Big Beat Steve

Thanks all. Actually the "straight" renditions were what had me puzzled after first listening, but I'll concede it should warrant repeated listening, particularly for the season's occasion.

Discussing Kentonia, I'll repeat, then, my post from the "other" revived Kenton thread for better exposure of my query: The other day I added a handful more to my Kenton collection at the annual clearout sale at a local used records store: a very early US Capitol pressing of City of Glass/This Modern World, the "Kenton's Christmas" album on Creative World plus four of those "One Night Stand" LPs on Joyce. I remember JSngry mentioned the Kenton Wagner album some years ago - last year I bought that one at that clearout sale and on listening I agree with him - it works surprisingly well and is not nearly as pompous as one might have feared. The low price (that encourages taking chances) aside, the "Kenton Christmas" album of course looked like a fitting buy at that time of the year and I might give it a spin on the 24th. A first listening has me a bit puzzled (but not put off). Any opinions by others on that album?

Now that we are digging out ancient threads again (this is just one of several in-depth ones on Kenton IIRC), the other day I added a handful more to my Kenton collection at the annual clearout sale at a local used records store: a very early US Capitol pressing of City of Glass/This Modern World, the "Kenton's Christmas" album on Creative World plus four of those "One Night Stand" LPs on Joyce. I remember JSngry mentioned the Kenton Wagner album in another Kenton thread some years ago - last year I bought that one at that clearout sale and on listening I agree with him - it works surprisingly well and is not nearly as pompous as one might have feared. The low price (that encourages taking chances) aside, the "Kenton Christmas" album of course looked like a fitting buy at that time of the year and I might give it a spin on the 24th. A first listening has me a bit puzzled (but not put off). Any opinions by others on that album?

I suppose you've noticed there is an entire subforum called "Jazz in Print". Anything in print and related to jazz (and here and there even to other forms of collectible popular music) goes and fits in there. Just like THIS thread actually would. Not a matter of bureaucracy or tolerance limits, just a matter of keeping some sort of (rough) order in the coverage. Otherwise everything would become ONE big blur and blob before (not long but) short.

JAZZLIFE has been discussed here before. I considered this way outside the scope of LP cover art books so did not dwell on that. But since oyu mention it ... There seem to be outrageously expensive "Limited editions" by Taschen and then more (much more) affordable ones. I found a copy of the hardcover original of that book from 1961 close to 30 years ago and bought a copy of the Taschen issue in c.2012 at a very good price at a 2001 shop and find that whatever contents were expanded in later extremely expensive releases of JAZZLIFE do not justify in the least that extreme price hike. BTW, as you probably are aware if you reflect on it, the author credits of JAZZLIFE are an insult and a corruption of the actual facts. That US tour project of 1961 was organized and seen through by Joachim Ernst Berendt who masterminded it all and called in William Claxton as the photographer to document it visually. Credit to whom credit is due ... So the VERY least they ought to have done is print BOTH names in identically sized fonts on the cover and spine, and strictly speaking the order ought to have been Berendt first and Claxton next. I suppose Taschen just went the easy way of marketability, figuring Claxton still had some "cult" draw whereas Berendt (partiuclarly on a worldwide scale) was one for the initiated and specialists "only" and therefore not that much of a selling argument. Lame and a distortion of history anyway ...

That's an interesting one and no doubt it fills a gap. But the time span is one that would put me off as my interest in the styles of country music ends more or less with the early 60s, excepting some later "retro" or tradition-minded bands and artists, of course. As country music was largely a 45rpm market in the 50s and even into the 60s albums often were afterthoughts or compilations designed to appeal to the entire family in an oh so "wholesome" homeboy manner I am not sure the graphic artwork always really reflected the at least somewhat "modernist" state of the art in graphics of those earlier periods. And my indifference vs the later styles of country music aside, from what I have seen in 60s and 70s country LP covers (and after having waded through this or that HUGE collection when it was dissolved I think I have seen a LOT) I really wonder how many covers does one REALLY need with variations on the theme of the artist sitting on a corral fence and gazing into the wide open or sitting on the front porch or under a shade tree strumming his guitar (or covers showing Porter Wagoner wearing garish outfits that should even make Nudie cringe )? So this would be one I'd definitely need to take a close look into first. (Amazon does not have online sample pages, it seems)

Maybe they prefered Powidltatschkerln?

