What vinyl are you spinning right now??

[HutchFan]

Clare Fischer Orchestra - America the Beauiful (Discovery)

This is Fischer's "easy-listening" LP, recorded in '67 and originally released on Columbia.  I recently found it in a record store dollar bin, and I'm giving it a first spin right now. ... I suppose the arrangements are more interesting than your run-of-the-mill E-Z listening record, but I prefer Fischer's work in the Latin & jazz genres. 

[HutchFan]

I love Murray's duet with Ed Blackwell that closes this album. Just wish it was longer!

 

[Gheorghe]

Another "treasure" from the old days: The famous "Musidisc Series", also a cheap way to purchase some good stuff, mostly bop live.

This Bud Powell recording is completly mistitled, it tells us "From Birdland 1956 with Paul Chambers and Art Taylor" but actually it´s from february 1953 at Birdland with Oscar Pettiford and Roy Haynes. Now you might find it on ESP as "Winter Sessions". 

And here is another one from Musidisc: Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Fats Navarro, mistitled as Birdland 1949 while it actually was 1950. I also have the double Album CBS with the whole concert, but my copy must have a fabrication failure since it sounds too sharp, almost painful for the ears. I have to turn the basses completly up and the treble completly down and it still sounds sharp. 

So the musidisc has a better Sound Quality. On the Musidisc are only four titles: "Move" "Streetbeat" "Out of Nowhere" and "Cool Blues". It´s remarkable that Fats leads the Proceedings on Move and Streetbeat. I think those are among the best of Fats, even so late in his Career. Bird is very lyrical here, it´s remarkable how relaxed he starts his solos. Bud is Wonderful. I rate this higher than his trio Recordings, Bud who Always had the highest Level of playing Standards got even more inspired if he played with other horn Players. 

And especially for @Big Beat Steve: Me and my Frieds called this one the "orange Album" . It was our late night stuff . Especially on vacation when we stayed in a small wooden house in the mountains and came home after fishing trouts in the lake. So this was our "after Hours" live Music Party. 

 

Edited July 12, 2019 by Gheorghe

[Big Beat Steve]

2 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

Another "treasure" from the old days: The famous "Musidisc Series", also a cheap way to purchase some good stuff, mostly bop live.

 

Yes - those Musidisc LPs were a good source to get some interesting stuff at a decent price back in the 70s and were a great way to familiarize yourself at a budget price with artists that are "new!" to you (IMO they sometimes are even worth a look in the secondhand bins today for vinylites). And it wasn't just bop, they also had a huge range of swing and classic jazz recordings.
Sometimes thier presentation is galling - like you say, the lineups and recordings dates sometimes are way off - for no apaprent reason at all because the stuff had been released elsewhere with correct credits.
I wonder how and by what criteria they souced their material anyway - quite a few of the live recordings had been reissued on Alamac and on Jazz Archives in the USA (and on other small collector's labels) but others seem to have come straight from studio recordings, particularly from the Savoy label IIRC (e.g. the John Coltrane/Wilbur Harden dates).

[Gheorghe]

@Big Beat Steve: A very good Point: I also Questions from what Sources they had their material. And yes. The Coltrane Album I have from that label "Tanganyika Strut" is the sessions with Wilbur Harden for Savoy. It´s the only Studio Musidisc I have, the others a live Albums and Maybe the gave them other Dates and other personnel just to make People believe it´s something they didn´t have allready.

In my case, the "Bird Fats Bud" stuff, because datet as "1949" and with Tommy Potter and Max Roach  (instead of 1950 and Curley Russel and Art Blakey) got me "trapped". I purchase it in spite of the fact that I already had the "A Night at Birdland 1950" from the CBS double Album (the one with the Beautiful painting of bird with the Saxophone.

Musidisc, Kings of Jazz, and Bellaphone were the cheaper LPs , very easy for us to purchase. Do you remember those Brown LPs on Bellaphone "Jazz Tracks". I had the one of Bird, it has the Sides at Carnegie Hall with Diz (but with some of Diz soloes edited), then some from the 1947 Dials with Miles and J.J., and the last three tracks is Maybe the last time Bird was recorded live. Autumn 1954 with John Lewis, Percy Heath and Kenny Clark, doing "My Funny Valentine", "The Song is You" and "Cool Blues". This is almost Bird´s "swan song". 

