Big Beat Steve

If there's anyone who knows, wouldn't James Harrod be the one?

Don't know too exactly about Mosaic's present direction nor about the finer points of the licensing negotiations they would have to restart even with labels/congolomerates they have dealt with before, but would it be the Mosaic approach to look just at what has been released before and not looking sideways towards alternate or unreleased vault items at all - across all these labels? Besides, not wanting to be too cynical, but at 90 and assuming he wanted to make the things happen that you may be alluding to, do you think Quincy Jones would be able to make THAT many things happen that he would risk dying broke with the (statistically remaining) mileage he has got left? So ... things apparently being the way they are, and looking at a "released master takes only" reissue package (according to your suggestions), what if, of all producers, Jordi Pujol happened to jump on the challenge? Would you renege on your hostility toward anything Fresh Sound and jump on the results, then? They did repackage and cover the National grounds for a start, after all (and no, I won't comment on the strict correctness of the "Savoy" title of that package 😞 https://www.freshsoundrecords.com/billy-eckstine-albums/2374-complete-savoy-recordings-2-cd-set.html BTW, looking at his discography and what you'd like to see covered, you forgot one label that should be included: his 1944 recordings for the DeLuxe label. "Only" 8 tracks from 2 sessions, but seminal items ... Particularly in between the Hines period and his National sessions. So where did DeLuxe ownership end up? With whoever now owns the King roster, I guess. Did Mosaic ever do King recordings?

Well, what does it say about the Mosaic clientele after all, then, if their records at least were not immediately singled out as selling poorly whereas - according to the Cuscuna quote earlier - the Sarah Vaughn and Dinah Washington sets DID sell poorly? (And no, I am not the biggest Four Freshmen fan ever either ) Besides - your lobbying for Mr. X-tine is all very well and certainly totally honest in your intentions, but shouldn't you know better than this?? "That's no excuse on an Eckstine set. The released material is a finished product. From Hines through National, through MGM, through Mercury, through Roulette, it should all be there. Collate it, clean it up, get some good liner notes, and the set makes itself, I think. " Look at past Mosaic boxes and judge for yourself how often lack of multi-label access to the reissue rights has been advanced as an excuse (or explanation) for a set NOT being comprehensive in the actual discographical sense of the word and how unlikely or unrealistic the ABOVE approach therefore would be for a project on Mosaic, of all labels, anyway, even if there were sufficient reissue interest to start with? 😕 BTW, and FWIW, talking about the "jazz content" of Mr B, any forumist in good ol' Europe (to keep shipping affordable) happen to have a vinyl of the below LP flying around that they want to unload? https://www.discogs.com/de/release/3484446-Billy-Eckstine-Sings-With-George-Shearing-Quintet-Woody-Herman-And-His-OrchestraMetronome-All-Stars- Years ago when I bought vinyl more regularly on U.S. eBay it happened every now and then that U.S. sellers used dud record covers as padding inside the record mailers. And one day a record arrived from the US with a fairly clean sleeve of the ABOVE one - of all Eckstine platters - inside the mailer as one of the padding layers! No record inside, of course, just the cover. Wonder what this dimwit of a seller was thinking ... Yes I might have used it as a music room wall decoration item, but still ...

Fascinating! 👍

Not to forget his account of the 1962 Benny Goodman tour of Russia. 😉 https://www.billcrowbass.com/to-russia-without-love.html

That's the "Chicago Sessions" LP I was referring to in my earlier post. The above session makes up sides 3 and 4 of this reissue: https://www.discogs.com/de/release/6584810-Dodo-Marmarosa-The-Chicago-Sessions The "Dodo's Back!" LP above corresponds to sides 1 and 2 of this "Chicago Sessions" twofer.

Was this one of the tracks of the Russell band backing up Louis Armstrong or one of the features for the band all by themselves?