Rock Dreams has been reissued by Taschen?? Never knew (or didn't pay attention) ... I have the original German edition of c.1974 (that also has the huge rock bio/discography section compiled by Ingeborg Schober) as well as the English edition printed by Popular Libray, New York (likely a somewhat later reprint of the original edition). FWIW, i found the 1000 Covers and Jazz Covers books by Taschen less impressive (those were among those with a too broad and therefore IMO too superficial coverage I mentioned). But I realize that tastes differ.

If I imagine that played by an actual drummer that's a bit more like it. Though I wasn't necessarily thinking of a "broken" beat but (to describe it in a very simplified way), say, of the drummer keeping up the flow of the basic beat but "dropping bombs" in the right places, for example.

A side remark re- Srdlu's house music examples: This is one style of contemporary music that doesn't bother me (reminds me of the often-heard background sound patterns in one or the other record shop I still visit, for example) as it actually IS infectious and foot-tappingly danceable - I'll grant that - but honestly, to me the rhythm (that chuggity-chuggity-chuggity beat ) is way too monotonous for too long stretches in each song. Almost like a modern-day version of what used to be known as "strict dancing tempo" (that you can calibrate your metronome to ) 60+ years ago. Nothing against a rock-solid beat (on the contrary) but can't (or won't) those who go for this music dig the 4/4 beat if it is a bit more nuanced and accentuated throughout and not quite so overwhelming (overbearing)?

How about great (nickname-ish) jazz names that are strikingly similar, playing the same instrument and, above all, (virtually) contemporary? Corky Cornelius Corky Corcoran Almost makes you think the Corkies were coined by the same person(s). And, OTOH, if there were a thread (and I know I am going out on a limb here ) about nondescript jazz names then my #1 among the nondescriptest names of all is and remains Andrew Hill A common and unaltered "straight" first name along with a common monosyllabic last name just don't "sound" and don't "project" anything.

Within limits - yes. The limits being that I don't go for those books that try to cram everything into one book to satisfy ANY buyer's tastes and therefore won't sufficiently satisfy specific personal tastes (neither musically nor graphically nor period-related). Taschen and similar editors did a couple of books like this that I really found to be dispensable. What I bought through the years ... Those LP-sized books that came out in the 90s: Jazzical Moods California Cool Jazz West Coast East Coasting The Blues Album Cover Art (though I feel they could have incluided a bit more original artwork from before 1960) (No, I don't have the Blue Note cover art books - they really were a bit too pricy for too much of a same-y thing IMO that they offered overall). And then: - In The Groove - Vintage Record Graphics 1940-1960 by Eric Kohler - Jazz Album Covers - The rare and the beautiful by Manek Daver - The High Fidelity Art of Jim Flora (which IMO supersedes the other two Jim Flora books by the same editor if you are mainly after his music-related artwork) - The Alex Steinweiss book by Taschen is great if you can get it for a good price but the non-classical music contents are relatively slim, unfortunately, and in the long run you CAN tire a bit of that Columbia "house style" of his covers. It may be just me but I find an entire book on Jim Flora more fun to look at than one on Alex Steinweiss or DSM. Two that straddle the fence (because they also focus a lot on advertisements, sheet music, concert posters, etc.): - The Art of the Blues by Bill Dahl - Heart & Soul - A Celebration of Black Music Style in America 1930-1975

A bummer indeed. But I was suspecting something like this. Their website (Interstate Music) is still up ( http://www.interstate-music.co.uk ) but the contents haven't changed for ages. The most recent Krazy Kat CD (Light Crust Doughboys, KK 37), for example, has a production and reissue date of 2007 on the back "cover".

