Hazy Osterwald, RIP

[Big Beat Steve]

http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/panorama/schweiz_jazz_hazy_osterwald_gestorben_1.15330511.html

Sorry to hear his.

RIP

And thanks for plenty of entertaining music.

[king ubu]

Too bad - just read the articles on his 90th birthday... r.i.p. Hazy

[bichos]

he was maybe one of the last musicians who played with charlie parker (1949 paris). before he get "commercial" he made good jazz records (for example "perdido" from 1949 with flavio ambrosetti, ernst höllerhagen, toots thielemans, francis cuppieters, sonny lang and gil cuppini). i saw him a few years ago here live in concert. he was full of energy and you don´t saw his illness of parkinson (maybe because he was playing the vibes.....)

sorry bad joke. but i was amazed that he played jazz (swing) and not his commercial hit tunes. rip hazy!

keep boppin´

marcel

[Big Beat Steve]

Marcel, as for Hazy going "commercial", let's not be mistaken. His band had more swinging musicianship to offer than most other bands that went from swing jazz to more mainstream pop fare at that time.

If you can, check out his "Classic Collection 1951-1964" 4-CD box set (Strictly Jazz 6260052). There are not only (strongly) "jazz-flavored" tracks in there but also some amazing straight-ahead jazz, 1963/64 versions of tunes such as Milestones, Freddie Freeloader, I Remember Clifford and Sack O'Woe. I think it's fair to say he and his musicians tried to keep their jazz chops intact, even if as a side business only.

[king ubu]

Steve, do you happen to know this one:

Seems only two tunes are duplicated between the 4CD set and this single disc.

The box seems to be a bit difficult to find, got to search some more...

[Big Beat Steve]

No, never seen it before.

[king ubu]

some details here:

http://www.jazzindex.ch/de/album.php?Album=62534&Begriff=Hazy+Osterwald+And+His+Bands+-+%3D

[bichos]

Marcel, as for Hazy going "commercial", let's not be mistaken. His band had more swinging musicianship to offer than most other bands that went from swing jazz to more mainstream pop fare at that time.

If you can, check out his "Classic Collection 1951-1964" 4-CD box set (Strictly Jazz 6260052). There are not only (strongly) "jazz-flavored" tracks in there but also some amazing straight-ahead jazz, 1963/64 versions of tunes such as Milestones, Freddie Freeloader, I Remember Clifford and Sack O'Woe. I think it's fair to say he and his musicians tried to keep their jazz chops intact, even if as a side business only.

that´s true, he was more into the jazz"field" as for example hans "james" last or ernst mosch i have a wonderful ep on "opera-europäischer phonoclub" with his sextet (recordings from 1954) with tracks like "st. louis blues", "bach goes to town", "undecided", "star dust" and "cherokee".

i think they are also on the cd-box you´ve mentioned. when i speak of "commercial" i was refering to the link in the first post where they mentioned the "kriminal-tango" and other "pop" and "novelty-tunes". and they are of high quality, of course!

keep boppin´

marcel

[Big Beat Steve]

Thanks, King Ubu, while you added that link I did a search on Amazon and compared the track listing. 12 of the tracks duplicate Elite Special SJLP-6318 (first released in the 70s but in print fairly long - I bought mine new in the late 80s). Not sure whether the remaining 10 would warrant buying that CD.

These are commercially released recordings, it seems, whereas the 4-CD box set I mentioned above is made up of studio recordings made for Radio Zürich and Radio Geneva and intended for airplay only, it seems. So this may be the reason why they were able to take more chances with their repertoire.

Edited February 29, 2012 by Big Beat Steve

[king ubu]

You mean the music on the box is rather more adventurous (or jazzy) than that "rare jazz" disc? Just to clarify!

[Big Beat Steve]

I'd say so, yes. Jazzier, yes - more adventurous, not if you take all-out jazzmen like Mangelsdorff or Naura as a yardstick, but compared to Hazy's more mainstream output, yes, definitely. But you cannot compare it with that CD that you showed above because a good deal on that CD is made up of 40s big band recordings, and though that big band is very good IMO the overall sound is still a few steps away from the 50s Sextet recordings. A lot of the tracks on that 4-CD set have that unmistakable Hazy Osterwald Sextet sound, even when they venture into fairly straight-ahead jazz, while others that might best be described as "jazzed-up" instrumental pop still come across as "spiced up" versions of what you usually got to hear from them (no matter how good the commercially released versions were).

