Savoy (Denon) Reissues

[kh1958]

I found one of these yesterday, not a very common occurrence anymore. The title was puzzling, Jazz South Pacific--a jazz version of the soundtrack to South Pacific? No, it's a live recording from a jazz tour of military bases in the South Pacific (and Korea) circa 1951-52. A nice group too--J.J. Johnson, Howard McGhee, Oscar Pettiford, Ketter Betts, Charlie Rich and Rudy Williams (on tenor). I don't recall hearing Rudy Williams before, (only hearing the Mingus composition Eulogy for Rudy Williams), but he sounds like a fine tenor player.

[Big Beat Steve]

This should be the material that was on that Savoy twofer LP reissued under Howard

McGhee's name.

A trouble-laden tour featuring an irascible Oscar Pettiford, according to the liner notes.

BTW, check your record collection, MG - you might have heard Rudy Williams before. He was featured heavily with Al Cooper's Savoy Sultans of the late 30s.

[Christiern]

This thread is a sad reminder that I had all the Denons--and they were stolen from me.

[jazzbo]

Bummer Chris! Such a great series to have.

But then, you have SO MUCH!

Edited June 23, 2008 by jazzbo

[Bluerein]

Yeah I bought a lot of them in Manhattan (between 8th and 9th av and 23rd street if I remember correctly). Someone sold those on the street in front of the Leo House (very strange)!!!!

Edited June 23, 2008 by Bluerein

[AndrewHill]

A local Half Price just acquired two boxes of jazz cds last week. A lot of Concor-like stuff but they had a handfull of the Denon/Savoy releases as well. Had most of them like the JJ and Kai but they had a couple by Charlie Byrd and Marian McPartland that I've never seen before.

Has anyone heard the Byrd? Its called 'Jazz Recital':

Edited June 23, 2008 by Holy Ghost

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

If anyone's desperate to complete a collection and get a copy of Ronnell Bright's 'Bright's Spot,' Half.com just sent me a 'heads up' e-mail. Took awhile...I requested it about 18 months ago and have long since found one. The seller wants something like $40.

[Big Beat Steve]

40 bucks for that reissue CD?? Holy s..... !

Seems like my Savoy/Denon CDs from that series I bought in 2001 or so in our local "Zweitausendeins" shop at something like 10 Deutschmarks apiece were a pretty good investment!

[AmirBagachelles]

I think these were great reissues, great material and best possible sound and its tough to ask for more than that. How many Lester Young titles were there in this series (purple spine, yellow letters)? I have one that I love, called Lester's Blue or something. I am always tempted to buy from this series at used stores.

[jazzbo]

I believe there were three, Blue Lester, and The Immortal. . . as well as the Master's Touch.

[Big Beat Steve]

Yeah maybe ... but AFAIK most of the CDs from that series were exact duplicates of 50s LP's (which in case of the Lester Young recordings already were reissues), so the Lester Young material has been reissued countless times by Savoy and its various offspins in various guises. And not ALL those reissue pressings can possibly be crap.

[jazzbo]

I'll agree with AB that the Savoy/Denon Pres sides may be the best sound on CD of the material. . . I prefer them slightly to the two cd Complete set from Savoy/Atlantic and to other sources I've heard like Masters of Jazz.

[garthsj]

That Gryce half-session with Monk is a masterpiece. Three of the four tracks were new Monk tunes that he almost never played again.

Bertrand.

Absolutely. This session deserves to be better known and appreciated.

I am just re-reading this whole thread. One of my great joys as a teenager was the somewhat accidental acquisition of the original 12" Signal label version of this album, with its beautiful hard board sleeve. I knew virtually nothing of the musicians involved but it set me on the path of my great love of the music of Monk, Gryce, and particularly Art Farmer ... This is truly a classic album (both sessions) and deserves to receive much more attention than it has.

[gmonahan]

Yeah maybe ... but AFAIK most of the CDs from that series were exact duplicates of 50s LP's (which in case of the Lester Young recordings already were reissues), so the Lester Young material has been reissued countless times by Savoy and its various offspins in various guises. And not ALL those reissue pressings can possibly be crap.

Yeah, if memory serves, Denon is Japanese, and the Japanese have always preferred to reissue the original album with original liners and no alternative or bonus tracks...but with excellent sound. Go figure!

