Big Beat Steve

Can't be very common. I routinely check these Opera records at fleamarkets, etc. (because they do feature interesting stuff here and there) but I cannot recall having EVER seen that one (not even on eBay at the time I stil kept an eye on Eurojazz listings). BTW, Bruyninckx doesn't even list it (neither does he list Opera 4363 - which I have - feat. Albert's brother Emil Mangeldorff with a recording from the same festival).

I had to undergo one in 2012 and IIRC the music in the backgroud was some sort of elevator music. I certainly would not have cared for my favorite music (even that of the after-hours variety) at that moment as I was there for a slipped disc (no, the BG record was out of the question too ) and it required enough of an effort to remain totally immobile for the duration of the MRI despite the excruciating pain in my lower spine. But I will tell my better half about that dentist thing. She works in the "trade".

I must admit I don't get this "qualification" approach. Isn't that a bit formalistic or formulaic? And while I fully understand his stance on Jacke McLean (and it does make sense according to HIS approach as it becomes clearer to me now), I still am not overly enamored by this "series of biographies of individual musicans to describe a whole STYLE - and period - of jazz". It's the "pars pro toto" approach I mentioned before that left me somewhat dissatisfied with the "Giant Steps" book. If I am to buy a book on the definite, comprehensive history of bebop, for example, I'd expect it not to be just a bio of Bird and Diz and that's that (to put it bluntly and exaggeratedly). Like I tried to explain before, a historically comprehensive and in-depth book IMHO would require a different approach that goes into all the links between the different strains of development (or evolution) that existed, geographical and stylistic differences and nuances under one common roof, and of course covers, analyzes and outs into perspective not just the biggest names but also (more than just in passing) most of the others too, including those who at the time were relatively big names but for whatever reason may have disappeared under the radar later on and have been outright forgotten or given short shrift by historians (which happened at all times). Good historians and writers can present subjects like this without this becoming just a series of rattling off names, dates, recordings and places. But of course if it is so (according, I think, to the review I linked earlier) that Mathieson is another "Johnny-come-lately" among writers on the subject who relies (according to what that reviewer said) a bit too much on what previous historians wrote before him then such a comprehensive approach is exceedingly difficult to sustain unless you really go back to primary, FIRST-hand PERIOD sources instead of risking having your assessments clouded by what interpretations other historians have come up with before you. These historians' inputs can come into the picture too to complete things but IMHO they ought to be secondary to first-generation, primary sources at all times. (But again, that's only me ... ) I may actually get Cookin'" too but then for what it is - an assortment of individual biographies with limited sideways excursions, but I still find its title wildly misleading.

This is the one I went to first for that part of jazz history as well (some 20 years ago). Been quite a while since I read it and I need to pull it out again to refresh (and maybe update) my impressions but I do remember that back then I found its contents a bit slim compared to what e.g. Ted Gioia did in his book on West Coast Jazz .

Very true, but much as I like and collect Wardell Gray, isn't his connection with Hard Bop and Soul Jazz rather tenuous? Same (as far as his major stylistic importance is concerned) for Howard McGhee. Not to mention the MJQ. I wouldn't even be sure Wardell Gray can be considered a trailblazer and forefather of hard bop. So I wonder how the author tackles his overall subject in full. I did see your above remark re- this being the second in a series covering what started with Giant Steps. I had seen this in various online comments on the Cookin' book too but understood this - maybe incorrectly - to be the CHRONOLOGICALY second and follow-up in that series (as the dates in the subtitle seem to indicate too). What strikes me as odd too is that I read somewhere in an online review (and comment by the author) that he decidedly followed a subjective approach and made no excuses for omitting Jackie McLean, for example (one I would rather have seen as an important Hard Bop figure - but that's only me ... ) Like I said, I may be off the mark but instinctively I would have preferred a different approach to cover the subject IN FULL and not as a rundown of major names in a sort of "pars pro toto" approach (that might work - but just as well might not, depending on what you are looking for). But again - YMMV

