Big Beat Steve

Ha, so you made that discovery - about a quarter century after the release of that Rambler LP! Great stuff for those who are prepared to look beyond the bounds of usual 30s swing and jazz. This is ONE area where open-minded listeners will see how stylistic boundaries were defied and "crossover" music was made (in a VERY authentic way) decades before that term came into use. Enjoy!

Ouch! That's really, really bad news to European jazz fans. He was a real giant not only of Swedish jazz. Another legend gone and a link to the glory days of Swedish jazz that's been cut. I spun one of his Dragon CDs with his earlier works last night, unaware of his passing. More to follow tonight (and a good moment to reread his recollections of how he got started that have been included in the booklet to one of the Caprice CD anthology boxes). Admins, please move this thread to the Artists section. It warrants being seen much more widely!

There must be a more detailed thread about this boook around here somewhere. I remember Brownie commented on this book at length.

Well, Niko if you can't "feel" that typical 50s street flair (especially around St. German de Près) and are indifferent to 50s cars, then that's so (but that's your loss ) - OTOH rainy days aren't that appealing anyway, and not even some (then) shapely legs will offset that. As for the music, if I understood the liner notes correctly (I didn't check my discographies) there are no overlaps between those 2 CDs. The "shorter" original releases that you refer to probably are those 4-track 45 rpm EP's (EXTENDED PLAY). An extremely common release format for jazz in 50s Europe. That facsimile LP reissue by Fresh Sound is interesting. Never seen that reissue before - one of the very few that must have escaped me totally.

What Allen and Larry said. Agree too. R.I.P. BTW, wouldn't this thread have a better place in the "Artists" section??

Dead wrong IMHO! Those covers are all about a uniform "identity" of the entire series, showing Paris street scenes from the 30s to 50s (though some pics are a bit ouf of synch with the recording dates). I actually find them quite appealing (but then I'm European and am interested in other aspects of the 50s too , up to the point of buying one or two for the covers only - and then getting to appreciate the music too). I'd agree it's a matter of taste but unless you do something like the Fresh Sound reissues where you use original album cover art for the CD covers you might as well go this fairly original route adopted by "Jazz In Paris". But remember many of those Jazz In Paris CDs are made up of the contents of several 10in LPs and EPs so there would not be ONE single original cover that would apply to all the contents of the CD. But maybe you'd lilke the black Vogue reissue series of the 90s (the ones with the cardboard foldout covers) better? If you want to use the term "scam" for thoughtless, nondescript cover art, this might better be applied to certain other reissue labels (including some Stateside ones). Just my very personal opinion...

That's what I meant. At times the plot of Pt I of the series did move almost in slow motion but that's what accounted for part of its authenticity and subtlety IMO. And major historical events being the background of the overall story is quite OK - after all these events DID have a huge effect on everybody. But in what I've seen of Pts II and III of the saga, the plot unfortunately seems to have speeded up and the characters were pushed too far into the center of the action - too much so for things to be credible and authentic to the same extent that Pt I had had that "authentic" feel. I'll admit, though, that I may have missed a few finer points of the contents as I've seen only part of those follow-ups (my immediate overall impressions actually were "Not THAT setting again!" and "Is this a follow-up to cash in on the "Heimat" reputation?") As you say, probably the evolution of how TV series are produced (and speeded up) accounted for part of this impression.

It's been around as a VSOP repro reissue for quite some time. Picked it up at Mole Jazz in London sometime in the 90s (not so much for the cover which I find a bit inane - I could think of a lot of other cheesecake covers I'd rather jump on ) but for the Westcoast music. But haven't listened to it for a while. Will remedy this tonight, I think

