This is Jazz, Historic Broadcasts of Rudi Blesh

[LAL]

Need some advice on the "This is Jazz, Rudi Blesh" series issued by Jazzology on 8 (or is it 10) volumes. What is the sound quality like, how are the performances - do they match up to the high standards of the Eddie Condon Town Hall Concerts? Thanks in advance.

[jazzbo]

They match up sound wise. There are nine volumes, the ninth recently released. They're different than the Condon concerts. They are more traditionally oriented to New Orleans style jazz, and don't necessarily suffer for that; they do suffer a little from the strong grip of the editorial hand of Blesh. And Blesh's talk and pronouncements often cause me to hit the skip forward button. . . .

That said there is amazing work here from Davison, Bechet, Armstrong, Hodes, Foster and many more. . . .You can hardly get enough of those cats and there's plenty there to hear and enjoy.

[Harold_Z]

Back in the lp era, Riverside used to edit the announcements out and released several lps of material culled from these performances. There were lps by Bechet and Wild Bill Davison. Jazzology added a Muggsy Spanier lp sometime in the 60s.

Jazzology still has a few Wild Bill and Sidney Bechet cds that are comprised of this material sans announcements and they make great listening. They came out before the current unedited series came out, but they are still available. When this series came out I immediately started obtaining them as they were released. Rudy Blesh comes off as a cornball and sometimes makes me cringe, but he should be remembered and commended for getting this stuff onto record. There's some VERY strong playing here consistently. These guys were all in their prime when this stuff was done.

Also the sound on the Jazzology issues is better than any previous issues I've heard. An English label named Rhapsody released the first four shows on lp and they sounded pretty good, but the Jazzologies are the best issues I've heard.

[LAL]

Thanks again jazzbo/Lonson and Harold Z. Looks like another series of jazz recordings to explore.