Big Beat Steve

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 .

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 ...