Big Beat Steve

Cannot say that I am a fan and don't follow it closely (within the limits of what you can AVOID reading and seeing about it here in the media at all) but I must say it is highly interesting to see how this (Association) Football World Championship is being commented on here from all around the globe. Fascinating and entertaining, so keep it up, everybody ...

Exactly. Which is why I find it rather annoying when record stall holders (happens rarely with shop employees these days, admittedly) ask me what I am looking for and give me an irritated (and at any rate dissatisfied) stare when I (politely and quietly) tell them "I can tell you when I see it". (Sometimes when I am in the mood I explain that I have widespread interests and might even be tempted by something that I just hapen upon unexpectedly or is in the back of my mind but not ready to be named offhand, and then at least one or the other understands and admits this is a sound approach).

Schmeichel, perhaps?

An endless subject ... Was he more evil than many other "celebs" who were not all that pleasant in their day-to-day dealings - in stark contrast to their artist image? Artists aren't per se better human beings in the way they act in their private lives. Hasn't it often been said that in the end you cannot really avoid separating the artist (and his work) from the person? Otherwise, where would things end up if we all were to stage posthumous "Weinstein revisited" campaigns on whomever for whatever reason? Would we discard our Dizzy Gillespie records, for example, because Valerie Wilmer must have found him rather evil too after certain things that happened?

What makes you think so? She was on Kenton reecording sessions on Feb. 11, 1953 April 8, 1953 May 25, 1953 Reissued often ... https://jazzdiscography.com/Artists/Connor/Connor_preBeth.php

Oh you know, bumping the thread to keep it at the top of the list isn't the worst of things after all ...

Seems like there's a huge outburst of "no sex please we're British" going on here

But note where this forum is based. Would "journals" suit you better 'cross the Channel?

I doubt that your copy has THAT logo in the upper right corner of the cover.

I have the following jazz magazines and periodicals for sale. Shipping from Germany is extra (at cost). Please contact me via PM if interested so we can work out the details. I would be wiling to ship worldwide at cost but due to the fairly steep overseas shipping rates I guess these offers will be mostly of interest to European collectors. JAZZ MAGAZINE (France) - 5 EUR each 1956 - no. 17 (April), 18 (June), 19 (July-August), 20 (September), 21 (November) 1961 - no. 68 (March) , 70 (May), 71 (June), 74 (September), 76 (November), 77 (December) METRONOME Yearbooks : 1954, 1955, 1956,1957, 1958 - 22 EUR each DOWN BEAT RECORD REVIEWS: Vol. III (all reviews of 1958), (final 2 pages and back cover missing but photocopies of pages supplied) - given the recent discussion of those Reviews yearbooks elsewhere on this forum, $35 including international shipping takes it DOWN BEAT magazine: June 30, 1948 - 7 EUR ESQUIRE'S JAZZ BOOK 1944: Hardcover (dust jacket tatty round the edges, otherwise clean copy) - 12 EUR BULLETIN DU HOT CLUB DE FRANCE: Complete years 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968 - 15 EUR per year (10 issues per year) JAZZER - DIE DEUTSCHE JAZZ-ZEITUNG: No. 8/August 1962 (short-lived obscure German jazz newspaper-type publication): 2.50 EUR ESTRAD (Sweden): April 1941, Sept/Oct/Dec. 1943, Feb. 1949, July 1950, October 1954, May 1956 - 3 EUR each ORKESTER JOURNALEN (Sweden) - 3 EUR each: 1946 - Jan., Feb. 1948 - December 1949 - September 1951 - October 1955 - June, July, Oct., Nov., December 1958 - Jan., March, April, May. June-July, Sept., Oct., December 1959 - Feb., March, April, May, June, July-August 1960 - full year 1961 - Jan., Sept., Oct., Nov., December 1962 - Jan., Feb., March, June, Sept, Oct., Nov., Dec. (back cover missing on these issues - photocopies can be provided - but otherwise in VG condition - copes with missing back cover 2.50 EUR each) 1964 - September (back cover missing) 1965 - June And some related stuff: CATALYST - The SUN Records Story (Colin Escott, Martin Hawkins, Aquarius Books 1975) - 8 EUR Thanks!

Actually I found my shipping confirmation from that WIlliam B. Meyer company (that Jazzbo mentioned above) in my inbox this morning., so it was mailed late on 6 June. Complet with tracking number (though a search under that no. does not give any details yet - probably too early). Anyway ... this is about as fast as one could reasonably expect from here.

Well, whaddaya know ... After having ordered last Friday (June 1), today (only three working days later) I received an initial shipping notice stating that my order has been forwarded to the warehouse and that they expect to get the item out within 2 to 4 working days. Very pleased! No matter where they may have been slow in the past, they certainly don't seem to lose time in processing the Savory orders ... So let's just keep our fingers crossed that the warehouse staff will be up to snuff too.

