Big Beat Steve

Thanks, Daniel. Is this a recent addition to their range? I cannot recall that name. I've bought a lot of shelving and storage furniture from IKEA through the years (their ubiquitous BILLY serves my needs well for my 78rpm and 10" racks). But in recent years my visits to IKEA have been very rare.

So that's him too introducing the Swedish group (that made such a hit there) at the 1949 festival (as released on Dragon)? (Those Swedish names were a handful to handle for the announcer, it seems... ) Listening to both live recordings in a row provides an even better impression of the entire concert. (Edit: Listening to the recordings now. I am not sure if it is Francais or Maurice Cullaz - see below - who introduced the group. There is a second speaker who does an "outro" at the end of "All The Things You Are" but who is who of the two?) Quote from the liner notes: "Such was the curiosity and eagerness with which this concert was attended that the (unknown) announcer in charge got carried away by the general excitement and grew so lyrical he had to be interrupted by another one who stuck more closely to the facts." That "other one" was Maurice Cullaz so Francis must have been the lyrical one? Poor Barney ... not entitled to having his first name mentioned ... Puzzling at first but apparently a sign of the times. For some reason it was not unknown in France at that time not to mention the first name of a musician when stating line-ups/band personnel. Something that you often notice when reading early post-war issues of Jazz Hot but this does read decidedly odd today. As if this was influenced by football (soccer) match coverages? And reserved for the "lesser lights" (sidemen) in a group line-up?

Which IKEA line exactly are you referring to?

Not possible. VAT is 21% in Spain, which would amount to 9.21 if you add VAT to 7.74. When I open the link above it comes on in English, of course. Yet it says 10.00 EUR.

I'd certainly consider her a bit more than that for her "jazzing the classics" but apart from those who'd see only gimmickry in this (I wouldn't ... different strokes ... ) I can very well imagine this was anathema to "third stream" adulators of the day (some of whom would probably have found her treatment almost blasphemous - I wonder if she would also have had Grieg's heirs breathe down her neck if she had done an Anitra's Dance Boogie like Charlie Norman did around the time she had her McCarthy hearings ... )

Consider me puzzled ... very puzzled ....

Yes, and coming to think of it I find this rather dubious. Are they taking their EU customers for a ride?

Amazing. I just checked again and it clearly says 10 euros apiece. Also see the post by EKE BBB from earlier today. I am beginning to wonder if overseas users of their website get a "different" version displayed giving even lower prices to make it worthwhile for THEM (because free shipping won't come until at higher purchase sums?). Is this ethical and will this do them much of a favor once it transpires, I wonder?

I wasn't quite aware Hazel Scott was THAT outspoken in civil rights matters and had more guts than many "name" jazz artists taken together, so hats off to her. Now if it takes Alicia Keys to "get her name out in the open" again bring her some posthumous recognition then that's not the worst thing to happen. @TTK: I seee what you mean and largely agree. If some listeners prefer stuff that's more complex or on a different level, why not ... tastes do differ and not everything can appeal to everyone in the same manner. What I do find a bit of a pity, however, is the tendency of some scribes (particularly those who "came after the fact") to be either unable or just unwilling to cover those adequately who were fairly "accessible" to the audience and dismiss them as "artistically" insufficient instead when they just provided entertainment instead of "challenging" their listeners (which at the time often translated as "alienating"). As if jazz had ever consisted of "high art" only. It was a much wider field and there was room for a lot of different strains of jazz, and competent historians ought to be willing to take in the whole picture and refrain from rewriting history from an ivory-tower perspective that sometimes reads like some "how we would have liked history to turn out", unfortunately. And if some historians feel that this demand would relegate them to too much of a "documentarian" role, then so be it. This is not what was meant.

I am not sure we looked at the same site. The site that opens under the link in the starting post shows a lot that are newer than 50 years. Which, besides, is of no relevance here as these are previously unreleased concert recordings where the 50-year rule is not applicable as there is NO 50-year old original release anyway. And the label is a totally official one. BTW, the sale price they show reads more like 10 EUR to me. Not 7.74.

