The good old days

[ghost of miles]

I pulled our station's LP copy of the 1957 Savoy release JAZZ IS BUSTIN' OUT ALL OVER today for an A.K. Salim track and noted the opening paragraph of the album's liner notes, by one H. Alan Stein:

An apt title...as this goes to press in New York City, the writer has the exquisite choice of a weekly West Coast network Jazz TV show, a weekly historical jazz-discussion afternoon network TV show, a weekly 1.5 hour jazz jam session TV show in stereo, one FM jazz radio show and several first-rate jazz AM radio programs, multitudes of long-playing jazz albums appearing on record store shelves at a rapid pace, the ability to discuss jazz socially with "uninformed" friends without being labelled a social outcast, prospects of a summer spent going from Newport to California and back with the jazz festival circuit, and hundreds more evidences of this album's title... JAZZ IS BUSTING OUT ALL OVER.

Now, in some respects the Internet in recent years has roughly mirrored certain aspects of the above... for example, the ability of all of us to gather here and talk about jazz in a way that was impossible for many of us before. And the wealth of CD reissues in the past 15 years has given us an opportunity to enjoy, on a large scale, the recordings of many previous eras of the music. Throw in the wide world of Internet radio, which allows me to listen to Steve Schwartz, Lazaro Vega, Michael Bourne, and many others, and there's a bit more replication... But damn, the liner notes above, in their own flagwaving way, convey a sense of the music really happening in the culture to a degree that's since receded.

Edited May 15, 2007 by ghost of miles

[Chuck Nessa]

Yes, there was a time (long, long ago) when the music was alive and culture wasn't about digging up the past.

[alocispepraluger102]

Yes, there was a time (long, long ago) when the music was alive and culture wasn't about digging up the past.

living in frisco for a year in the mid 60's was a magnificent jazz listening experience, but little did i know, just how magnificent, and how fleeting.

(it seems to me it made the front pages of the chronicle when elvin quit trane after he hired a second(ali) drummer.)

Edited May 15, 2007 by alocispepraluger102

[Eric]

You know I can see this situation with other musical genres or subgenres (the late 70s/early 80s punk rock scene for example).

Hopefully at least some form of music is experiencing the "good ole days" today.

[mikeweil]

Now how is that A.K. Salim track? The others from that session are still unreleased ...

[ghost of miles]

It's good, a peppy but not too-over-the-top version of "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" (I wanted to use it for a seasonal Afterglow program) with nice solos by Frank Wess, Hank Jones, and muted trumpet from Joe Wilder. Haven't heard the rest of the LP, but I'm going to ask our engineer to transfer it to cd-r.