There are few titles included there that they also recorded commercially, but just as a case in point: "Violetta Rock" and "Whisky Time" were released commercially on Heliodor and are nice enough. But if you compare them to the radio versions you might say that for the latter recordings they decided to pull the stops. "Whisky Time" has those catchy vocal exhortations of the title of the tune every now and then throughout the track but whereas the calls on the Heliodor version sound like "May I call Whisky Time now, please?", on the radio version they sound like "Hey, Whisky Time, man!!".

See what I mean?

(Hard to imagine for those not familiar with the typical Hazy Osterwald Sextet sound and antics, but us others we should be able to figure out, right? )

Edited February 29, 2012 by Big Beat Steve

[king ubu]

Yes, I think I do understand

Honestly, I've not (at least consciously) heard a lot of his music yet... but my interest is piqued for sure, and I do enjoy some of this jazzed-up pop stuff if it's done well (Kaempfert, for instance, though that's a different sound).

Will look for the box and then see if I feel like exploring more.

[Big Beat Steve]

Actually, if you just want to listen into some of his jazzier stuff first and get to make the rounds at fleamarkets and garage sales, try to get hold of the record Marcel mentioned above ...

i have a wonderful ep on "opera-europäischer phonoclub" with his sextet (recordings from 1954) with tracks like "st. louis blues", "bach goes to town", "undecided", "star dust" and "cherokee".

... which actually is a 10" LP with 8 tracks including the 5 that Marcel mentions (I am not aware of an EP but it may have existed). The Swiss pressing more accessible to you is on the ExLibris label.

The German Opera (record club) label pressing isn't extremely rare so maybe the ExLibris one isn't either?

The 4-CD box I mentioned offers a wider variety, of course.

[king ubu]

Gee, I guess I'd have to go through virtually hundreds and hundreds of crappy James Last and Cap'n Cook LPs to find any Hazy vinyl here! He's not stored with anything that I'm regularly browsing for... never, ever saw an LP of his!

[bichos]

Actually, if you just want to listen into some of his jazzier stuff first and get to make the rounds at fleamarkets and garage sales, try to get hold of the record Marcel mentioned above ...

i have a wonderful ep on "opera-europäischer phonoclub" with his sextet (recordings from 1954) with tracks like "st. louis blues", "bach goes to town", "undecided", "star dust" and "cherokee".

... which actually is a 10" LP with 8 tracks including the 5 that Marcel mentions (I am not aware of an EP but it may have existed). The Swiss pressing more accessible to you is on the ExLibris label.

The German Opera (record club) label pressing isn't extremely rare so maybe the ExLibris one isn't either?

The 4-CD box I mentioned offers a wider variety, of course.

right, big beat steve, it´s not an ep, it´s a 10" lp with the tracks i´ve mentioned plus "six kicks", "headache" and "jump easy". called "the hazy osterwald show" and the nr. is 3401 (aufnahme des grammoclub ex libris zürich).

keep boppin´

marcel

[king ubu]

Listening to the 4CD set now... it's very nice, but I'm totally out of luck.

While playing mostly works, this seems to be a case of CDs that have been damaged by way of some sort of chemical process... the box was still sealed, but the CDs really look horrible, with spots and areas that look scratched. Some tracks won't play (and I've not reached the end of disc 3 yet, which looks worst) and only one of the discs would copy in EAC without any errors. Guess I'll have to ring up the shop where I bought it and ask what to do (I've bought it w/invoice, so I've not yet paid anything for it, luckily).

But the package, book and all, is splendid, and I do enjoy the music a lot! Some great tenor playing from Dennis Armitage (never heard of him before), lots of fine trumpet from Hazy (he was one of the first in Switzerland to grasp bebop, as far as I know), and plenty of good Höllerhagen... and now I've just reached the tracks were Werner Dies steps in for Höllerhagen, and he delivers some fine alto solos right away, too!

Edited March 10, 2012 by king ubu

[king ubu]

Rang up the shop and they will send replacement discs... they got a whole stack of the box, it seems.

It's not exactly cheap there, but shipping within Switzerland's free and it was the best offer I could find, after all:

http://www.phono-schop.ch/product_info.php/info/p4332_Osterwald-Hazy.html

[Big Beat Steve]

No, not cheap ... but if you calculate it per CD this amounts to about 15 or 16 euros per CD and this is not exactly uncommon (cf. Bear Family).

But maybe not the worst deal, considering that this set was rumoured to be out of print.

Glad you will be able to get an intact set now, and hope you will enjoy it.

[king ubu]

The guy told me on the phone that they have a whole pile of the box there... so it's not gone yet. I was afraid it was... it's not too commonly found on the internets. Also, to me it obviously feels a bit cheaper :-)

[king ubu]

Just watching "The Hazy Osterwald Story"... pretty funny.

And there's a great little "Man with the Golden Arm"/monkey joke while they're in London