Done. Quite a while ago: I had been aware of her through her presence on a couple of compilations and had owned the 10" of Swingin The Classics for a long time but when I bought a fairly huge collection of 78s in 2005 these 4 Scott albums for some reason were included among the handful of 78 rpm albums. As if the previous owner had had a particular preference for her. A nice addition ... I remember what I read about her in various publications seemed to treat her a bit lightly (including by historians), claiming her to be rather commercial, cocktail-ish, flashy etc. Not that she could be rated the female Art Tatum but I find that a bit unfair and maybe another case of a hindsight-ish perspective ignoring her importance and appeal at the time and, above all, in the context of her times. I'd certainly file her with Hadda Brooks, Camille Howard, Mabel Scott and the like.

+1

Found it online. http://www.voicesofeastanglia.com/2012/10/barack-obamas-jazz-blue-note-inspired-designs.html

I just received my copy of The High Fidelity Art of Jim Flora. According to the descriptions I had figured this was a thematic supplement to The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora (which already contained many album covers) that features MORE album covers that had been discovered in the meantime, plus Jim Flora artwork for various other music-related documents (leaflets, brochures etc.). But browsing through it now I see it includes a huge album cover section with all the usual suspects and more (the Sauter-Finegans, Nick Travis, Barnet, Shorty Rogers, Bix & Tram etc.). So it looks to me like the High Fidelity book SUPERSEDES and replaces the Mischievous book for those who are mainly interested in the music-related art of Jim Flora. (Which would suit me fine as this is what I am primarily interested in for now and I do not own the Mischievous book yet) Is there anybody out there who has both books and can confirm or correct this?

You know which one you and I are thinking of.

Why, because your former president did attend jazz events and set off a counterraction by the jazz haters?

I know and I'd agree with you. But again - whatever I'd see funny about this emoboy (as you aptly characterize him) being scared out of his wits by the looming threat (?) of having to attend some oh so menacing jazz (of all musics ) concert is really wiped out by the fact by people publicly indulging in such psycho navel gazing about "problems" like this that really just need a fair dose of common sense to sort out. Overanalyzing all this and finding a million excuses for everything is a sign of the times that I really feel is over the top - and enough to spoil the fun for me.

That's one way to see it, admittedly. Yet I cannot see the humor in the article itself. And this is enough for me to quench most of the humorous feelings. So much psych ado about not all that much. A sign of the times too, maybe ...

Just read the article again now, and i have to agree. "Jazz" reads more like a random example (maybe one that's a bit cliche-laden and is used as clickbait on the premise of "oh yeah, jazz - nobody understands that anyway ...") The concert could have been just any concert way off the kind of music that youth would have preferred himself - classical, techno, whatever ... I am not quite sure what the author wants to express in the "rest" of the article on such a wordy, overladen manner ... Doesn't it all boil down to "try to be open-minded when approaching something new and unknown because it's not necessarily hostile at all?"

Yes, U.S. small-scale overseas business for this kind of items is likely to come grinding to a halt. I don't even bother looking up the shipping costs of U.S. Discogs sellers anymore. It's a pity but what can you do? Have the rates of Global Priorty Flat Rate (you know the envelope you can use to ship up to 4 lbs of printed matter worldwide at a flat rate) skyrocketed too? Just to see if they might still be a way out for buying the occasional music magazine or not so large book? Very convenient even after a price rise a couple of years ago but the snag was that you had to literally COAX many U.S. sellers on eBay into trying this as many had never ever heard of this (quoting insane weight-dependent shipping rates on eBay instead). Often it only worked if I gave them the exact link to the very part of the USPS site where everything was explained in detail. But when it did work quite a few admitted they were glad to use this from then on as this would increase their overseas business. I am glad I did most of my U.S. buying of the essentials during better times but still there is this or that out there ...

Hard to believe, that surface mail thing. The other day I was on the edge about buying a book from abebooks. For ONCE the shipping cost would NOT have doubled the price of the book but the shipping time quoted was 4 to 6 weeks. I find it hard to believe that any air mail shipping rate takes THAT long (particularly since this quote obviously does not take customs clearance times - which may delay things indeed - into account).

Good for you if you have the choice. Over here it's a bit different. And across-the-pond shipping rates kill many deals anyway. I had the same initial feelings about "Straight Down The Middle" being relatively MOR (by 50s standards), including because of the cover. "Under Analysis" (which has no Jim Flora cover either, after all) is a bit more straightforward than earlier albums too (in a way I can live rather well with, the semi-classic experimental far-out stuff on some of the other albums is something I'd need to take in smaller doses). I'll eventually get the "Middle" LP too, I guess.

