Chris Albertson Wikipedia article

[Philip]

I've contributed the following article, having referred to Chris in an article I started on Riverside Records.

Chris Albertson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Chris Albertson (born Christiern Albertson in Reykjavik, Iceland on October 18, 1931) is a New York City based jazz journalist, writer and record producer.

He was partly educated in England because of World War II, and trained as graphic artist, settling in Copenhagen. In 1947, Albertson made a discovery which was to change his life: he first heard a recording of Bessie Smith, and he became interested in jazz and blues music. Albertson began recording visiting musicians working in the New Orleans revivalist style in the early 1950s, including the British trumpeter Ken Colyer. These recordings were subsequently sold to Storyville Records, a local Danish company, and issued.

In 1957, Albertson migrated to the United States (naturalised 1970) innitially working in independent (non-commercial) radio in Philadelphia. Here he conducted a rare interview with Lester Young, one of only two with the tenor-saxophonist to survive.

In 1960-61 he was employed by Riverside Records' Bill Grauer to supervise their Living Legends series of location recordings. These were made in New Orleans (and Chicago) of surviving pioneer jazz musicians such as vocalist Sweet Emma Barrett, drummer Lou Cottrell, trumpetter Percy Humphries and trombonisr Jim Robinson. Albertson subsequently worked as producer for Prestige Records and station manager for a Pacifica station in New York. In the late sixties he worked for the BBC in London, advising them on how to adapt their radio programmes for sale in North America.

In the early seventies, Albertson was appointed by CBS Records head Clive Davis to oversee reissue projects. These included the complete recordings of Bessie Smith; Albertson's notes for these sets won a Grammy. His standard work Bessie: Biography of Bessie Smith appeared in 1973 (the second edition as Bessie was published in 2003). His record reviews for American Stereophile magazine were to extend over a twenty-eight year period.

In recent years, Albertson has been a prominent contributor to several jazz bulletin boards on the internet.

Source

Anyone else made a contribution to this project. The Guardian recently published an article on the database.

[Rooster_Ties]

That's quite a colorful biography you have there, Chris.

[pryan]

Chris - Is that album with Jim Robinson still widely available? I've been really digging his playing on the George Lewis Mosaic.

[DTMX]

He was partly educated...

Co-incidentally, those are the first four words of my biography. And they're followed by a period.

[J.A.W.]

There are actually two Jim Robinson albums in the "Living Legends" series, and I think both were released on CD by Fantasy (on Riverside)

They're still available from Fantasy, CDUniverse and other stores, of course.

[Jim Alfredson]

You forgot the most important part:

"Chris is an ardent supporter of the 'new traditionalists' led by brilliant trumpeter Wynton Marsalis."

[pryan]

Thanks Chris and Hans, I'll definitely be checking those ones out. Dammit, this board is costing me money. Oh well, jazz is a good addiction to have.

[J.A.W.]

You forgot the most important part:

"Chris is an ardent supporter of the 'new traditionalists' led by brilliant trumpeter Wynton Marsalis."

Plus Chris' adventures on another board regarding a certain mr Crouch...

[Clunky]

I was hired as producer/writer--the "Living Legends" series was among the sessions I produced (I had left Riverside when I did the Chicago sessions).

What was Earl Hines like. I really enjoy the "Monday date" LP

[J.A.W.]

Who is Crouch?

I don't want to know

[Philip]

Chris, your too kind for your comments, though my memory was less accurate than I had thought. Unfortunately, the neutrality policy of Wikipediaa restricts expressing opinions, and I had would hate the piece on Chris to join little Bush and Kissinger in being barred from amendment.

[sheldonm]

He was partly educated...

Co-incidentally, those are the first four words of my biography. And they're followed by a period.

[Big Al]

He was partly educated...

Co-incidentally, those are the first four words of my biography. And they're followed by a period.

Then there are those of use for whom that sentence is punctuated by a question mark.....

[Enterprise Server]

Just a quick shameless plug in for Chris’s bio of Bessie Smith. A very interesting book. I still have the original copy I purchased in 1975. Just picked up the revised edition two months ago. I highly recommend the book. It is a very good read and well worth purchasing . It is the only authoritative biography I know of about Bessie Smith.

[Brad]

I guess it wasn't important to mention but he's also done tons of liner notes. I most recently ran into one of his liner notes for Kenny Burrell's Bluesy Burrell, originally issued for Moodsville, and reissued in 1997 by Fantasy, where Chris supplemented Robert Levin's original notes. Great disc by the way.

[Harold_Z]

Just a quick shameless plug in for Chris’s bio of Bessie Smith. A very interesting book. I still have the original copy I purchased in 1975. Just picked up the revised edition two months ago. I highly recommend the book. It is a very good read and well worth purchasing . It is the only authoritative biography I know of about Bessie Smith.

I'm in 100% agreement with Enterprise Server. I finished the book about two or three weeks ago and thought it was excellent. I also had read it in the 70s.

[pryan]

Excellent biography, one of the best that I've read. I read for the first time last spring. Great stories in there from some of the key participants/relatives of Bessie. Highly recommended.

[Christiern]

I am grateful for the the kind words. -- Thank you, Chris