Fer Urbina

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

AFAIK Proper comply with 50-year old rule (by the sound they get sometimes, it seems they use 50-year old sources too and don't rip from the more recent Mosaic, Hep, Bear Family etc reissues), so perfectly legal in the EU. They have done some decent work putting together most of the Fats Navarro and Wardell Gray recordings. Good value for money IMHO, even though the sound quality is not the best available. Joop Visser, the guy who signs the liner notes used to be the brains behind Charly, right? F

Maybe, but if I'm not mistaken much of this (if not all, apart from unissued tracks) is already available on CDs from BMG-Spain. F

Used to, but not anymore. In any case, try Collectables, I think their CD reissues keep the original tune sequences. Jimmy Giuffre 3/Music Man Travellin Man Four Brothers Sound Jimmy Giuffre Clarinet Western Suite F

I'm even more astounded that he founded Prestige when he was what? 20?, 21 years old? Definitely a different era. RIP and thanks for the records. F

About the Ellington Bethlehems, I actually listened to these before I ever got to listen to the *original* versions (long time ago), and IMHO some of the tunes are great (Jeep is jumping for one, if I remember correctly), but the tempo in Cottontail and Koko is probably too fast. Basie also redid some of his older hits in "The Count Basie Story" (Roulette 1961): see organissimo thread and allmusic review. Great recording IMHO F

I'd say Lord's has more stuff in it than allmusic. I wouldn't know which one's more accurate, but I know which one is free In any case, it's very likely that Hank Jones made enough *anonymous* sessions (commercial dates, etc), at least in the 50s and 60s, to put him at the top of the list. F

PM sent.

Since you asked for any information, it seems that King Jazz (Italy) would be somehow related to Fresh Sound (Spain). They had the same distributor (Camarillo Music Ltd) and their CDs were manufactured -at the time- by the same company (Tecval of Switzerland). Small world, I guess. F

I'm no expert on this, but there is a different recording to the one featuring Woods. It has Sims and Cohn with Roger Kellaway, Bill Crow and Mel Lewis (rec. 1965). Haven't heard it but read somewhere sound quality was so-so, so this maybe the one you're referring to? Done some Googling and there is an issue by "Naked City" and a Japanese one by "Jazz bank". Has anyone compared these two? F

From certain things Costa does, for instance, on "Opus de Funk" in the Fuerst recordings (1956), and his House of blue lights (1959), it would've been extremely interesting to hear whatever he might have done had he lived longer. There's also quite a quintet (apparently unrecorded at a festival in Washington in 1962) with Eric Dolphy, Costa, Don Ellis, Ron Carter and Charlie Persip. Top of my head, for fast-and-furious solos by Costa on piano, check his Yesterdays from Farlow's "Tal", What A Country from Clark Terry's "The Jazz Version of All American" (reissued in the CD "Mellow Moods" by Prestige/Fantasy) and Criss Cross (not the Monk tune but a fast blues) by the McKusick-Farmer Quintet, where he outswings everyone else. F

Hello UCCU-5109, a Japanese reissue from 2003, is in Stereo. As for the LoneHill reissue, they might as well drop the "complete" from all their CDs. F

Hello Bol I'm afraid I can only agree to what's been said about London. If the January sales are not over while you're here, HMV and Virgin may be worth a try (although even sales are not what they used to be). I think Honest John is now on the Portobello Road (?) not very far from the Music & Video Exchange shops by the Notting Hill Gate tube station. F

I won't enter into the details on whose idea this was, , but apparently, and courtesy of the surgical abilities of my dear friend EKE BBB I'll be starting a career as a castrato very soon. F (as in Farinelli) PS Happy new year to every one.

That is a bit difficult to understand. What is the "fixation" in the case of the Bird-Diz recording. I'm not really versed in law, but if a *phonogram* is the actual physical *thing* containing the music (be it an acetate, a master tape or a CD or whatever), the actual acetates produced in 1945 and used by Uptown would not be liable for producer's rights in the EU, but the actual CDs published by Uptown (© 2005) would, right? Ethics are rather clear. Any lawyers in the room? F

I thought these rights apply (and expire after 50 years in the EU) to the actual records. I mean, in the EU you could reissue the Goodman Carnegie Hall concert if your source were the 1950 LP, but if you used any of the CD reissues by Columbia you'd have to ask Sony for permission? About the Bear Family/JSP affair, this is within the EU. Are there any similar cases between European and American companies? What is amazing is that the record industry seems to have been a legal quagmire from the very day Edison came up with the idea of preserving sound. F