7-6-47/Elks Auditorium, LA

chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez · September 5, 2008

ok ok i just got that dex BOPLAND/complete elks concert.....3 cd set:::

is this truly the 1st time ALL this has been released.....is it really the compalete known footage of this concert? How many of you people are familiar w/ this concert and could share with us a little about its importance in the place of west coast jazz and mankind in general. in getting this "complete recordings" set, my 1st thing i learned from it, there is a lot more sonny criss on this then the other cds n lps i had of this material: sonny is so much better on this than people like to believe....in fact there are a few disticnt licks or melodic phrases towards the middle of disc 3, that i will not hear again in saxophone imporvisation till the LATE 70s/EARLY 80, on something like Grover Washington Jr, WINELIGHT. Or that really good fred hubbard lp w/ Art Pepper, MISTRAL or something like that. But of course the stars of this show are Dex and Wardell: it is their absoutle most classic moment, individually and collectively. Can some of you share your "insight" into this concert, etc

Big Beat Steve · September 5, 2008

I am not familiar with that particular 3-CD set (but it sounds interesting, how about giving full details? Track listings, label, number, etc.?); it might well be all that exists from that concert, but how much is really issued for the first time there?

I have one of those 78rpms that was originally issued (on that yellow label that yells out BOP!), and as early as the 60s the Jepsen discography listed a LOT of that music that was first issued on that BOP label and later on Savoy.

"Bopland" , for example, was spread in 6 parts over 3 78s and was later retitled "Byas-A-Drink". A more recent reissue of those tracks is on a Savoy twofer LP from the 80s ("The Hunt"; credited to Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray, Savoy SJL2222).

Beyond the material on that 2-LP set, there also were 3 78s worth of "Bop After Hours", according to the discographies. Wonder how much beyond that really IS all new to those 3 CD sets. If it is a substantial part I might actually go for it.