Big Beat Steve

I agree but what can we do these days with (customs duties) matters being THAT nebulous? (Uneasiness in the opposite direction over here is not much better, BTW)

Maybe they are trying to circumvent the obvious (as long as they can) in order not to frighten even more customers away?

Nice! And well-presented. Wish I had that much "free" storage wall surface around the actual storage shelves already occupied by vinyl (and related books and ... ).

Thanx!

Can some mod please correct the title of this thread? Pleeeze! As it is now, this must hurt the eyes of any French-speaking folks around here. It's "Souffle Continu". Just like some have written correctly in their recent posts.

A small side note about the appreciation of the partners of Richard Rodgers: I'm reading "Eddie Condon's Treasury of Jazz " right now (in small instalments), and in the chapter on Lee Wiley (written by George Frazier) there is this: "To hear Lee at her best, listen to her Storyville LP - the portfolio of Rodgers and Hart. Not Rodgers and that other fellow (who would be Oscar Hammerstein II, who, no disrespect intended, no Larry Hart, he) ..." I suppose the experts' opinions do differ on the respective merits of Rodgers' partners?

I am no authority on him but somehow I doubt it. There are quite a few horn men I cannot identify in that book but I do not recall anyone with these features. Fernando (Fer Urbina) should know more.

Thanks, that sounds plausible. BTW, browsing through the book again, I noticed a photo on the page preceding the page that shows the second photo from the Webster Hall date on your blog: visibly taken at a break during a recording session (the engineer's booth is visible in the background), with two men (musicians, probably) reading their newspapers. Could this have been taken at the same Webster Hall session?

Wow ... what knowledge! I am impressed! Do you have any idea if this was taken at an occasion that was recorded?

Thanks a lot, Fernando!! So I was right when I figured that that guy wearing the cap looked treacherously like Tony Scott! (Sahib Shihab and Gigi Gryce also were easy to identify) Offhand I just could not think of a big band session that he led. Though I ought to have known and ought to have searched further ... because I do own the "Complete Tony Scott" album. As for others to identify, I might well contact you via MP (our should I put the photos here for everyone to see and identify?). One that comes to mind right away is the pic (about 20 pages into the book) of four bassists jamming together (studio? backstage?). Percy Heath (second from right) is obvious, but the others? Many thanks again!

The other day I chanced upon a copy of the huge coffee table book "The Sound I Saw - Improvisations On A Jazz Theme" with the photographs of Roy DeCarava (Phaidon, 2001). It came my way as part of a huge jazz book haul, and I had not been aware of this book before. Very, very impressive - amazing that it took almost 40 years for the preparation and conception of these photographs and texts compiled in 1962 to materialize into an actual book. (I have a hunch, though, some of the photographs are even older than that - at least one pic from the book showed up in the 1955 "The Family of Man" exhibition at the MMA) The combination of photos from "everyday New York" at work and jazzmen at work is amazing and fascinating and they really tell a story ... Now my question to those familiar with this book: While I can identify a lot of the jazzmen pictured in the book there are many that I am unable to put a name to (or am unsure anyway). So I wonder: Does anyone know of any source where someone out there has gone to the trouble of identifying and listing all the jazzmen (and women) shown throughout the book? This task is certainly not made easier by the fact that the pages are unnumbered, and yet I wonder ... Any hints and leads will be appreciated!

I have that "First Recordings" LP too (must have been 16 when I bought it - my first Sonny Rollins LP ever). But I haven't spun it for some time, so after I had snapped up that 10-incher I started hoping (before I got home) that the contents of the 10-incher would not be duplicated on that LP. Luckily they aren't (the contents of Prestige 190 were reissued on two different 12-inch Prestiges). And you are right - both photos look like they came from the same session.

A nice find at a downtown fleamarket last Sunday: Prestige LP 190, Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk, original 10" pressing from the mid-50s Jacket with visibly considerable ring wear, plus (inconspicuously repairable - and now repaired) seam splits, but vinyl sounds fine and plays very well, with hardly any background noise (might even be graded VG+ by some). Cost me 12.50 EUR. But this still seems to be a very good price, judging by Discogs where only one original pressing - in poorer condition - is currently for sale (at 50 EUR), and where even the average prices of past sales are higher than these 50 EUR. Popsike gives the same overall picture. So ... I'm pleased!

A good deal of the article was not paywalled so I at least got a glmpse. Zooming over the text, mention of the name of Warren Storm "the drummer" (more known for his La. rockabilly/swamp pop recordings in "our" circles ) caught my attention, so I'll check out the accessible part of the article in more detail later on.

