Big Beat Steve

Do you have a link to those discussions? Bear Family (of all labels) passing CD-Rs as REAL CDs, now that would be bad news.

So Sonnymax is Merv, actually? Re- how to tell apart CD-Rs: About the color of the back of the CD-Rs: I have some CD-Rs (bought as items described as CDs at the time, of course ) that look VERY silvery. Offhand indistinguishable from CDs. But do the CD-Rs indicate the actual catalog number of the CD around the center hole on the back? Or don't they just list different, almost endless sequences of digits but not the catalog no.?

Darktown Strutters' Ball, of course. But I'd not hesitate one second about "China Boy", particularly since it usually is performed as an instrumental. One might always make a case for this being a "boy from Chinatown". As a general rule, I'd not advocate "retiring" such songs (this kind or "purging" history can fast get out of hand), but please limit them to instrumental performances. The lyrics have run their course and are not needed anymore. BTW, I wonder if there still are old-timey string/bluegrass bands out there who got "Nigger In The Woodpile" in their setlists. P.S: Would you go so far to advocate outlawing the usual fare of Dr Demento too? ("Kosher Delight", anyone?)

That sounds plausible. I just re-read the section in Basie's autobiography "Good Morning Blues" where he talks about the record he made with L,H&R, and that section certainly does not exactly read like Basie's own "write" (judging by other sections of the book, Basie was not exactly the most articulate writer of all time ) but rather like something that his "ghost" writer Albert Murray put in.

Nice interview with Creed Taylor on "Sing A Song of Basie" too. But I was puzzled by this part: JW: What did Basie think of the album? CT: I don’t know. Basie was on another road all the time. He was such a self-made bandleader. I’m sure he heard it, but he never mentioned it to me. And I never asked. After all, "Sing Along with Basie" was recorded in 1958 as THE follow-up album to "Sing A Song of Basie". So Basie must have more than just "heard" the first album. Was Creed Taylor being evasive? Why was he being evasive? Because it wasn't him who produced that one? Surely Basie wasn't manhandled at gunpoint by Morris Levy into making that album?

I'd bet Berendt would have noticed THAT and indicated it in the photo caption.

The jumping guy in the background is not identified in Joachim Ernst Berendt's book JAZZLIFE (p. 223) - where this pic came from - either so he may well remain shrouded in mystery.

Say Chewy, any particular reason why the use of the word "have" is so totally off limits to you (as it seems)? Or is this your shtick to come across more streewise-ish? It sho' reads funny!

That's exactly the term I've often heard in connection with collecting vintage (or collectible, anyhow) cars and/or motorbikes, more specifically those who also stock (or should I say amass?) the spare parts to go with them. (But maybe I am biased because that description fits me too ) (BTW, would you and your likes consider me sacrilegious if I told you I have a c. 1900 barbell - the kind you see on ancient photographs of weight lifters sporting handlebar moustaches and wearing striped body suits - sitting as a decorative item in my garden? It belonged to my great-grand uncle and has been sitting out in the open for at least 70 years, first on his property, and then rescued to move here when that lot was sold for redevelopment - and it seems "fit for the ages", seeing how it has "weathered" (literally) those decades)

Crossing my fingers ...

And next thing you know - the discussion will take another turn, to the tune of "oh those poor parcel delivery drivers are so poorly paid that they just can't cope and just have to unload their stuff somehow to get it done within their time frame. It's not their fault - it's the system and the working conditions and ...") (Happened over here - pathetic too ...) A political post? Maybe ... but no matter what the working conditions may be (I understand there are other jobs that are a treadmill too, BTW), this is no friggin' excuse for just dumping the stuff just anywhere or not bothering to deliver it at all but just stick a "nobody home, collect it ourself at the center" notice in the mailbox (and then you're lucky if the do at least this!) even though clearly someone was home and sitting on edge waiting for the doorbell to ring ... etc. etc.

And when they did - it remained in the can: Frank Rosolino! Apart from that, your post above sums up the core of it all perfectly IMHO.

You nailed it. It is rare that equal coverage is given to performers/artists/sportsmen (whatever ..:) from each era. But this is how it should be. Because every era had its superstars that mattered enormously (and to a fairly comparable extent) in THEIR time. Which is why I am very wary of any "100 greatest Rock bands (or Pop vocalists or ...) of all times" (or similar) kind of publications. A serious and well-informed writer (and historian) ought to be able to assess any artist's merits in the contexts of his times and weigh them accordingly. Besides, if the present-day artists (or sportsmen etc.) dominate in such lists/books etc., isnt this skewed from the start? Do we know what the impact or impression of a "great" artist of the present time or very recent past will be 10 or 20 years from now or how (if at all) he/she will be remembered then? Whereas, on the other hand, someone from, say, the 40s or 50s may be covered only in passing in such books because she/she is fairly forgotten today, yet he/she was a huge star with the public and the media in his/her prime. Publications like that need to be compiled/written by historians (or people with acute historical awareness and knowledge), not by fanzine "cash-in" scribes. (Wishful thinking, I know, but yet ... ) One notable exception and a case of relatively even coverage I came across a couple of years ago was a book on the history the German football (soccer) cup finals from the start in 1935 to the (then) present in 1995. Three or four pages were alotted to each year THROUGHOUT, and only the most recent 10 years were given 6 or 8 pages each. This is how such "all-time" histories that compare repetitive events of (obviously) comparable "period" importance ought to be done.

