Big Beat Steve

Too bad shipping costs are rather prohibitive if you'd actually want any. I'd probably be able to find very cheap copies of most of the original 4 LPs from the 60s in about 4 weeks' time.

Exactly. My mother was one of them (though, judging by what she had bought, the Swingle Singers and George Gruntz ranked ahead of Loussier, it seems). Like many in Europe at the time: Third stream! Jazz needs to mate up with classics to become respectable! And please no "Jazzing up the classics"! Playing classical music very moderate jazz overtones is what it is to be instead.! I never fully got into Loussier (though - for completeness sake - in more recent times I bought the other Play Bachs that my ma did not own - the Play Bachs still are very, very common in record clearout sale bins here) but he certainly did make a huge splash.

OK, I made my point above (not authoritarian nor judging but inquiring - please note the difference). Also - as you will have seen from the replies to your very first thread here, I certainly am not adverse to replying to such inquiries. I did reply (in fact, as the first one), trying to come up with an honest reply as well as I could, checking the info I had available here. It may not have been what you were hoping for (but as somewhat confirmed by the replies thereafter it may be the only possible answer), yet confirming that the somewhat blurry dates are the only ones in existence should at least clear up the picture somewhat. What next? Two more questions/threads of the same kind referring to the same artist and existing releases. Which puts the listing of your very first thread somewhat into perspective. And should probably leave more than one person puzzled as you did not state your intentions clearly. After all - when the third similar question came up - Bear Family boxes do come with books with lots of info. Is it, then, that you are cataloging music that you don't have? How come, if you are all into Nat King Cole, as the total of your previous posts seems to indicate? (I should have thought these reissues were the definite and final word on covering this music - as is the case with most BF boxes) Do you have the entire contents of these boxes on previous releases/reissues? Or is it that you have these reissues but NOT in their original form? (Which is just a question, not an accusation, because I am indeed puzzled about the similarity of the questions). Now, besides - may I indeed remind you too that you are on an internet forum? Please remember there were several people who replied both to your first question and to this one, yet what remained missing was ANY sort of acknowledgment on your part of these attempts at providing you with info. Don't you think it would have been a sign of elementary "netiquette" to reply in some way and maybe explain and elaborate on what you actually are after, if only to show you are interested in engaging in some sort of constructive discussion? Just so you don't get people to thinking you just take the replies for granted. So .... I do take your point but you will have to take my point too, the gist of which is that I do not have an "agenda" at all but I do tend to speak my mind every now and then.

I am more and more puzzled by the sameness of questions in this succession of posts, that's all. And I am ASKING. Definitely not stating. Not least of all because I was thinking of several discussions here re- the nature of 'CD-R-ing legit releases. But by ALL means, please DO feel free to delete my post if you feel this is contrary to what is OK to be written here. I am certainly comfortable with that and did not intend to be at odds with rules in this respect.

I am beginning to feel a bit puzzled about the common denominator of the posts by Mr Mills jr. Nat Cole and questions about session details or EXISTING releases galore. If I got the gist of the replies to these posts right, there ARE good and comprehensive Nat King Cole discographies out there. And quality reissues such as Bear Family usually come with very good booklets (real books in this case, actually). What's up, Mr Mills? You sitting in front of a stack of home-burnt CD-Rs where you now are trying to fill out the bones of the CD-Rs with the flesh of the liner notes of booklets you don't have because you don't have the genuine items?

True, the musicians were the creators. But among the scribes and historians who documented and presented post-1945 jazz he was second to none IMHO in spreading background knowledge of the music to fans and serious listeners who came after him and he certainly was above a fair number of "analyzers" who probably considered themselves far more enlightened and "deep". I know there are quite a few who figure on the spines of books in my music library where I'd rather choose Ira Gitler if I had to.

I took note of his non-jazz activites only in passing. My first exposure to him came via his mid-40s recordings for Eddie Laguna's Sunset label reissued on Black Lion in the 70s and I was suitably impressed after having bought this LP new at the time. My Fair Lady came quite a bit later (sometime after after the Jim Flora-illustrated Rogers-Previn Collaboration on RCA and Previn/Freeman's Double Play on Contemporary). I know some will shrug many of these recordings off as too much technique (and not enough heartfelt "keyboard fumbling" or so ... ) but anyway ... IMO he had chops. And looking at the jazz corner of his Discogs entries now I realize there are a couple more I'll have to check out when the occasion presents itself.

True ... but haven't these diatribes been written in EVERY direction? Starting with a somewhat overzealous self-elevation and assertion that everything that came before what was considered "new" at a given moment was more or less relegated to the scrap heap of musical "has beens" (or to "nostalgia" at best) by many (scribes) who wanted to be and remain "with it"? It still seems to me that a tendency through several decades has been to cut a lot more slack in one direction than in the other. BTW, when is an outspoken position just that just that - and when does it become a diatribe? A wide linguistic field ... BTW, I certainly am not one of the "de mortuis nil nisi bene" faction but like Brad said - things do seem like they are getting a little out of hand (and out of proportion) here, as if someone(s) now pulled out their axes they had been waiting to grind ...