Trying to round up anything on record by Dodo Marmarosa became natural for me as soon as my interests in bebop developed. Like Al Haig and George Wallington (maybe even more so) I enjoyed his output immensely from Day One (and still do). The twists in his melodies - particularly on his Dials - are fascinating. Luckily his leader dates were easy to come by in the 80s on reissues on Spotilte, Raretone and Phoenix Jazz (plus some more here and there elsewhere). I eventually also rounded up his somewhat later recordings (when he resurfaced again briefly) - "Chicago Sessions" and "Jug & Dodo". And of course his two releases on Uptown ("On The Coast" and "Pittsburgh 1958") were a must too. The interview excerpts included on Uptown have him sound rather down to earth and relaxed - not crazy. (Mellowed with age, maybe?) (At any rate, the antics described in the starting post don't really sound worse than those of many other nut jobs - not jerks - in the business) For an even more comprehensive explioration of his work, this is useful: https://www.amazon.com/Flights-Vout-Bug-Dieter-Salemann/dp/1593933371/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1676618142&sr=8-1 Though my copy (clearly a print-on-demand publication) has a silly page layout (unnecessarily small print and silly wide blank margins).

Of course ... My reply was directed primarily at this forum, of course. And I know I cannot escape the "old guy" status either in the long run. Although I actually doubt that all that many who THEN listened to jazz (read: "then-current jazz") were really fully aware of Billy Eckstine and his output in 1975 or 76 when I got hold of that record I mentioned. His recording companion Sarah Vaughn - yes, likely. But him? Not quite so sure.

Don't know about the majority of others but I for one have known the Eckstine vocal version since my very early record buying/collecting days at age 15/16 as I had been given a 50s Guest Star compilation LP that had this Eckstine tune plus "Blowing The Blues Away" a.o. and one by Sarah Vaughn plus a few instrumentals by a bogus-named big band. When I got my hands on the Swingtime ST 1015 LP in c. 1990 (and therefore a decent pressing of the tracks from the budget LP) these tunes stil sounded extremely familiar among the other "new" contents of the LP. FWIW, Xanadu LP 207 has a May 1945 AFRS transcription version of "I Want To Talk About you".

OT but ... It may well be that most of those mentioned would not look all that short next to Lars Färnlöf, renowned trumpeter on the Swedish jazz scene of the 60s (worked with Staffan Abeléen and others).

Style-wise, he made a virtue of his limitations (or should I say "shortcomings"? ).

Why? You're too young to have listened to Miles in his "Paris 1949" days or to Fats Navarro "live" either. (So am I, but this has never prevented me from enjoying what I LIKE to hear, including 20s jazz to some extent). Once you go beyond the consumption of purely "contemporary" music that's "hot" the moment you catch it live (and that you discard as soon as the next musical fad comes up), interest in musical styles that had their heyday at some time in the past is not linked to the age of the listener at all but strictly to musical tastes and preferences. Or why, for example, would chicks in their early to mid-20s have bought 78s of Johnny Mercer and the Pied Pipers at my fleamarket stall last summer? And beyond personal tastes in music, "It's the history, dude!" 😉 Awareness of which cannot hurt. BTW, the way I understood the quote from Bushell's book he did not so much judge Miles Davis for his fingering but rather for the fluffs that came out of his horn. To the best of my recollection, Bushell wasn't the only one there.

Interesting ... Pity the link is access-restricted. It sounds like a rewarding read. Contrasting these two views (and in the light of his latter-day recording activities) I guess it would be difficult to accuse him summarily of being a "moldy fig". So could it be that criticisms of his assessments - that invariably exist - risk sounding like "No, I don't want my hero to be pushed into the "emperor's clothes" corner" ? (P.S. I like the "classic" Miles Davis Quintet a lot ... and still ... )

Which only goes to show that on average the recording dates in your collection are too "recent" or too "far out". 😉 In the (roughly) 1954-1970 era it was pretty hard to "avoid" Milt Hinton and Osie Johnson in the N.Y. studio line-ups unless it was working bands that were recorded or unless you were a diehard "wailjazz" 😉 or avantgarde listener.

Thanks, Ken, for this explanation.

Just out of curiosity: How does the "Bass Line" book compare with the "OverTime" book of Milt Hinton photographs? Overlaps of contents? Duplications? Or all differnt?

Which I think can easily be explained by the simple notion of "different tastes" or musical preferences (regardless of whether the main instrument is the same). Happened to everyone at one point or another with this or that artist, I guess ... Or is it a matter of apples and oranges?

Not Larry Kart but ... Ike Day was mentioned in this context here before ... (by Ghost of Miles): He is given some coverage on the Red Saunders Research Foundation website, i.e. in the sections on the Aristocrat label and on Tom Archia. He also worked with Gene Ammons a.o., and according to online sources other name jazzmen such as Buddy Rich and Eddie Harris also praised him without reservations. The first time I myself came across his name was on the "Chicago Boss Tenors" LP on Chess (CHV 414) around 1980. The photo on the back cover showing Max Roach sitting in front of the stage watching Ike Day do his job was credentials enough to make his name stick.

