Big Beat Steve

That was my understanding too. With the apparent exception of Harold McNair (see my earlier post).

For a moment of relaxation and amusement before this thread ends up (like quite a few before) with the entire recorded output eventually getting "recommended":

OK, to continue ... Re- George Wettling: If you can find the record listed below (recorded in 1951) at a good price, grab it. Beyond the core of the Condonites, it also has Edmond Hall (on both sessions) and Jimmy Archey (on one of the two sessions) in its lineup. https://www.si.edu/object/george-wettlings-jazz-band%3Anmah_674231 The original UK pressing has a red background on the front cover and is on Columbia 33S 1019. Amusingly, it was considered danceable and party-able enough by the Columbia A&R bigwigs to include a somewhat later pressing of this in their "House Party" 10" series. No doubt there are many later reissues. One somewhat later reissue on Harmony (a budget spinoff label of Columbia) has two additional tracks from 1957 recorded specifically for that Harmony album.

As it happens, I bought the CBBB "Live At Ronnie Scott's/Rue Chaptal" (1969) LP on the Session label last night so will probably spin this in remembrance. RIP

There should be info on the net but I did not find much at a quick glance either. Maybe the biographies of the musicians you named (another one would be Wilton Gaynair) privde some info for starters. E.g. Harold McNair who played in the band (big band) of one Sonny Bradshaw (who has a Wikipedia entry, BTW) in Jamaica in the 50s before moving to Britain. Others among the list of your names emigrated too early to Britain to have played much professionally in Jamaica. Are you familiair with the R&B compilation box sets on the Fantastic Voyage label that cover the Jamaican DJ activities (portable "sound systems" that must have been extremely huge there (almost a music industry to itself) in the 50s? I.e. paralleling the Mento period (see Wikipedia entry for a starter) but well before the Blue Beat era. The music on these box sets is exclusively AMERICAN Jump Blues, R&B and Black R'nR but they are excellently compiled and the very well-done booklets will provide some useful (and sometimes amusing and baffling) background info on the Jamaican music scene in that period. I have four of them that cover the 1945-60 period: - Jumping the Shuffle Blues - Jump Blues Strictly For You - Jump Blues Jamaica Way - It's Jump Blues Jamaica Time!

A matter of perspective. They are among those that cover ground where others just don't tread (and no - it's not a matter of the P.D. laws; the point of what is OK by European P.D. laws for a European-based release - which is the case both for Avid and Real Gone Jazz (RGJ) a.o. - has been made often enough so that's settled). So far I own only two Avids - Lem Winchester and Sauter Finegan (four albums/2 CDs reach). Now show me ANY US-based "legit" (?) reissue labal that would do a PACKAGE CD reissue on these artists ... And believe me - I had searched high and low for an affordable copy of "Sons of Sauter-Finegan" but drew a blank (this was largely before the Fresh Sound CD reissue of which I only became aware very recently anyway). So I was pleased to pick up the Avid, though I already owned vinyls of two of the other LPs on the set, particularly in hindsight as it provided good fidelity and decent liner notes (Avid here admittedly is a notch or two above Real Gone Jazz) at half the price of the Fresh Sound single reissue. So these labels often are good (and, above all, affordable) introductions to an artist's work. (The Benny Golson set definitely was an ear-opener for me) Like the owner of the record shop (where I bought several of these P.D. RGJ sets some months ago) said when he saw the Jackie McLean and Lee Morgan sets in my stack at the counter: "Just imagine the insane amount of money one would have to shell out for vinyls of each of these - even if they're not original pressings - compared to what these sets include and go for!" Nuff said ... and like I said before ... they can always go into the car player if you round up the vinyls or other more "collectible" reissue formats later on.

Ha ... nice to see a plug for one of these PD compilation packages after all that saves you the hassle of having to hunt down affordable copies in other formats or packages piecemeal. 😉 (And can go into the car CD player once you DID track the vinyls down, for example ) As I so far had hardly any Benny Golson beyond some of the Art Farmer/Jazztet collaboration, around the turn of the year I picked up a copy of the Real Gone Jazz box set when a nicely priced copy showed up in our local #1 record store (this set, in addition ot the 4 you mention, includes "Gone With Golson", "Gettin' With It", "Groovin' With Golson" and "Take a Number form 1 to 10"). And I was very pleased with the contents, particlularly with the "Other Side" or in general the 4 you mention. When I re-listen next I will pay closer attention to that "tic" you metioned.

One of the odder venue names here ...

Sorry, I am not that well-equipped in duplicates. Far (very far) from it. I do have the one on Blue Note in my collection, but "only" as a Japanese 12" Toshiba-EMI reissue.

