Koch to reissue Charlie Parker label

[brownie]

From the AP:

JAZZ ALBUMS TO BE REISSUED UNDER KOCH LABEL

NASHVILLE, Tenn. Music by jazz greats Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Stan Getz and others will be reissued.

They will be put out again as a result of the acquisition of the Charlie Parker Records catalog by Koch Records of Nashville.

The records should be on the market by late spring or early summer.

Charlie Parker Records, a recording label named for the influential jazz saxophonist, operated from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s.

The catalog was owned by music producer Aubrey Mayhew until the acquisition. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Labels/parker.htm

Mike

[jazzbo]

Satan in High Heels=Blues for a Stripper, correct?

This could be good. I'd buy the Pres releases if they appear. Thanks for the heads up!

[Man with the Golden Arm]

Satan in High Heels=Blues for a Stripper, correct?

an aside - Lon, I just picked this up from Dusty for four bucks. One in the same and see they are pushing a Spanish issue as definitive. The one I have is from Collectables and sound is great. Never paid much attention to Mudell Lowe but this disc is fantastic to me!

[jazzbo]

Thanks for the recommendation. . . for some reason I've never picked this up!

Anyone have a brief history of this intersting label?

[ghost of miles]

Great news! I'm psyched about the Mundell Lowe and a few other things on that list as well.

[brownie]

Aubrey Mayhew was the man behind the Charlie Parker Records label. He has a quite fascinating story.

From a Chicago Sun-Times article that was published on January 16, 2005:

MAYHEW BEBOPS HIS WAY INTO PARKER ESTATE

Chicago Sun-Times,  January, 2005  by Dave Hoekstra

Aubrey Mayhew has led an American life that includes running with Johnny Paycheck, buying the infamous Texas Book Depository in Dallas and winding up with the rights to the Charlie Parker songbook.

Mayhew met Parker in 1953 when he was running the WCOP Jamboree in Boston. "Charlie used to play a jazz club there," Mayhew said in a recent interview from Nashville. "[New York disc jockey] Symphony Sid got fired, so we hired him in Boston to do our midnight show. Sid would bring jazz artists to Boston, but he was slick. He'd bring them up on a bus and pay them $20 to play in a club he was running. He would also play them on our station.

"I went over to the club one night and Parker was sitting at the table. I asked him how much he was getting paid for the taping. He said he wasn't getting paid anything. So I jumped on Sid about that, went to Parker and said, 'Don't you tape anything for anybody unless you get paid.' I offered him $1,000 for the taping we did that night. That bonded us together."

After Parker died in 1955, his widow Doris contacted Mayhew. In 1959, Mayhew joined the Parker estate as a music adviser and by 1961 Doris Parker and Mayhew launched the Charlie Parker Records imprint. The Parker Records roster included saxophonist Cecil Payne, bop pianist Duke Jordan, drummer Cozy Cole (of Louis Armstrong's All- Stars) and several Parker sides.

After the label stopped issuing product in 1965, Doris assigned all the rights to Mayhew.

"And I've owned all the Charlie Parker rights ever since," Mayhew said.

Edited April 7, 2005 by brownie

[jazzbo]

Thanks Brownie! I knew Doris was involved, but didn't know about Mayhew!

[mikeweil]

Three (!) Cecil Payne albums to add to my wish list ...

[Stereojack]

I guess I ought to mention that most of the Charlie Parker & Lester Young stuff that was issued on this label has been issued elsewhere, so there is nothing to get excited about there. However, there were some good records by Cecil Payne, Mundell Lowe, Yusef Lateef, Duke Jordan, and a few others that are worth having. It's funny - this label started out as a deluxe label with laminated gatefold covers, and ended up a cheapie budget label by the 70's.

[Chuck Nessa]

Mayhew, by my personal estimation. is a creep and I doubt he was ever in the same city as Bird.

From everything I've seen/heard, he's an opportunist of the first degree - Bird, JFK, etc.

I'm waiting for the Michael J connection.

[Bill Fenohr]

Mikeweil,

If memory serves me correct, i think that Shaw Enough and Plays Charlie Parker are the same album. So you can knock one Cecil Payne off your wish list.

As Stereo Jack has mentioned most of the Parkers, Youngs and some others were out on Collectables at one time. However they seem to be OOP now. The Oscar Moore is a Tampa date that is out on VSOP. I think the Kessel/Land might be a Tampa date also, which i think is on VSOP under Jimmy Rowles leadership.

It will be nice to have this stuff out again.

[Brad]

I don't have any of this stuff so this is pretty exciting for me.

[mikeweil]

Mikeweil,

If memory serves me correct, I think that Shaw Enough and Plays Charlie Parker are the same album. So you can knock one Cecil Payne off your wish list.

Thanks! Will gladly do so!

[brownie]

Cecil Payne's 'The Connection' is a pretty good album.

Musicians are Clark Terry, Bennie Green, Payne, Duke Jordan, Ron Carter and Charlie Persip.

The music is a different score from the Freddie Redd/McLean album on BN.

Music on the Parker issue was composed by Cecil Payne and Kenny Drew (and copyrighted to Charlie Parker - Mayhew Music Co. BMI).

[jazzbo]

Yes, I know the Bird and Pres stuff have been out before, but I'll still pick up the Pres for sonic upgrade reasons. . . and to be able to buy "new" Pres. . . it will be a psychological lift for ME.

That's just me!

[jazzbo]

PS: I have some Payne material for sale in the offerings forum, duplicates I have on Fresh Sounds and Collectables.

[Dan Gould]

The Joe Carroll features Grant Green.

[king ubu]

Lon, what's on those Pres discs? Is there really something "new" or is it just a new way of having some well-known stuff again?

The Moore, provided it's the Tampa/VSOP disc, is very fine!

[jazzbo]

I only have one of these Charlie Parker Pres discs, the one that is out on Collectables, and it was "new to me" indeed. I am not sure what is on any other.

[king ubu]

I only have one of these Charlie Parker Pres discs, the one that is out on Collectables, and it was "new to me" indeed. I am not sure what is on any other.

If it was new to you, I guess it will be new to me, too! Cool!

[brownie]

All these Lester Young broadcasts on the Charlie Parker Records were widely issued on a number of other labels. They were from the Royal Roost and the Savoy Ballroom gigs. Don't expect any new Pres material there.

They were of course included in the Pres big boxes (vinyls in Italy, CDs in Italy and Japan).

[king ubu]

All these Lester Young broadcasts on the Charlie Parker Records were widely issued on a number of other labels. They were from the Royal Roost and the Savoy Ballroom gigs. Don't expect any new Pres material there.

They were of course included in the Pres big boxes (vinyls in Italy, CDs in Italy and Japan).

nothing new then.

[JSngry]

I've got PRES on CP LP (STEREO-PACT! & DEDICATED TO JAZZ THRU SOUND, says the album cover's front and back, respectively), and the equivalent of PRES IS FREE, I think it is, (the one with that incerdibel "Mean To Me" & "On The Sunny Side")on AJ Records.

They're the band w/Jesse Drakes, and Jo Jones is on at least one of 'em. Live, dance recordings iirc. Recording quality is adequate at best, piano's often almost sudible, and Drakes is a fine but repetitive player. But Lester is WHOOOO-EEE!

[king ubu]

just to make that clear: my -smiley was not related to the music (us prez-ologists want AND love it all, anyway), but rather to my spoilt hope of hearing some Prez hitherto unknown to me!

Edited April 8, 2005 by king ubu