Greg Mo

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

If anyone's desperate to complete a collection and get a copy of Ronnell Bright's 'Bright's Spot,' Half.com just sent me a 'heads up' e-mail. Took awhile...I requested it about 18 months ago and have long since found one. The seller wants something like $40.

...still there with a major price drop ($16).

http://product.half.ebay.com/Brights-Spot_...684QQprZ3047761

[peterintoronto]

I am bumping this thread to say that I just picked up one of these yesterday. I have about 60 of these wonderful CDs, but I had never seen this before:

IT IS ESSENTIAL!!! I am blasting it through my headphones now, and it sounds so tight and intuitive. It's supposedly early modern creative music (according to the allmusic.com review), but I think it's completely accessible and structured, so don't worry.

I don't know if this is a super rare one or not, but just like the Valdo Williams and Charles Moffet ones, you should check it out!

Edited March 15, 2010 by peterintoronto

[felser]

I am bumping this thread to say that I just picked up one of these yesterday. I have about 60 of these wonderful CDs, but I had never seen this before:

IT IS ESSENTIAL!!! I am blasting it through my headphones now, and it sounds so tight and intuitive. It's supposedly early modern creative music (according to the allmusic.com review), but I think it's completely accessible and structured, so don't worry.

I don't know if this is a super rare one or not, but just like the Valdo Williams and Charles Moffet ones, you should check it out!

Agreed that is a great date. Also agree that it is not overly "difficult", even though it still sounds fresh all these decades later. Why didn't more ever come of Perry Robinson?

[Chas]

Agreed that is a great date. Also agree that it is not overly "difficult", even though it still sounds fresh all these decades later.

In my view there is nothing remotely outré about the writing or the playing on the date . In addition , given Robinson's sound , it might even be fair to characterize it as a 'clarinet record for those who don't like clarinet' .

Why didn't more ever come of Perry Robinson?

More what ? He's recorded quite a bit over the years .

I should add that I think Bill Smith's recordings for Contemporary , RCA and Epic might appeal to those who like Robinson's approach on Funk Dumpling .

Edited March 16, 2010 by Chas

[brownie]

I am bumping this thread to say that I just picked up one of these yesterday. I have about 60 of these wonderful CDs, but I had never seen this before:

IT IS ESSENTIAL!!! I am blasting it through my headphones now, and it sounds so tight and intuitive. It's supposedly early modern creative music (according to the allmusic.com review), but I think it's completely accessible and structured, so don't worry.

I don't know if this is a super rare one or not, but just like the Valdo Williams and Charles Moffet ones, you should check it out!

This was the cover of the original Savoy LP release

Never saw that vinyl!

[Chas]

Harvey , the artist who painted the Funk Dumpling cover and many others for Savoy , is still something of a mystery . View his work and learn more about his possible identity at this interesting website .

[felser]

Why didn't more ever come of Perry Robinson?

More what ? He's recorded quite a bit over the years .

Allmusic shows eight recordings as a leader in the past 44 years, almost all of those on obscuro labels. And I've never heard or come across any of them, even his ESP_Disk.

[jazzbo]

I have 4 other Robinson dates . . . like the Savoy best.

[AndrewHill]

Harvey , the artist who painted the Funk Dumpling cover and many others for Savoy , is still something of a mystery . View his work and learn more about his possible identity at this interesting website .

Interesting site, thanks for posting. I knew Savoy recorded gospel but I never really grasped just how many gospel albums Savoy released until I saw how many covers Harvey painted for them. Looks like nobody posted The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra there either.

[peterintoronto]

Interesting site, thanks for posting. I knew Savoy recorded gospel but I never really grasped just how many gospel albums Savoy released until I saw how many covers Harvey painted for them. Looks like nobody posted The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra there either.

The jazz albums are on a separate page: http://www.harveyalbums.com/27201.html

[AndrewHill]

Interesting site, thanks for posting. I knew Savoy recorded gospel but I never really grasped just how many gospel albums Savoy released until I saw how many covers Harvey painted for them. Looks like nobody posted The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra there either.

The jazz albums are on a separate page: http://www.harveyalbums.com/27201.html

Thanks. I was looking for a page two, but I guess I didn't see it. It did seem hard to believe that they would exclude the Ra.