JATP, Feb. 12, 1945

[jeffcrom]

This weekend I found a three-record 12" 78 album on the Asch label. It's called Jazz at the Philharmonic, Volume Number One. That's the first thing that confused me, because it's not the lineup of what I thought was the earliest JATP concert issued on record - J.J. Johnson, Nat Cole, Les Paul, etc. It's Joe Guy & Howard McGhee on trumpet, Illinois Jacquet and Charlie Ventura on tenor, Garland Finney on piano, Ulysses Livingston on guitar, and Red Callender on bass. There's no drummer listed, but according to the Lord discography, it's Gene Krupa. Lord says the tunes (How High the Moon and Lady Be Good) were recorded in LA on Feb. 12, 1945. But what really surprised me is that the only issues listed are the original Asch 78 album and a subsequent Stinson LP. It's obviously a legit issue - Norman Granz wrote the liner notes.

So my questions are: Was this issued before the famous July 2, 1944 JATP concert? Was it the first issue of a JATP concert? And was it ever issued on Verve? If not, why not? What's the deal?

Musically, it's typical JATP fare of the time. The highlight for me is Joe Guy - I've always thought he was an interesting player, even if he was inconsistent.

I know that these are geeky, unimportant questions. But if I can't ask you guys, who can I ask?

[king ubu]

These two titles are at the end of disc 2 of the 10CD JATP 1944-1949 box set - all the following info is taken from the CD booklet:

Joe Guy, Howard McGhee (t), Willie Smith (as), Illinois Jacquet, Charlie Ventura (ts), Garland Finney (p), Ulysses Livingston (g), Red Callender (b), Gene Krupa (d)

February 12, 1945, Philharmonic Auditorium, Los Angeles.

Oh, Lady Be Good (11:57)

How High the Moon? (13:57)

Announcement by Al Jarvis (0:24)

78s:

Asch 453-1, Stinson 543-1 (parts 1 & 2 of How High the Moon)

Asch 453-2, Stinson 543-2 (part 3 of How High the Moon, part 1 of Lady Be Good)

Asch 453-3, Stinson 543-3 (parts 2 & 3 of Lady Be Good)

10" and 12" 33 RPM:

Stinson LP 23

from John McDonough's "An Introduction to JATP":

Granz recalled:

"[...] So I went to New York and saw Manie Sachs [at Columbia Records], who was the guru of the business then. I told him I had something very unusual and that I thought he would want to put it out."

Granz played the July transcriptions. Sachs's face soon soured.

"He listened and said no. He complained that there were a lot of mistakes, crowd noises, and musicians shouting. 'That's not the kind of recording quality we want to put out,' he said. So I tried to tell him, 'But you don't understand. That's the reason why you should put it out. You wouldn't retouch a documentary photo.' But to him it was all clinkers and crowd noises. When I tried to pedal it at Decca and RCA, they wouldn't even think of putting it out. I pretty much gave up at that point.

Then I went to see Moe Asch with an idea I had for an Ella Logan album. He was into folk music and didn't think his label [Disc Records] was ready for her. But he asked me what else I had. So I showed him the JATP stuff, never thinking he'd want it. After I played him some [of it], he completely surprised me and asked if I was interested in putting that out. 'Of course,' I said. That's how it happened."

[...]

The original 1944 concert recordings (which included "Bugle Call Rag" [disc two, track 2], [...]) would not reach the market for three years. But Granz continued recording at the Philharmonic. [...]

By 1945 the concerts had become nearly monthly events. One of them, on February 12, 1945, yielded strong recordings of "How High the Moon?" and "Oh, Lady, Be Good!" with Gene Krupa. These were the two that Asch decided to release as Jazz at the Philharmonice Volume 1. "[it] represents a trend that jazz is likely to take in the years ahead," Granz decreed in a prophetic liner note, "when instead of small, dimly lit nightclubs containing seventeen glazed-of-eye jazz fans, the concert stage will attract thousands.

The records was so successful, it made "How High the Moon?" a kind of JATP theme. "Unfortunately," Granz recalled, "Moe had made some strange distribution deal with Stinson Records, whereby they got the master and I lost it. I learned my lesson the hard way on Volume 1.

[...]

By June 1947, incidentally, the Pittsburgh performance* had the distinction of becoming the inaugural album on Granz' own JATP series on Mercury/Clef Records (two 78 rpm discs at $3.40, thank you). It was an appropriate kickoff, replacing the "How High the Moon?" he had lost to Stinson."

*) March 5, 1947, Syria Mosque, Pittsburgh (with Buck Clayton, Trummy Young, Willie Smith, Coleman Hawkins, Flip Phillips, Kenny Kersey, Benny Fonville, Buddy Rich on "How High the Moon", the same minus Hawkins on "Bell Boy Blues", and the Kersey-Fonville-Rich trio on "Boogie Woogie Cocktail" and "Sweet Lorraine".

"How High the Moon" was Clef 107 (parts 1 and 2) and 108 (parts 3 and 4) and Merc/Clef 11009 (parts 1 and 4) and 11010 (parts 2 and 3)

"Bell Boy Blues" was Clef 2001 and Merc/Clef 10016, and the trio cuts were on CLef 8948 (and Clef EPC 125).

The whole concert was on Merc MGC 508, MGC 608, Clef MGC 608, Verve MG Vol. 1, VSP/VSPS 15 (all 12" 33 rpm).

[jeffcrom]

Thanks, King Ubu! That's exactly the information I was looking for - it makes perfect sense now. And of course, I left Willie Smith out of the personnel listing.

[king ubu]

You're welcome! I had to think a while to remember where I read about that Asch story...