I did (sort of - see below). I bought it when it was fairly new as it covers a period that I am rather interested in too, and this was at a time when I must have been in a "read anything about it" mood. The book is made up of chapters on the major names, much like the "Jazz Masters of the 50s" book. You can get an idea here: https://books.google.de/books?id=Azl-2jRD5B4C&printsec=frontcover&hl=de#v=onepage&q&f=false What he has to say about those major acts is interesting but focusing on these big names really leaves too much on other musicians unsaid and all too much falls between the gaps IMHO instead of providing a real-depth picture of the era, musicians and stylistic nuances you are covering. I would have preferred an approach like the "Jazz Masters of the 40s" (where from starting with the major ones you go on to cover the "others" who deserve mentioning too) or in fact like "West Coast Jazz" by Ted Gioia and similar books. YMMV, of course. Actually, pulling out my copy now I see that I never got around to reading the final quarter of the book yet. So - no, considering the other books I've bought of post-1945 jazz this one is nice to have but I would not consider it essential. This review nails it in a balanced way, I think: https://jazztimes.com/archives/giant-steps-bebop-and-the-creators-of-modern-jazz-1945-65-by-kenny-mathieson/ The "Cookin'" book would be a tempting one for me too (to complement the "Soul Jazz" book by Bob Porter which left more unsaid than I would have thought at first) but if this one is handled like "Giant Steps" then I am just a little bit wary for now.

I don't really have an opinion on the above example (except that - as Ghost says - if "out of tune pianos" had been a criterion in jazz, then ....) but the above is really what it's all about. Ears weaned on Europan classical music aren't exactly the best starting point for listening to the pitches in jazz IMO. And - to bring in another aspect about how things evolve - much as I like what George T. Simon had to say about the Swing era and Swing music, the way he rambled on all the time about "playing in tune" and this or that being "tasteful" (as if these were primary criteria of swinging musci) labels his writings as very much of times that have been passed over long ago. The way he used terms like this IMO somehow just stifles the music that is conveyed in his writings

I'll miss your contributions. RIP

Swing and jazz-wise Vol. II of the Berigan set is rather weak (unless you are a real die-hard Berigan completist, of course). A handful of good tunes but also lots of nondescript material that overall I find rather lackluster (some around here may sneer at the name but I find Scott Yanow's review in the All Music Guide to Jazz (2nd Ed.) book - which I read long after being disappointed myself when listening to this set - rather spot-on). Vol III is way better but I am still on the lookout for a decently priced copy of Vol. I. That aside, you are quite right about that Bluebird twofer series. They covered the ground very nicely (even in areas where others never, never bothered to tread for a VERY long time - e.g. The Cats & The Fiddle, Bill Boyd's Cowboy Ramblers, Willie Bryant, etc.) and did the definite vinyl reissue job on these recordings IMHO, until - in some cases, but far from all - the French RCA Black & White twofers came along, though the packaging of these wasn't as informative IMO).

Maybe this one (I've never heard it) that for some reason and for quite some time lingered in several copies in a record shop here when there stilll were brick and mortar stores: Sadik Hakim - "Witches, Goblins Etc..." https://www.discogs.com/de/Sadik-Hakim-WitchesGoblinsEtc/release/3610576

Yes, way better (and compiled more thoughfully) than those silly "star spangled banner gadget wrapper" cover (Jazz History series) double albums from the same period (or very slightly earlier).

O.T. - but still ... I could ask my son who started his university studies last month in that town. Though - honestly - I doubt this is the kind of place favored by the young'uns ...

Measly portion.

Knoxville must be a USPS black hole. I remember that name very often figuring FOREVER in the tracking info of US shippings 2-3 years ago (when I still bought a bit more from the US), and this for shippings that originated nowhere near Knoxville if you draw a line from the shipper's home to any point on any of the coasts. I'd always figured European shippings are dispatched from somewhere on the East or West Coast, but apparently the USPS finds the South way more challenging ... But sending something from TN to PA to see it arrive "almost" there and then return to TN must be about the weirdest thing ever ...