For those wondering about the Bob Crosby band, here's a partial discussion (focusing on the Bob Cats): Personally, I have quite a bit of Bob Crosby on vinyl, but the reissues (of the band's commercially released 78s) in the vinyl era were a huge mess. You tended to get almost the same things over and over again, while others continually fell by the compliers' wayside (though some of these "misses" I've heard elsewhere are worth exploring. ) So my LPs have lots of overlaps AND gaps. OTOH I've never come across the Halcyon CD series mentioned in the above thread, but i dont think I'd have invested in a "complete" series anyway.

The Google books link to "Dameronia" led me to a page that did not display but below is what the Bruyninckx discography says about the recording session of 14 May 1945: I have this recording on Official 3046 ("The V-Discs Volume 2") but its liner notes give the dates for mx JD296 and 297 as 30 Oct. 1944. Not being familiar with the V-Disc matric numbering I do not know who is right.

Well, whaddaya know? Serves me right for never having paid maximum attention to the Miller bands. Anyway ... this tune certainly was not a staple of BLACK (big) bands of those years. Offhand I am only aware of a version of Pistol Packin' Mama by Louis Jordan (on a Jubilee program, but he never recorded it commercially).

May I respectfully suggest that you amend/correct the title and item descriptions? It is CHARLES Brown, not Charlie Brown (as in Peanuts ). Just so people know from the start who it is all about. I for one must admit I did not have the slightest idea which artist you were talking about when I saw the title of this thread. Particularly since I found it hard to imagine any of the Charlie Brown artists I had ever heard of (far from all listed on Discogs anyway) would have been graced by a Mosaic set. https://www.discogs.com/search/?q="Charlie+Brown"&type=artist

Yes indeedy! 😉 That's one item that is a fair bit off the trodden paths of the usual big band repertoires. Very much an item of its times but therefore a natural fit for a V-Disc set.

Indeed?? Maybe not "technical English" in the sense the tech terms are used here? But I agree it is confusing and not very clear to those who are interested enough to read these descriptions and think them over. So some rewording could not do any harm.

Of course I am not familiar with these particular "cereal box" cardboard records but I do have a few from other sources (in most cases very thin vinyl glued onto a cardboard backing, as Kevin Bresnahan says). Some that seem to have been relatively frequent here in the later 50s and early 60s are recordings by German pop singers pressed on these promo vinyl-sheet singles, with the cardboard backing of the thin vinyl providing promo messages e.g. for radio or shoe manufacturers. Usually the recordings were not linked to the products but there also were recordings made specifically with promo lyrics relating to the products. Or sometimes just providing some music as a gimmick, such as a series of promo thin-vinyl 45s by the French branch of the ESSO gas brand (Exxon to the U.S. ) covering the various regions of France, with each 45 containing traditional folk music from the respective region. There also were "sound postcards", with the vinyl attached to a square cardboard postcard. Usually with a mixture of music and invitational messages from the place or location promoted on the postcard. Similar promo sound postcards relating, for example, to car manufacturers are very collectible with car buffs. The oddest item I came across is a thin floppy transparent single (no cardboard backing!) titled "Engine Faults" given away with a late 50s issue of the British "Car Mechanics" monthly mag and to be played at 33 rpm. I played it only once, placing it on a real 45 for support (it sounded wobbly and decidedly lo-fi), and unfortunately it got kinked in storage since so it's probably unplayable now.

This might lead one to believe that the 45rpm (multi-)EP versions of 50s LPs on Capitol might have been sonically superior?

Aw well ... with all due respect, that album certainly was nice, given its release year and the prevailing musical trends of that period (that certainly were NOT Western Swing that this album was supposed to be part of), and I like listening to it every now and then too. But within the ACTUAL stylistic framework of WESTERN SWING it was glib, slick and bit overproduced to the extent of having had a lot of its spontaneous edges honed off. Not to mention the "something for everybody" repertoire typical of such albums of that day. So - ho hum ... Even the Bob Wills/Tommy Duncan 1960 reunion recordings for Liberty had more punch within that stylistic idiom IMHO. Anyway ... what I think some around here in this discussion do not quite appreciate is not so much the fact that some records are on Capitol but the multitude of labels that seem to be made to sail under the Blue Note reissue flag. Understandable ... Among the stack of CDs that ride in my car as food for my CD player there is a "Stan Kenton in Hi-Fi" CD from what is called "The Blue Note Collection", with the typical Blue Note label design on the CD too, as if to cash in on the "Blue Note" image throughout too. Which looks just silly, silly, SILLY on that record!

Update: Item 8): Metronome Yearbooks: 1955 and 1956 editions now sold and gone.

Sonorama reissue of an obscure 1965 release on Elite Special (bought yesterday for the "Jazz from Germany" section of my collection)