brownie

Milan, there is no additional visual material to the 'Jammin' the Blues' film. It's the regular 10 minutes length. Much too short, we all agree. The added songs 'Sweet Georgia Brown', 'If I Could be With You', 'Blues for Marvin' and 'Jammin the Blues' have appeared elsewhere. Those four are on the Masters of Jazz Lester Young volume 6 CD that has just been discussed on another presidential thread. My DVD equipment does not allow me to place judgement on the sonic quality of 'Jammin' the Blues' but what I hear sounds fine to me. No better, no worse than what I have heard so far from this film.

Mike, I am not sure of anything regarding this release. But the whole damn thing does not make sense to me. Which is probably why I am not and never will be a businessman! But if I were and would release a DVD with a title like 'The Greatest Jazz Films Ever' I would make some noise about it. By the way, at the place where I bought my copy, there was a second copy available, for the same price (15 euros). I guess both DVDs were reviewers' copies and those reviewers probably did not bother to check what was inside and got rid of what had been sent to them for a few bucks. When I realised what was inside the DVD and came back to buy the second copy for any interested friend, this was gone!

Those Master of Jazz series are getting more difficult to find these days. I grab any that I unhave whenever I ran into one of those CDs.

Several of the original Bethlehem 10-inchers were reissued a couple of years ago as 12-inch LP by an unidentified US company which did a very good job with the remastering and the reproductions of the original covers (by Burt Goldblatt). I have the following LPs from the reissue series: BCP-1010 Vinnie Burke Quartet, BCP-1017 Stan Levey Plays the Compositions of Bill Holman, Bob Cooper and Jimmy Giuffre, BCP-1025 Herbie Harper (with Mariano, Giuffre, etc.)

The 1949 JATP Pablo CD was released a couple of years ago. It had never been released before and was not included in the pre-1949 JATP box which had been released a few years before. Great concert with Parker, Fats Navarro, Hawkins, Sonny Criss, etc...

Jim, in my original post on this I noted that the Lester Young footage seemed to have appeared first on a DVD entitled 'Norman Granz Presents Improvisation' that looks like having originated in the UK but without much bally-hoo about what was inside that DVD. Presume this was an authorised release and at least it carried the name of Norman Granz who produced Jammin' the Blues 1 and that second JATP film. The Andorra-based Idem company is making use of the 50-year copyrights laws that prevail on this side of the Atlantic to reissue the film. Good for them. And good for us! What really escapes me is that this was released without any fanfare, without anybody taking care to inform anyone about its discovery and of course without bothering to provide informations on how that unique footage suddently surfaced. If the paper still published all the news that's fit to print, this should have been quite a story for 'The New York Times'. Not to mention the jazz reviews. But I gave up reading the regular ones a long time ago. And I'm firmkly convinced that there's more to learn about the music we love on the Organissimo Forums than anywhere else!

Masters of Jazz Lester Young volume 6 had 'Wham' and 'Lady Be Good' from a December 22, 1940 jam session with Hot Lips Page, Charlie Barnet and unidentified musicians. The same volume 6 has the following unissued sides from a June 1942 broadcast from the Trouville Club in LA by the Lee and Lester Young band: an incomplete 'Broadway', an 'incomplete 'Benny's Bugle', a complete 'Broadway', an incomplete 'Lady Be Good' and an incomplete 'Benny's Bugle'. All these Trouville Club numbers are pretty short but feature Lester Young. Masters of Jazz Billie Holiday volume 11 has 'I Hear Music' and an incomplete 'Solitude' from the same Trouville Club broadcast with Billie singing with the Young brothers band.

Yes, but from Hanava?

Those Masters of Jazz CDs had everything (all alternates, all broadcasts, all available material). They included unissued sides from the Lee-Lester Young band in one of their Prez CD. The going under of that series was a disaster! I hatre to think that nobody is going to take over on what they were starting to complete.

I'm enjoying this Hanna Plays Alec Wilder since I got it at the start of the Paris fall sales season a couple of weeks ago. Mentioned in a post in the Greatest Finds thread that the Virgin Paris store had more than half a dozen of Hanna CDs sales mostly from Japan at can't beat prices. Got the Alec Wilder in its Japanese Trio version and the 'Romanesque' CD, a duo album of Hanna and George Mraz. Kicking myself now for having not bought the whole Hanna lot at the time An early Hanna album I thoroughly liked was the 'Destry Rides Again' LP that came out on Atco. Not sure this one has been reissued.

Should also have mentioned the excellent 'Paris Blues' CD by the Horace Silver quintet that Pablo released last year. That was from a 1962 Norman Granz concert, too. Granz introduces the concert on the opening track.