Yes this is convenient, particularly since shipping seems to be very fast (at least that's what happend in my cases). However, it all depends IMO on whether the shipping fees plus "tax" they charge are not higher than these two individual rates. FWIW, to get the terminology straight, the "tax" we Europeans are talking about here is no "sales tax" or whatever but the actual customs duties charged at the national VAT rate (i.e. 19% in Germany, and I suppose the principle is the same with you in the Netherlands, isnt it?) on top of the price of the goods. I.e. if I find in an auction that the upfront "shipping plus customs duties" total to be paid is not more (and preferably less) than what the combined total of the individual shipping cost to be expected plus the customs duties at the VAT rate works out (for an item that is not likely to slip under the customs radar and get delivered here free of those duties), then I am fine with that. This was the case with most of the cases I mentioned in my earlier post. I have also noticed auctions, however, where this total seemed outrageously above that sum of the probable (and plausible) shipping costs plus customs duties. But luckily there is hardly anything out there anymore on eBay that I want badly enough to be forced to accept this.

As far as their domestic market is concerned - agreed. There seems to be an element of utter collecting geekness at work there that probably defies assessment most anywhere else in the world (even in collecting circles - beyond an automatic "japanese reissues = holy grail" attitude, of course ). But for worldwide marketing it just seems of relatively minor interest AFAIAC.

I have seen this (a few years ago, though) with various eBay items I bought (only antique printed matter, though) and it seemed to me that this only occurred when the shipping and customs processing side was handled upfront by a third-party agency (forgot the name - some international shipper) on behalf of the seller and eBay. In all of the cases I have experienced the fee (including customs and shipping) they charged on top of the item price was rather accurate as far as customs went and actually shipping was not all that expensive (even less expensive than with some USPS prices seen and paid for elsewhere) so I proceeded accordingly. I don't know if there would have been a different and significantly cheaper shipping option anywhere that I would have been able to get through at all with the seller (remember some US eBay sellers are exceedingly stubborn when it comes to overseas shipments and they really couldn't be bothered any less than with a pre-set routine, no matter how cost-ineffective to the buyer, so not much point arguing at all) but one advantage with this shipping option was that the items (with bulletproof repackaging of the actual parcel by the shipping agency) always arrived almost lightning-fast here. Your case may have been one of these but if you find that the customs rate they charged for the Netherlands was above what you would normally have to pay even in the worst case then of course this a valid reason to cancel the order IMO.

Exactly. That box set has been a rather good deal. As it happens I spun quite a few CDs of this set 1-2 months ago, and fidelity actually isn't that bad throughout, at least for the studio dates. Little of the non-Bird material is really essential (and most of the Bird material has been around elsewhere in various guises too) but it is nice to have and makes for a nice change (and in some cases for an interesting addition of otherwise overlooked items to the leader discographies). As for why the Japanese would want to jump on that bandwagon again now, all I can say is - POINTLESS.

Exactly! I have this reissue version of the "Classic Tenors" album: And that's not nearly all: https://www.discogs.com/Coleman-Hawkins-Lester-Young-Classic-Tenors/master/259250# And a lot of the Coleman Hawkins tunes along with lots of the Signatures from the mid-40s were reissued by French RCA in the below 3-CD box So these sessions, in particular, have really been all over the place on vinyl. (Wonder how RCA got into the act after EMI/Stateside has licensed the stuff too - and other Signature recordings from that period had been reissued on Coral - i.e. Decca - in 1957. The rights to the Signature sessions must have made the rounds ...)

I did - sort of ... in the vinyl days. Their "Jazz and Hot Dance" series, for example, was very impressive. Krazy Kat and it subsidiaries almost always were a safe bet their reissues would be right up my alley. I kept buying Harlequins here and there in the CD era and would have bought more (if only to get a taster ... particularly the Latin reissues), just like I bought a LOT of CDs from the Krazy Kat mother label and its Country Routes offshoot. However - the Harlequin CDs seemed to have been badly distributed and most cannot have been in print very long. I have had a bookmark of the Krazy Kat website for a VERY long time and checked it regularly through the years. And through all this period the Harlequin listing contained only a small fraction of the listing above. Most of these must have gone OOP very, very long ago.

That's what you call a "shtick", Kevin ...

In a way it's a "cult" item. "Cult" that has become an end in itself - as a "must have seen" that you can boast with afterwards. Much like certain world-famous objects in other fields of art, including recordings in anyone's preferred style of music (including jazz where I'd venture a guess not all of those recordings claimed by some as "must have heard by all means" aural Mona Lisas are THAT mandatory by OBJECTIVE yardsticks of appreciation of the music at large).

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 .