Thanks, Flurin. In fact I received a mail from Scott Wenzel yesterday within 8 hours of placing my order (excellent reactivity!). He confirmed reception of my order and payment and said the sets ordered now should ship in the course of next week. So I am keeping all my fingers crossed that things work out that way ...

You mean that "Trakin' " should actually read Treaclin' ?

A question probably more geared towards European forumists: During my recent holidays in Southern France I let myself be tempted at a local fleamarket and grabbed (well. hauled, really ... ) the LES GENIES DU JAZZ box set (issued by Atlas in c. 1991) at what likely was a giveaway price. The box set includes six books and a total of 96 CDs. 5 or 6 CDs from the set are missing but the price of 45 EUR for the entire lot still sounded like a steal. Of course I already have a huge chunk of the contents in my collection but the set includes several interesting live recordings by the featured artists that are not that common, and at some 0,50 EUR per CD (less than the price of a CD-R blank, not even counting the books) the others can go into the car player if needed. And from what I so far have read the texts in the books aren't that superficial or cliché-laden either. As for the missing CDs, I can do without most of them and but am wondering about Pee Wee Russell (Vol. III, no. 8) and Martial Solal (Vol. V, no. 8). I found the track listings on Discogs (although only about 40 out of the total are listed there, the others apparently never made it into offers on Discogs) and will have to check how much of the Pee Wee Russell contents would actually be new to me. But if any of you out there have any of these two, please drop me a PM. Thanks!

Was on vacation for 2 weeks and on my return I now see that the Savory set started shipping about a week ago. Good news ... I had delayed placing my order but as it still hasn't shown up on the Jazzmessengers site i placed an order directly with Mosaic this morning and paid through Papyal (geetting a bit anxious about this ... ) Do any of you who placed an order only recently have any personal experience to share of how long it would then take for the shipping notice to arrive (assuming that they process their pre-ordered items first, understandably ...). Just so I know how much patience will be needed until they say that the set has been shipped ...

The "Band that Plays the Blues" pre-Herd too!

All I can say is (and I can only speak for myself) - DON'T!! Listen to whatever you feel like listening to, sample a bit from the bands you want to get an impression of and then explore in more depth what strikes a chord with you - what "gets you". Top-down is all too educational and limiting. You will be missing out on a lot of colorful dots and speckles out there that brighten up the overall picture (and put flesh on the bones) beyond the "big names". By all means listen to all the Big Names of Swing and explore them in greater depth if you want, but if they don't hit it with you right away then go where you WILL be hit. And revisit them later but do NOT - NEVER! - feel obliged to revisit them with top priority just because there is a "canon". Keep your ears open for what there is but make up your own canon and go from there. This will lead you to where you naturally gravitate. Going where you think you are "supposed" to go isn't the way to do it. And "important" is all relative and subjective. Example: I have about as many LPs by Duke Ellington or by Benny Goodman as by Count Basie (a lot!) but I listen ot Basie a lot more often and go to Ellington when I am in a special mood and to B.G. mainly for specific soloists. And I've been blown away by Louis Jordan & His Tympany FIve (and actively tried to get his whole output on LP way back ...) long before I expanded my Duke Ellington or Benny Goodman libraries in greater depth (whereas Basie was more of a must-have at that earlier time). And I've always tended to buy Andy Kirk or Lucky Millinder unheard-unseen-untried rather than Louis Armstrong, for example (not to mention Glenn Miller who was VERY important then yet does not do all that much for me overall). And I have no regrets. It's even more extreme in the field of Modern Jazz - and I do not in the least feel guilty about it.

Why tell me, why preach to the converted? But why at the same time rush those who prefer to FEEL their way into the music? Leave it to them to decide the pace that suits them and don't overcrowd them. About "every town having its own band"; I was more than tempted - in an attempt to filll out the (territory) picture to suggest to the Captain to check out - in addition to obvious ones such as Boots & His Buddies - The Original Yellow Jackets (no, not that more recent gang ), Ike Ragon & His Orchestra or even Carl Cole & His Flint Hill Boys (Who? Yes, them! ),. But what good at this stage? "Sensory overload" - like Brad said.

