: Could it be that the saxophonist on the photograph below (from the reedition of the 1961 "JAZZLIFE" book by Joachim Ernst Berendt and William Claxton) is Little Willie Jackson again? This pic is an excerpt from a photo taken at the set of the "Five Pennies" film feat. Louis Armstrong and Danny Kaye but the backing musicians are uncredited in the text.

I think you mixed up the instigators of the sessions. As I recall (would have to check among my LPs) the "Birdlanders" sessions were organized and supervised by Henri Renaud, not André Hodeir. Renaud at any rate was less academic than Hodeir. As for their "sluggishnes", different strokes (again ...) - but I for one prefer the U.S. sessions supervised by André Persiany anyway to those supervised by Henri Renaud. Differing tastes again.