Roy Eldridge ...

[neveronfriday]

On the 27th of January, Universal will be releasing "The Complete Verve Roy Eldridge Studio Sessions" (7 CDs) here in Germany.

The price is quite stiff. Amazon.de lists it at EURO 122,99. (But, Mosaic has this set at $119 plus postage).

Let's hope 2001 picks it up soon.

Cheers!

Edited January 24, 2004 by deus62

[Clunky]

I orderd mine direct from Mosaic and reckon it still cost me less (allowing for postage and tax) than the Amazon Germany price (When ordering from the UK)

Just started listening to set and it's clearly a good one. The Diz and Roy sessions have more presence and bass than the single Verve CD from 1995. tht'a the only session that I was familiar with. Oscar on Organ is indeed real Ice rink stuff but still acceptable in the main. The first string session on disc one isn't as saccharine as you might fear but I doubt it'll be played as much as the rest of the set.

[JSngry]

Got it for Christmas, finally popped it last night, got through the first 5 CDs.

EXCELLENT!

The sides w/Benny Carter are surprisingly NASTY! "Close your eyes"? I don't THINK so - ain't not telling what might happen if I do...

Great, GREAT set. Avoid the future panic and buy now. Seriously.

[montg]

I recently recieved mine as a birthday present and opened it over the weekend... I'm through the first couple of discs and I'm loving every minute. Dan Morgenstern makes a good point in the liners about the tempo on some of these songs being somewhat obsolete these days. Kind of a mid tempo blues that builds and builds in intensity..when Roy reaches the fiery end where he's in the upper register it sucks the breath right out of me. Great stuff. Onto the jam session material next. ALso, props to Ray Brown on these first few sessions...coming through clearly and keeping everything swinging.

[JSngry]

Dan Morgenstern makes a good point in the liners about the tempo on some of these songs being somewhat obsolete these days.

Don't I know it. You can NOT, as a rule, call that type of tempo these days - it will inevitably either slow down or speed up before you know it. It's as if that perspective on experiencing life no longer exists.

[DrJ]

Off topic a bit, but this tempo thing is damned interesting to me. I suspect Jim is right about it being a "different time, different experiences" thing, the ubiquity of rock and other strongly backbeat-oriented music has to have had a huge influence on all the post-rock and roll era drummers.

One of the things that bothers me most about a lot of recent jazz is the tempo...I'm not a fogey who hates all things rock, but one thing that DOES often bug the heck out of me is the unmistakeable rock feel that some younger drummers impart in otherwise more "classic" or "straight ahead" jazz sessions. It just don't jibe, folks.

Partly it's the emphases and rhythmic displacements they use, but tempo is definitely also an issue. It's either far too slow, in which case the backbeat they're either riding or strongly implying comes WAY too much to the fore and everything sounds lethargic and plodding, or too fast, in which case it sounds like an acoustic jazz group with an inebriated thrash metal drummer sitting in.

A good example for me was McCoy Tyner's LAND OF GIANTS on Telarc recently. Tyner and Hutch are all over the job, and Charnett Moffett sounds good, but I just can't warm to Eric Harland's playing on drums...it just never sounds like a cohesive date due to this tension between what he's doing rhythmically and what the songs cry out for, at least to my ears.

Anyway, some of the young guys would definitely have trouble with the type of stuff Eldridge did I'm sure, and they also seldom get right that kind of medium up hard bop, lilting, almost "floating" tempo exemplified on a lot of dates led by Sonny Clark, and on dates where the Kelly/Chambers/Cobb axis was involved.

There are exceptions of course - real students of the "old school" like Kenny Washington for example. And I'm not saying I don't like rock-influenced jazz, but the thing is EVERYONE has to be playing in that mode for it to sound right.

[JSngry]

Yeah, it is a "different time, different experiences" thing, no doubt. We live in a world that moves at a totally different tempo and in a totally different rhythm than we used to. Plus, and perhaps more importantly, the concept of not needing to rush to "get there" is rapidly vanishing from our collective behavioral repertoire - it's all about getting it all ASAP and such. The only problem with instant gratification, as my partner-in-crime Pete Gallio likes to say, is that it ain't fast enough. None of that for me, ok?, but I seem to be in the minority.

I'm inclined to also think that the racial milieu of the times played a great part in all this as well. Who was it said that the subtext of Steppin Fetchitt was that he never hurried about anything because there was nothing worth hurrying to? I don't recall, and that's something else, but you can bet your boots that cats of Roy's era had an awareness of "taking your time" that was strongly reinforced by the social barriers that they faced. Now that those barriers have eased, we might have thrown the already clean baby out with the dirty bathwater. I don't know for sure.