So who WAS the "no show"? Isn't that fairly obvious.? One reason apparently was that Ira GItler had the monstrosity of not openly and immediately embracing the "new thing". This automatically got him into hot water with anybody who held these on a pedestal and considered them sacrosanct and did not find any other niche of where to cut his objective achievements "down to size". (What for, I wonder, there WAS quite a bit of "emperor's clothes" out there, e.g. when it came to REAL musical and instrumental "chops" - but that's another debate that's often been led to no avail because everybody remains stuck in their trenches even these days anyway). For some reason it still seems way more "appropriate" in these circles to blast partisans of the "earlier"/older styles of jazz but to take offsense at the reverse. Yet the notion that the development reached a "higher" level throughout when jazz went "free" remains highly doubtful IMHO; the development branched out sideways onto other, different paths that on their own terms might well warrant exploration. But artistically "higher" ? Nope. Last night I checked the link to that "overrated/underrated" page of 22 years ago and must say there still is a lot of food for thought there (both ways) with various scribes, regardless of whether some consider it heresy.

Thirding it.

Thanks for a HUGE amount of extremely instructive and at the same time entertaining jazz reading. RIP

It can get a lot "worse" with pristine records from the older generation. A few years ago a friend of mine asked me if I'd care to take a look at the record collection that the deceased husband of her colleague at the local library had bought decades ago and that were now available free as the widow wanted to move house and clear out the house. All from the late 50s to early 60s - but there was a snag. No outer sleeves AT ALL! Like it often happened with 45s at the time. For some reason the orignal owner had had boxes made that held about a dozen LPs each and had filed the records (numbered according to a filing system probably only known to him) but with only the names of the artists/bands scribbled on the inner sleeves (those that had no center hole for the label). Pity ... apart from the usual classical and world folklore stuff from that period a good deal were the kind of records people bought across the board to have a sampling of currently popular stuff for moderately pop-ish listening and partying. But it sure would have been nice to have had the sleeves too because the vinyl was virtually MINT throughout: Buddy Holly, Everly Brothers, Fats Domino, Joey Dee, Johnny & The Hurricanes, Jimmie Rodgers, Chet Atkins, Floyd Cramer, Marty Robbins, Johnny Horton, etc. etc. I took them anyway (and have since found sleeves for some of them at clearout sales) but what a waste anyway ... Luckily the 10" records escaped that fate and netted me a few quite nice items.

If wonder that's that rare with people from that generation. When the time for my mother (now nearing 95) comes outsiders might probably think the same if they should lay their eyes on her records. A certain number of CDs was added in the past 20 years (all classical, some spoken word), but as for vinyl, it's all 1950s and early 60s, very, very little post-1965. My mother did the record buying among my parents and for some reason what they bought up to around that time was good enough for them and remained that way. No need for browsers to want to check, though. It's all classical (mostly a dime a dozen at secondhand clearout sales anyway, so no huge treasures I guess), and a scant few chanson LPs. All her jazz (not that much, mostly 3rd stream-ish, but including a nice orignal MJQ Fontessa on black-label DG Atlantic) and even assorted oddities such as a 10" of the "Music to do your cooking by" variety from the early 50s she had brought along as one of the souvenirs from a lengthy visit to her uncles in the St. Louis area in 1953 found a place in my collection years ago.

I am having the same problem you have and have largely given up trying to really keep track of what is there even in my "core" interest areas. I do check various sites of reissue labels every now and then and follow reviews and recmmendations in various places (fanzines, blogs, forums such as this one, etc.) but this is spotty, I know. And then there is the problem of money and storage space so I figure that sometimes it is better not to know everything and be able to say that you don't "need" everything anyway. (Does the latter statement disqualify me as a collector or am I just being sensible? )

Too bad for post-1962 music but this sounds like European P.D. labels suddenly wil become of yet more interest, if only as a a stopgap measure and act of self-defense.

Over here too. They often are fun - and sometimes not even all that bad. A bit like the "budget"(est) cover versions of r'n'r tunes in the 50s on the BELL label.

Actually the Rutles came along MUCH later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rutles A sort of "revival spoof".

Are you referring to the Naxos King Jazz Legends CD series? Neither them nor the 4CD box set on JSP have more precise info. Nor Bruyninckx.

Starting a tradition ... http://www.rockremnants.com/2016/12/03/song-of-the-week-magical-misery-tour-national-lampoon-ouch-the-rutles/ Apologies, TO, and all other Merseybeat fans, for this digression ...

Wikipedia indeed says so. Just checked the Wiki entry on the movie too, but not even the German title rings a bell for me. I must have seen the movie at least once but don't remember right now. I see. I came too late for that music but did explore them in my earlier collecting days quite a bit too (not so much anymore in more recent times). Anyway, it's nice to see even the less obvious candidates maintain their audience even outside the UK. Over here and outside dedicated fans the Merseybeat bands today usually fall in the no man's land gap between the Beatles, the Stones, British Blues (Korner, Mayall, Yardbirds, early Moody Blues et al.), a few German "cult" beat bands and 60s soul. I am under the impression even 60s U.S. Garage Punk has more of a subculture following here (among listeners who are way too young to have come of listening age at that time) than Merseybeat bands.

@paul secor: Honestly, no ... That title did not ring a bell (but I am no cineast, at least not in the western movie field). But it's an interesting bit of trivia - thanks ....

Obviously I did NOT associate the title with an "also" John Wayne western movie but was quite surprised that the British Beat invasion has a U.S. fan community (of sorts ) beyond the Beatles to come to the fore on this forum with this kind of detail ...

Maybe the best thing, then, would be to avoid ordering from Germany altogether. After all, according to the latest news twits, ordering from Germany might put the security of your country at peril anyhow ...

Johnny Barbera (ts), Lennie (sic!!) (as), Willie Stader (b), Shannon Fletcher (p), Roy Hall (dr - obviously NOT the pianist of the same name) A bunch of unknowns too.