Phil Schaap Archive

[Brad]

There was an article in the NYT today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/11/nyregion/phil-schaap-jazz-vanderbilt.html

Edited August 11 by Brad

[Dan Gould]

Thanks for this Brad, I was told to watch for it possibly next week.

Edit to add:  shoot, I thought this would be an article with Reader Comments enabled and I planned to promote Percy France as the most surprising artist prominently featured in the reels that Phil donated.

And Edit again to say .. WTH? Not a thing about the West End and the hundreds of sets broadcast and preserved and now available for streaming. Yes the interviews are important (and I hope a Percy France will show up) and I'd rank them over any edition of Bird Flight since hopefully the artists got a chance to talk but ... those weekly broadcasts are a treasure trove.

Edited August 11 by Dan Gould

[Dan Gould]

I reached out to Marc Myers about the Schaap archive ... he said he would write about it.  In the end its a little disappointing as it only merited a spot in his 'clearing the decks' post - scroll down to the photo of Bird to see it.

https://www.jazzwax.com/2024/08/luke-casey-and-gene.html

I really thought that he would write something himself but he only used my words ... I think part of the problem is that he favors youtube uploads for the recordings he promotes on the blog and he can't here.

[Big Beat Steve]

Yes, what he (not wrote but) recycled is rather meager for someone who really ought to take an active interest in subjects like this.
 

Edited August 13 by Big Beat Steve

[Dan Gould]

1 minute ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Yes, what he recycled is rather meager.
 

And the way the uploads display there are about 1100 radio shows to scroll thru before you even see any of the amazing West End (and Third Phase -  who the hell came up with that name for a jazz club?) recordings.

[l p]

could you please tell us how to search that archive. i removed the 'rtr' speculation, and searched for like 10 people, and barely got any hits. where is all the good stuff?

thanks

 

Edited August 13 by l p

[Dan Gould]

21 minutes ago, l p said:

could you please tell us how to search that archive. i removed the 'rtr' speculation, and searched for like 10 people, and barely got any hits. where is all the good stuff?

thanks

 

Who are you looking for, may I ask?

Start here:

https://aviary.library.vanderbilt.edu/collection?

Put cursor in the search field at top, and "Advanced Search" appears at the right. Click on that.

Expand Collection Title (Left column) and check on Phil Schaap Jazz Collection.

Go back to the top Search Box and enter artist names.

Here's George Kelly:

https://aviary.library.vanderbilt.edu/catalog?search_type=advance&transliteration_status=false&f[collection_id_is][]=2137&keywords[]=George+Kelly&title_text[]=&resource_description[]=&indexes[]=&transcript[]=&supplemental_file[]=&collection_title[]=&op[]=&type_of_search[]=wildcard&type_of_field_selector[]=wildcard&sort=title_ss+asc&search_field=advanced&commit=Search

 

Percy France:

https://aviary.library.vanderbilt.edu/catalog?search_type=advance&transliteration_status=false&f[collection_id_is][]=2137&keywords[]=Percy+France&title_text[]=&resource_description[]=&indexes[]=&transcript[]=&supplemental_file[]=&collection_title[]=&op[]=&type_of_search[]=wildcard&type_of_field_selector[]=wildcard&sort=title_ss+asc&search_field=advanced&commit=Search

 

Junior Cook:

https://aviary.library.vanderbilt.edu/catalog?search_type=advance&transliteration_status=false&f[collection_id_is][]=2137&keywords[]=Junior+Cook&title_text[]=&resource_description[]=&indexes[]=&transcript[]=&supplemental_file[]=&collection_title[]=&op[]=&type_of_search[]=wildcard&type_of_field_selector[]=wildcard&sort=title_ss+asc&search_field=advanced&commit=Search

 

Richard Wyands (he only appeared as sideman, never as leader AFAIK)

https://aviary.library.vanderbilt.edu/catalog?search_type=advance&transliteration_status=false&f[collection_id_is][]=2137&keywords[]=Richard+Wyands&title_text[]=&resource_description[]=&indexes[]=&transcript[]=&supplemental_file[]=&collection_title[]=&op[]=&type_of_search[]=wildcard&type_of_field_selector[]=wildcard&sort=title_ss+asc&search_field=advanced&commit=Search

 

EDIT to add:

I recommended selecting Reel to Reel for "source" because there only about 300 uploaded and therefore easy to scroll thru and see the leader names in the titles (and there's a link to see more info on each posting, including sidemen - worthwhile when, for example, a drummer I had never heard of  turns out to have Junior Cook and Bill Hardman in his front line one week, and a year later, Ralph Moore and Brian Lynch).