Troy, MI, instead of Troyes?? But I'll tell you - this can happen almost anywhere: Years ago I had TWO such incidents where the culprit clearly was La Poste in France: My post code starts with the number "70", and you can put the "D" for Germany in front of the post code (although this is not mandatory as long as the country is clearly indicated too). Now there were two letters from France that arrived here with CONSIDERABLE delays (and one of them therefore too late for me to do anything with it as it contained entry tickets for a show at a particular date that of course had passed by the time I received the letter containing the tickets). Both had been returned/delayed with a mark of "non-existing address" on the back (and did not arrive until a second try was made), In one case there was a post office stamp of Vésoul (Haute Saône - 70) next to that "non-existing address mark" on the back, and the other letter carried a post office stamp from somewhere in the departement of Ardèche (07). Get the problem? Although both letters had perfectly clearly handwritten addresses with the line "Allemagne" (Germany) on them, in one instance they had taken that German post code starting with "70" to be one in the département of Haute-Saône, the other time they had misread D-7..... as "07" for the département of Ardèche. How silly can you be?

To give those potentially interested an idea of what they wil be working with, it might help if you'd indicate what format the text(s) are in and how they have so far been prepared, i.e. what kind of raw data there ar.e This kind of work is a demanding task but in today's world you can work with intexing tags within the text of the WORD file, for example, which facilitates things to a degree (if done correctly and sensibly but still it IS work).

Info about that clause duly noticed .... but keeping the artists/estates out and preventing the music from falling into the P.D. isn't exactly the same thing, is it? Because if the artists/estates had regained control the music would not have returned to the P.D. either. BTW, this source is from 2008, four years before the law actually went into effect. Did all this go through as planned? I am surprised this use it or lose it clause did not make huge headlines in 2012 (as it would have been bound to, because this clause took care of one of the major complaints by collectors - in any area of popular music).

Cannot be true. I don't recall such a clause as a key feature of the updated EU copyright law passed in 2012. (This would have made headlines within the music scne for sure) If I understood this correctly, these recordings were not issued before. So they do not even fall under the updated EU copyright law that came into effect in 2012 and will extend the copyright protection for recordings up to 70 instead of 50 years after they were first issued. Besides, others from that series date from way after mid-1962, so even if the recording date would have been decisive (not the first release), these are protected by the current EU law in effect since 2012.

Does anyone know in detail why he had such a recording hiatus between his Dot and Prestige periods?

You can't sing an apostrophe in ANY song lyrics, not just this. Even if it was (intentionally) ambiguous (called "double entendre" as of the 50s), then so be it. Signs of the times too. And not for the worse IMHO. Because it was a play on words, not least of all about human nature as it was and still is. After all this was music from a niche market that was certainly far more open in what its target audience considered "acceptable" (tolerable, anyway) than what dreamy-colored mainstream pop for white suburban middle-class consumption (of those times) was. And compared to the lyrics of MANY an R&B tune this (potential) "ambiguity" was NOTHING. So no big deal overall IMHO, because it needs to be seen in its proper context.

I agree that this was not a particularly inspiring or useful picture to post on this thread, but unless this jacket was provably worn by an imposter outside the US, I'd say "Don't shoot the messenger". Food for thought, maybe? BTW, if you felt it was appropriate to delete it I as an onlooker would certainly not complain, but I find it pointless to go on publicly about "hey, I've deleted your picture", etc. Tell him in a PM and make your point clear. That should totally serve the purpose of admonishing HIM.

I first heard the Hoyle Nix version (the original version on a String WS V.A: reissue) some 40+ years ago and the spelling "BIG BALL'S ..." made it all perfectly clear. Anybody who thinks differently is invited to comment on what "we'll all go down" would mean, then ... Drop with exhaustion after the act? The point about Texas country music being much more progressive than the Nashville variety seems a good one to me, FWIW ...

Seen from that angle - yes ... Subtle and subversive ... probably ... but would you be surprised if this were turned the other way round today? You can find odd stuff on the web and everything seems to have been evoked before (and some of it can give you the creeps): https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3744745/posts But be advised that you are on the verge of turning this into a political thread ...

When I read about this some years ago I could not help wondering what the finer points of the lyrics of Bob Wills' "Take Me Back to Tulsa" may have been ... What did Johnny Duncan do when singing about "getting off on Archer" and walking "down to Greenwood"? (I hope it's all as innocent as it sounds - because musically it IS a great tune ...)

Makes those of us over here who do not check THIS section that regularly wonder what that pic and that "Americana" was all about ... Or else, why not discuss this via PM with the original poster?