Ha, I'd sure like to hear how a synchronized English version of "Heimat" would sound. :D Transferring that (fairly authentic) dialect of the Eifel region into another language must be quite a bit. That said, "Heimat" (the first series) was a fine and very authentic series but you really would have to want to dig into that setting to go through the whole series. When it was first broadcast on German TV back then I watched quite a bit of it with great interest (maybe spurred by the fact that part of the contents could have happened everywhere and sort of reflected what had been told by my parents' generations in my family) and certainly kept me spellbound (though I am no coutnry boy). But from a certain point of time I sort of tired of that overall setting so I did not follow it to the very end of the series. But others (not only those closer to the region where the series was set) evidently felt differently about this as it acquired a legendary reputation even while the series still went on. On the other hand, I never really got into Pts. II and III of the saga. IMHO they just tried to cram too much "topical" stuff into Pt. III, in particular, trying to grab everything that was current during the times in question and therewith stereotyping everything. Getting first the student revolt/terrorist angle and then all the 1989 fall of the Berlin wall hullaballoo worked into a series that is suposed to grab the viewer's attention just appeared like a predictable attempt at jumping onto every conceivable bandwagon that you can think of. I mean, isn't it rather cliché-laden if TV is UNABLE to come up with an interesting life story that AVOIDS the typical topics of the day? Did every German become a student revolt activist or terrorist/sympathizer at one time and did every German from every part of Germany find himself in Berlin or one or two other "hot" huge cities when the wall came down? It was a bit like depicting a typical American life as taking place either in Manhattan or in So.Cal and nothing whatsoever in between. This is where Part I excelled in showing what life (likely) was like in a small village out in the country and managing to keep things interesting depite being rather subdued in its overall imagery. Maybe I'm overcritical of that aspect but if you had seen how every German TV drama/series (or whatever) set in the not so distant past invariably involved those two historical aspects you'd tire of it too. Remember you from abroad probably saw only a small part of what has been showered on German TV viewers in that respect over the years ) Just my 2c

Bruyninckx can't seem to agree on a recording date either: He gives July, 1957, but says a Fresh Sound CD reissue gives December, 1958. The lineup is Jack Sheldon, Conte Candoli (tp), Lennie niehaus (as), Billy Root (bars), Vince De Rosa (french-h), Stu Williamson (vtb), Red Callender (tuba), Pete Jolly (p), Buddy Clark (b), Mel Lewis (d).

FWIW, Ike & Tina Turner did some stuff on Sue in the early 60s before the "River Deep Mountain High" etc. smash hits period. That alone (plus Jimmy McGriff and Ray Bryant) puts Sue firmly on the map of collectible labels.

Sounds like somebody out there is trying to milk a very, very dead cow. Or are typical completists THAT gullible?

Any DVD (in European viewing format) of this currently available?

Well, as far as I can see the price difference between FS and LH isn't that huge. And Lonehill is guilty of the same thing anyway. Talking about Eddie Costa, I'd have jumped for the House of Blue Lights reissue on Lonehill right away, but it's coupled with the Costa-Burke Trio release on Jubilee that had been reissued by Fresh Sound themselves! So it all comes from the same stable.

Am glad to hear I am not the only one who's had that impression. I still appreciate the Fresh Sound reissue policy very much (as they really go where hardly any reissuers have cared to go for a long time) but what galls me is that whenever it comes to reissuing two LP's on one CD in their current catalog, it seems Jordi Pujol (or whoever is in charge right now) has made a habit of combining one LP from their previous vinyl reissue program with another one that's not been reissued for ages. And as I have quite a lot of their reissue LP's from the 80s/early 90s (and am NOT going to part with my vinyl) this leaves me in a bit of a fix sometimes ... Paying full price for half the music? I dunno .... As they ought to know there must be a LOT of collectors who've been following their reissues since the vinyl days it would not have been a bad thing if they had adjusted their reissue policy accordingly (e.g. by avoiding to combine all-new reissue items with items that THEY THEMSELVES reissued previously).

