Rare West Coast Jazz Lp

[Guest]

KENT records, culver city, Calif. (red vinyl, no jacket)

PERSISTENT PERCUSSION

ALL STARS:

maxwell davis, buddy collette, jewel grant, richie kamuka, harry betts, ray linn, pete jolley, bill pitman, curitis counce, johnny cyr, larry bunker, irv cottler, med flory, frank rosolino, conte candole, Kess, red callendar, gene estes

---the lp has a very clean and modern sound to it, with lots of stereo percussion, as expected. who are all the lesser known names on that list, eg. maxwell david, jewel grant, ray linn, bill pitman, johnny cyr, irv cottler, med flory (mel?), gene estes, and espically, who is Kess?

any info on the Kent label or this particular Lp would be great

[marcello]

Here's a interesting photo of Med Flory with his wife, Henry Fonda and Joe Mani:

Besides his work with Terry Gibbs' Deram Band and his leadership of Supersax, Med has had a nice sideline as a actor in movies and TV.

Irv Cottler, of course, play for many years with Frank Sinatra.

Here's a nice quote:

Cottler was proud of his standing among session men. Friedwald recounts Billy May's story of Cottler laying down the law to Bobby Darin:

Anyhow, the first date we did started out with some bright tune, and it had a big fat introduction, and Irv had a drum break in bars seven and eight of this introduction. So we played the introduction, and Irv played the drum break. Then Darin, who was a smart asshole kid, stopped the band and walked over to Irv and said, "Now I'll tell you how I want this played." Oops! And Irv stood up and stared him down and said, "You sing the songs, I play the drums, see? Don't fuck with me." That was the end of it. There was no trouble after that.

[Chas]

A Web search yields a recording date of July 5, 6 1960 .

As for the Kent label please see : www.bsnpubs.com/modern/kent.html

As for who " Kess " might be , could it be guitarist Barney Kessel??

Edited December 3, 2005 by Chas

[JSngry]

Maxwell Davis was a key figure in the L.A. R&B scene of the 1950s as tenorist, arranger, and producer. He also led a series of big band "tribute" albums for Crown. Crown, like Kent, was a Bihari brothers label. The Biahri brothers' story is an integral part of the Los Angeles R&B (and jazz, to a lesser extent) of the 1940s and 1950s, and their labels (Modern, RPM. Kent, & Crown) were significant.

Jewel Grant was an alto player who played on a lot of L.A.-base R&B sides that Davis was involved in, but he also had jazz chops, and made some recordings (mostly as a section player) in that idiom.

Ray Linn was a veteran trumpeter who played with, a.o., Tommy Dorsey & Woody Herman. He was an early convert to bebop, but eventually became a studio player and eventually shifted back to a more traditional approach.

Gene Estes was/is one of L.A.'s leading studio percussionists. Credits too long to mention, but he was part of "The Wrecking Crew" that virtually created and defined 1960s California Pop.

[ghost of miles]

Maxwell Davis was a key figure in the L.A. R&B scene of the 1950s as tenorist, arranger, and producer. He also led a series of big band "tribute" albums for Crown. Crown, like Kent, was a Bihari brothers label. The Biahri brothers' story is an integral part of the Los Angeles R&B (and jazz, to a lesser extent) of the 1940s and 1950s, and their labels (Modern, RPM. Kent, & Crown) were significant.

Love, love, LOVE Maxwell Davis. He's all over the Charles Brown and Amos Milburn Mosaic sets... man, does somebody need to do a decent article/essay about him and his place in mid-20th century West Coast R & B and jazz.

[Harold_Z]

Love, love, LOVE Maxwell Davis. He's all over the Charles Brown and Amos Milburn Mosaic sets... man, does somebody need to do a decent article/essay about him and his place in mid-20th century West Coast R & B and jazz.

WORD !

[Guest]

from that bsn page:

Modern got into the 33 1/3 album market very early, issuing a series of 10 inch LPs starting in 1950. Most of the issues in this series are unknown because the company did not list their releases in the Schwann Long Playing Record Catalogs of the period, a practice that continued thoughout the history of the company.

was there a commercial advantage to not listing in Schwann?

[Chuck Nessa]

was there a commercial advantage to not listing in Schwann?

Only if you can make money by hiding your product.

[Guest]

interesting point. from what ive read today about this label and its subsideraries, it seems as these Bihari fellows are just the type of L.A. producers who had 1 foot in the legitimate record bussiness, and 1 foot in the side, which today is usally termed, "underground." does anyone know any more details about this label, besides the few shreads found on the internet?

I am currently in the process of making cdr's of approx. 20 hours of studio-recorded modern jazz, circa 1960 to 1966. I am going to dub the relevant audio off my friend's collection of underground, yet still commerically destributed 8mm "girlie" loops, made primarily in the New York and Los Angeles areas. These films were shown in 3rd rate movies houses, and in back room coin operated film machines. in the early days, they even were shown by travelling salesmen, who would hop from mens club to mens club, all over the country. There have been times when i could have sworn that i heard familar jazz musicians within these soundtracks. Many have a true west coast jazz feel, with arrangements for vibes, flute, bass and light snare (no piano). ---as good as any bud shank/bob cooper Lp!! this is why i feel it is necessary to document this.

The other half of the equation is for me to finish up the cds, and mail them to one of the jazz historians here on the board. i have read a number of your posts mr. chuck nessa and you seem to know what youre doing over there-- if you would enjoy hearinng and possibly idenifiying some of the jazz on my cds, id be glad to send them your way when they are finished. im probably also going to make a set to give to someone more locally, such as the jazz people over at Berkley.

[JSngry]

Didn't Aric mention something about Dexter playing on some porn film?

[ghost of miles]

Didn't Aric mention something about Dexter playing on some porn film?

Yep--I remember that thread quite well. will have to hunt around and see if I can dig it up.

Found it:

Modern Jazz in 1950s/60s sex films

[Guest]

intresting that its been brought up here before- i was unaware of the dexter film- i know there is a performance video of dexter at that club, but i never heard of an art film shot there! the cds should be ready in a few weeks- if anyone is up to receiving a set, just send me a private message to set it up.