No interest here in the "Old Time Modern (etc.)" 10-incher by Urbie Green on Vanguard? That was my first exposure to him (fleamarket find - along with a Dizzy in Paris 10-incher on Vogue) a VERY long time ago (early 80s, I think). These early impressions may mean I am biased but I always liked it as a typical example of that 50s mainstream "swing freshening-up".

Me neither, I guess. At one point quite a few years ago I decided I needed to get seriously into the Roulette Basie years (beyond the Atomic, Chairmen and Hefti albums). As it happened I managed to round up most of the LPs reissued in the 80s and distributed by Vogue France at low prices in the special-offer secondhand bins locally, at least those of primary importance to me (from the run of 23 LPs or so in all). The few remaining items were found on Discogs. However, I had decided early on to skip the non-Joe Williams and non-LH&R vocals albums as well as this "String Along" album. (Strangely hardly any of these albums had shown up in the special offer bins anyway - as if these reissues had sold less well at its time.) Listening to it now on YT confirmed my decision. Although I might grab a copy (for occasional very late-night listening) when I come across one really dirt cheap. It's "better" done than quite a few other "with strings" LPs (where the strings really drain out the jazz lifeblood) but at any rate, it is definitely on the non-essential side of the Roulettes for me.

Biographies are your friends 😁 (from Feather and Chilton through New Grove to present-day tomes). - No, more seriously: I think in those long-gone days many musicians managed to cram much more accomplishments "for eternity" into their younger pro years than has become the typical case in rather recent decades. Chu Berry was only 31 when he died too. As for the Harry James sides, have you been unable to score a copy of the HEP CD that Mike suggested? It's still listed as being available on the Hep website: https://www.hepjazz.com/hep_jazz_1000_series.html#anchorbasie Or would this be uneconomical because you already have all the Basie tracks? (Understandable, then ...) Anyway ... unearthing of this thread has prompted me to pull out my copy of TAX m-8015 (Harry James "Texas Chatter") and give it a spin. Very welcome! As for other suggestions (that should have come up since this thread started), how about the Herschel Evans presence on the Count Basie Orchestra airshots and the Lionel Hampton Jam Session included in the "Savory Sessions" box set on Mosaic?

Yes. I even think this is where the made the biggest splash in the Brubeck context. See OJC-101 (reissue of Fantasy F-3-239).

Too bad shipping across the pond has become totally uneconomical these days. A while ago I picked a very, very clean spare copy of the "Basie Reunion" twofer (Prestige P-24019) that includes "For Basie" along with the contents of the "Basie Reunion" LP at a ridiculously low price. A price at which I did not hesitate putting a copy on my rack of spare items of records I particularly like. I am glad I picked up a copy of "On The Sunny Side" (secondhand, of course) when the occasion arose. It's a cover you remember and I do not remember having seen it often in more recent years. OJC CDs do come up in the secondhand bins at the #1 remaining local record store here from time to time - incalculable as to what you can get your hands on, but sometimes with unexpected surprises. My most recent purchases were "Please Mr Jackson" by Willis Jackson and "Soul Street" by Jimmy Forrest - at the outrageous sum of 1 EUR each! But no, these prices ARE fairly rare occurrences.

I wonder if the one below has been posted or mentioned here before. I guess it ranks as the longest-standing album cover "mistake" ever perpetuated through the generations. (Of course I realize it all was a markting ploy by Verve at the time, and the "explanation" - or excuse - on the back cover liner notes reads VERY lame and identifies the place incorrectly again, so .... 😄) As will be known, the contents on this LP originated nowhere near London and were recorded live not in Stockholm (as the liner notes claim) but in Göteborg (Sweden). Seeing how often reissues have "corrected" the packagings of earlier pressings elsewhere, it is strange that not even subsequent CD reissues with the original cover photo ever saw fit to change the title to something tongue-in-cheek like "Basie NOT in London". 😁 As I just saw in a period music magazine, no wonder they did pick up on this misappropriation in their ads for the Swedish release of this: "- the much talked-about LP with the "false designation of origin" - recorded in Göteborg."