Phil Schaap Jazz Archive Announcement

[Dan Gould]

Thought interested people would want to know that Phil's enormous collection of LPs/45s/78s/cassettes/CDs/REELS were all donated to Vanderbilt University School of Music.

Much was digitized before delivery in October - such that already there are over 800 radio broadcasts available for streaming/download right now:

https://aviary.library.vanderbilt.edu/collections/2137

What is most important, IMO is what is to come:  I have been told by the librarian in charge of the project that the initial delivery included 33 boxes of tapes from The West End, Birdland and Third Phase. These reels have been catalogued and sent away just yesterday for digitization.  Further, they consider anything broadcast originally on KCR as fair game for inclusion on the web page above when the digital files are returned.

Further, there was another "large" delivery in December of similar material - which has not yet been catalogued or sent for digitization.

If you don't know, WKCR broadcast every Friday evening from the West End for something like 25 years or so.  There are also reels covering "KCR Days" at the West End or WKCR Benefits at the West End - Up to 10 hour broadcasts of jazz legends playing together.

So these are getting digitized and will be added to the public webpage.  Also to be added ... artist interviews & Oral Histories. 

(And yes, I already know of 17 recordings that include Percy France.)

This is an incredible thing that has started now and will take years to finish but God bless Phil Schaap and his packrat ways.  Music lost is now found and being digitized.

Here's a pdf with photos and descriptions of the Archive:

https://semla.wp.musiclibraryassoc.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2023/10/Smith-Borne-Schaub-SEMLA-Presentation-2023.pdf

[JSngry]

Great news!

[clifford_thornton]

Awesome~

[mjzee]

That's a lot of Bird Flight!  Good to see the material's being preserved and accessible.

[sidewinder]

Enjoying the first bit of the Horace Silver Memorial Broadcast (with Phil's verbal diversions). Great resource.

[Ken Dryden]

I wonder how he selected on Vanderbilt for his collection, did he attend there or have some special collection. 

I will look forward to hearing any live broadcasts he had from NYC clubs or jazz festivals.

[sgcim]

So, Phil was selling a cassette tape of my close friend Joe Dixon's album we had recorded of a quintet with me on guitar, playing a bunch of my compositions and arrangements for something like $50 on his website. Joe, a  star soloist with the Tommy Dorsey band with Sinatra and Buddy Rich (he was Joe's roommate on the road, and knocked Joe out with one punch when they had an argument), the Bunny Berrigan Band, the Stan Kenton Quintet, and many others, was also a guest on Phil's show, and they played one of my tunes on the air, with the meticulous PS pronouncing my name perfectly, something rarely done on the first try.

Anyway, what I'm getting at with that tl;dr paragraph is: Is there any way that I can purchase that tape of my tunes, or is the tape now in the custody of Vanderbilt U, and I have to  trudge my way down to Nashville  (like the Gene Puerling Collection at N. Texas State) to buy it?

I tried a search on their Aviary Search Engine, and that came up with nada.

38 minutes ago, Ken Dryden said:

I wonder how he selected on Vanderbilt for his collection, did he attend there or have some special collection. 

I will look forward to hearing any live broadcasts he had from NYC clubs or jazz festivals.

That's what we were just discussing. Sometimes it seems like there's no connection between what college winds up obtaining someone's collection, and they just get them to add prestige to the school.

Edited February 3 by sgcim

[Dan Gould]

11 minutes ago, sgcim said:

So, Phil was selling a cassette tape of my close friend Joe Dixon's album we had recorded of a quintet with me on guitar, playing a bunch of my compositions and arrangements for something like $50 on his website. Joe, a  star soloist with the Tommy Dorsey band with Sinatra and Buddy Rich (he was Joe's roommate on the road, and knocked Joe out with one punch when they had an argument), the Bunny Berrigan Band, the Stan Kenton Quintet, and many others, was also a guest on Phil's show, and they played one of my tunes on the air, with the meticulous PS pronouncing my name perfectly, something rarely done on the first try.

