Record Release Dates from the 1950's and 60's

[crispi]

Hi fellow jazzers

I've been watching this forum for a while and this is my first post here. I'll get right to the topic.

I'm interested in finding out the release dates of jazz labels such as Riverside, Prestige and Blue Note. Nowadays it sometimes seems pretty hard to find info, especially since a lot of records are erroneously listed on the internet as having been released the year they were recorded, which is often false especially in the case of Prestige. For instance Miles Davis' classic quintet recordings from 1956 were released in 1957 (Cookin'), 1958 (Relaxin'), 1959 (Workin') and 1961 (Steamin'), which is very interesting from a historical point of view (at least for me.)

In the case of Blue Note this is an easier task, because you can guess by the catalog number, although I'm pretty sure they didn't release their stuff in that same order, because sometimes they would assign numbers and issue the records later. I'm especially baffled by Riverside, where Bill Evans seems to have released a lot of records in 1961-1962, and judging by the catalog numbers, there were more than 200 (!?!) releases from the record company these two years. Can this be true? Or did the stuff get released later, along the way? (On the other hand, Riverside went bankrupt in 1964 I guess, so maybe they did in fact release so much stuff...)

Any links from the 'net would be helpful. I've already searched in the usual places like Discogs or Wikipedia but they often have incomplete information. I'm particularly interested about the release dates of Coltrane's Prestige albums and Bill Evans I've already mentioned.

Thanks a lot,

crispi

[medjuck]

I'm not much help, but you've already helped me. I've been trying for years to find out the dates of the Miles Prestige releases. Do you by any chance know the release dates of any of the others besides the Quintet records?

[Niko]

not really of help either, for particular release estimates, you can of course sometimes use google books and look whether it was advertised or reviewed in billboard...

[Fer Urbina]

I don't know if it'll have everything you're looking for, but you should check Billboard magazine. It's online and searchable thru Google.

For instance, search for Prestige 1949-1969.

Good luck,

F

[Victor Christensen]

Sometimes All Music Guide (AMG) have the release date besides the recording date(s)

Vic

[Stonewall15]

Why is the release date important? To me it seems that the recording date is what matters. Excuse me for my ignorance.

[medjuck]

Why is the release date important? To me it seems that the recording date is what matters. Excuse me for my ignorance.

Because it gives you a sense of when people first heard it and could be influenced by it. Although many musicians began adding numbers to their live repertoires immediately after (or even before) they recorded them, some didn't do so until their records were released.

[crispi]

Why is the release date important? To me it seems that the recording date is what matters. Excuse me for my ignorance.

Because it gives you a sense of when people first heard it and could be influenced by it. Although many musicians began adding numbers to their live repertoires immediately after (or even before) they recorded them, some didn't do so until their records were released.

Exactly. I didn't really give release dates much thought before, but if you are studying the effect that certain recordings had on the rest of the scene, it's important to know when it actually happened. It doesn't really count if an important record was recorded in (say) 1961, if in fact it was released (and heard for the first time) many years later.

To answer your other question, medjuck, it was plain old Wikipedia that has the release dates, and I think they're correct, as Prestige sought out to slowly release those sessions in order to cash in on Miles' popularity on Columbia Records.

[crispi]

I don't know if it'll have everything you're looking for, but you should check Billboard magazine. It's online and searchable thru Google.

For instance, search for Prestige 1949-1969.

Good luck,

F

Thanks very much for the tip!

[JSngry]

It doesn't really count if an important record was recorded in (say) 1961, if in fact it was released (and heard for the first time) many years later.

Unless it's a document of something important/influential that was happening live at the time that for one reason or another didn't get released until it had already made an impact.

Remember, the story/history/evolution/etc of 20th Century jazz only partially involves records...ultimately, records are really just snapshots.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

what about in those prestige records pamplet catalogs ive seen on ebay recentlty, would they be in those?

[Big Beat Steve]

Some more suggestions about where to look for record release dates (at least approximate ones):

- Down Beat (Record Reviews yearbooks as well as individual issues which may also carry ads for new releases and give clues as to which release number was the most current one at which date in the catalog of the respective label)

- Down Beat Yearboks

- Same for Metronome (yearbooks - with lists of most important record releases of the year - and individual issues)

- "Jazz'n Pops - A comprehensive Catalog of Jazz and Popular Longplay Records" (issued regularly at that time) and similar record catalogs

- Record label flyers and catylogs, as suggested by Chewy

[medjuck]

Someone once suggested that the Schwan catalogue would be a good source of release information. There seems to be an on-line version for classical music but not for anything else. I would presume that some libraries would have a complete run but I've never found one that did.