Jump to content

Buck Clayton Buckin' the Blues (Vanguard)


Dan Gould

Recommended Posts

Stumbled across this LP, recorded 1957 with Hank Jones, Kenny Burrell, Earle Warren, Vic Dickenson. Already bought it - very cheap and in excellent shape, too - but I am wondering if anyone is aware if these tracks were issued on that Vanguard reissue series which was so confusing and haphazard with a few tracks from different releases combined into single CDs.  I'm hoping this is all new to me but not really sure, and AMG and discogs didn't help much.

As always, thanks in advance!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The entire session from the LP you have is on the CD, The Essential Buck Clayton - Vanguard 103/4 -2. The CD also contains additional tracks from LPs with Mel Powell and Ruby Braff, on which Buck Clayton played.

As you and others have noted, that Vanguard CD series consists of great music and has excellent sound, but presented in a "haphazard" (a good description on your part) fashion.

Nice find, by the way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

Stumbled across this LP, recorded 1957 with Hank Jones, Kenny Burrell, Earle Warren, Vic Dickenson. Already bought it - very cheap and in excellent shape, too - but I am wondering if anyone is aware if these tracks were issued on that Vanguard reissue series which was so confusing and haphazard with a few tracks from different releases combined into single CDs.  I'm hoping this is all new to me but not really sure, and AMG and discogs didn't help much.

As always, thanks in advance!

Not only was the Vanguard material that (for the most part) John Hammond recorded in the mid-1950s re-issued in a haphazard fashion (to say the least), some of the personnel listings and information in the liner notes was screwed up. As it happens, I knew who the guy was that the Moss Music Group had hired to put out this material again, and I wrote to the MMG to complain, giving details. Apparently that guy then was slapped upside the head to some degree, because a good friend of mine is a longtime friend of that guy (whom I've never met), and my friend told me that that guy was furious at me for making trouble for him. Hey, I thought, just do the job right, and there'd be no problem.

BTW, aside from the unfortunate decision (made by that guy or someone above him at the MMG)  to scatter material that was on individual 10-inch LPs over several CDs, I think that assembling accurate personnel listings and making sure that the notes were free from mis-statements would have just been a matter of paying attention to already available material, like the information that was on the backs of the original LPs. And if for some reason that information no longer was readily available (perhaps MMG or the guy they hired didn't have the old Vanguard LPs to hand), I don't think it would have been hard to find via collectors and discographies.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, paul secor said:

The entire session from the LP you have is on the CD, The Essential Buck Clayton - Vanguard 103/4 -2. The CD also contains additional tracks from LPs with Mel Powell and Ruby Braff, on which Buck Clayton played.

As you and others have noted, that Vanguard CD series consists of great music and has excellent sound, but presented in a "haphazard" (a good description on your part) fashion.

Nice find, by the way.

Thanks Paul, I actually saw that listing on AMG but the cover didn't match the CD reissue series "style" and I figured it was an LP reissue not CD with additional tracks.  Looking thru my binders I don't see it so, goodie for me, it seems new!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said:

Six of the titles are on Vanguard cds by "The Basie Bunch" - Too Marvelous For Words and Cool Too.

 

Of course. How could I have forgotten those two CDs? Oh well the vinyl is nice and now I have all 8 tracks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11.6.2017 at 1:08 PM, paul secor said:

The entire session from the LP you have is on the CD, The Essential Buck Clayton - Vanguard 103/4 -2. The CD also contains additional tracks from LPs with Mel Powell and Ruby Braff, on which Buck Clayton played.

As you and others have noted, that Vanguard CD series consists of great music and has excellent sound, but presented in a "haphazard" (a good description on your part) fashion.

 

A bit late to the game (holidays ..) but as the Vanguard mainstream jazz series from the 50s (all artists) has for a long time been one of those favorites that I tended to pick up unheard-unseen ... 

... the above description reads a bit like an earlier (70s) vinyl reissue on (French) Vanguard (double LP VSD 103/104, i.e. basically same catalog number, and also titled "The Essential Buck Clayton") distributed by Musidisc, except that the only "haphazard" aspect of it is that the tracks are not in the session/original LP order but alternated at random. But it has ALL the music from the three original LPs (Buckin' The Blues, Buck Meets Ruby and one with Mel Powell). So everything is there.

The original Vanguard 10" LPs released on those mainstream swing veterans or newcomers (of which I have some, either UK pressings or Austrian Amadeo-Vanguard) have been reissued at least twice in the UK on vinyl, first in the 70s on a Vanguard reissue label (labeled "Recordings for the Connoisseur", like the Musidisc-Vanguard of Buck Clayton above too) distributed by RCA and the on UK Vogue (distributed by Pye) around 1980. Haven't bothered checking Bruyninckx but the Buck Clayton recordings might have been reissued there too. To me those vinyl packagings looked relatively comprehensive and seemed to make sense the way they were compiled  (as for the nondescript Vogue sleeve "art"work - oh well ... signs of the times ...). Liner notes of those UK reissues were by Albert McCarthy and Raymond Horricks so I guess theys got the lineups correct too.. Maybe those vinyls would be the way to go for those not dead set on CD and looking for a specific Vanguard artist and who cannot find the original 10" releases?

Edited by Big Beat Steve
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 years later...
On 6/11/2017 at 12:23 PM, Dan Gould said:

Stumbled across this LP, recorded 1957 with Hank Jones, Kenny Burrell, Earle Warren, Vic Dickenson. Already bought it - very cheap and in excellent shape, too - but I am wondering if anyone is aware if these tracks were issued on that Vanguard reissue series which was so confusing and haphazard with a few tracks from different releases combined into single CDs.  I'm hoping this is all new to me but not really sure, and AMG and discogs didn't help much.

As always, thanks in advance!

Listening to this today. Do you know the exact date of this session?

EDIT - just found out - March 1957, based on the liner notes of the original LP: https://www.amazon.fr/Buckin-Blues-Buck-Clayton-Septet/dp/B019VMBBX2

Thanks

Edited by hopkins
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Further to my post of 16 June 2017, in the intervening years I have found (and added to my collection) a copy of the 1972 UK reissue of the original LP (all eight tracks of the session, compiled and annotated - by Albert McCarthy, no less - in a distanctly non-haphazard way 😄) on Vanguard VRS 8514 (distributed by RCA UK according to the fine print).
So they did have their reissuing act together in the vinyl days at least ... and there would have been no need to reinvent the wheel (and goof - as Larry Kart pointed out) for the CDs ...;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

As I have almost all the Vanguard material on vinyl this box set would be too much for me (and I guess I can live without alternates), but being able to get a copy of the booklet (as some additional in-depth background info) would be nice. ;)

Mosaic will usually sell the booklet separately if you ask.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...