Earl Hines Solo Recommendations

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ORIGINAL-ALBUM-COVER-ART-EARL-HINES-ANOTHER-MONDAY-DATE-1974-/352040701195?hash=item51f742cd0b:g:hz4AAOSwBOtZATt9

 

[HutchFan]

18 hours ago, paul secor said:

And as part of a 2 CD Red Baron/Sony set.

Cool!  I didn't know that.  

 

 

11 hours ago, chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez said:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ORIGINAL-ALBUM-COVER-ART-EARL-HINES-ANOTHER-MONDAY-DATE-1974-/352040701195?hash=item51f742cd0b:g:hz4AAOSwBOtZATt9

 

I have that 2-LP set, chewy. Some good stuff there.    

FYI: These recordings were reissued in 1974; they were originally made in 1955-56.

Edited May 3, 2017 by HutchFan

[Big Beat Steve]

21 hours ago, HutchFan said:

Hines' 1928 solo piano recordings for the QRS company are special.  I know they were reissued on a Milestone LP in the early-70s called A Monday Date: 1928.  (I don't know about digital reissues of this music. Sorry.)

 

 

FWIW, the QRS sessions were also reissued on 2 other LPs in slightly more recent times:

 

8 tracks are on "Earl Hines - His Piano 1928 - His Orchestra 1938" (Swing Classics ET 5) and the remaining 4 tracks (plus 2 takes each of his solo recordings from July 14, 1932) are on "57 Varieties" (CBS 63364 - No. 16 in the French CBS "Aimez-vous le Jazz" LP series):

https://www.discogs.com/de/Earl-Hines-57-Varieties/master/656542

I think the CBS reissue is the earlier of the two (1973, it seems) so the Swing Classics collector's label (ferom Sweden) maybe intentionally chose exactly those tracks not included on the CBS LP (which may have been way more accessible here in Europe than the Milestone LP at that time) to complete the full run of his early solos.

 

 

Edited May 3, 2017 by Big Beat Steve

[Chuck Nessa]

The QRS solos are  the first 8 tracks on this:

[Big Beat Steve]

Right .. the other 4, though recorded directly afterwards, were done for Okeh.
Missed this detail. So this is why CBS limited their reissue to those 4 tracks.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Big Beat Steve

[Late]

This disc appears to collect his early solo work, though the marketplace price is ... prohibitive. Maybe it's best just to pick up the Mosaic.

This disc looks really interesting. Anyone here happen to have it?

[Chuck Nessa]

IIRC this is a collection of early Victor masters.

[HutchFan]

1 hour ago, Late said:

This disc appears to collect his early solo work, though the marketplace price is ... prohibitive. Maybe it's best just to pick up the Mosaic.

I thought the Mosaic set didn't have the QRS solos -- just the OKeh.  Or am I mistaken???

[mikeweil]

You're right, the Mosaic box does not include the QRS tracks.

[Big Beat Steve]

Is there anything wrong (by "consensual wisdom" - by whomever ?) with the Okeh tracks?

Did Earl Hines' playing slump that badly within a day or two or what is all the hullaballoo about the QRS tracks - to the exclusion of the Okehs?
Or is it all about "rarity"?

I've just listened in to some from both sessions and cannot find fault either way. Except that fidelity seems to be a bit better on the CBS reissue.

BTW, isn't this maybe one of the cases and reasons where some might be a bit less than impressed by Mosaic's policy? Don't the QRS and Okeh tracks belong together in the discography of Earl Hines and in a thoughtfully done "comprehensive" reissue project? So Okeh was/is part of a major - fine, but would it have been that difficult to obtain some kind of clearance by whomever held the rights to the QRS or Hot Record Society (they seem to have reissued those tracks early on) masters/recordings and to those few tracks - provided they had not entered the public domain yet. Would this have been that difficult to someone "in the know" in the business?

 

Edited May 4, 2017 by Big Beat Steve

[HutchFan]

5 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Is there anything wrong (by "consensual wisdom" - by whomever ?) with the Okeh tracks?

No. I don't think so.

[Late]

On 5/4/2017 at 5:03 PM, Late said:

This disc looks really interesting. Anyone here happen to have it?

I ended up purchasing this disc (in link above). I'd recommend it. It was issued in 1987 by a UK label called Hermes, which is actually an imprint of the larger UK Nimbus label. Transfers are done by Morris Hunting (I don't know who that is) and are pretty good for 1987 — judicious/minimal use of noise reduction. If you're a fan of this period in jazz (1928-1930), this compilation is worth picking up — very listenable (i.e. no string of alternates to program out) as an "album." The vocals are usually just at the beginning of a song and constitute one or two lines — not the whole song, and not a vocal feature. I don't know if Morris Hunting was a tuba fan, but these transfers really bring out the "brass bass" without boosting it. It's a pleasure to listen to all the tuba lines (by different players, who are uniformly excellent), so if that's a thing you enjoy, that's another recommendation for this disc. The Tiny Parham tracks (even though I bought the disc for Hines) are really good.

 

Details:

Earl Hines

1. Sweet Ella May (vocal)

2. Everybody Loves My Baby (vocal)

3. Blue Nights

4. A Monday Date (Hines solo)

5. Chicago Rhythm

6. Good Little, Bad Little You (vocal)

7. Beau Koo Jack

 

Tiny Parham

8. Jungle Crawl

9. Dixieland Doin's

10. Cathedral Blues

11. Black Cat Moan

12. Nervous Tension

 

The Missourians

13. Ozark Mountain Blues

14. Market Street Stomp

 

Charlie Johnson

15. You Ain't The One

16. The Boy In The Boat

 

Jungle Town Stompers (Elmer Snowden)

17. African Jungle

18. Slow As Molasses

 

Musical Stevedores (Elmer Snowden)

19. Happy Rhythm

20. Honeycomb Harmony

total time: 63:06

[Mark Stryker]

Listening again this morning to “Quintessential Recording Session” (Chiaroscuro) from 1970. Good God. Might be the greatest of them all — I think in a one-artist, one-record challenge, it would be my pick for Hines. 

Edited November 13, 2018 by Mark Stryker

[mjzee]

Just noticed that Dusty Groove has this 5 LP set for $9.99.  If you like Hines, snap it up.  Two of the discs are a quartet with Budd Johnson.

https://www.dustygroove.com/item/558790/Earl-Hines:Father-Of-Modern-Jazz-Piano-5LP-box-set

[HutchFan]

30 minutes ago, mjzee said:

Just noticed that Dusty Groove has this 5 LP set for $9.99.  If you like Hines, snap it up.

Seconded. It's a great set!