Look What I Found On Amazon

[Brownian Motion]

Very scarce book. Published in 1928 by Melrose Brothers.

Edited August 7, 2010 by Brownian Motion

[jeffcrom]

Too cool! I've been looking for a copy for years.

Swedish trumpeter Bent Persson recorded these on four albums, now reissued on three CDs. This quote from Elmer Schoebel is from his website:

" During the Chicago days I was sharing office with Walter Melrose of the Melrose Music Co.. One day, in 1927, Melrose said he was going to publish a set of Louis Armstrong breaks, but there was a technical problem of getting the Armstrong "hot" breaks down on paper. Finally, Melrose and I hit on the idea of having Armstrong record his breaks. We bought a $15 Edison cylinder phonograph and 50 wax cylinders, gave them to Louis and told him to play. The cylinders were duly filled up by Armstrong and the "breaks" were copied into written form. I transcribed the "breaks", which were published. These were not orchestrated at any time and were not made for that purpose. I had all the records (cylinders), later I turned them over to Melrose. When I was in Chicago, in 1949, a collector was offering £1.000 per cylinder but Melrose and I could not find them."

The Elmer Schoebel story, Doctor Jazz No. 32 (Oct. 1968)

Someone put some scans here.

Edited August 7, 2010 by jeffcrom

[JSngry]

Didn't Charles Colin do something similar w/Bird?

[jeffcrom]

Didn't Charles Colin do something similar w/Bird?

I've got a book of Charlie Parker transcriptions I bought almost thirty years ago that includes six "unrecorded" Bird solos - presumably recorded by Bird on tape or acetate and transcribed by Gil Fuller. My book is in the Jazz Masters series, published by Amsco in 1979. In the forward is this paragraph:

The first six solos in the book, "Oop Bop Sh-Bam," "Good Dues Blues," "One Bass Hit," "Ray's Idea," "That's Earl, Brother," and "Things to Come," are taken from a publication entitled Be Bop Instrumental Choruses for Alto Sax published by J. J. Robbins & Sons in 1949. These "6 original choruses on outstanding be-bop themes" were actually arranged by Charlie Parker and transcribed by Walter "Gil" Fuller.

And it looks like Mr. Fuller selected six pieces for which he had a piece of the publishing action.

[umum_cypher]

Maybe the first book of transcriptions, but not the first published book on jazz.

[Brownian Motion]

Maybe the first book of transcriptions, but not the first published book on jazz.

I contend that a book of transcriptions of actual jazz performances by the musician universally regarded as the greatest of early jazz musicians is a book about jazz. That it is a musical description of the music rather than a verbal description only serves to eliminate uncertainty and misinterpretation, for as Henry Osgood demonstrated two years previous to "50 Hot Choruses" in his book "So This Is Jazz", calling a music "jazz" doesn't make it jazz.

[umum_cypher]

Maybe the first book of transcriptions, but not the first published book on jazz.

I contend that a book of transcriptions of actual jazz performances by the musician universally regarded as the greatest of early jazz musicians is a book about jazz. That it is a musical description of the music rather than a verbal description only serves to eliminate uncertainty and misinterpretation, for as Henry Osgood demonstrated two years previous to "50 Hot Choruses" in his book "So This Is Jazz", calling a music "jazz" doesn't make it jazz.

Hey, not disputing that this is a book on jazz, a jazz book, a book pertaining to jazz, or whatever. But there are earlier books on/about/pertaining to jazz. Schaeffner and Coeuroy's Le Jazz is from 1926. It's possible there are others. That's all.

[David Ayers]

Maybe the first book of transcriptions, but not the first published book on jazz.

I contend that a book of transcriptions of actual jazz performances by the musician universally regarded as the greatest of early jazz musicians is a book about jazz. That it is a musical description of the music rather than a verbal description only serves to eliminate uncertainty and misinterpretation, for as Henry Osgood demonstrated two years previous to "50 Hot Choruses" in his book "So This Is Jazz", calling a music "jazz" doesn't make it jazz.

Hey, not disputing that this is a book on jazz, a jazz book, a book pertaining to jazz, or whatever. But there are earlier books on/about/pertaining to jazz. Schaeffner and Coeuroy's Le Jazz is from 1926. It's possible there are others. That's all.

Whether there is one earlier than Coeuroy I don't know, but I don't think so. Henry O Osgood's So This is Jazz was published in Boston also in 1926. There's another 1926 book by Paul Whiteman called Jazz Illustrated which I have never seen. It is nearly 300 pages. Paul Bernhard's Jazz: Ein Musikalische Zeitfrage is 1927 (never seen it). Robert Mendl's The Appeal of Jazz was published in London in 1927. There are other things then from 1928 onward. There may be other early ones I didn't find on this trawl. Ragtime Review began in December 1914. I don't know what was the first jazz consumer publication. Oh and there is a 1919 book on how to do jazz dances. Maybe someone has done the work on early jazz publication, I'd like to know. Oh and of course there are fiction and novels cashing in on jazz in various ways, notably Fitzgerald.

[Big Beat Steve]

Whether there is one earlier than Coeuroy I don't know, but I don't think so. Henry O Osgood's So This is Jazz was published in Boston also in 1926. There's another 1926 book by Paul Whiteman called Jazz Illustrated which I have never seen. It is nearly 300 pages. Paul Bernhard's Jazz: Ein Musikalische Zeitfrage is 1927 (never seen it). Robert Mendl's The Appeal of Jazz was published in London in 1927. There are other things then from 1928 onward. There may be other early ones I didn't find on this trawl. Ragtime Review began in December 1914. I don't know what was the first jazz consumer publication. Oh and there is a 1919 book on how to do jazz dances. Maybe someone has done the work on early jazz publication, I'd like to know. Oh and of course there are fiction and novels cashing in on jazz in various ways, notably Fitzgerald.

Check out your old copies of the DOWN BEAT ANNUAL. The 1963 issue has a lengthy feature with a rundown and brief descriptions of (U.S.) jazz books from the very beginning. It does mention the books by Whiteman and Osgood (see above) for the year 1926.

Edited August 12, 2010 by Big Beat Steve