Xanadu Master Edition Series - Elemental Music

[Big Beat Steve]

I remember Xanadu LPs best for reissue of Minton´s stuff, like the trumpet battles with Joe Guy, Hot Lips Page, Roy Eldrige etc...., with early Monk, Charlie Christian, Klook etc., and some "Bebop Revisited" with Diz from 45, some early Dexter, the sides that Fats Navarro made with Earl Coleman and so on......

During my Teenager years it was a quite good possibility to get in touch with the sounds of early bop......

Exactly. Same experience here. And then there were both the similarly-produced ONYX LPs on early 40s swing and the 50s live recordings (Bob Andrews! The Jerry Newman of the 50s!!) on Xanadu that added importantly to the discographies of the key artists and leaders.

Compared to that - sorry to say - those latter-day recordings (70s onwards) on Xanadu always appeared a bit like fillers to me. They may have been (and are) nice to ALSO have, but the essentials dated farther back and were milestones in the appreciation of the music from the bebop era by a wider audience who had not been around when the 78s were current and accessible.

Edited August 20, 2015 by Big Beat Steve

[AllenLowe]

ah, my memory playing tricks - that's who I was trying to think of - Goodman also did some very good reissue work for RCA.

The Barry Harris liner notes show Paul Goodman as the recording engineer. It was recorded at the RCA Studios in New York.

[king ubu]

I remember Xanadu LPs best for reissue of Minton´s stuff, like the trumpet battles with Joe Guy, Hot Lips Page, Roy Eldrige etc...., with early Monk, Charlie Christian, Klook etc., and some "Bebop Revisited" with Diz from 45, some early Dexter, the sides that Fats Navarro made with Earl Coleman and so on......

During my Teenager years it was a quite good possibility to get in touch with the sounds of early bop......

Exactly. Same experience here. And then there were both the similarly-produced ONYX LPs on early 40s swing and the 50s live recordings (Bob Andrews! The Jerry Newman of the 50s!!) on Xanadu that added importantly to the discographies of the key artists and leaders.

Compared to that - sorry to say - those latter-day recordings (70s onwards) on Xanadu always appeared a bit like fillers to me. They may have been (and are) nice to ALSO have, but the essentials dated farther back and were milestones in the appreciation of the music from the bebop era by a wider audience who had not been around when the 78s were current and accessible.

I can relate to that of course ... but coming to jazz (and earth) some years later than you, Xanadu's historical releases never played a part in my listening at all - they weren't around at all, with very few exceptions (the one of which I ever bought - semi historical one rather -, after buying, I brought back to the store which luckily took it back, too: a Lucky Thompson release containing french recordings that were either on the two Vogue discs or on one of the jazz in Paris CDs).

Not sure how much music I'm missing out on or how much of it I have in other (CD) editions - however even if I miss out on some of it, with most artists concerned I was probably able to buy quite a bit more than you could, so I've not felt like missing out on too much really. (I may be wrong though, but please don't tell me .)

So the main focus, if I hear Xanadu, to me is their own productions, which again I've not really had access to on any larger scale. I scored "Picture of Heath", one of the Dolo Cokers, a Red Garland (bought from somone here, I think?), and that's already it, other than a few instances of "carpe diem" (some vinyl rips).

So, never having heard most of these Al Cohn dates, only having the wonderful Sonny Criss on a copy provided by some friend, not knowing the Teddy Edwards ones ... there's indeed plenty of attraction there, to me! Barry Harris, too ... would be nice for sure to see a second round of 25, but as they do them in smaller batches, I guess that might as well be it, and we won't get any of those Sam Noto albums back.

[AllenLowe]

just as a note; some of the best Barry Harris playing is on the LP Sonny Criss did for Xanadu.

[king ubu]

just as a note; some of the best Barry Harris playing is on the LP Sonny Criss did for Xanadu.

Wwhich, luckily, is part of the series - mighty fine album!

[Chuck Nessa]

Did anyone else notice they missed bonus tracks for the Africa / Dakar set?  Sweet and Lovely (10:32) and Not Just to be in Love Again (7:17) were included on an anthology called Anniversary. 

