Big Beat Steve

Have a look at the orange-color panel the bandleader is displaying in the bottom center picture on the cover of John Mayall's "Crusade" album. He must have had SOME influence in the UK for sure.

Same here. The Spotlite series isn't bad at all, neither is the Storyville reissue of the Dexter Gordon Dials, etc. I know I am likely to it regret it for some of the alternates or the occasional session that fell through the gaps of other reissues but you can't have it al, unfortunately.

Ha, so the much-maligned neo-swing movement did do some good after all, as it shows now - 20 years after publication of this piece. Nice piece indeed, just a pity it gives such short shrift to his European activities and presence. Taking it on himself to make the trip that often up to (almost) his final days really showed his dedication ot the cause. He was held in awe in the lindy hop scene here by anbody who witnessed him or attended one of his classes and he became more than a legend in his lifetime.

Been listening in to some of them - and sorry, while her voice does have some appeal she would have deserved a different backing. Just IMHO admittedly, but these strings stil stifle the proceedings. Unswinging as they come. Yes I know a more big band-era like big band-ish orchestra backing probably would not have been the motto of the day in this early post-war period but I'll go on record as saying I for one DON'T like and don't dig this. Give me Mildred Bailey or Lee Wiley (to name just two white female singers) any time.

Indeed ... Another name associated with those (for once) not quite so fond memories when listening by accident and in bewilderment to the extremely MOR-housewife-background-muzak-programming on AFN FM in the mid-to late 70s. And leaving one wondering if this "Carmen" was indeed "man" or not actually "woman" (yes, admittedly I wasn't aware of Carmen Mastren yet, let alone Carmen Leggio, and the name of Carmine Appice known from different listening contexts was NOT the same name, so was no clue at that time ... ) But what would ACTUALLY make me run is the STRING orchestra. Not something I'd associate with the "swing" in "jazz" big bands. But if I ever come across this one at the equivalent of 27c I'll take your word for it that the strings aren't THAT intrusive ...

I have the '61 and '62 sets. Sidewinder's description sums up fittingly what they are all about. Personally I would have preferred full sets with British acts only (as many of these no doubt are much harder to find in other reissue forms than the US recordings would be) but the US compilations have enough material outside the "usual suspects" to make this interesting to explore too. And the 2-CD sets do create a nice atmosphere that makes it easy to imagine the club sounds for us "latter-borns" (pending objections from "those who were there" and who are still around that "it was not like that at all", of course ).

This session for the Duke label (not the one of Duke/Peacock fame, it seems) was his first leader date. It would take him another 11 years until he got his second one (for Bethlehem): You bump into him as a sideman on quite a lot of 40s/early 50s dates, though. Has the page below ever been mentioned in this context? http://www.jazzdocumentation.ch/mario/frwe.pdf

Thanks for the hint. In my quest for the obscurer obscurities from the 30s/40s/50s , I couldn't help ordering a copy of this CD online (seems to be uncommon - "never sold on Discogs" yet). Not expecting monumental wonders but looking forward to it.

Wow too. Some find! Thanks a lot! Even though fairly lightweight, it'd deserve an off-the-beaten-tracks reissue to round out the picture of what was popular then. "Savoy Is Jumpin" would be a nice and relaxed one for the dancers to gather some breath between two flagwavers.

Which one - the mickey mouse bandleader of the blues/soul man? Remember PRESTON Tucker was eventually acquitted of the charges raised against him.

Author Jim Dawson quotes McNeely as follows in his biography "Nervous Man Nervous - BIg Jay McNeely and the rise of the honking tenor sax" : "Pete (owner of Pete Canard's Record Shop on 98th and Compton) played me Glenn Miller's "Nothing But Soul", and that was it. That drum sound tch tut, tut tch, just a sock cymbal. From that I wrote the tune, just from that little introduction". BUT - neither Rust not Bruyninckx list such a tune recorded by Miller. So ....?

I saw him in Munich in the late 90s and that concert really was something else. He was amazingly youthful. I am happy I got him to sign the LP covers I brought along. RIP and thanks for blwoing up a storm.