Anyway, what I'm getting at with that tl;dr paragraph is: Is there any way that I can purchase that tape of my tunes, or is the tape now in the custody of Vanderbilt U, and I have to either trudge my way down to Nashville just to listen to it (like the Gene Puerling Collection at N. Texas State) or I can access it some way through my computer, and hopefully and DL it?

That's what we were just discussing. Sometimes it seems like there's no connection between what college winds up obtaining someone's collection, and they just get them to add prestige to the school.

It seems from the PDF I linked to that Phil solicited college proposals, Vanderbilt made its pitch and within a month they started negotiations. What is curious to me is that from what I heard, Columbia was never considered as a location for donation. Bad blood after 50 years on the air??

As far as the tape - assuming it exists - did this ever get broadcast? That seems to be the key factor for placing on the webpage I linked above, after digitization.  I was told that for items not originally broadcast, they may go on the page, but with limits to URLs that can access (might be limited to being on campus, for example.  I was told this was all being discussed with Vandy's legal department. I only know for sure that items broadcast on WKCR will get the "open to the public via the web" treatment.

As far as downloading goes, I tried to right click on the audio file and it does not give the option to save as an mp3.  But when that happens all I do is run a mini plug from my audio out to my line in and record in my audio editing software to get a copy of any streamable recording of interest.  I find I just have to be careful and keep other programs closed so I don't get any extraneous Windows chimes  or tones during the stream because those will record too.

[sgcim]

10 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

It seems from the PDF I linked to that Phil solicited college proposals, Vanderbilt made its pitch and within a month they started negotiations. What is curious to me is that from what I heard, Columbia was never considered as a location for donation. Bad blood after 50 years on the air??

As far as the tape - assuming it exists - did this ever get broadcast? That seems to be the key factor for placing on the webpage I linked above, after digitization.  I was told that for items not originally broadcast, they may go on the page, but with limits to URLs that can access (might be limited to being on campus, for example.  I was told this was all being discussed with Vandy's legal department. I only know for sure that items broadcast on WKCR will get the "open to the public via the web" treatment.

As far as downloading goes, I tried to right click on the audio file and it does not give the option to save as an mp3.  But when that happens all I do is run a mini plug from my audio out to my line in and record in my audio editing software to get a copy of any streamable recording of interest.  I find I just have to be careful and keep other programs closed so I don't get any extraneous Windows chimes  or tones during the stream because those will record too.

They definitely played a cut or two from the tape when PS was interviewing JD on the Swing show. Other than that it listed for sale on PS' website.

So I might have to go to Nashville to search for it if it's not listed in the search engine? A friend of mine went to a jazz club in Nashville, and got stopped on the street it was on, just because there were a lot of hookers there, and they thought he was looking for one! He had to explain to them he wanted to hear a pedal steel guitar player who was playing in one of the jazz clubs, and they didn't want to believe him, and gave him a hard time for about 15 minutes!

Edited February 3 by sgcim

[Dan Gould]

1 hour ago, sgcim said:

They definitely played a cut or two from the tape when PS was interviewing JD on the Swing show. Other than that it listed for sale on PS' website.

So I might have to go to Nashville to search for it if it's not listed in the search engine? 

You'll need to monitor the site for updates for sure ... it sounds like only the track played in the broadcast would end up publicly available, and as an official (or is it unofficial) release, they may not make the entire thing available to the general public. You should be prepared to contact the librarian as they get thru the process which again .... years to accomplish.  They will be producing a finding aide for everything ultimately catalogued.

[Brad]

Great news indeed. Thanks.

I wonder if his website will continue. 

Edited February 3 by Brad

[Dan Gould]

36 minutes ago, Brad said:

Great news indeed. Thanks.

I wonder if his website will continue. 

