V-Disc Big Band Set Is Coming!!!

[medjuck]

1 hour ago, romualdo said:

Wonder if these are the same tracks I listened to at the Harlem Jazz Museum back in 2006 - I particularly searched for Lester & Charlie material on their computer (and most of it was with the Benny Goodman band/small groups)

Those are the ones.  IIRC there are no new songs with Christian but several unreleased performances. The jam session with Prez  that was done for a radio show is terrific.

[Lino22]

6 hours ago, medjuck said:

Those are the ones.  IIRC there are no new songs with Christian but several unreleased performances. The jam session with Prez  that was done for a radio show is terrific.

The jam session with Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, Ben Heller, Sid Weiss, and Jo Jones is from the November 16, 1938 Martin Block’s Make Believe Ballroom broadcast. To me this is the Holy Grail of the Savory Collection. The tunes included, “Tea for Two,” “After You’ve Gone,” and “I Know that You Know.” The last one has been available in rather poor sound. In the attached program you can hear, at the beginning, part of Young’s “After You’ve Gone” solo and then within the program all of “Tea for Two” and “I Know that You Know” are included and in great sound. Hope spring eternal that one day these will see a wider release. 

 

 

[tranemonk]

21 hours ago, Lino22 said:

The Treasury Department had a number of different war bond  radio shows, like Treasury Star, Music for Millions, and such.

Are those public domain? I'm assuming have all the jazz ones been released?

[Lino22]

1 hour ago, tranemonk said:

Are those public domain? I'm assuming have all the jazz ones been released?

You can search Internet Archives or Old Time Radio for the various  treasury shows. I think there is not that much jazz. Your best bet for other jazz broadcasts is the Jubliee series.

https://www.otrcat.com/p/jubilee

[gmonahan]

On 11/24/2025 at 3:52 PM, medjuck said:

The Goodman estate has kept some very important broadcasts from being released including some with Charlie Christian and Lester Young (not together)  from the Savory Collection.  I wrote their lawyers an e-mail and actually got a response.  They're just being jerks . As  I mentioned in my e-mail to them, they're even leaving money on the table in that- deservedly or not- Goodman's name is listed as composer on many of the compositions and jams so the estate would be paid for any broadcasts or streams of the material. 

Yes, their bizarre attitude has always mystified me. If Mosaic were to do a separate set, it sure would be nice to have all the Columbia small group studio material in nice sound and all together with it, but I guess that would make for kind of an odd melange?

 

[scooter_phx]

Is Santa gonna be able to deliver this on Christmas, or am I going to have to wait until January for a birthday gift?    

[jazzbo]

I would think a Christmas delivery unlikely.

[miles65]

The set can now be pre ordered. I all ready did through TYQmusic. Jazzmessengers is also possible for European customers. 

[scooter_phx]

https://www.mosaicrecords.com/product/classic-v-disc-big-band-jazz-sessions-limited-edition-box-set-284-10-cds/

 

Gonna be a birthday gift.  Glad to know it's close to coming my way.

[JSngry]

Preordered. But an eyebrow was raised at the lack of mention about donating a portion of the proceeds, as was done on the first set 

It's still a relevant issue imo. Maybe this time a donation to one of the AFM's charitable funds?

[hopkins]

Pre-ordered as well.

[gmonahan]

I preordered, but I have to say the discography of this set sent me to my shelves to pull down my somewhat dusty old copy of George T. Simon's _The Big Bands_. There are some really obscure groups on this one! For me, that makes it more interesting, but I fear others might be put off a bit?

 

[Brad]

On 11/24/2025 at 2:04 PM, Big Beat Steve said:

  
Underwhelmed ...

"White Glenn Miller"? White(r)washed Glenn Miller, you mean? 

As for "The Girl I left Behind Me", I'll rather take any Bob Wills version anytime ...

Underwhelmed is the understatement of the year. 

[Big Beat Steve]

13 hours ago, gmonahan said:

I preordered, but I have to say the discography of this set sent me to my shelves to pull down my somewhat dusty old copy of George T. Simon's _The Big Bands_. There are some really obscure groups on this one! For me, that makes it more interesting, but I fear others might be put off a bit?

 

Which bands would you consider to be among the "really obscure"? Just wondering ...

5 hours ago, Brad said:

Underwhelmed is the understatement of the year. 

[Niko]

Clyde Lucas, Ted Fiorito, Johnny Blowers, Randy Brooks, Bill Heathcock are obscure to me... Also the Curtis Bay Coast Guard Training Station Dance band and the other military bands... Yet others like Mal Hallett or Tony Pastor do ring bells, but I don't know anything about their music... To be fair, most of the more obscure bands are only covered with relatively few tracks...

