Big Beat Steve

I don't have the Mosaic box set but I do have the Esther Bubley book and the photographs in that video clip all seem to come from there as far as I was able to compare quickly. But the book (some 150 pages of photographs) is exclusively about the session feat. Bird, Ben Webster, Benny Carter (a.o.) of July 1952 most famously released on the "Jam Session #1" and "Jam Session #2" LPs. This is why - in my first post - I found the pictures a bit "cramped" with all those "other" people hanging around in the pics (particularly the omnipresent J.C. Heard in the background who to the best of my knowledge never was part of an O.P TRIO ) I know it's all a minor point but if pictures of the trio sessions exist then why not use THEM for the clip?

Did you smile as much as I did at that photo of "Pee Wee trying to drink his wallet"?

My (UK) printing is from 1962 but it must be the same book, considering the co-author credits. I pull it out every few years for some distracting reading moments. A great read indeed. Actually it may not be a bad choice for the season's days at this time of the year. Thanks for the reminder ... BTW, this one (below) would be a good (pictorial and textual) companion for your read:

Too much monkey business around here ...

He rather is a different calibre, not a lesser one. Anything else would be an attempt at comparing apples and oranges. Maybe the "Trane" thing just was not totally for him and in his case too it was not the best idea from the start to "jump on the Trane bandwagon to stay with the trend".

It's 1960 to 1963 (reviews). The price you paid is a VERY good one. Besides paying more on average for my own copies of Vol .1 to 5 (all of them more than 10 years ago), I have watched them on eBay every now and then through the years (they didn't come up that often anyway) and most of the time the starting or Buy it Now prices were staggering.

I have the first five (bought some of the first ones from none less than Ron Rambach so you can imagine the prices, even in 2002-03 ), and considering they do seem to create some interest here after all I am sort of surprised that the duplicate of no. 3 (1958 reviews) I have for sale and listed in my jazz "old paper" ad in the ads section here has not had any takers yet. PM if interested.

Of course she did. An entire book was published about it. But that was NOT a trio session (a tentet session, in fact). That's the point I tried to make. So the pics look like stopgaps if the above clip is about the TRIO recordings.

Considering they were referring to TRIO sessions, those recording session photos that they chose look decidedly cramped to me. Could it be that Mosaic relied heavily on Esther Bubley??

You don't like Lee Konitz and/or George Russell?

True, but remember how many (self-professed) "jazz PhDs" there are out there who, in the case of other "name" jazz artists, claim that "No, you CANNOT dislike him (and you are not ENTITLED to dislike him). If you dislike him you haven't understood a thing about jazz, And the shit storm will be on you!". Which of course is total B.S. in about 90% of those cases (I'd say there are far less "mandatory" artists than some might argue - and, BTW, the artists in question usually are dead too ) - at worst one hasn't appreciated a specific style of jazz enough to like that particular artist. But there are plenty of other styles and segments within jazz that can be enjoyed enormously nonetheless. (The same thing can be said about most other styles of music too, BTW)

Good. Makes sense for the booklets but a pity for the boxes. Be sure to keep the rodents out over there.

Agreed. But since Tex Ritter (or any of his breed) never were my cuppa in country music that pairing would never have made it to my wants lists either. FWIW, even within the "trade" some seem to have felt the same way about Tex Ritter. Listen closely here from 02:25:

@jazzbo &gmonahan: You never refer to the large booklets (not the small session detail listings inside the jewel cases) when you listen to your Mosaics? And even put them out of reach in "storage"? "Storage wars" fare one day, maybe, then?

Ouch! Thanks, but no thanks! I have a LOT of those Creative World LPs (a handful bought new at full price at the time and quite a lot more nice-to-have ones bought later at low secondhand prices) and my wants lilst has about 7 more (in case I come across them cheaply, as was the cas with the Wagner and Christmas LPs), but ST1060 will certainly NOT figure on that list.

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)?