[Big Beat Steve]

53 minutes ago, Gheorghe said:

Musidisc, Kings of Jazz, and Bellaphone were the cheaper LPs , very easy for us to purchase. Do you remember those Brown LPs on Bellaphone "Jazz Tracks". I had the one of Bird ...

A brown series of LPs with that "series" title? No, I don't remember that. Maybe if I saw the covers.
FWIW, Bellaphon was not really "cheaper", at least not always. I remember them as mid-price LPs and decently pressed and presented, particularly the items they licensed from Prestige and Milestone. They were good value for money.

[Gheorghe]

19 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

A brown series of LPs with that "series" title? No, I don't remember that. Maybe if I saw the covers.
FWIW, Bellaphon was not really "cheaper", at least not always. I remember them as mid-price LPs and decently pressed and presented, particularly the items they licensed from Prestige and Milestone. They were good value for money.

 

19 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

A brown series of LPs with that "series" title? No, I don't remember that. Maybe if I saw the covers.
FWIW, Bellaphon was not really "cheaper", at least not always. I remember them as mid-price LPs and decently pressed and presented, particularly the items they licensed from Prestige and Milestone. They were good value for money.

This is the LP I mentioned. There were others from that series, one was Dizzy Gillespie, and one was Brubeck live from some College or University, I think with a fast and strong Version of "Lullaby in Rhythm". I´m not really a Brubeck-fan, that was not so much part of our tastes, but I liked that Brown record since it was quite Swinging and an exiting live atmosphere.

This was a cheap Bellaphone series. I think on Album was About 101 Shillings, like Musidisk, it was 101 Shillings, while the normal Price of an LP (let´s say labels like CBS) was 163 Shillings. 

[Big Beat Steve]

Yeah, coming to think of it, now I remember. I probably passed them up at the time because of that extremely nondescript cover (there were sooo many reissues with BAD, ugly, boring, totally "out of tune" artwork in the 70s that you really had to be a fanatic with money to spare to work your way through to the track listings in every case). Much later on I bought the Buck Clayton LP (secondhand) from that series, only to find when I got home from the shop that I already had all of the contents on a Vogue double LP. (This and others from that series came from Vogue masters from the 50s, and Discogs shows they also reissued Roulette masters) It still sits in my box of duplicates for the fleamarket.
If I remember correctly, at that time there were 7 Schillings to one DM - an exchange rate that remained constant for a very long time. So 101 Schillings was not cheap for an LP by German standards but mid-price. And 163 Schillings would have been considered decidedly expensive - about the price (22 DM) that one shop charged here on almost all items (except for special offers or introductory promo items). That price would have been tolerable (although it hurt this student's purse ...) for rare US imports (which this shop carried in a selection that was larger than with many other shops) but not for run of the mill stuff that would otherwise be priced at the equivalent of 90 to 100 ÖS. Full-price would have been about 120 ÖS, budget LPs would have cost something like 60 to 70 ÖS.

Edited July 12, 2019 by Big Beat Steve

[Gheorghe]

@Big Beat Steve: Yes I was sure if you see the hidous cover art you will remember those records. Well, it seems in Austria LPs were more expensive. 

Once in the 70´s I went as far as making a trip on Train to Köln, because during ski week I kissed a German Girl and she didn´t slap me like Austrian Girls would do. So I made the trip up North to see her only to find out that she got another friend. 

But I was consoled by the fact that I got a whole Batch of in Austria hard to find LPs at "Saturn" in Köln. And actually they were cheaper than in Austria.

Back to the "Jazz Track" series: If you say the word "Jazz Track" in a sloppy Austrian manner it sounds like if you say "Scheissdreck". I remember we later said "the Scheissdreck Serie", but nevertheless bought them since they were cheap and had some Music we "needed".....

[Big Beat Steve]

1 hour ago, Gheorghe said:

@Big Beat Steve: Yes I was sure if you see the hidous cover art you will remember those records. Well, it seems in Austria LPs were more expensive. 

... But I was consoled by the fact that I got a whole Batch of in Austria hard to find LPs at "Saturn" in Köln. And actually they were cheaper than in Austria.

Back to the "Jazz Track" series: If you say the word "Jazz Track" in a sloppy Austrian manner it sounds like if you say "Scheissdreck". I remember we later said "the Scheissdreck Serie", but nevertheless bought them since they were cheap and had some Music we "needed".....