[king ubu]

Did anyone else notice they missed bonus tracks for the Africa / Dakar set?  Sweet and Lovely (10:32) and Not Just to be in Love Again (7:17) were included on an anthology called Anniversary. 

I didn't but as that's the only one I've bought so far, that's really too bad!

Lousy job!

[Chuck Nessa]

Did anyone else notice they missed bonus tracks for the Africa / Dakar set?  Sweet and Lovely (10:32) and Not Just to be in Love Again (7:17) were included on an anthology called Anniversary. 

I didn't but as that's the only one I've bought so far, that's really too bad!

Lousy job!

The second track is the rhythm section without horns.

[Peter Friedman]

Don Schlitten's musical taste is very similar to mine. So I tend to agree with Ubu that a large number of the original Xanadu releases were things I particularly liked. The Barry Harris, Jimmy Rowles, Al Cohn, Sam Noto, Teddy Edwards, Billy Mitchell, Ronnie Cuber, Sonny Criss, Jimmy Raney,Dolo Coker, Charles McPherson, and  Jimmy Heath sessions  were among the Xanadu LPs I bought when they first became available.

It has always been disappointing for me that Don was so reluctant to have his Xanadu material reissued on CD. Thankfully I have been able to find some of them on French, Japanese, and a few American labels such as Prevue. Would very much like to see many other now become available.

[Eric]

Did anyone else notice they missed bonus tracks for the Africa / Dakar set?  Sweet and Lovely (10:32) and Not Just to be in Love Again (7:17) were included on an anthology called Anniversary. 

I didn't but as that's the only one I've bought so far, that's really too bad!

Lousy job!

How do you otherwise like the music?  Have the lp, buried away somewhere.

[king ubu]

Quite some! But I guess I dig any chance to hear Billy Mitchell in a small group setting.

And that long drum solo by Frank Butler is exceptional, just as his playing in general is - beats me why he's not better known, he's such a fine musician!

[AllenLowe]

Butler had a lot of bad personal habits which curtailed his career.

[clifford_thornton]

If any of the recordings were done by Richard Alderson (I think that's his name -- I've been trying to forget it) the piano will sound lousy.

Very much agreed. IMO, Alderson spoiled a  bunch of otherwise excellent Prestige albums. I've never understood why Schlitten employed him so often.

Maybe his studio time came cheap.

I always liked Alderson's approach... 

[Chuck Nessa]

He was horrible. Never saw his approach.

 

[Larry Kart]

He was horrible. Never saw his approach.

 

Nasty recordings.

[sidewinder]

Noticed in London this week that Ray's Jazz had most of these issues in stock - £11, suposedly on 'special' (not sure if that counts as a good price).

[HutchFan]

Looks like the next batch are coming out on October 30th:

Teddy Edwards - Feelin's

Kenny Barron - At the Piano

Joe Farrell - Skateboard Park

I've heard the Farrell disc -- it's very good -- but not the other two.  I'm particularly looking forward to hearing the Teddy Edwards.

 

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

If any of the recordings were done by Richard Alderson (I think that's his name -- I've been trying to forget it) the piano will sound lousy.

Very much agreed. IMO, Alderson spoiled a  bunch of otherwise excellent Prestige albums. I've never understood why Schlitten employed him so often.

Maybe his studio time came cheap.

Bob Porter told me Don used Alderson because Rudy wouldn't let him smoke Mary Jane in his studio

MG

Teddy Edwards' 'Feelins' was originally issued on Muse. Of the two, I find it a LOT more lovable than 'The inimitable'. That's very good with a very nice chunk of unaccompanied Teddy introducing 'Stella by starlight', marred on my copy by a pressing bugger-up or something (so I've never ripped it and I'll pick that one up). But 'Feelin's just got me for ever. Be interested to know if the CD version is markedly better than a rip on modest/poor equipment

That is - is a CD rip better than/worse than/similar to a vinyl rip on standard laptop speakers?

MG

Edited September 11, 2015 by The Magnificent Goldberg

[bakeostrin]

Was the Teddy Edwards ever issued before on CD?  There was a session w/Duke Jordan that was part of another cd which included Jordan & Cecil Payne (Brooklyn brothers I think was lp release, this session is also going to be reissued)?

