"Honking"

[mjzee]

Dusty Groove carried this last year:

A great collection of work by an under-collected giant – tenor saxophonist Al Sears, a man with a tone as big as his glasses! The set features all of Sears' sides as a leader for labels that include RCA Victor, Coral, King, and International – working in mid-size groups that include lesser-known players from the harder edge of the swing spectrum. There's a nice R&Bish quality to many of the sides, and the set features 23 tracks in all – with titles that include "Fo Yah", "Mag's Alley", "Huffin & Puffin", "Baltimore Bounce", "Shake Hands", "Brown Boy", "Searsy", and "Nell Don't Wear No Button Up Shoes".

[Big Beat Steve]

@Late:

Al Sears honks far less on "Swing's The Thing" (which is NOT meant to detract from the record at all - in fact I have a hunch many around here are wary of the entire honking saxes scene, come what may 😁- and regardless of how much "free screeching" they enthuse about elsewhere ... ). It's just a different bag that's stimulating in a somewhat different way - just like the later Willis Jackson recordings AFTER his "honking" period.

(BTW, Illinous Jacquet - probably THE firstest among the first-generation honkers - also did an LP with the same title of "Swing's The Thing" in the later 50s. Did they all try to distance themselves from honking with this sort of title - as if someone had asked them one time too often "So honking is the thing with you??" 😄)

The "Jazz Archives" compilation seems to be a bit of a hodgepodge to me. The Duke Ellington sides (including the Ellington sidemen small groups) have been around in various other repackagings. So if you have any sizable number of these you'll tally up overlaps. And his King leader session IMO is best collated (and in its entirety, above all!) on the "Groove Station - King/Federal/DeLuxe Sax Blasters Vol. 1" CD on Westside WESA 823. Which places the Al Sears tracks in the actual context where they (better ) belong. 

At first sight the one major benefit of the "Jazz Archives" compilation is that it (almost) avoids overlaps with the "Sear-Iously" CD on Bear Family BCD 15668 that has all his Coral, RCA and Herald leader sessions from 1949 to 1956. (Have you checked out THAT one ?)

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by Big Beat Steve

[Big Beat Steve]

On 1/8/2023 at 1:45 AM, mjzee said:

Dusty Groove carried this last year:

A great collection of work by an under-collected giant – tenor saxophonist Al Sears, a man with a tone as big as his glasses! The set features all of Sears' sides as a leader for labels that include RCA Victor, Coral, King, and International – working in mid-size groups that include lesser-known players from the harder edge of the swing spectrum. There's a nice R&Bish quality to many of the sides, and the set features 23 tracks in all – with titles that include "Fo Yah", "Mag's Alley", "Huffin & Puffin", "Baltimore Bounce", "Shake Hands", "Brown Boy", "Searsy", and "Nell Don't Wear No Button Up Shoes".

Ocium seems to have a good reputation in R&B circles for their compilations (see "Blues & Rhythm" mag, for ex.).
But make sure you won't get your fingers slapped by the usual suspects by endorsing that label here. It is a Public Domain label based in Spain (regardless of who it actually belongs/belonged to - it's the modus operandi).  Nuff said, isn't it?

As for this actual reissue - no, it doesn't include all leader dates by Al Sears. His entire output on Herald and on the RCA subsidiary Groove is missing.
In short, if you (i.e. those trying to round up ALL his reader dates) can either live with skipping the first two tracks done for International or search them out on an older (French) Riverboat LP, then a more comprehensive picture is provided by the two Westside and Bear Family CDs I mentioned.

BTW, is this Ocium reissue an actual CD or a CD-R?

Edited January 9, 2023 by Big Beat Steve

[JSngry]

My copy of that Ocium thing is about a decade old and IIRC it came with some kind of "enhanced" feature, like a discography or some pictures or something.

[mikeweil]

On 1/9/2023 at 11:52 AM, Big Beat Steve said:

Al Sears honks far less on "Swing's The Thing"   

He doesn't utter a single honk on the whole album! That is the side Johnny Hodges hired him for. Very nice album.

Edited January 14, 2023 by mikeweil

[Big Beat Steve]

20 hours ago, mikeweil said:

He doesn't utter a single honk on the whole album!

It sems like I made a mistake in not adding any smileys.
(I am aware of what you allude to. To refresh my memories of the album - which I had heard at a fellow collector's home years ago - I did listen to the album on Youtube again before sending my post.)