Amazing indeed, these coincidences ... I was half afraid the Ferguson Hollywoord LP wiht its two long tracks duplicates the "Jam Session" LP (EmArcy 36009, of which I have a reissue) but not so ... Actually the Urbie Green 10" is a duplicate copy (I already have one with a slightly better cover) and will go into my jazz vinyl crate for the next "retro" fleamarket. It's the kind of original item you just cannot let sit there at THAT asking price, let alone amidst thousands of totally unrelated vinyls (in fact this and the three EmArcys were found batched together in a crate of vinyls that contained mostly 90s maxis ... )

Returned from the "spring" special sale at our local #1 used record store yesterday. 1 EUR each item - a price you can take chances at or just grab a spare copy or one for the car CD player. Went on both days this time, and it did pay, though more CDs than LPs this time (including nice ones such as about 15 Chronological Classics, etc.). Among the 10" vinyls, I dug up and took home the below items this time. The Dixieland and Lyttelton ones have rather tatty covers, but still manageable, but the vinyl overall was surprisingly clean (overall never worse than about VG+ or "almost" VG+), and the covers of the U.S. pressings too (the EmArcy trumpet and trombone LPs are Keynote masters). Not even seam splits to speak of. To the point that you hesitate taking the records out - lest you proagate any incipient seam splits on those unyielding cardbord covers ... And then there was a "near miss": Among a bunch of LPs without covers there sat a UK 50s 10" Parlophone pressing of Billy Ward & The Dominoes feat. Clyde McPhatter. Except for a hard-to-remove smudge that causes distinctly audible clicks for several turns on one side, the vinyl overall would almost pass for a VG+. And at 1 EUR you take it along anyway ... Back at home I checked online to see what the cover would have looked like. And to my HUGE surprise - the going rate for this one WITH cover but with not necessarily pristine vinyl (according to Discogs and a current eBay listing) would be from $500 on up! 😵 So not a bad find at that price anyway, even minus its cover ...

Went to the bi-annual secondhand record clearout sale at our #1 local record store today. Everything (tens of thousands of items) priced at 1 EUR. Came away with quite a few scoops (mostly CDs this time). And to top things, I found a copy of the "Till Eulenspiegel" U.S. original (RCA Victor Red Seal LM 1891). I will now have to find a place on the wall to display it. And I might drop by the shop again tomorrow for their second Sale day and check out the Classical section, looking for more Flora covers. Classical music LPs with Jim Flora covers somehow should be more likely finds than jazz LPs. (But of course I would not mind finding a copy of the Fresh Sound reissue of The Panic Is On either - my original 3-EP set will do nicely but it lacks one tune of the LP, and of course the LP-size cover is even more impressive )

Just in case the review disappears after all, I've downloaded it and will print it out - to be filed with the books and referred to again later. The review sounds very good indeed but I must admit I haven't quite figured out all the finer points of what he says.

Thanks Niko. Anyway ... a copy is on its way. (Cost me some 27 Euros which I find fairly reasonable) I don't mind some degree of scholarliness (in the sense of a really thorough approach that leaves no stone unturned in the way you double-check the facts you present, i.e. as a safeguard against sloppiness) and I don't mind a sideways look at social science, for example, either (when the context and the historical facts call for it). But as you will probably know, some manifestations of scholarliness can end up in stylistic and linguistic navel gazing that clouds the facts (and their presentation) for all its self-referencing showing-off of "erudition". In fact I am on the fence about another book of jazz history that clearly has heavy overtones of social science (but the subject calls for it) but it's kinda pricey ... (and no, it's not on Scarecrow Press 😄). Re- the Scott DeVeaux Bebop book you mention, it may be musicologically scholarly in places (but as a non-musician, who am I to complain, objectively speaking?), but not enough to put me off. And looking at the facts presented, what is in it is really good IMO, but still I find it distinctly lopsided with its excessive emphasis on Coleman Hawkins. And this should be taken into account - not that the reader should take the contents of the book as "The Gospel" on Bebop. "Non-representativeness" should only go so far IMO. Or he ought to have called the book something like "Coleman Hawkins, the Midwife of Bebop".

Thanks Niko. That does help. I had considered using an online translation tool but like you said, the Japanese word order is different (so this increases the "trials and errors"), and I had not found a quick way of getting the Japanese characters from the jpg file into the tool.

