Big Beat Steve

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).

Like the name of the Woodstock festival photographer mentioned in a link in that thread "over there"? Burk Uzzle? Country folk too? A name that could have been invented by anycartoonist and sounds like it sprang right out of the "Toonerville Trolley"?

Well, the vocals at the very begining of the Tapp version do sound a bit like someone might have singled out one singer from one of those early 60s black girl groups and it might have come out like this. But as the song goes on it obviously isn't black (and not the countriest of country either IMO but rather overproduced. and slickened up - not a big wonder if Owen Bradley was involved). Merle Kilgore as the songwriter gives the country origins of the song away, though. Demetriss Tapp isn't a name I had heard before either. Must have come from a period when odd-sounding names weren't considered a hindrance to popular success by the A&R people (Tupper Saussy is another one of those monikers that just sound strange IMO as a stage name).

That guy's just faking. What he pointed at as being the R'n'R section clearly is where he pulled out the Illinois Jacquet "Swing's The Thing" LP on Verve at the begining of that clip. R'n'R?? When R&B (where this MIGHT have been filed) is a different section anyway? And Miles' KOB does not seem to be far away from that corner either. Seriously, man ... you're an imposter ... So WTF???

George Wettling, then?

Just read this review of Ella Fitzgerald/Joe Pass "Take Love Easy" (Pablo 2310702) the other day: ... Ella Fitzgerald accompanied by a sole musician, guitarist Joe Pass. And this accompaniment has ruined the record for me. Joe Pass plays with such flabbiness and langour that borders on a state of decay and does not feed the great singer even one single atom of swing. "Swing" may not be the keyword here because obviously swing was not the aim here. Yet Ella almost always swings her ballads, even at very slow tempos. Here the music of Joe Pass is so very emollient that Ella just was unable to give her best. The music makes you feel like you're stuck in a club with all the lights dimmed at 4 or 5 in the morning at the moment when most of the customers, well tired, start dozing off ... To have her accompanied by a sole guitarist, il would have needed a George Benson or Bill Harris ... I am no Pass expert at all because for all his chops he somehow has never grabbed me they way other guitarists with boundless technique and fluency (like Tal Farlow) have. Just not enough "bite" for me (at least in what I did hear of him).

And he talked about it here and there in his postings (and on his blog IIRC) so while it would be great to see it published this does not seem to be some news out of the blue. Yes, this is very comforting to know. I had similar fears (it has all happened before, and dispersing archives like this piecemeal on ebay or elsewhere isn't much better).

I'm not into much of late 60s/early 70s hard/other rock at all but any version of "I'm Going Home" is effin' smokin'! (Those who have an idea of where I come from music-wise will understand why I think so ... ). I'd listened to the versions on "Undead" and the Woostock album at a friend's place but found the version on "Recorded Live" best and this is one of the VERY few LPs form that period that I later picked up for myself.