Charlie Henry (p), Mundell Lowe (g), Francis James (b), Joe Venuto & Sperie Karas (perc), Eddie vito (harp).

Mousie Alexander, sez Bruyninckx.

Sorry to disagree, Pim, but either you have only scratched the surface yet or you have come across the wrong labels and missed out on others: Agreed that decent and thoughtful packaging, accurate session detials, booklets, artwork (in tune with the contents), photos etc. do make the difference. BUT (referring to your above points): 1. What's wrong with being able to buying all Harold Land albums on 4 CDs for the price that others would regularly levy from you for one single CD of "The Fox"? Not a bad way IMO to start and explore more than you would be able to afford otherwise. To the extent I have checked the Real Gone Jazz label, for example, I find the sound quite OK. And when you or I want to read more about Harold Land (no, I have the Lands on vinyl that are most essential to me but let's take this as an example), how about pulling out Ted Gioia's or Robert Gordon's books on West Coast Jazz? Reading up on one's preferred subject to get some sound background info is an excellent idea anytime but there IS plenty out there to do your reading. And this can inspire you both ways. Reading up on soul jazz, for example, got me to check out a Jimmy Smith box set on Real Gone Jazz (not least of all because even the measliest BN reissues command exaggerated prices just because they are on BN). 2. Proper is OK soundwise but have you ever wondered about where Proper seem to get their stuff from? (See earlier posts in this thread and elsewhere) Don't the duplications or overlaps make you wonder? So who did the restoration work for whom in the end and what's the fundamental, ongoing, constant difference, then, to labels that additionally skimp on their presentation? Except a somewhat better presentation? 3. Weird choices in combining: Happens with LOTS of labels, even legit ones. Proper is no total exception, particularly with their theme compilations. As for the bonus tracks, one man's meat is another man's poison. Yet maybe it's a better and a more thoughtful gesture to the collector than many of those Japanese reissues that limit themselves to one single 12" or even 10" LP on one CD - and yet they sell these CDs with measly short playing times at top money! 4. True to some extent but brick and mortar stores are no longer representative anyway. Besides, you cannot blame all the PD labels all the time for making it unworthwhile for the majors to do their own reissuing. Many majors just don't give a hoot about that jazz niche market anymore, except when it comes to recycling the obvious Miles, BN and Trane things in regular intervals. Many of them would never have covered the fields that some of the PD labels regularly do. And if you don't feel like going to Discogs, try Amazon. So if the only exceptions to you are Proper and JSP you so far have overlooked a lot if presentation is a key factor to you (understandably, I tend to feel the same). From what I have seen and bought, Fresh Sound, Fantastic Voyage, Blue Moon, Acrobat, Zircon, Westside, Document and others do take care with their booklets, details, artwork etc (to varying degrees). Some of them may be off your radar if you are mainly into post-war LP-era jazz but still you just cannot generalize. Particularly since JSP you expressly mentioned is a mixed bag too (see an earlier post of mine). Not just soundwise but also in their packaging. Placing part of the session details of one CD onto the leaflet of another CD of the box set and this through 4 CDs in all directions so you have to move to and fro to check which is which sounds very much like the artwork people, layouters AND quality control dept. were either drunk or couldn't have cared less. BTW, the "rightful copyright owner" is a very vague term when it comes to the P.D. laws applicable in EUROPE (and therefore to you and me). Once the stuff is pre-sometime in 1962 and therefore was first released 50 or more years before in 2012 when the European copyright laws were updated it IS in the Public Domain. Besides, since you mention Japan: Be careful when you choose your Japanese CDs and check for the fine print on the back inlay. It might say "Not for sale outside of Japan". Now why might it say this? My take (until proven to the contrary ) is that they did license the stuff but at a fee that covers only domestic sales in Japan and therefore is way lower than the fee for worldwide distribution. Yet they DO sell their items worldwide. A fair and square deal with the rightful copyright owners that you find important? Food for thought, and no hard feelings .. basically we are not THAT far apart, I think ...