[Big Beat Steve]

Ted Fio Rito normally is outside the jazz field but was BIG among the sweeter big bands.
Clyde Lucas - apparently one of the many jazzwise nondescript hotel bands catering to the "sedate set" and doing his patriotic duty on these V-Discs.
Bill Heathcock (not even listed in Simon's book, not in Leo Walker's Big Band Almanac, so a maximum obscurity ) has some interesting names in the lineup of V-Disc 619, and "Late at Night" would be one I'd find interesting to explore. 
Randy Brooks was a fairly big name back then and from today's listening perspective he should not put off anyone who is into the likes of Glenn Miller or the Dorseys. 
Johnny Blowers admittedly IS obscure as a bandleader (his was one of those "sidemen-turned-bandleader" outfits, but apparently only briefly) but as a drummer he was present on many Swing sessions. 
Mal Hallett (the chapter on him in George Simon's Big Bands" book had me intrigued when I first got hold of that book more than 40 years ago) seems to have had his heyday in the pre-Swing era years and recorded fairly little during the Swing era, and reissues of his recordings are very, very thin on the ground. 
Tony Pastor, OTOH, recorded a lot; he had a very swinging and enjoyable band IMO, not least of all thanks to his hip (or should I say "offbeat"?) vocals which place him not too far away from Louis Prima, right down to some overlaps in their repertoire. Some of his V-Discs were reissued before on vinyl. However, I'd sure like to hear V-Disc 275 by the Tony Pastor band and his recording of a tune titled "Schickelgruber"!   Pity it's not on that Mosaic set. Now THAT would be one "period piece"! 
 

Edited yesterday at 09:58 AM by Big Beat Steve

[Stompin at the Savoy]

I'm looking forward to this release.  Yes it's probably all available in various public domain and commercial releases but a lot of that is pretty chaotic and I despair of obtaining all the discographical details on some of those things.  Mosaic does a good job of finding the best sources, cleaning up the sound and organizing the discography in a consistent manner.

[JSngry]

I like that they're advertising Boyd Raeburn as being "modern" before both Stan Kenton and Woody Herman. That's accurate!

[medjuck]

I'm gettin it just for the Basie.  I expect I already have at least some of those that but I presume this will be with better sound. 

[Brad]

8 hours ago, medjuck said:

I'm gettin it just for the Basie.  I expect I already have at least some of those that but I presume this will be with better sound. 

I thought about that but can’t justify the cost although I suppose I could buy it, copy the Basie material and sell the set. 

[Big Beat Steve]

Actually Basie and Herman are part of the reasons why I am going to pass. I have all of these (as well as the Sam Donahues a.o.) and am quite satisfied with the sound on the vinyls. With the overall cost anounced for the European distributors the set would work out at something like 20 EUR per CD anyway, so if you already have a substantial part of the music anyway the cost per REMAINING CD just exceeds the limits of reasonability, alas. 

[tranemonk]

Okay, I'm going to ask another stupid question... Just out of curiosity (if anyone knows), why is there no Ellington on this set? 

[Big Beat Steve]

2 hours ago, tranemonk said:

Okay, I'm going to ask another stupid question... Just out of curiosity (if anyone knows), why is there no Ellington on this set? 

Jazzbo's post of 24 November may have the answer: All Ellingtons seem to have been commercial recordings recycled for V-Disc use. So they are outside the scope of this set. 

[Big Beat Steve]

Update to my post above: I am not sure anymore at all that all the Ellington V-Discs were taken from commercial recordings. 
I just pulled out an LP that has the reissue of V-Disc 610 (In The Shade Of The Old Apple Tree) of November 1945, and the V-Disc discography by Klaus Teubig does not indicate any commercial recordings as its source. Neither for V-Disc 505 that is referenced in the entry for VD 610. According to Bruyninckx, both VD 505 and VD 610 come from Duke Ellington Treasury Shows. And these are only 2 of the Ellington V-Discs.
So is it again a matter of balking estates that they're not in that set?

 

[miles65]

Ellington V-disc recording consist of: aircheck, concert, transcription etc. recordings. I like the sunrise is an instrumental version of the take used on the Liberian Suite Lp. For the LP the vocal was dubbed over. 

Most if not all V-discs were issued on various Classics CD's. Thanks to V-discs we have the never completely recorded Deep South Suite.