Four of her vocals with the Raymond Scott Orchestra are on the Scott "Uncollected" (1940) LP on Hindsight (HSP-201). Some of ther singing is not as stiff (to my ears) as other big band sides I've heard of her. But "Blueberry Hil" sure had a long way to go between her version and the Fats Domino evergreen!

I think the days whe someone would reissue the complete works of Hal Kemp, for example (which might have happened in the days of these Ajax, Ajazz etc. LP series) are over. There are quite a few Youtube videos of her with old soundies and movie excerpts. Not sure if there would a be a huge market for these "straight" ballads. I also remember seeing and recording on video one Soundie that has three girl singers with the Vincent Lopez orchestra (Betty Hutton doing a totally over-the-top version of "The Dipsy Doodle"; Nan Wynn with a very, very straight tearjerker and a third singer whose name I forgot with another ballad). Nothing at all wrong with the voice of Nan Wynn but this (like those Youtube samples I have listened in) isn't exactly what jazz/swing fans have been waiting for. Jasmine might do it, considering what else they have done in that vein, but how big is THAT market after all? OTOH, maybe better than some of those Mickey Mouse orchestra girl singers trying (and failing) to swing?

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/caricature

My first Basie record ever ... bought when I was 15 or 16 (at that time that Musicidsic series was all over the place in our record shops here and above all was affordable enough for a student's budget ). I listened to it countless times at that time and it made quite some impression on me and the broadcast atmosphere with announcer 'n all made you feel like you were in front of your radio when the performances were actually broadcast.

Don't, dawg!! I once bought a set of (professional) photo negatives from 1957 at a swap meet and filed them inside their cardboard sleeve and this in turn inside a standard letter-size clear plastic document holder like you put them ni 3-hole binders. The plastic document holder wasnt new at all and things went well for a couple of years but then, after maybe 10 or 15 years or so when I checked again after 2 or 3 years or so I discoved the negative surfaces had become all crumbly, showing a cobwebbed structure and the top layers had started to delaminate. In short, the negatives were shot! A pity because they were one-of-a-kinds and as they were of an odd, no longer-current size that you can only have prints made from at specialist photo shops I delayed this and then it was too late. Gone forever ... The only explanation I have is that some sort of solvents from the plastic material of the document holder evaporated and killed the negatives. (I have older negatives than this that are still fine but they' have been in their cellophane negative strip holders all their lives) I am not so sure that this can NOT interact with acetate materials too.

Regular contributor to JAZZ MAGAZINE in the 50s and into the 60s and one of the few jazz specialists in the early days of jazz coverage on French TV (where he started in 1958 and hosted a regular jazz show in the 60s).

The above clip just as an indicator that there still might be hope in case sidewinder and Brad should aspire to "brother" status. Just a wee bit of leg-pulling, Mike, you know ...

Actually , having been born in 1933 or 1936 (depending on which sources you believe) and having had chart successes from 1957 onwards Dalida does seem to have been a contemporary of the announcer and there was some similarity. But of course, given that there was no twin, it Is just a matter of visual similarity, nothing else. But somehow I can see JSngry's crush on the announcer.

Ah ... so Elvis did "Jailhouse BLUES" at the time these transcriptions were made? Wishful thinking or out-of-touchiness of the '(not so unknown) liner note writer who compiled them from the perspective of a c.1940 bobby-soxer date?

If I didn't know better I might be inclined to assume she was Dalida's twin sister. GEOgraphically speaking that puts things quite a bit closer but BIOgraphically unfortunately it is quite improbable (in-depth genealogical reasearch pending ) because there is no evidence that Dalida had a twin sister.

I have originals of these two Command LPs, guess I will have to give them a closer listen again (after many years' silence) now that you plug them so incessantly.

Well, there is the CD on Blue Moon with his "complete" 1947-55 output. I suppose you are aware of that one. "I'm Wise To You Baby", for example, is a dancing crowd pleaser heard fairly regularly in those circles.

This thread might be better placed in the Jazz in Print section ....