V-Disc Big Band Set Is Coming!!!

[JSngry]

Hell yeah.

[jazzbo]

I'll pre-order when I can.

[SwingItTrev]

So keen for this!

Quote

“Classic V-Disc Big Band Sessions” includes music by Woody Herman, Chubby Jackson, Les Brown, Charlie Barnet, Stan Kenton, Boyd Raeburn, Kay Kyser, Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Harry James, Claude Thornhill, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, Yank Lawson, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Jimmie Lunceford, Don Redman, and others. And we’re not talking about a cut here and there. There are 24 tracks by Basie alone. 16 by Woody Herman. Buddy Rich contributed 12. The set includes some of Captain Glenn Miller’s last recordings with his celebrated Army Air Force Band. And in addition to each Dorsey brother getting his own spotlight, there’s an added treat in that they were able to put their feud aside to record as a combined band, featuring Charlie Shavers, Jess Stacy, Buddy Rich and others.

 

[gmonahan]

I'll also preorder. Interesting not to see any mention of Benny Goodman in the blurb. I know the Goodman estate is notorious about limiting reissues, but V-Discs are all in the public domain, so I'm curious about that lacuna.

 

[jazzbo]

I think it's possible that all the Goodman V-Disks were reissues of commercial recordings (as the Ellington, Armstrong, Teagarden et al were I believe, for example). I think Mosaic is only reissuing the selections that were originally recorded for V-Disk.

Edited 14 hours ago by jazzbo

[JSngry]

Kay Kyser?

[jazzbo]

Well when you have a hit "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" you would HAVE to make a V-Disk for the troops.

[JSngry]

I can work around it. Just saying...

[medjuck]

I don't quite get Kay Kaiser either but as Krin  Gabbard  points out in "Jammin' at the Margins":   " In the early 1940s, Kyser was one of the two or three most popular bandleaders in both record sales and popularity polls, often outdrawing Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey, not to mention the black bands."   However a paragraph later he adds "But then, perhaps Kyser did not play jazz." 

[Big Beat Steve]

8 hours ago, jazzbo said:

I think it's possible that all the Goodman V-Disks were reissues of commercial recordings (as the Ellington, Armstrong, Teagarden et al were I believe, for example). I think Mosaic is only reissuing the selections that were originally recorded for V-Disk.

Leafing through "BG On The Record" now (4th printing 1973, so admittedly maybe not totally up to date) and checking against the Goodman V-Disc recordings I have on Sunbeam and Dan (Jap.), I see that there were some sessions by the BIG BAND that look like they were specifically recorded for V-Disc: in Nov./Dec. 1943 (p. 352 in "BG On The Record"), as well as in February 1944 (p. 357) and July 1944 (p. 361). And these possibly weren't all but I did not do a complete check. So the reasons for omission would indeed raise a few questions.

Overall I guess I'll pass. The major bands featured have been on the reissue market that often that the duplications just would have been too numerous for me.  

As for Kay Kyser, like other Sweet bands he may have had a few swingers that got recorded. And who knows - maybe Mosaic felt they just had to include his "Victory Polka" for its topical connotations?  It's on a Time-Life V-Disc set, and listening to it and its girl singers now, I'd say there have been many Andrews Sisters tunes reissued under the "swing" flag that were not that much more jazzy either, for example. Any jazz listeners who'd already consider Bird old hat would of course shudder but would they be in the market for this set anyway? 
More seriously, though, checking the "V-Disc Catalogue" discographies (Vol. 1 by Wante & De Block, Vol. 2 by Teubig), I can see two tracks that might qualify for inclusion by their titles alone (no idea how KK treated them, of course): Bye Bye Blues on V-Disc 236, Limehouse Blues on V-Disc 318.

Edited 5 hours ago by Big Beat Steve

[miles65]

No Ellington either. I believe the Ellington estate have the same lawyer as the Goodman and Calloway estates.

[jazzbo]

I've read that none of the Ellington V-Disks were recordings made for V-Disk, they were all other recordings put onto V-Disk. I think that puts them outside the scope of this set.

Yes, I found this page. 

https://ellingtonweb.ca/Hostedpages/DoojiCollection/DoojiCollection-VDiscs.htm

The following I found very interesting:

"[George T.] Simon, a V-disc producer, asked Duke if he would let the band make V-discs. Duke suggested he 'ask some of the guys'. 'And so I went over to Harry Carney and Lawrence Brown, whom I'd known for years, and asked them. Their reply in essence: 'George, if you are asking us to do this for free as a personal favor for you, of course we'll do it. But if you are asking us to do it for the Army, forget it - not when you consider the way they have been treating our people.'"

Edited 45 minutes ago by jazzbo

[John L]

13 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

I've read that none of the Ellington V-Disks were recordings made for V-Disk, they were all other recordings put onto V-Disk. I think that puts them outside the scope of this set.

Yes, I found this page. 

https://ellingtonweb.ca/Hostedpages/DoojiCollection/DoojiCollection-VDiscs.htm

The following I found very interesting:

"[George T.] Simon, a V-disc producer, asked Duke if he would let the band make V-discs. Duke suggested he 'ask some of the guys'. 'And so I went over to Harry Carney and Lawrence Brown, whom I'd known for years, and asked them. Their reply in essence: 'George, if you are asking us to do this for free as a personal favor for you, of course we'll do it. But if you are asking us to do it for the Army, forget it - not when you consider the way they have been treating our people.'"

Very interesting quote indeed. 

I seem to recall that some of the Hurricane Restaurant broadcasts might have gotten their first release on V-Disc.   In any case, with the Treasury Shows and the World Transcriptions, there is no shortage of Duke Ellington recordings from this period.  

[jazzbo]

Indeed and Collectors' Choice released a 3 cd set of V-Disks so they are out there in okay sound.