Sonorama records

[Niko]

well, Hamburg and "Michael Naura Trio" is news, even though it only confirms my above guess... We just have to wait, which tracks they pick, but even this is relatively clear: The two sessions seem to have between 80 and 90 minutes each, but the tracks with Thompson are about 30 minutes in the first session and 40 minutes in the second, so they fit onto a single CD

[king ubu]

Yup, but Sonorama seems to either aim at 40 or at 75-80 minutes these days, mostly, as they will do a one or two LP set.

One of the recent OP releases runs on the short side, and somehow with this kind of jam session (I know they did rehearsals and all, but still) that means things are over about the moment when you really get into it.

[Clunky]

Received the Gullin LP this morning. Audio quality is pretty good although there are some issues. Overall it sounds a little rough but it's perfectly listenable, well above bootleg quality. I kind of regret getting the LP as the sound quality of the tape sources aren't really good enough to make the most of the vinyl medium. Plus the CD issue has extra tracks.

The music is as interesting for Gullin's fellow musicians as it for him. Rolf Billberg and Dexter G get plenty of space. Sahib Shihab plays some groovy flute over Cole Porter's I love you Even the rarely heard Harry Backlund can be heard. The track originally recorded under Flavio Ambrosetti sounds the least like Gullin's usual fare. My only gripe would be that i would interested to know the source and stories behind the tapes from which these tracks were culled. Given that of the four session sampled none contribute more than 12 minutes of music suggesting there might be more from those sessions - perhaps not. The liner notes really only offer Gullin's bio , some quotes from other musicians , no analysis of the music.

Minor gripes aside it's always good to have more Lars Gullin especially since Dragon appear to have stopped their output of his material.

[Niko]

I would guess that a double LP is possible for the Thompson ... if they just want to use half the music, they have to select heavily (the title shows that they use material from both sessions - could of course also be the case that they reissue the first and add some of the second as bonus tracks...) With the Gordon/Gullin/Shihab Session, it seems likely that this is connected to this documentary (music starting around minute 5, before that you just see how the rhythm section picks up Gullin at the train station etc)

 

 

in case anyone wonders about Dexter's date, she is apparently a well-known Danish actress who would in 1965 marry the pianist in the band Harold Goldberg, who was one of the managers of the Montmartre for a short time around 1962... more info here

http://www.danskefilm.dk/index2.html

and here

http://dvm.nu/files/musik_forskning/1996/mf1996_08.pdf

 

Edited April 25, 2016 by Niko

[Clunky]

Lucky Thompson's Bop & Ballads arrived today. It sounds excellent . The focus of the music is Lucky with him getting the majority of the  solo space. The only regret would be the minature size of the photos and the incomplete nature of each date. The producer has re-sequenced the tracks and mixed the two sessions about. The chosen track order works very nicely.

[Balladeer]

Well, well....

First of all every new album of LT makes me happy.
This album is no exception. You find plenty of Thompsons unique, beautiful soprano. As a special addition to LT repertoire there´s Lucky on "Summertime" - did he ever play it on other dates?  Not to my knowledge. And his tenor on the stunning "Lover Man" and "Deep Passion" is tender and expressive as only Lucky could be.Regrettably on some takes the charts are a bit stiff and his sidemen not up to Luckys level. That´s obvious on "The World Awakes". You´ll find definitive versions elsewhere. Nevertheless lots of beautiful Lucky Thompson to enjoy.

Edited June 10, 2016 by Balladeer

[Big Beat Steve]

Went to a our "main" remaining secondhand record store yesterday and picked up a few items, including a new copy of Sonorama L-75  (Helmut Brandt Combo - "Berlin Calling") (yes, the shop also handles new vinyl of all styles that is being released every now and then).

Nice enough music, but I am a bit underwhelmed about the promo blurb on the cover. It blares out loud "Unreleased cool jazz from the Helmut Brandt estate 1956-58" on the front as well as "Ten unreleased slices ..." on the back. On checking the tracklistings in the shop I already had some slight reservations about the tracks from the jazz festivals (but who would have a discography handy on such occasions?). On checking closer at home I found that track 3 ("Yesterdays") from the 1956 German jazz festival was released on a Brunswick EP at the time. On comparing the two records they do indeed sound alike so its not even a case of a recording made from a different mike or so. According to Bruyninckx, track 4 ("I surrender dear") was issued on a Jazzline LP before (this must have been sometime in the 80s). Some of the other tunes were issued commercially before on various Metronome EPs. I do not have all of these so can compare only some and there I hope that the recording dates given on the sleeve are indeed correct and these ARE different recordings of the same tunes (made at a different date) after all.

This leaves definitely less than those "ten" tracks as being unreleased. I find it a bit sad that collectors' labels should resort to such trickery. So if any of you Sonorama people read this: WTF were you doing, there?? Is this really necessary on a record from collectors for collectors priced at collectors' level? What would have been so bad about "Ten rare recordings by ..., including X recordings never released before"? And if you don't want to do that and want all of your releasess to be previously unreleased, then choose recordings that really are unreleased. And if you had to use previously released recordings, then  please note that the Brunswick records are (relatively speaking) not among the rarest of the batch so quite a few collectors out there are likely to already have the platter.