Big Beat Steve

Yes, I had been wondering too ("Chi-oya" as in "Chi-nese" was my guess as I think this would be the ITALIAN pronounciation). Now I know it is "Joya", as in "Sherrill".

So this is Ted Gioia in person ... nice to be able to put a face to a name. I am glad I OWN the music to be able to play the soundtrack to his Swing to Bop and West Coast Jazz books - to me, two of the bestest jazz books I have in my collection. I LISTENED to his talk while editing some Word file. So no paddlewheeling here. As for what he said - spot on IMO , and I think others said it before in some other thread here re-ongoing availability of items you want via streaming and downloading. Aside from all desires to own the PHYSICAL product, market forces about focusing on the big and most profitable sellers being what they are, relying on online availability might very much slim the offering down eventually and destroy awareness of what there is and was out there - both for collecting/preserving and for creating exposure to newer artists.

Honestly, I cannot see anyting wrong with the quality (paper and contents) of their booklets among those CDs I have from Acrobat when compared to other comparable reissue labels, particularly from the UK. Admittedly they all are early post-war R&B and one straddles the fence towards swing. And like I said above, only one of them (one of the label compilations) appears like the CD is actually a CD-R. I checked once again this morning but apparently I do not have any of the jazz reissues mentined in this thread but as for sales figures, I really wouldn't say that Peppy Prince, for example, is likely to outsell Tubby Hayes. So I'd doubt the jazz reissues are more prone to CD-R-ing because they sell that poorly.

This sounds seedy indeed. However, I just checked the 8 or 9 Acrobats I have and while ONE (which wasnt the most recent one I've bought) looks doubtful the others do look like the real thing with the release no. in the fine print on the back too - just ike other regular CDs bought in recent years.

As for studio recordings (which as far as I know account for the bulk of their reissues), the applicable European laws about recordings falling into the public domain are and remain (at least as of now) not retroactively applicable. I.e. whatever was first issued sometime before some date in 1962 (when the new 50-year law was passed in 2012) REMAINS in the public domain and exempt from royalties due. If it's in the public domain in Europe and complies with the laws of the country/continent where the label is located it is not a bootleg. Making the items for sale in the US where the laws may be different is something to take up with the resellers in the US, not with the label.

Same impressions here. Sound is quite OK for me, and they go in their reissues where most of the others do not dare or care to tread so I have often found reissues with them that fill gaps in my collection (R&B, mostly). Presentation is very nice and experts in this field (Dave Penny, Philip J Tricker, Opal Louis Nations etc) have been involved in most cases. One word of caution, though: I have a number of label compilations by them (Melodisc, Atlas, Derby, Macy's etc.) that have GREAT stuff for MY tastes but as this music comes from rare and obscure 78s where often only fairly worn copies were available as source material the sound is what it is - pops, crackles and hisses included. I really cannot judge how much more cleaning up could have been done there without sacrificing some of the range and flattening the sound but these limitations (that exist with reissues on certain other labels too - early post-war indie source material often seems to be harder to clean up than even 20s acoustially recorded tracks, it seems) should be taken into account. I for one do NOT mind too much about such shortcomings at all (and make no excuses about it) but if you're a stickler for highest of hi fidelity then do steer clear.

Another of those cases where as a casual observer you had no idea he was still around. RIP. I had been aware of him since the days of the "Leading Brand" LP on Red Lighting where he was co-billed with Earl Hooker (but not that much more than that, I must admit).

Same here too. Thanks. Paid yesterday, shipping notice today. Good service. Now let's hope the postal services do their part of the job too.

This thread has prompted me to pull out the one below for listening (a reissue of his 1960 Jaro LP) which was the first KD LP I ever bought (back in the early 80s - not that I have a really huge part of his leader dates anyway). A very enjoyable session, brings back memories of past listening sessions (and the excellent liner notes by Mark Gardner sum up the gist of what the Austin Chronicle bio linked above says) .

Have you tried Amazon? It's on several of their European sites, including co.uk.

Surprise ... the mailman delivered the parcel with the book on my doorstep today. Ordered on Saturday night from the publisher in Italy via Amazon and here it is today. This sure was FAST ... Whew ... as it is a holidays present this is going to be TOUGH wait until Christmas Eve ...

If the booklet is as good as that of most of the other releases it should be an asset. (I found the one of the Illinois Jacquet/Leo Parker "Toronto 1947" release a bit of a letdown as the text offered relatively little that was new at all but those of the other Uptowns I have bought over time are real gems IMO, including the one of the 1958 Dodo Marmarosa CD, of course)

Wishful thinking hoping for ALL-new discoveries. Same here (before I found out about the duplications at home), but I'l be looking forward to the Uptown anyway (received my order confirmation a couple of minutes ago).

