Big Beat Steve

René Thomas. No doubt. Edit (after qwuick online research to confirm): Photo taken in 1973 and discussed on the Les Paul forum.

I'd bet that in field of bachelor-pad lounge and exotica you ARE one (of the latter). At least compared to most of the others around here.

The first of the two box sets shown in the starting post actually is made up of FRENCH masters. Probably recyclings of the remasterings from the "black sleeve" reissues. I've just checked the track listing of the second (Americans) set now (I had not heard of this one before) and am baffled. What's the point of reissuing such a hodgepodge today where the market is flooded with almost everything? Dial, Roost and King masters, some Blue Notes, some PJs, Jerry Newman live recordings, and so on ... Showing a sampling of what Vogue leased back then. Vogue leased a lot, yes - but hasn't virtually ALL of this been around on the reissue market very, very often and don't we all have most of this already? (Probably more so than in the case of the first box set) A box to take along for your car player or on holidays? No doubt it would be convenient for that. I just cannot quite see what GAP it fills.

"Vaste sujet", as Brownie might perhaps say , but we are getting off course, I think ...

That's the ones I was alluding to. The web seems to say it is not DMM per se that is the problem but how the records in question were actually produced. And I've just noticed after a quick check even on the S. Hoffman forum there are some who in this kind of debate say they are quite happy with the aural quality of their 80s DMM BN's. Just to check , after Shrdlu's first post I spun my copy of Lou Donaldson's "Blues Walk", and honestly, i cannot complain (though of course I do not have another issue to compare - but who among us mere mortals in the collecting fraternity has any number of different versions of one and the same record across the bulk of their collection?). But maybe that Donaldson session wasn't extremely bass-heavy anyway?

"Bad" is fairly relative. I have a feeling the ones that some have their problems with are later than from the 70s - I have only a few of them but these do sound quite listenable. Audiophilistic geeks may have their bones to pick with these pressings (but what would satisfy them 100% anyway once a different reissue marketed as being the ultimate in "upgrades" hits the market? ) but if you consider how even "reputable" reissues by the heros of (re)mastering have been altered sonically in the CD era with the tendency to remaster them really LOUD compared to the original releases or earlier reissues then "bad" can have many facets.

I've recenty had the occasion of directly comparing parts of two of the CDs in the first of the thread starter's box set with the corresponding reissues from the "black cover" CD series (A. Hodeir and Jimmy Raney) and found them rather on the same level, as if they had recycled the masterings from the black cover reissues for this box. No complaints, then. Except that - as many others have pointed out before - their selection of the "usual suspects" for this box is rather unimaginative. Vogue would have had A HUGE LOT of other good recordings form that period that could have made up a set that is just as impressive without forcing passably astute collectors to buy that many duplicates. I have quite a few black ones but VERY FAR from all and even my number of duplicates is sizable which made the box set just "acceptable" price-wise even at the discount price - under the premise that the duplicates can always go in the car and/or with the regret that the "black cover" duplicate CDs will probably be impossible to shift now except at a giveaway price (annoying considering the price tag they had at the time). (So in the car player again?)

I.e. translate my question as "download/streaming statistics" or whatever the industry uses to verify who is a "hot act" in the world of digital music consumption.

That would have made Peacock Records a #1 contender for signing all the artists.

If African-American jazzmen had flocked to VeeJay instead of BN?

IMHO Francis, Duvivier and their likes had a valid point. No doubt they were sincere in their "role model" life. They just did not need those kinds of scandals or excesses to perform their art and no doubt were embarrassed by how others gave their community a (pun very intended) "bad rap" by the way they behaved. And the unfortunate voyeuristic and scandalizing tendencies of some of the (white?) media AND "intellectuals" at the time no doubt contributed too. As for this ... Rap is for performers who can't sing or play a musical instrument. ... well, I don't like rap at all and get nothing out of it but just like with hip hop I'll concede this is a major strain of TODAY's R&B that is valid and relevant to today's youth audience and therefore another evolutionary step in the overall history of R&B, like it or not ... Which reminds me that from the mid-50s onwards many (who had the clout to get their opinions into print) claimed exactly the same thing about 50s r'n'r (including a lot of black r'n'r FKA R&B). Now what does THAT say?

Me 3 As for Chinese megastars, I wondered about what GA Russell said too. Are there any statistics on what their sales are e.g. in the US or key European markets?