Edited August 13 by Dan Gould

[l p]

i searched for these people,

...

nothing that looked intersting came up in the results. like concerts, interviews.

thanks

 

looking at this rtr link, it's 316 entries, with barely any description in the title of each entry.

https://aviary.library.vanderbilt.edu/catalog?f[collection_id_is][]=2137&f[description_source_search_facet_sms][]=Reel-to-reel&q=&search_field=all_fields&search_type=advance&sort=title_ss+asc

 

Edited August 15 by l p

[Dan Gould]

2 minutes ago, l p said:

i searched for these people, except for maybe the dolphy and ellington. 

albert ayler

arthur blythe 1979-1986

eric dolphy

duke ellington

grant green

coleman hawkins

freddie hubbard 1969-1980

rahsaan roland kirk

byard lancaster

yusef lateef 1970's

charles mingus 1973-1977

thelonious monk

wes montgomery

lee morgan

jaco pastorius

pharoah sanders

archie shepp

sun ra

larry young

 

von freeman

ben webster

terumasa hino 1970's

 

nothing that looked intersting came up in the results. like concerts, interviews.

thanks

 

Your free/avante artists were never going to be booked at the West End.

Ellington, Webster, Green, Montgomery were dead before concerts were broadcast live over WKCR, or in the case of Grant Green, long gone from NYC.

Schaap billed the West End as "The Uptown Home for Swing" for a reason.  Think Ellington and Basie sidemen. Sammy Price. Quinichette, Buddy Tate, Tiny Grimes. Doc Cheatham.  Lou Donaldson appeared. Clark Terry has a show uploaded. Junior Cook, Bill Hardman.  

BTW interviews are a future priority so if any exist of Hawkins or Ellington or the like, they wouldn't fall out of any search.

 

[l p]

no other major treasure trove besides the west end?

 

[Dan Gould]

24 minutes ago, l p said:

no other major treasure trove besides the west end?

 

Schaap booked the West End and the vast majority of broadcasts were from there. The other sources for some recordings are Third Phase and Birdland and there were far fewer.

Maybe this will catch @Rooster_Ties attention. There's a Woody Shaw available for streaming.

[l p]

there's more to the phil archives than the west end. i remember grabbing an uncirculated sun ra wkcr 45min studio interview from the old phil archives site.

but if they want to concentrate on the west end, ok.

 

 

 

[Dan Gould]

15 minutes ago, l p said:

there's more to the phil archives than the west end. i remember grabbing an uncirculated sun ra wkcr 45min studio interview from the old phil archives site.

but if they want to concentrate on the west end, ok.

 

 

 

Everything on philschaapjazz.com is being transferred to the Vanderbilt aviary site.  Plus everything he held on to that wasn't yet digitized.

There is a five year plan to get thru the material donated and they only started receiving material late last year. It did fill two tractor trailers plus a van when it was moved to Nashville.

I am most concerned with the concerts that were broadcast; others are free to have other interests.  For instance you can obsess on every dissection of every tune recorded by Bird until you want to beg him to play the damn the music.

Edited August 13 by Dan Gould

[l p]

it'll take them alot more than 5 years to transfer/upload the entirety of that stuff.

yes, concerts and long interviews, is what would be of most interest to someone like me. 

 

[Dan Gould]

33 minutes ago, l p said:

it'll take them alot more than 5 years to transfer/upload the entirety of that stuff.

yes, concerts and long interviews, is what would be of most interest to someone like me. 