I've never dug that kind of music but you got to admit that Bert Keampfert had a certain kind of artistic integrity that you got to admire. Even in his rather commercial settings, Bert Kaempfert had high artistic ambitions so I am not surprised that Herb Geller played with him. Herb Geller has been residing in Germany for much more than 40 years, and apart from his regular work in leading radio orchestras that had a considerable jazz content he has also participated in countless other settings (some of them in the popular field), including some that must appear rather incongruous to jazz-minded listeners. I am not going to quote names - the featured artists would not mean much to Stateside people anyway (but check his German Wikipedia entry if you feel like it). So his work in the Kaempfert band is far from the oddest. OTOH, why would this be so surprising anyway? How many (formerly) famous U.S. jazzmen have played it safe and let themselves be buried as anonymous but well-paid studio hacks for decades (which seems to have been accepted as something quite natural by very, very many)? Herb Geller kept a much higher profile than that through the decades.

Dude, compared to some of the stuff that's floating around, the examples you give are of audiophile quality... Indeed! AM just listening to the Davis/Forrest recordings (Live At The Barrel Vol. 2) on Prestige P-7860, and it's not bad at all for a "location" recording. BTW, I have Brown/Roach "Live At The Bee Hive" double album on CBD JG35965. I do feel fidelity is a notch below the Davis/Forrest recordings mentioned above (but still quite listenable), but how would this compare soundwise to other releases of this material that have been or are on the market?

Sidewinder, both Savoy LP reissues (including the "Gold Coast" LP) definitely weren't US-only. European pressings did exist and were available a long time (and a long time before that some of the recordings from those sessions had come my way on the Musidisc label). Apparently they were slow sellers on the reissue circuit (which may be why I stumbled across them fairly often). Will pay more attention next time around ...

Don't know how often I passed up the "Tanganyika Strut" and "Dial Africa" reissue albums by W.H. in the late 70s and 80s. A mistake, it seems ... But somehow I have a feeling they still are around in secondhand bins around here.

Uh oh ... seems like I tipped you off to a site full of goodies! :D Anyway .... who was it again who said that (to paraphrase the actual quote) "you cannot go wrong underestimating the taste of the (American??) public"? As for this particular tune, I guess songs like this just are a sign of the times. Some of what Herb Jeffries did around those times was very much an acquired taste too. Not something for the jazz lovers. Remember jazz (and even really meaty R&B) ALWAYS was a minority section of the overall record market.

Durium, is there some way we can hear that record? Thanks. It was reissued several times: On an LP on the Solid Sender label (in a series called "Small Label Gems from the 40s", I think - will have to check at home), and also on various compilation CDs. But check this first: http://www.vocalgroupharmony.com/ImInTown.htm

He was on lots of JATP sessions in the 40s; as for his other sideman appearances, somebody who can do a name search on arecent searchable version fo teh Bruynincks or Lord discographies will probably yield a lot. IIRC the complaints about his playing style at those JATP sessions that I mentioned above were related to his timekeeping that relied on the drum instead of the cymbals (something that wasn't nearly as evident on other sessions with him that I've heard). To some it must have appeared a bit old-fashioned by the second half of the 40s (I prefer the Jo Jones/Kenny Clarke schools too, but if people can dig the on-the-beat clobbering of Gene Krupa then Lee Young definitely had a lighter and more sympathetic touch than THAT. ).

RIP Lee. I feel he was underrated as a drummer. It seems some reviewers did not like his style of timekeeping at all. I remember reading rather lukewarm assessments of his playing in album notes to some of those early JATP concerts. Unfounded, I feel. And it is to his credit that he was able to pull the strings together business-wise where his brother Prez, always the artist, was up in the clouds (as in their co-led combo of the 40s). BTW, I wasn't aware he was on that recording with Frantic Fay Thomas. An extremely odd piece of R&B. Her singing at times sounds as if she was gargling underwater! :D

Yeah maybe ... but AFAIK most of the CDs from that series were exact duplicates of 50s LP's (which in case of the Lester Young recordings already were reissues), so the Lester Young material has been reissued countless times by Savoy and its various offspins in various guises. And not ALL those reissue pressings can possibly be crap.

So which would be the best reissue of HOUSE OF BLUE LIGHTS currently available? Leads gratefuly accepted. (I am one of those who missed the original LP a couple of time on eBay too, though never at anything like $700)