Fer Urbina

Haven't counted the covers, but top of my head, he's on the Costa-Mehegan, the Cuozzo (both Savoy), the Newport '57 (Verve), the Quintet for Mode, the Memorial... and that's probably just about it. But last time I counted LPs in which he *plays*, they are about 140-150 (that includes a few instrumental albums with large orchestras.) F

If it's the Memorial Concert, Costa is only on the cover. Hopefully Mighty Quinn will reissue something actually featuring Costa in the future. F

Looks like it's going to be the "Memorial Concert", originally a Colpix LP taken from the in memoriam concert after Costa's death. The actual concert lasted well over seven and a half hours. F

Wonder whatever will happen with this A week to go... F

For Teddy Charles do check Noal Cohen's site and discography Wasn't this Museum of Modern Art thing Dan Morgenstern's idea? F

Person rather than company. Alan Bates is the name, there was a great interview with him in Jazzwise last year, can't remember the issue. He's in Castelnau Road, in lovely Barnes (SW London), not far from the Bull's Head. F

By total chance I saw the original Tomajazz webpage from three/four years ago, and what Pachi Tapiz (the administrator) has accomplished in that time is amazing for a Spanish site. Some of the things in it are pretty good. Top of that, his might well be the only Spanish site where you'll see a reference to Uptown at all. About the impossibility of stopping this CDs at the US border, if it's a question of lobbying people I wish someone like Wynton Marsalis threw his weight on this issue ... or is this complete b.s.? F

Brownie, none of the blurbs I've seen from Definitive mention Uptown at all. They do praise the recent discovery, as well as the five-star rating in Downbeat, but they do not mention Uptown at all. Your quote mentioning Uptown looks taken from Spanish website Tomajazz. Why do they have an Andorran address, then? From the business point of view, you don't just set up shop in Andorra, in the middle of the Pyrenees, with poor communications, not very good roads... what's the incentive? F

One last thing: this matter has been discussed many times without reaching any conclusion that actually works. To me, the main reason for this is that the current law just doesn't work: in the US stuff that shouldn’t be there keeps coming in; in the EU stuff that shouldn’t be reissued without permission keeps coming out. And in both cases, it is virtually impossible to trace the sources of a reissue. The regular buyer will assume that what’s in mainstream shops is legal. Few of us will stop to consider previous reissues, sources, sometimes even sound quality. FWIW and speaking of mainstream, Disconforme/Definitive have been to the latest editions of MIDEM. IMHO as long as the law is not actually applicable, we’ll only be able to pass moral judgment, which at the end of the day is pointless, a more complicated quagmire than it seems, and something I personally would rather not do. F

David, you're right on target when you ask where are these guys based. Disconforme/Definitive give a PO Box in Andorra, Lonehill say nothing. But even if they're based in Andorra, a year ago I sent an email to the Government of Andorra. They referred me to this (bold are mine): As for Italy, it is true that copyright law used to be different from country to country, and Italy was a very special case (some of the legal arrangements they used to have re copyright are... hilarious?), but today I'm fairly sure it is 50 years too, like in the rest of the EU. As for Pujol (who, admittedly, has released some excellent sets) and his "cousins... following his footsteps", I wonder if it sometimes his "cousins" don't get too close for confort? (like in the "Complete Hal McKusick Recordings with Barry Galbraith...", which was allegedly lifted from 4 previously issued CDs, three of them reissued by Pujol himself, two for Spanish BMG, one for his own Fresh Sound label). FWIW, Pujol is on record saying the following. What do his cousins make of it, I wonder: F

If Peter Johnson has no Basie at all, I'd forget about the Definitives, and get the 1-CD compilation Swingmatism (Decca/GRP) as a taster of the early band. It's cheap, probably very easy to find (and I seem to remember that has better sound than the 3-CD set) and IMHO it's representative of the 37-38 band. Haven't tried the Definitive Deccas, but I seem to remember that the Columbias were crap sound-wise (and sound quality can be a huge difference with recordings from these years). Talking of which, how's the sound in this 2-CD Lester Young set - The "Lester Young Memorial Album" (Sony)? It has quite a bit of early Basie in it (the late 1936 Lady Be Good, Dickie's Dream, Lester Leaps In, Taxi War Dance, Tickle Toe...) F

The studio "Taxi War Dance" (from early 1939, Columbia) is available in the Legacy 4-CD set mentioned earlier in this thread. The French Masters of Jazz (Count Basie 1939 MJCD 153) also has the alternate take. Lester Young's solos are worth comparing (in the master take he starts with a quote of Ol' Man River, the alternate with kind of Tea for Two.) F PS Re Sound Quality, I don't have Universal's "Swingmatism" (a 1-CD compilation of Decca recordings) any more, but I seem to remember the sound was crispier than in the Complete Deccas 3-CD set.

That's easy then. Let him shed the limelight, retire to write the definitive and monumental biography of Charlie Parker, and then return to wide academic and public acclaim. F

If you're new to Basie's Deccas, I'd try first any of the single-CD reissues (Best of Early Basie or Swingsation) By the way, I don't have my Decca set with me, but re: the awful SQ, wasn't it remastered by JRT Davies too? "Swingmatism" was, as far as I can remember. As for the "New Testament" band, IMHO the "Count Basie Story" (a Roulette 2-CD set) is the one to keep your neighbours awake. F PS The AMG review I've linked to Best of Early Basie seems to be the wrong one. Tune titles seem to be correct. PPS The Columbia 3-CD set has great music presented in a weird way. Some years ago I tried a "Definitive" set of Basie's Columbias and I seem to remember the sound was crap.