 

There are over 100 recordings that fall out on an "interview" search right now:

https://aviary.library.vanderbilt.edu/catalog?search_type=advance&transliteration_status=false&f[collection_id_is][]=2137&keywords[]=interview&title_text[]=&resource_description[]=&indexes[]=&transcript[]=&supplemental_file[]=&collection_title[]=&op[]=&type_of_search[]=wildcard&type_of_field_selector[]=wildcard&sort=title_ss+asc&search_field=advanced&commit=Search

 

Further, Phil's assistants were also tasked with digitization of some sources and they have already worked to digitize thru an outside vendor what was on reel.

[Brad]

Thanks for the research aids Dan as I too find it a little hard to search. 

[Dan Gould]

9 hours ago, Brad said:

Thanks for the research aids Dan as I too find it a little hard to search. 

Glad to help Brad, though if you are interested in the concerts broadcast from the West End, really the best way to browse them is to mark Reel to Reel as "source" in the left column and just go page by page. Since doing that, I have switched to choosing "add date" as the sorting option and then go to the last few pages to see what is actually new.

For Phil's shows they do auto sort by name, and come to think of it, if its Birthday broadcasts you want they should be easily  found with a search of 'Birthday'.

[Dan Gould]

Because I hope to help people enjoy these long-ago and forgotten broadcasts of live jazz by legends of the swing and bop eras, I am offering the following service:  If you stream or see a recording available thru Vanderbilt's website and wish you could enjoy it without being tethered to your favorite streaming device, send me a PM and I will:

Stream the show into my goldwave audio software;

Edit for best signal, trim for superfluous gaps (some have interludes in the middle of the broadcast from the studio, unrelated to the show in question) and extraneous noise - Phil's microphone could be counted on for being rather noisy after he finally shuts up - and send you the results as an MP3 file.

Any request that I have already done this for will get same day service!

[Niko]

Thanks for all those tips, Dan, it's super helpful... Any idea what the problem with this entry is? 

https://aviary.library.vanderbilt.edu/collections/2137/collection_resources/133113

the lineup of Charles Sullivan (tp), Bill Saxton (ts, leader), John Patton (org) and Eddie Gladden (dr) sounds pretty amazing but I can't seem to play it... 

[Dan Gould]

17 minutes ago, Niko said:

Thanks for all those tips, Dan, it's super helpful... Any idea what the problem with this entry is? 

https://aviary.library.vanderbilt.edu/collections/2137/collection_resources/133113

the lineup of Charles Sullivan (tp), Bill Saxton (ts, leader), John Patton (org) and Eddie Gladden (dr) sounds pretty amazing but I can't seem to play it... 

I spotted that one this morning too and thought "John Patton - cool!"

Looking at the listing page I notice there is no photo included. This usually indicates a restricted access tape (there are studio recordings that have it also). But this is clearly a West End broadcast that ought to be publicly available. I am going to email the librarian in charge and inquire, I'll let you know what he says. 

And, you are very welcome, Niko.

[Dan Gould]

Perfect example of how I can improve the enjoyment of these treasures ... Fathead Newman with Ronnie Cuber was just uploaded last night, almost 40 minutes worth (less Schaap-speak) but as I went thru the wav file I discovered a channel drop out/back in over a good 25 seconds of the last tune - a simple fix but if you just listen to the stream something you'd probably notice.  BTW that is a rare (I strongly suspect) flute duet between Newman and Cuber.

[Dan Gould]

@Niko Well that was quick turnaround. The reference librarian already re-uploaded the Bill Saxton show and its showing as playable now.

[Niko]

Wow thank you so much, playing it right now!!

[Niko]

the reference librarian apparently also fixed the other show that seemed to be restricted, a Mickey Bass Quartet with Carter Jefferson, John Hicks and Michael Carvin...  

https://aviary.library.vanderbilt.edu/collections/2137/collection_resources/133112 

[Dan Gould]

He's been a super-helpful guy.  He has photo credits in the NYT article Brad posted at the start of the thread.

@l p

I was told by the librarian that he has another 150 live music reels that he is steadily uploading and then their priority shifts to the Interview tapes.  At the rate he has been going that puts Interview tapes being uploaded starting by mid or late September.