I am told the website will become defunct sometime in the future. That was from Vanderbilt so it must be contractual, I imagine.  Vandy did start with the previously transferred recordings on the web page, but I am pretty sure there weren't 850+ shows there.  A large effort to digitize was made as part of the donation.

[Brad]

1 hour ago, Dan Gould said:

I am told the website will become defunct sometime in the future. That was from Vanderbilt so it must be contractual, I imagine.  Vandy did start with the previously transferred recordings on the web page, but I am pretty sure there weren't 850+ shows there.  A large effort to digitize was made as part of the donation.

That makes sense. There is no need to have two websites. One thing I’d like to see in the Vandy one (which I don’t right now unless I’m not using it correctly) is to have the option to have it in chronological order but that’s a minor complaint. 

[sgcim]

17 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

You'll need to monitor the site for updates for sure ... it sounds like only the track played in the broadcast would end up publicly available, and as an official (or is it unofficial) release, they may not make the entire thing available to the general public. You should be prepared to contact the librarian as they get thru the process which again .... years to accomplish.  They will be producing a finding aide for everything ultimately catalogued.

Thanks!

[Dan Gould]

I remain in touch with the Librarian at Vandy who is in charge (or near the top of the food chain) of the organization of the Schaap archive.

He's advised that most (say 70% or so) of the reel to reel tapes have been digitized and digital files returned to Vanderbilt, with about 40 reels needing "mold remediation" yet only one found to be unrecoverable. 

The total number of tapes is nearly 750.

The process requires that digitized recordings be compared against information notated from tape boxes and inserts, for max accuracy of all listings. They also regard the 'boxes and boxes' of Schaap radio shows saved to CDRs as at greatest risk of data loss and it sounds like they are prioritizing digital transfer of those. So I really don't know what kind of timeframe we are looking at for actual release of digitized files into their public Aviary page.

 

But here is a tiny taste, the very first reel that states "WKCR Broadcast from the West End":

The Brooks Kerr Quartet live at the West End, January 21, 1974;

Personnel: Brooks Kerr, piano, Paul Quinichette, tenor sax, Franc Williams, trumpet, Sam Woodyard, drums, with guests Paul Gonsalves, tenor sax, and Matthew Gee, trombone (last set only);

Set list: Perdido -- Gone with the wind -- Broadway -- Sweet Lorraine -- Without a song -- Lady be good -- Blue and sentimental -- Dark eyes -- I cover the waterfront -- Sunday -- Things ain't what they used to be -- Jive at five -- I can't give you anything but love -- Three little words -- Shadow of your smile -- Satin doll -- Milestones -- Caravan.

 

This looks good too:

A tenor tribute to Ben Webster at Provincetown Playhouse, December 1, 1973, 8:00-10:30 p.m.;

Personnel: Buddy Tate, tenor sax/flute, Art Miller, tenor sax/clarinet, Earle Warren, alto sax, Milt Hinton, bass, Dill Jones, piano, Gene Borst, drums;

Set list: Moten swing -- Cottontail -- Gone with the wine -- Perdido -- [Buddy Tate and Milton Hinton reminisce about Ben Webster] -- Blues for Ben -- You're so beautiful -- C jam blues. In a mellotone (the opener) was not recorded. Also includes: Satin doll -- What's new -- Moten swing.

[sgcim]

I just tried to search for that Joe Dixon cassette tape and interview that I mentioned last time, and the search engine doesn't seem to work. I tried to register with the university, but that doesn't seem to work either. Do I have to register with them before I can do a search?

[Dan Gould]

13 hours ago, sgcim said:

I just tried to search for that Joe Dixon cassette tape and interview that I mentioned last time, and the search engine doesn't seem to work. I tried to register with the university, but that doesn't seem to work either. Do I have to register with them before I can do a search?

Nothing is released to the public except for the Schaap radio shows (most of which were originally published on his web page). Therefore the search function isn't going to help you at this time. 

Edited April 27 by Dan Gould