He died a couple of months after recording this (his last studio recording?), so that may be why he looked thinner. Fantastic album, nice contrast between Tatum and Webster. F

Universal. They also own Verve (and Norgran and Clef), Mercury (and Emarcy), Decca (and Coral), ABC/Paramount (and Impulse!), Dot, Kapp, and so on... This is a great website for this kind of info. F

About a year ago I looked for the book too and the cheapest option was ordering it direct from Cadence (orders@cadencebuilding.com). F

Wild guess: - Regent = Savoy - Savoy records were reissued by Ariola in the 80s - Arista = Ariola? F

Yep. This came out roughly on the same week I decided to start working on mine . There are a few things missing there, but it's been really useful to have something like it online. Like any discographer I'm building upon what's already available and, with luck, will improve it. F

That may be one reason for this. The other is that what Ruppli says in his discography is not very clear (don't have it at hand). And the back of the Denon/Savoy CD is a bit of a mess (as usual, I'm afraid). Strictly on aural evidence I'd say both solos are definitely Costa's and I'm pretty sure the comping is his. Which would make Dennard's output even scarcer... F PS I'm working on a discography of Costa, btw.

I am almost certain that Dennard doesn't play at all in Blues Suite F

One of my favourites is the verse to Stardust - but as in the livelier, instrumental version of c. 1929 (don't have more details at hand - I think Carmichael himself plays in it). The one I dislike the most is the verse to The Man I Love. Bad (as in bad). F

The selection in the Herman set is excellent as an overview of his early years. Problem is that the sound of the Columbia sides from 1945-46 (what was recorded in NY rather than in California) is amazing for those years. You can check it out in the Mosaic or the double CD-set "Blowin' Up A Storm" (Sony/Legacy), which on the other hand does a terrible job misidentifying takes (originally issued ones for unissued ones) and not so good selection (they managed to include two alternate takes of Bijou leaving out the one originally released with the classic Bill Harris solo). All this has been corrected in the Mosaic set. So no perfect solution here F PS Edit to add that the Proper box has the Summer Sequence parts edited to form a suite, which I personally prefer, rather than the unedited masters as in the Legacy and the Mosaic sets.

Hello Michel M McKusick is alive, well, and from what I gather, still playing. For the discography *as a leader* BMG reissued his RCA LPs on CD a few years ago. From Spain, there's also a Fresh Sound reissue of the Bethlehem LP he did with Galbraith, Hinton and Osie Johnson. About the Lonehill 2-CD set "the complete recordings of Hal McKusick with Galbraith, Hinton and Johnson". As Brownie said, some people have a problem with the legality of Lonehill reissues (they don't apply the European 50-year rule, that's for sure). My problem begins with the labelling of this 2-CD set. To begin with, these are NOT the *complete* recordings of Hal McKusick with Barry Galbraith, Milt Hinton and Osie Johnson, because they missed Lydian Lullaby, The Day John Brown Was Hanged and Miss Clara from McKusick's "Jazz Workshop". Besides, the sticker on this set says "Collectors' items on CD for the first time ever". So the following CDS do not exist, apparently: - Hal McKusick: East Coast Series No. 8 (Bethlehem/Fresh Sound FSR-CD41, Spain 1989) - Hal McKusick: In A Twentieth Century Drawing Room (RCA/BMG 74321125842, Spain 1996) - Hal McKusick: The Jazz Workshop (RCA/BMG 74321913522, Spain 2001) - Hal McKusick: Jazz At The Academy (Coral/Universal UCCC-9064, Japan 2003) and also - V. A.: The RCA Victor Jazz Workshop/The Arrangers (Bluebird/BMG ND 86471, Germany 1989), which has five tracks from McKusick's Workshop album. The other Lonehill reissue, the *complete Art Farmer-Hal McKusick recordings*, well, they do get something very right: they put together all the music from the February 1957 sessions (the whole original LP for Coral + a track available only in a compilation called Jazz Cornucopia), which the 1995 GRP CD -Now's the time- didn't manage to do (this one has music from the Coral albums "McKusick-Farmer Quintet" and "Cross-Section Saxes"). This GRP CD (excellent liner notes by Burt Korall) as others in the same series (or at least one, Art Farmer-Out of the past), inexplicably leaves out music from the original albums when there's plenty of room for it (Now's The Time lasts just over 60 minutes - I wouldn't call that time restrictions). The downside for the Lonehill comes from the very idea of the album. The McKusick-Farmer (not the other way around, McKusick was the leader) Quintet was not a working band (like the Jazztet, for instance) and it shows in this CD: the music is very good, but the concept varies so much from session to session that doesn't make as much sense as you might expect. I'm a big fan of McKusick too. If you like off-centre music I'd go for the Jazz Workshop and Cross-Section Saxes (the latter available from Japan). In any case, as Brownie said, his name pops up just about everywhere -especially in the 50s, but he's also in recordings by Buddy Rich and Boyd Raeburn from the 1940s. Enjoy! F

Somehow at the moment it seems unlikely to have recordings owned by Universal and EMI in the same set. Hope it happens, though. F