@ Brad: Well, at least I TRIED to structure my suggestions somewhat: "If you are interested in A, then search out B and C. They might offer you more in the same vein (with some variations)." I think sticking to the kind of band (which in this case to a large extent means style of band) - i.e. big band - and time frame (1935-45) as requested by Captain Howdy, still keeps the suggestions up to this point to a manageable spectrum of bands (for those interesteding in really cutting their teeth into the musical fare, anyway ) Of course there is. The Captain's preferences: "the twenties and early thirties are important. I don't dig that style. I might get there eventually, but not today." It's he who decides. and I'd respect this. No use forcing things onto anybody. It may be his loss now but there's nothing wrong with EASING your way into exploring the music. Everything else will come later ("for those who thus desire"- to quote a tune title from ANOTHER field of jazz )

The inevitable fate of a recommendation thread like this where eventually every band imaginable will get mentioned. And yes - Calloway's instrumentals are worth close listening, and still there are vocals that have a groove of its own that goes beyond the Hi-De-HI stuff that Captain howdy may have become tired of. And lest I forget: @Captain Howdy: As you say you like the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra and have checked out Lucky Millinder, then by all means do check out the Buddy Johnson Orchestra too. His Decca recordings fit your time frame (his Mercury recordings not quite so, and they got their share of pop-ish vocals too). I felt about the same when i saw Eddie Condon mentioned here. Wasn't he - by his very own insistence - the exact opposite of what big band jazz was all about? SMALL band jazz from the 1935-45 period would fill more than one recommendation topic but the way I understood Captain Howdy here we are talking BIG bands. As for the "Progressive" bands mentioned, IMHO they largely fall outside the time frame indicated by Captain Howdy. Though early 40s Stan Kenton has something going for him and fits the time frame. I'd recommend his early 40s transcriptions released on the Hindsight label (not sure if they are from the same source that the MacGregor transcription CD recommended above comes from). For the same reason - time frame - and Captain Howdy's statement that he is not into very early pre-Swing era big band jazz (yet) such as Luis Russell IMHO rules out earlier bands such Alphonso Trent etc. (for the time being). About George T. SImon, his "The Big Bands" book taught me a lot in my early collecting days and made me aware of many second-tier big bands (Hal McIntyre, Sonny Dunham, Teddy Powell, Claude Hopkins, Jan Savitt, etc.) that are quite worth exploring. Even today it is a useful reference tool. As for "just going down the list", how about the books by Leo Walker, Albert McCarthy and Gene Fernett to do some more list checking? And of course "The Swing Era" by Gunther Schuller. Agreed 100%. I'd much prefer some more era-appropriate too. One may or may not like their style but the RCA Bluebird twofers from the 70s did do a bit better in that sense IMO. To me the typical reissues (CDs, in particular) don't look like they are packaged for old men but rather like they are packaged cheaply for casual buyers and were made so that some moderately imaginative "artwork" hired hand lurking about the record label offices could grab a quickie job. Some CD reissuers do show at least some awareness of graphical details and typefaces of the era, though. Two examples quickly retrieved from my CDs:

Which style of bands are you more inclined towards? Is it a matter of "historical listening", i.e. listening to all varieties to cover the field in full (as a matter of "essential educational" listening), or do you already have preferences from what you so far have listened to? Bands like Basie or the Duke are musts, but Tommy Dorsey (or Harry James) on the one hand and Erskine Hawkins on the other already point in different directions unless you are a "devour-it-all" type. Some of my personal perennial favorites: Earl Hines Lionel Hampton Jimmie Lunceford (minus many of its male vocals, though) Andy Kirk Lucky Millinder Fletcher Henderson's later work Benny Carter Cab Calloway Don Redman Woody Herman (including his post-war Herds, of course but that goes beyond your time frame) Charlie Barnet Jimmy Dorsey Jan Savitt Tony Pastor and then ... Will Bradley-Ray McKinley (McKinley's own band is mostly beyond your time frame) early Les Brown Hal McIntyre Hudson-De Lange (I kid you not!) plus some relatively short-lived big bands such as Teddy Wilson Jack Teagarden Muggsy Spanier and honestly, if I'd want some Glenn Miller sounds, I'd often rather listen to Bob Chester than Glenn Miller (his style is not all that different but his tunes haven't been played to death yet ) These are the ones I'd think of first ... P.S: I'd VERY MUCH second the recommendations of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm and of Ina Ray Hutton made by Lipi above.

Very cheaply indeed. Picked this up a couple of years ago at a record store clearout sale at 1 (ONE) Euro. Dutch pressing on Westside Stereo (6802 656), (I don't see that Westside would have been a grocery store label, though. ) I haven't listened to it that intently but at 1 euro you can never go wrong with any Ben (for later listening when you are in the mood or whenever ...).

I only dimly remember the details of the interior of that shop at Portobello Road that I visited in 2000 but I do remember that when I was in there I wondered what that shop may originally have been ... The way it was, the shop had something of an air of "we're going to squeeze the record racks in there, come what may" about it. So I'd believe the "butcher" past without hesitating ...

Yes, an interesting story. So it sems the Honest Jon's shop I popped into in the 70s wasn't the one that became Rhythm Records but their still earlier site.