Is the Ronnie Cuber part of this group?

 

[ghost of miles]

Was the Teddy Edwards ever issued before on CD?  There was a session w/Duke Jordan that was part of another cd which included Jordan & Cecil Payne (Brooklyn brothers I think was lp release, this session is also going to be reissued)?

Is the Ronnie Cuber part of this group?

 

Brooklyn Brothers and Cuber's Cuber Libre are both part of the 25 scheduled CD reissues, yes.  More here:

Xanadu Master Edition series

 

[Ted O'Reilly]

If any of the recordings were done by Richard Alderson (I think that's his name -- I've been trying to forget it) the piano will sound lousy.

Very much agreed. IMO, Alderson spoiled a  bunch of otherwise excellent Prestige albums. I've never understood why Schlitten employed him so often.

Maybe his studio time came cheap.

Bob Porter told me Don used Alderson because Rudy wouldn't let him smoke Mary Jane in his studio

 

That explains a lot...perhaps Alderson had Mary Jane tune the piano, place the microphones and do the e.q. for him.

A musician friend told me that (in the Englewood Cliffs studio) RvG banned smoking anything.  He remarked that Van Gelder wore white cotton gloves when touching any of the equipment...  Apocryphal, or  can anyone confirm that?

[John Tapscott]

Looks like the next batch are coming out on October 30th:

Teddy Edwards - Feelin's

Kenny Barron - At the Piano

Joe Farrell - Skateboard Park

I've heard the Farrell disc -- it's very good -- but not the other two.  I'm particularly looking forward to hearing the Teddy Edwards.

 

Nothing wrong with the Barron solo session. I've always liked it. Of course, he's my favorite pianist so maybe I'm biased.

[bakeostrin]

Was the Teddy Edwards ever issued before on CD?  There was a session w/Duke Jordan that was part of another cd which included Jordan & Cecil Payne (Brooklyn brothers I think was lp release, this session is also going to be reissued)?

Is the Ronnie Cuber part of this group?

 

Brooklyn Brothers and Cuber's Cuber Libre are both part of the 25 scheduled CD reissues, yes.  More here:

Xanadu Master Edition series

 

Yes, thank you.

There was a Xanadu cd entitled Duke Jordan with Cecil Payne and Teddy Edwards, consisting of two previously released Muse albums (Brooklyn Brothers & Inimitable Teddy Edwards).  But I am unaware of a stand alone Feelings ever appearing on cd previously (Japane, US or France); likewise Cuber Libre. 

[Chuck Nessa]

If any of the recordings were done by Richard Alderson (I think that's his name -- I've been trying to forget it) the piano will sound lousy.

Very much agreed. IMO, Alderson spoiled a  bunch of otherwise excellent Prestige albums. I've never understood why Schlitten employed him so often.

Maybe his studio time came cheap.

Bob Porter told me Don used Alderson because Rudy wouldn't let him smoke Mary Jane in his studio

 

That explains a lot...perhaps Alderson had Mary Jane tune the piano, place the microphones and do the e.q. for him.

A musician friend told me that (in the Englewood Cliffs studio) RvG banned smoking anything.  He remarked that Van Gelder wore white cotton gloves when touching any of the equipment...  Apocryphal, or  can anyone confirm that?

From personal experience (in the late '70s) Rudy allowed smoking in the studio, but not in the control. I'm sure that changed later.

Rudy wore those brown jersey gloves when setting up and taking down mikes in the studio. I have a photo of him doing this.

[bakeostrin]

Did anyone else notice they missed bonus tracks for the Africa / Dakar set?  Sweet and Lovely (10:32) and Not Just to be in Love Again (7:17) were included on an anthology called Anniversary.

Similarly, "Kwanza" was issued on cd in Japan (Nippon Crown CRCJ 5015) as "Oops" on the Xanadu label in Japan in 1993 containing 2 additional tracks:  "Sub Set" 10'11" and "Wazuri Blues" 4'37"

This is a tough one to find.  Was it an LP for Xanadu itself?

Also, was "Silver Blue" ever issued as a CD (I see only an lp and 2-lp set)?

thanks

baker