New Hazel Scott Classics release

[ghost of miles]

Well, Classics, they put out a lot of stuff that nobody else will touch, God bless 'em, but their omissions sometimes drive me nuts. I was really happy to pick up the recent Hazel Scott 1939-45 release--heretofore I've heard only a couple of cuts from this period on a Bluebird "Women in Jazz" anthology. So yesterday I'm sitting around reading Michael Denning's THE CULTURAL FRONT (great book on 30's political/art movements), in which Scott receives some discussion. Denning mentions two tracks that Scott recorded in 1940 on a 78 for the Theater Arts Committee (don't ask unless you're a serious 30's radical buff like me): "The Yanks Aren't Coming" (non-interventionist tune, obviously) and "Mene, Mene, Tekel" (a song from the leftwing musical PINS AND NEEDLES, written by Harold Rome).

They ain't on the new Classics. I'm sure they were either too obscure to be known, or else Classics couldn't find a copy (wouldn't surprise me). In any case, AMG doesn't list any recordings of either tune w/Hazel Scott as a performer; does anybody out there in Internet land have this music, or even know of it?

[jazzbo]

Classics probably didn't consider these "commercial recordings" which is their thrust. . . . Sounds as if these were privately commissioned and pressed or some such.

I've never heard of them or heard them. I guess I'll sleep at night. . .

Edited October 20, 2003 by jazzbo

[ghost of miles]

Classics probably didn't consider these "commercial recordings" which is their thrust. . . . Sounds as if these were privately commissioned and pressed or some such.

I've never heard of them or heard them. I guess I'll sleep at night. . .

How can you not share my zest for 1940 Popular Front agitprop?

Yeah, they were pressed by the Theater Arts Committee, a leftwing NYC group. (Denning's footnote lists them as "TAC 3"--I don't imagine too many of these puppies are floating around!) Frankly, it's the kind of thing more likely to pop up on a Bear Family collection, but a quick check of the SONGS FOR POLITICAL ACTION box yielded them not.

[jazzbo]

It's the sort of thing a label like Jazz Oracle or Frog would include (if the artist were in their scope). . . . It is frustrating that Classics doesn't, but whatchagonna do? I could lose sleep, really I could, but I've decided I've lost enough!

It's a nice cd though, the Classics, and I'm glad they got around to the lovely Ms. Scott!

[mikeweil]

I'd say they're too obscure so they didn't know they existed - Bruyninckx doesn't have them either.

[ghost of miles]

Currently working on a Night Lights Hazel Scott show, and while "The Yanks Aren't Coming" is probably something that wouldn't make the final cut anyway, even if I could track it down--it does appear that it popped up at one point on an LP of music from Pins and Needles, as well as the aforementioned Theater Arts Committee 78:

Hazel Scott "The Yanks Aren't Coming"

 

Edited October 12, 2020 by ghost of miles