Absurd Sonny Rollins RCA-Victor deal

[JSngry]

I'm a bit confused about Sangrey's posts above...I have the 90s 6 CD box (black, similar design to the metal spine Miles boxes, but no metal spine).

Disc 3 there is "Our Man in Jazz" (#1-3) and the three tracks from "3 for Jazz" (#4-6).

"Don't Stop the Carnival" is on disc 1 (#7, #1-5 are "The Bridge", with #6 the sessions for "Our Man in Jazz" begin).

"Brown Skin Girl" is on disc 2 (#4), and there's no alternate of "Yesterdays" listed. In fact, the only "Yesterdays" there is is from the "Sonny Meets Hawk" album (which is #1-6 on disc 4).

My references to track #s were relative to this new set, as listed on amazon.

[mikelz777]

Thanks for the tip on these box sets. I had no George Benson in my collection and this was a great way to pick up a handful of pre-pop Benson on the cheap.

-Bad Benson

-The George Benson Cookbook

-It's Uptown

-Body Talk

-Beyond The Blue Horizon

Great deal! $12.67 delivered.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

what label did sonny leave to go to rca victor. was that considered a big deal back then

[GA Russell]

Chewy, Sonny recorded for Blue Note, Riverside and Contemporary in the years immediately prior to signing with RCA.

What was big news was the contract - $60,000 for five albums, as I recall. RCA had hired George Avakian to give its jazz program a kick start, so Avakian signed Sonny, Paul Desmond, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Joe Morello.

Chuck would know much more about this than I do.

[JSngry]

Sonny didn't "leave" another label to "come to" RCA. His last studio date was for Contemporary, in October 1958. The sessions for The Bridge were done in Jan/Feb 1962. In between, during the hiatus, there was no contract. There was, iirc, a bidding war of sorts to sign him when he came back to public performance.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

http://books.google.com/books?id=IhYEAAAAM...tor&f=false Edited December 6, 2009 by chewy

[brownie]

Thanks for the Billboard link, chewy!

Reading through the issue, it just reminds us of the amazing number and quality of jazz albums that were released in those days

[GA Russell]

Thanks, chewy! That is my first experience with Google Books.

[king ubu]

I'm a bit confused about Sangrey's posts above...I have the 90s 6 CD box (black, similar design to the metal spine Miles boxes, but no metal spine).

Disc 3 there is "Our Man in Jazz" (#1-3) and the three tracks from "3 for Jazz" (#4-6).

"Don't Stop the Carnival" is on disc 1 (#7, #1-5 are "The Bridge", with #6 the sessions for "Our Man in Jazz" begin).

"Brown Skin Girl" is on disc 2 (#4), and there's no alternate of "Yesterdays" listed. In fact, the only "Yesterdays" there is is from the "Sonny Meets Hawk" album (which is #1-6 on disc 4).

My references to track #s were relative to this new set, as listed on amazon.

Thanks for clearing this (also to mjzee). I thought you were referring to a different edition of the complete RCA box!