Now at home and checking through my LPs. On looking closer, no. 21 to 26 on disc 1 and no. 3 to 13 on disc 2 look like they correspond to the "Piano Man" LP on Phoenix Jazz LP20 released in 1978 (the tracks on disc 2 also are on Raretone 5020). All from MacGregor transciptions (late 1946) according ot the liner notes of the Phoenix Jazz LP. Tracks 19 and 20 on CD 1 are also on Raretone 5020 (Experiment in Bop). According to these 2 LPs the lineup looks like Dodo (p), Barney Kessel (g), Gene Englund (b) for #19-20 on CD1 and #3-13 on CD 2. #21-26 on CD 1 have Lucky Thompson (ts), Dodo (p), Red Callender (b), Jackie Mills (dr). I for one remain interested in the rest anyway which look new to me. And the above may have been improved sonically too - who knows?

The tracklist is in the opening post. Sounds intriguing ...

Sent him a mail 2 hours ago to say I'd like to buy a copy and am hoping for confirmation on this now too.

Watched it yesterday (for the first time). Fascinating but mindboggling that all the interviewees except Sonny Rollins and Benny Golson are dead now. Time flies ... But my, did I have trouble understanding Art Blakey and (often) Dizzy Gillespie ...No comparison with Johnny Griffin or Hank Jones or a couple of others ... Seeing how many of the musicians (and helpers) involved also seemed to have taken snapshots there should be material out there for ANOTHER volume of "behind the scenes" shots (if they can ever be located). Starting with the pics taken by Milt Hinton's wife.

I have that photo in the Esquire book "Esquire's World of Jazz" published in 1963 but I do think I saw it reprinted in some other book before I got hold of this one about 15 years ago because I remember I had been aware of that photo. I cannot recall what other book that was, though. (It wasn't the K. Abé coffee table photo book which had been my first thought ...) Ordered the "Harlem 1958" book last night and will hope it will arrive in time for Christmas. My better half has been nagging me about what to get me for Christmas so this will certainly be something to look forward to ...

I once visited the "record room" attic of a VERY long-time jazz record collector (and part-time record trader) who must have had (at that time - c. 2002 or so) about every Mosaic box set ever released - all of them lined up in a rack covering part of the wall on that room. A DEPRESSING sight in its uniform blackness. Almost the same impression for the array of Mosaics that were lined up for "display" one next to another with the fronts of the boxes facing the room. Too much of an aesthetically minimalistic thing in one place ... Not my aesthetics either. So whatever limited number of Mosaic I ever bought, it most definitely was not for the visual appeal of the object. For some reason I would not even qualify their visual impact as "stark" - it's different again ...

Well, you're right and then you're not. I just checked about a dozen British jazz CDs as well as a good handful of non-jazz CD I have on Jasmine and they all look like regular CDs to me (with the JASCD or JASMCD no. etched on the back too) EXCEPT the most recent one I bought (the one mentioned above) which does look like a CD-R indeed according to "fine print" on the back of the CD. Strange ... (and hard to identify from the look of the label side of the CD etc.). It has a publication date of 2010 so I am inclined to think this is a repressing that they did on CD-R. Will have to look for another recently bought CD to compare, then ...

Those that I have don't look like that to me at all, neither more recent ones nor older ones. Which releases are YOU thinking of?

Now that you mention it, David ... I've had a similar feeling every now and then too, figuring they somehow seem to have gotten more flexible (which MIGHT mean "thinner"?) The other day I received a 2-CD set from Jasmine where I really had trouble removing the CDs from the jewel case hubs. They flexed so that I did not dare to go on as I was afraid they might break. Following your post I now compared the CDs from this set with the first really early CD I was able to pick quickly from my collection (Thelonious Monk Genius of Modern Music Vol. 1 - BN CDP 7815102 which is from 1989 according to the inlay). I didn't take out my vernier caliper (so I may be proven wrong) but the Monk CD DOES feel and look thicker than the Jasmine CD to me.

Nah, Tony Collins, the author of "Rock Mr. Blues - The Life and Music of Wynone Harris" says in the appended discography that his prime candidate is Matt Murphy.

36 years later? Anybody's day has only 24 hours and conflicts of dates (or other reasons of non-availability) aren't a rare occurrence in anybody's life.