Sorry for hijacking this thread, but since there do not seem to be other threads about Japanese jazz around ... To make matters worse , this is not about a reissue but about an original: The current discussion re- books on Japanese jazz in the Jazz Books thread has prompted me to revisit related items in my collection. Among my few items of Japanese jazz from the eras of my stylistic preferences, I have the below 10-inch album from 1960 (bought many years ago out of curiosity about "older" jazz from that part of the world at a price that you can take chances at): As can be seen, there is nothing in non-Japanese characters except the song titles to indicate which track is by whom. I tried to find info on this on Discogs but the record is not listed there. And searching further in the Bruyninckx discography yielded NOTHING at all either. Recordings by Fumio Nanri do not match the period and labels (and even for the older ones they are reissues and not the original labels), and the Eiji Kitamura sessions listed are much more recent (and incomplete, BTW - there is an album by him from 1961 on Youtube). And I drew a total blank for Ikeda, Fujika and Kayashima. As if they either had not recorded beyond this LP unknown to Bruyninckx or their recordings have eluded discographers. Admittedly I had no idea this item is such an extreme obscurity. Through some educated (?) guesswork in deciphering characters on Discogs (where his LP on Victor LV-130 from that period is listed) I established that tracks A-2 and B-2 are by Eiji Kitamura. And stylistic criteria would indicate that A-1, B-1 and B-5 are by Fumio Nanri. My questions to forumists who may have some knowledge of the Japanese language or other info (does LORD list this LP?): Can anyone confirm my guess that the other tracks are by the artists listed in the order on the forn cover? I.e. A-3, B-3 by Misao Ikeda, A-4 and B-4 by Koji Fujika, and A-5 by Koji Kayashima? Thanks a lot to anyone who may be able to supply any info!

Thanks Niko. So this would be the one ... https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Nippon-Authenticating-Jazz-Japan/dp/082232721X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1QKM02PZ7ZC2B&keywords=Blue+Nippon&qid=1679922303&sprefix=blue+nippon%2Caps%2C179&sr=8-1 As for your expectations, for me it's the other way round. It would be part of my interest in the "history of jazz outside the USA". (I have books covering several countries - including regional histories within the country in some cases - on my shelves so this one would fit in well) And given my stylistic preferences a book that does not put the primary emphasis all that much on the avantgarde of relatively recent decades would suit me fine (yes, I realize this is where a lot of Japanese jazz came into its own, but anyway ... ) I would not expect this book to dwell only on Fumio Nanri in the chapter(s) on "early Japanese jazz", and I realize I'll be confronted with loads of names I've never heard of. But that's part of the process of looking into history (and learning). So I trust it wil not be too overly (and overtly) "scholarly". This often gets into the way of presenting the MUSIC in the first place.

Yes, 20 November 1961 was the Copenhagen date during that Scandinavian tour. And, FWIW, re- earlier questions about the Granz/Dolphy hookup, these concerts actually WERE a JATP event. Below is the promo ad from the November, 1961 isue of ESTRAD, and further below is a page from the Stockholm concert coverage in the December, 1961 issue of ESTRAD. (Sorry for that OT )

More precisely, november 1961 in this case. The Gillespie and Coltrane bands toured Scandinavia and shared the stage together for concerts in Denmark, Sweden and Finland. There seem to be recordings of a Coltrane concert in Copenhagen from that tour where the announcements by Norman Granz also were recorded.

I am not so sure it would have been a matter of who would have been "open" for what only in the direction that you seem to hint at. There is an interesting account of a candid moment with Eric Dolphy and his avantgardism in the Norman Granz biography by Tad Hershorn (p. 311): "Granz related a conversation with Eric Dolphy, then on tour for him, when he heard the avant-garde saxophonist playing straight-ahead blues after hours at a nightclub with some of Gillespie's musicians. He asked Dolphy why he couldn't play like that on the tour. 'No, people say I have a reputation for being modern, so I have to play modern.' " Who knows ... maybe Dolphy would actually have enjoyed an occasional recording date in a more straight-ahead setting with the likes of Lockjaw Davis after all?

Interesting (and understandable) idea ... Next time I spin my original HMV LP of "Courts The Count" (with exceedingly "pedestrian" cover artwork, alas) instead of the "Short Stops" twofer I will pull out my Jim Flora book as well.

Interesting to read that my "amateur" feelings of way back were not that different from what you sum up here from you pro stance. When I heard the first Roulette-era Count Basie big band recordings I felt the same kind of difference in volume and "excitement" (or should I say "bite"?) when compared to the recordings of the "Old Testament" band I was much more familiar with back then. But in line with what had happened in big band jazz in the 50s I just took this as signs of the times and quickly came to appreciate both for what they were. OTOH I never compared the "Courts The Count" sessions directly with the Basie charts but just took them as a tribute to Basie and a new reinterpretation of the Basie originals. Thanks - I'll remember this next time I stop by the shop.