Anita O'Day has her own website. Get a look at it here

There were several CDs released on the Pablo label similar to the Shelly Manne CD. There were sets by Cannonball Adderley, Gerry Mulligan, Duke Ellington, Ray Charles and others. All these were from concerts produced by Norman Granz, some of them under the JATP banner. From a genuine JATP tour, there was a Pablo CD 'JATP Frankfurt 1952' that had sections of a JATP concert where Roy Eldridge, Lester Young and Flip Phillips were featured.

Jim, you're asking the good questions. As usual. I was floored when I realised what was on that 2DVD box when I stumbled on it without any advance warning. And I cannot recall any mention of that glorious footage from the second Gjon Mili film appearing anywhere. At least there was some trace (video and sound-taped of part of the Charlie Parker portion). But neither the front nor the back covers of the box bother to mention the presence of this footage. Then the shooting of the Lester Young portion goes unmentioned in any of the biographies of Prez...

Benny Goodman! The Eye would be on you all the time!

I did shy away from the Brubeck catalogue when I was starting to get interested in jazz. Brubeck and Kenton were musicians who were dismissed by the French jazz critics in the '50s and '60s and I had my jazz interests elsewhere then. I have grown up since and I know better. And I have a lot of respect for what Brubeck is doing. Got hold of this 'Jazz Impressions of Eurasia' a long time ago. It's one of my favorites. With great compositions from Brubeck, including the Chopinesque 'Thank You'. And Paul Desmond is delightful as ever. The album is also a rare opportunity to hear the Brubeck quartet with 'Crazy' Joe Benjamin on bass. There were a couple more Jazz Impressions albums by the Brubeck Quartet: one on Japan and another on New York. All successful. Wonder when Columbia will reissue these opuses. I also love the corny cover photo of the Eurasia album with Brubeck hamming it up with those PanAm bags that are history by now. The cover shot which is an instant trip to nostalgia comes from the camera of the excellent Hollywood photographer Bob Willoughby. They don't make album covers like that any more...

Dan, you're behaving like a true gentleman! Your good side shows

Daniel's recollection is correct. Spinning the Affinity LP now. 'On Green Dolphin Street' has a very fast two chorus introduction by George Coleman then Harold Mabern calms things down and the rest of the performance is played at a somehow slower tempo.

Geoff, not to worry. You seem to learn fast. This is a friendly place. The problem with your thread is that you set up shop in the middle of the neighborhood without taking the time to say hello to the neighbours. And those neighbours make this forum. There is a very wide range of interests, opinions here. This makes this forum the great place it is. And there is plenty of room for your views and opinions. Go visit the various threads and join in the exchange. Once you will have learned the basic rules of protocol (there are very few of those) you will be like a fish in water. And the water is just fine here!

This looks like the George Coleman Octet date from November 1977 that was recorded for VeeJay but remained unissued on that label. I have this on an Affinity LP. Don't think George Coleman had this octet working in 1984. Lineup for the 1977 date was: Danny Moore, tp, Frank Strozier, as, George Coleman, Junior Cook, ts, Mario Rivera, bar, Harold Mabern, p, Lisle Atkinson, b, Idris Muhammad, dr, Azzedin Weston, perc. Tunes include 'Green Dolphin Street' 'Body and Soul' and originals.

No idea what Duke Jordan was thinking about when he composed the tune (back in 1953, I think). The original title of that composition was Minor Encamp. He recorded this for the first time - under its original title- in January 1954 in New York. The session was produced for the French label Swing.

Milan, guess what? Could not wait to listen to that LP. And yes, it's pretty obvious that the tune you're looking for is 'The Trumpet Battle' where Lester and Flip Phillips have a short duo shortly after the start of the proceedings. I used to not be much of a fan of those brash JATP confrontations but I must have really changed 'cause I love hearing those now. Bennie Carter is on fire here and any battle where Roy Eldridge is involved has me thrilled; And when he is battling Charlie Shavers, it's pure joy. Our man Lester has a great solo on the 'Jam Session Blues' and plays a superb 'I Can't Get Started' in the ballad medley. Verve should reissue this. Hope you'll be able to hear it too soon!

'The Trumpet Battle 1952' reissued sides from the September 13, 1952 JATP concert at Carnegie Hall. The tunes were: - Jam Session Blues, - The Ballad Medley, - The Trumpet Battle. The all-star cast was: Roy Eldridge,Charlie Shavers, Bennie Carter, Flip Phillips, Lester Young, Oscar Peterson, Barney Kessel, Ray Brown, Buddy Rich. Wow! Will play this before the night is over!

Chris, glad you survived the experience. These newsstories from the past have an endless fascination, especially those related to WWII. Bad experience from this side.

That was a very nice album. Can't remember where I filed it. This was one of the leaderless date. Don't think it was ever reissued.