Yes, Saturn was EXCELLENT, particularly the one in Cologne! They had stuff we never saw down here (and we had a LOT). I remember in 1985 or so I asked a friend (who was never into anything even remotely connected to jazz or blues) to get me over a dozen R&B reissue LPs from a particular Saturn shop in his hometown I had visited a few days before (when I was in town for some studies-related matter) but had run out of funds to purchase them. He dutifully obliged and worked off my shopping list one by one ...

As for "Jazz Tracks" in "Viennese" German - excellent! You made my day ... And you weren't far off the mark for the cover "art"work.

Edited July 12, 2019 by Big Beat Steve

[mikeweil]

1 hour ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Yes, Saturn was EXCELLENT, particularly the one in Cologne! They had stuff we never saw down here (and we had a LOT).

I left a lot of money at the Cologne store the few times I was there. The Frankfurt branch was good, too, as the jazz department was run by a real fan. He let collectors like me reserve LPs on a shelf back in his office. Bad for my bank account .....

[Big Beat Steve]

1 hour ago, mikeweil said:

I left a lot of money at the Cologne store the few times I was there. The Frankfurt branch was good, too, as the jazz department was run by a real fan. He let collectors like me reserve LPs on a shelf back in his office. Bad for my bank account .....

I only got to know the Cologne and Hannover shops in the vinyl era. The Hannover shop was the one mentioned above where I had my friend do my shopping.

[aparxa]

 Supergrass ‎– I Should Coco

 Art Farmer ‎– Brass Shout (London)

 Jackie McLean ‎– A Fickle Sonance

 Randy Weston ‎– Highlife (Roulette Jazz)

[HutchFan]

Warne Marsh - Warne Out (Interplay, 1977)
with Jim Hughart (b) and Nick Ceroli (d)

This whole LP is terrific, but the version of "Lennie's Pennies" that closes out Side 1 . . .  Whoa!   

[HutchFan]

Sonny Rollins - Plays G-Man (Milestone, 1986)

 

[soulpope]

3 hours ago, HutchFan said:

Warne Marsh - Warne Out (Interplay, 1977)
with Jim Hughart (b) and Nick Ceroli (d)

This whole LP is terrific, but the version of "Lennie's Pennies" that closes out Side 1 . . .  Whoa!   

Superb ....

[soulpope]

20 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

Back to the "Jazz Track" series: If you say the word "Jazz Track" in a sloppy Austrian manner it sounds like if you say "Scheissdreck". I remember we later said "the Scheissdreck Serie", but nevertheless bought them since they were cheap and had some Music we "needed".....

🤣 ....

[soulpope]

9 hours ago, aparxa said:

 Supergrass ‎– I Should Coco

 Art Farmer ‎– Brass Shout (London)

 Jackie McLean ‎– A Fickle Sonance

 Randy Weston ‎– Highlife (Roulette Jazz)

Very nice line-up  ....

[HutchFan]

Roland Hanna Trio - Time for the Dancers (Progressive, 1977)
with George Mraz (b) and Richard Pratt (d)

An outstanding LP, one of my favorites by Sir Roland. 

 

Edited July 13, 2019 by HutchFan

[BFrank]

5 hours ago, HutchFan said:

Roland Hanna Trio - Time for the Dancers (Progressive, 1977)
with George Mraz (b) and Richard Pratt (d)

An outstanding LP, one of my favorites by Sir Roland. 

 

Basically the New York Jazz Quartet, minus Frank Wess. Haven't heard this but "Blues for Sarka" and "Surge" were great albums.

[BillF]

[sidewinder]

1 hour ago, BillF said:

Don’t have the Esquire of that one but I do have the later Stateside Vols 1 and 2 with the Ray Avery photos on the cover.

[porcy62]

At last I'm spinning Rendell/Carr' records, now:

[HutchFan]

12 hours ago, BFrank said:

Basically the New York Jazz Quartet, minus Frank Wess. Haven't heard this but "Blues for Sarka" and "Surge" were great albums.

Yep!  If you like those NYJQ records, you should check out Time for the Dancers.  I think it's an overlooked gem.

Another fine NYJQ-sans-Wess record is This Must Be Love on the Audiophile label -- with Ben Riley in the drummer's chair instead of Pratt.  It's nearly as good as Time for the Dancers.  (I slightly prefer Time for the Dancers because it features more compositions by Sir Roland, whereas This Must Be Love focuses on Rodgers & Hart tunes.)

 

NP:

Here's to one of the undisputed GIANTS of jazz, Kenny Burrell.  May all of his current troubles soon be behind him.

 

Edited July 14, 2019 by HutchFan

[HutchFan]