Not so much a case of what I am "reading right now" here but rather of what I will be "reading next" ... Went to our #1 secondhand record store today after a 3-month hiatus, and found they semed to have scooped up one or two fairly large jazz collections recently (found some nice-to-have LPs), and as usual I took a look at their music book corner too. Which clearly showed one of these recent additions came from a book and discography-minded collector/owner ... So I guess I got carried away a little (again) ... Top to bottom: - JAZZ LIFE (by J.E. Berendt and W. Claxton, softcover, 1961 printing). The ORIGINAL edition of the book reprinted in a somewhat expanded version by Taschen a couple of years ago (some of these reprints at outrageously expensive "luxury" editions, and with faked author credits: It was J.E. Berendt, the German "jazz pope", who initiated the journey across the USA in 1961 and wrote the text, and William Claxton went along for the photography side but never was the main "author" as the Taschen cover layout would lead one to believe). A steal at 5 Euros! And handy as bedside reading/browsing matter. (I remember how overjoyed I was when I found an original hardbound copy of this - minus the dust jacket - at 50 Deutschmarks about 30 years ago ...) The internet has made it a lot easier finding items like this and copies of this book do come up here but prices generally are distinctly higher than today's find - sometimes FAR higher ... - Michel Ruppli, PRESTIGE Records 1949-1969. 1972 printing so certainly outdated reissue-wise, but as a LABEL sessionography it should still be useful, and at 5 Euros who would NOT have picked it up? I'd say ANY Ruppli discography is excellent value for money at that price ... - "Jazz in Deutschland" by Horst H. Lange (1966): A groundbreaking work on the history of (older) jazz im Germany. Lange was sort of a moldy fig taste-wise and his personal leanings were towards pre-war or even pre-big band era hot jazz, but it is an important work covering the era up to 1960. I've owned my copy since my latter high school days in the late 70s, but at 3.50 Euros I just could not let it sit there. I'll probably give it to a friend who is into pre-war "hot dance bands" (to point him beyond the UK which seems to be one of his main interests ) - "Vienna Blues" by Klaus Schulz (printed in 2010 - complete with CD, and only 3.50 Euros as well) - Biography of Fatty George (a cult figure of Austrian jazz - with a career and biography that in a way was the Austrian equivalent of Tubby Hayes). BTW, @Gheorghe, in case you read this: Remember we talked about Klaus Schulz and his "Jazz in Österreich 1920-1960" book in another thread? This shop has a copy of that one at only 3.50 Euros too, IIRC. (My copy bought several years ago wasn't frighteningly expensive but quite a bit more than that ...) I don't know what the availability and typical price rate for this book would be in Austria and it's a pity that parcel shipping costs would probably make it less worthwhile shipping it abroad. But if a German forumist fancies getting it I can drop in again there next week to see if it is still there. There also were loads of artist discographies of the "mimeograph-type printing" editions current in the 60s/70s - from Armstrong via Kenton to Miles Davis, Stan Getz et al. Not expensive either but I refrained because these have definitely been superseded by Bruyninckx etc. Somehow this shop doesn't seem to trust in music collectors reading much on music, or else their printed matter prices would not be what they usually are 😄(though sometimes their pricing can be a bit erratically high too). I remember some years ago I bought the 1944 and 1945 hardcopy editions of the ESQUIRE Jazz Book there for 5 Euros each ... )

You wouldn't believe ... I went to our #1 secondhand record store today (after an absence of 3 months), and lo and behold, among the recent arrivals (last month according to the price sticker) there was an original "Living Stereo" copy of "Afro Cuban Influence". I listened in on the shop's tryout turntable and headphones but it turned to have more pops and crackles than I would have liked it to have at the price of 20 Euros. And worse, at the beginning of side 2 there was a nasty crackling hiss for several turns that sounded as if someone had spun it briefly on an old Victrola ... But amazingly, in another bin of "R" artist records there sat an original mono copy of the same LP at the same price. I did not have time to sample that one (visually it IS VG+) and I figure this music ought to be experienced preferably in stereo anyway. So I am still on the fence about it. Browsing further, I saw there WAS a copy of "Fourth Dimension in Sound" too. (As if you had sent word to stock these items ... 😁) We'll see when I get there next time with enough time to listen in to that one too.

Listened to "Chances Are It Swings" last night and it clicked with me more than at earlier hearings (as far as I remember). It is more "conventional" (or should is say "straightforward"?) than many of his other 50s recordings IMO (more conventional than "Courts The Count" as well) but not in a bland way. It has its interesting twists and turns ("catchy" indeed). Larry Kart's comparison with Neal Hefti seems quite apt to me.