The first tribute LPs

[ghost of miles]

Hey all,

I'm working on a Night Lights program about the early tribute LPs to Billie Holiday. At least one (Webster Young's FOR LADY) came out while she was still alive; I'm also using albums from Carmen McRae, Anita O'Day, Sam Cooke, Johnny Griffin, and Mal Waldron. What "tribute" or memorial LPs to any artists preceded these? There are a couple of Fats Waller albums on the Mosaic PIANO MOODS set; were there any Bix tributes released in the 1950s? I'm thinking some material came out after Parker's death in '55 as well.

[couw]

Eddie Condon did an album titled Bixieland for Columbia in 1955.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Yes - going back to Berigan in 1938, maybe even earlier. The Bix list you need is here:

http://ms.cc.sunysb.edu/~alhaim/recordingstributes.htm

Mike

[ghost of miles]

Thanks for that link, Mike. I'm aware of that site--hell, they've even archived my Bix program--but didn't even think about checking there. Re: the Berigan '38 sides, I'll have to check and see if they came out as a folio packet (the pre-LP LP, as it were) or if they were ever issued as part of a tribute LP. I think there were five numbers total--they pretty much recorded everything that Bix ever officially composed.

[brownie]

There were a couple of Basie tributes in the mid-fifties:

Shorty Rogers Courts the Count on Victor in 1954

Buddy Rich 'This One's For Basie on Norgran in 1956