Maxwell Davis? Maybe it would be appropriate not to forget that a good deal of the post-war African-American west coast jazz(ish) scene was taken up first by the Central Avenue scene (which was not "West Coast" at all in the sense it became known, although cross-fertilization seems to have taken place, according to some accounts) and then the R&B scene (e.g. Aladdin, John Dolphin and many, many others). This covered a lot of ground of "black music" (and artists like Red Callender and Plas Johnson straddled the fence).

Yes, in THAT respect i agree with you all the way. French bureaucracy (or should we say "bureaucrazy"? ) is not something mere mortals would want to mess with.

What a pity. I was half-expecting the text would not break any major new ground beyond what Arnold Shaw wrote decades ago (or what you were able to glean from Swing Era New York). But if the book pretends to cover the 1930-1950 period, how can you visually show that in a fairly comprehensive manner in a book that pretends to be an ILLUSTRATED tribute by using only photos taken around 1947? That caught just a small segment of what happened on The Street. (P.D. seems to be too tempting not to make use of it ...) Anyway, many thanks your feedback - you got me in a quandary now because - against all reason - I still see myself tempted anyway (for completeness sake).

But why would you need Facebook for that? Start a thread in the Non-Music dusission forum and see what info you will get and if that suits your desires. Having been able (or rather, forced, in my immediate surroundings ) to observe what FB does with other private fields of interest once there are both forums and FB "throw-a-line-or-two-in-the-wilderness-and-see-how-many-likes-I-get"-type posts on FB I agree all the way with what mjazzg said about the slippery slope. The danger is there that parallel structures will not encourage the life of the forum at all. And once there IS a FB "group" comvering the same field it is a safe bet to assume this will not remain a "fallback" emergency option only.

+1 In EVERY essential respect!

Michel Ruppli's Savoy discography lists this 45 (though surprisingly, the 45 release no. appears only for the Happy Tune track but not for the Dreamed track listed immediately afterwards. They must have forgotten the hyphen to indicate the 45 no. applies there too). But as no matrix numbers are given for this session you cannot tell if these actually are the same takes or if different takes were used for the 45 release.

Very tempting ... including as a follow-up to the book by Arnold Shaw. But what I found a bit irritating when I looked at the sample pages on Amazon (Amazon.de has it listed but not yet available for shipping) is the photographs. Assuming that the sample pages are typical for the book, could it be that the editors ALSO helped themselves to the photo archives of William Gottlieb from 1947 - as have others done for their books in recent years too? The Gottlieb photographs are fantastic but as they are freely accessible online as P.D. items the "new" factor tends to wear off. Besides, visually describing an entire era for the most part (so it seems ...) through one man's photographs that largely come from one year (and therefore cover the activity in a fairly narrow span of time) does not entirely do the subject justice, isn't it? Aren't there any other substantial photo files on 52nd Street in existence? (To name just one exmaple, I'd guess there must be more in the Charles Peterson files than has been seen in "Swing Era New York")

Bruyninckx also lists quite a few broadcast recordings by Mel Powell small groups from July to December 1944 (that were issued mainly on Phontastic NOST7649 and on Esquire E316) as well as more than just 4 tracks from Paris in 1945.

Uh oh ...

Actually the question and answer isn't that silly IMHO. Provided that there is a rack labeled "Jump Blues" in the shop (and provided you are not referring to or mixing him up with the pianist Joe Turner ). At any rate, I'd expect to find his records in the "Blues" section of any record shop and would him consider somewhat out of place in the jazz section if his entire opus had been filed there, or else I'd venture a guess the shop owner is a very old-hat type fella to whom blues is nothing but down-home-down-in-the-gutter-roots country blues (there still might be such persons, actually). And if I'd find one of his records in the Jazz section and it was one I'd been looking for I'd be overjoyed his platter had been filed incorrectly in a place where most ofther Joe Turner fans would not look first (I know more than one R'n'R and R&B fan who enjoys Joe Turner's Atlantic recordings a LOT but would not touch "anything jazz" with a ten-foot pickup arm). See how you can make a case for any kind of fling (or shoehorning, if you want)?

Reminds me of the roadhouse scene in "Blues Brothers": "Oh, we have both - Country AND Western!" More seriously ... everyone knows what Duke Ellington meant ... but that's way too broad for archiving and retrieval purposes. And besides - regardless of what the Duke said - above a certain level good and bad in these fields STILL is subjective and a matter of taste ...

I do suppose that others might use/add other categries, depending on what they hve in their collections. As - stylistically speaking - the most "modern" (or "advanced") jazz record I own is Ornette Coleman's "Change Of The Century" I am happy filing this one among my Modern Jazz records (no use starting a separate category for a scant handful of "Free" records ).