But more about that some other time, perhaps...

I finished listening to the set last night, and the only bummer was disc 7. Half of it seems to be an ersatz Jackie Gleason/Bobby Hacket date, the other half and ersatz Jonah Jones Capitol date. Fine enough for what they are, but what they aren't is Roy Eldridge being Roy Eldridge, which the rest of the set is, and quite handsomely, thank you.

But that's 1 disc out of 7, leaving 6 full discs of totally exquisite music. More than good enough in my book. More than good enough.

A damn near essential set, AFAIC. I'm glad that for once I ordered (well, ok - urged loved ones to order for me as a Christmas gift) early in anticipation instead of at the last possible second in panic.

That seems more than fitting, all things above considered. I'm gonna take my time with this one.

[JSngry]

Up, just to maybe spur some interest,

Great stuff, y'all.

[paul secor]

Yeah, it is a "different time, different experiences" thing, no doubt. We live in a world that moves at a totally different tempo and in a totally different rhythm than we used to. Plus, and perhaps more importantly, the concept of not needing to rush to "get there" is rapidly vanishing from our collective behavioral repertoire - it's all about getting it all ASAP and such. The only problem with instant gratification, as my partner-in-crime Pete Gallio likes to say, is that it ain't fast enough. None of that for me, ok?, but I seem to be in the minority.

I'm inclined to also think that the racial milieu of the times played a great part in all this as well. Who was it said that the subtext of Steppin Fetchitt was that he never hurried about anything because there was nothing worth hurrying to? I don't recall, and that's something else, but you can bet your boots that cats of Roy's era had an awareness of "taking your time" that was strongly reinforced by the social barriers that they faced. Now that those barriers have eased, we might have thrown the already clean baby out with the dirty bathwater. I don't know for sure.

But more about that some other time, perhaps...

A bit off the subject of Roy Eldridge, but on the subject of time - I guess that this might explain why you don't hear any Jimmy Reed imitators/followers in the blues world these days. Jimmy Reed was a man who was never in a hurry, but he always got to where he was going.

[dig dis]

A bit off the subject of Roy Eldridge, but on the subject of time - I guess that this might explain why you don't hear any Jimmy Reed imitators/followers in the blues world these days. Jimmy Reed was a man who was never in a hurry, but he always got to where he was going.

[JSngry]

Up, just to maybe spur some interest,

Great stuff, y'all.

Again.

[montg]

Indeed. Coincidentally, I made a back-up copy of the disc with Benny Carter a few nights ago and it's been in my headphone set since--the Carter session may be the highlight of a box filled with highlights.

[B. Goren.]

the Carter session may be the highlight of a box filled with highlights.

[montg]

I recently came across a review of this set from NPR.

eldridge review

warning: hearing the excerpts of the music during this review will cause anyone on the fence to immediately go to the mosaic web site and purchase it--the music is THAT good!

[JSngry]

Yes. It is!

[Kalo]

This sounds great.

I haven't bought a Mosaic in ages, and my funds are stretched rather thin of late.

But I gots a birthday coming...

[ghost of miles]

Revisiting this set while working on an upcoming Night Lights Eldridge centennial program and just wanted to say this remains one of my favorite Mosaic boxes to ever be released.

[colinmce]

Any recommendations re: individual albums, preferably available on CD?

[miles65]

Any recommendations re: individual albums, preferably available on CD?

My favorite is the session with Benny Carter. Just reissued on the Poll Winners label Roy Eldridge & Benny Carter Urbane Jazz.

It has all the previously unissued material copied from the Mosaic wich are missing on the Verve issue Benny Carter New Jazz Sounds The Urbane Sessions.

Remco

[sidewinder]

This was one of the ones that Zweitausendeins had for about 30 euros 'back in the day', which must be one of the greatest Mosaic deals ever.

[Big Beat Steve]

I don't have very much from Roy Eldridge's Verve period but am listening to one of the 10in LPs released at the time (featuring Dale's Wail, Roy's Riff, Rocking Chair a.o.) after having come across this thread (which I had not seen earlier as this was long before I had discovered the forum). Am wondering what kind of obsolete tempo everybody is referring to. If it is that bouncy medium tempo as found on the above 10-incher too, then just for the record - this tempo is eminently popular with swing, jive and jitterbug dancers today (it a subculture for sure, but one that is quite alive), especially as a warm-up for faster tempos or for a somewhat more relaxed spell on the dancefloor (nobody, not even real swing dancing pros can dance to the flagwavers all the time).

So rest assured that this tempo isn't that obsolete. It just is a matter of really having the feel for the music (which apparently the drummers mentioned above don't have).

Edited January 8, 2011 by Big Beat Steve