Ordered a book online from the FNAC headquarters in Paris a handful of years ago - no problems. Prompt processing and delivery. Other than that, I've "only" bought in their shops in France here and there.

Their reissues of 78rpm-era recordings weren't THAT bad ... And compared to labels such as Ajax/Ajaz any Trip items were just audiophile!

A nice one for the r'n'r jivers/hepcats. Billy Mitchell jumping on the George Williams/Boots Brown/Dan Drew/Claude Cloud/Alan Freed Orchestra et al. bandwagon - jazzmen trying to grab a bite of the teen dancing market in the second half of the 50s. (For my taste, Satelite Beep Bop is a bit too much like other "occasional instrumentals" done by other acts at that time, though) Billboard sez this: My impression is that this was an instrumental cover of a vocal recording of that tune by the Five Stars (Hunt 318) reviewed by Billboard about a month earlier. Not to be confused with either Billy Mitchell, lead singer of the Clovers, or with Bobby Mitchell.

I'll tell you what ... I've listened to it a long, long time ago at someone else's collection and then somewhere else again (hard to avoid it totally) but due to its "ubiquitousness" I've never been tempted to buya copy in any format. Then about 2 years ago I finaly took the plunge when I found a copy in a stack of newish reissues. Gave it a spin, just taking it in while stretched out in my lounge chair - and you know what? It's almost "easy listening" by today's standards. Post-edit upon listening again: Not "easy listening" - make that "late night mood music."

Not in the VERY least. He was one of those who IMO showed that post-1960 there were quite valid ways of expanding and developing existing styles of jazz by creating stimulating new accents and contributing to the development of jazz without going all "free", "avantgarde", "fusion", "rock","post"-something and whatnot ... I for one do NOT see whatever I have heard of his recordings to be all Bechet copycat (or similar). He extended the idiom and was his own man. What he and his brothers in style did was one PART of the WIDE range of contemporary jazz as it developed in the decades onwards. Too bad for those who cannot see (or rather, hear) that.

RIP, and thanks for pushing ahead a new track in contemporary jazz.

A gimmick.

Like others above said: "Diner" (1982).

Correct, as I look at the "fine print" now (I hadn't paid attention to that detail). In fact I bought the Warne Marsh at a small shop across the street from Crocojazz in Paris, and ... @sidewinder: ... the Bill Perkins actually was found (secondhand) in the UK - Out on the Floor Records in Camden Town.

Problem is ... that happens a LOT with critics and scribes too. And this is where it gets REALLY problematic IMO because after all they generally have more clout at getting their point across and out to the (listener and buyer) public whereas musicians' statements about fellow musicians are often treated as mere anecdotic views (though they often do provide an insight - though a rather subjective one, of course - into how those "fellow" musician was perceived by his peers - which might run contrary to the "acquired wisdom" that - again - often is a result of what the scribes published and therefore got into public view).

That's the point. I do realize these were REAL names. I just wondered why they would (or could) want to go ahead with these when in other cases A&R men changed much less bizarre names. I remember having read about the "funny name" comment about early Elvis too. Which leads me to believe that it also is a matter of "getting used to".

Actually that's another name I had wondered about, trying to figure out how the "getting used to" factor may change perceptions (which may be very subjective, as I had become aware VERY early on of the name of old-time fiddler Elvis Alderman so this WAS a precedent that may have "normalized" things to me). What set the Demetriss or Tupper names and similar ones apart, though, is how you can willingly choose such odd names as MARKETABLE STAGE names. A&R men have been known to interfere in lesser cases even back in those days. Anyway, in the Presley case the family name isn't all that "out" so the combination doesn't appear as weird as some of those mentioned here. Ah, "what's in a name" ...

I remember those "Brown Bag" BN twofers friom "way back" too but at the time they were fairly pricy in the record shops so I passed them up. I did not really buy them until several years later when they came up secondhand (mostly during my visits to the UK, and quite a handful of those found in the UK were indeed cutouts, though that did not really reduce the price too much with the pro sellers ). What I found to be much rarer (can't recall having seen them in the shops here when they were new - what you did see were the 2-LP sets) were the SINGLE-LP reissues from the "Blue Note Re-Issue Series". Much later I bought e.g. Bill Perkins' "Tenors Head-On" and Warner Marsh's "Jazz of Two Cities" (both of which of course had zero to do with BN).