SwingDJs

I found a copy of the second CD in a second hand bookshop in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia (a small provincial city).

Sorry, I can't help myself. I read this in 3rd grade!

I feel like I'm in on a little joke nearly 20 years later.... you think the writer was a jazz fan?

Just been added to Gemm.


Artist Title Media Price Cond. Backordered Item GML#
BIG 18 - V/A LIVE ECHOES OF THE SWIN CD $40.00 SS/NEW (New / "Still Sealed"/Nonstandard rating) 888194172
1993 (1959) tracks: 9 RCA VICTOR JAZZ CLASSICS (complete track listing on request)
DE RCA LIVING STEREO BM 4321130322
MUSICDISC, ONE IN STOCK


MORE LIVE ECHOES OF THE CD $30.00 SS/NEW (New / "Still Sealed"/Nonstandard rating) 888194173
1993 (1959) tracks: 10 jerry guarnieri / dickie wells / billy butterfield / jimmy crawford / lawrence brown, lon mcgarity / bommie richman / rex stewart / sam donahue / charlie shavers
DE RCA LIVING STEREO AR 4321130332
MUSICDISC, ONE IN STOCK


_________________________________________
not the cheapest really.

I love the "Big 18" albums because they differ from all the other hi-fi recreations of classic swing that were being recording in the late 50s: rather than trying to duplicate the original arrangement, they wrote new charts (longer in duration, and with expanded instrumentation) that adhere to the spirit of the original but don't try to replicate it. And the playing is all top-notch jazz, rather than a "studio band" trying to make a sterile copy of a museum piece.

There are a few cheap copies available on amazon.de right now:

Live Echoes of the Swinging Bands - EUR 11,99
More Live Echoes - EUR 14.99

Unfortunately, they can only be delivered to Germany... Can someone from Germany help me out here??

Anyway, next year (or already this year?), these recordings will be 50 years old and can be freely copied in Europe!

Eyeball wrote:Uh oh! What I 'feared'! They are over hyped in the swing dance scene?

These albums were extremely popular in the "gap ad" era because it was vintage-ish but hi-fi - easy to listen and dance to. The masses couldn't take the lo-fi of the truly vintage, but these were a good compromise for those graduating from the big-bad-cherry-poppin-what's-its set. In my opinion, they are listenable dance music - talented musicians doing decent material, but I doubt that most jazzoids that weren't dancing would be big fans.

morte100 wrote:

Eyeball wrote:Uh oh! What I 'feared'! They are over hyped in the swing dance scene?

These albums were extremely popular in the "gap ad" era because it was vintage-ish but hi-fi - easy to listen and dance to. The masses couldn't take the lo-fi of the truly vintage, but these were a good compromise for those graduating from the big-bad-cherry-poppin-what's-its set. In my opinion, they are listenable dance music - talented musicians doing decent material, but I doubt that most jazzoids that weren't dancing would be big fans.

There are alot of assumptions in those sentences.

BTW, thanks to a German friend, I got the discs. And they are really great, especially the second one!

May I remind everyone that "Easy Does It" is a good example of the somewhat quirky song structure A-B-A?

Speaking of "truly vintage", who prefers to dj Murray's Ragtime Banjo Quartet's version of Hors d'Oeuvre?

CafeSavoy wrote:There are alot of assumptions in those sentences.

That sentence contains 8 words. The sky is blue. My opinions contain assumptions.

morte100 wrote:

CafeSavoy wrote:There are alot of assumptions in those sentences.

That sentence contains 8 words. The sky is blue. My opinions contain assumptions.

I agree with Rayned. And I will add the obvious point that your assumptions are questionable.

They were not popular just because they were hi-fi; they were popular because they contain GREAT music in hi-fi from vintage-era musicians.

The causal connection you suggest between the twittish gap-ad era tastes and the popularity of these albums is actually the reverse of what you suggest: one where people looked for decent, authentic hi-fi recordings to COUNTER the Cherry Poppin Daddy craze (or radically redirect it to better music), not to satisfy the CPD craze.

The ignorant tastes of "the masses" also did not popularize the Big 18 recordings; instead, a few well-versed, rather-well-plugged-in DJs tapped far deeper than the Neo Swing pop music section at Tower Records to find these rare, out-of-print CDs and spread the word about them.

Also, things do NOT need to be difficult to listen to in order to be great music, and stuff that is "easy to listen and dance to" is not automatically low-quality crap. Indeed, wouldn't the IDEAL be something that is great music that is easy to listen to? Like... the Big 18 recordings?

RCA in the 50s cranked out a lot of albums with great sidemen, great concepts and great tunes. They were all extremely commercial, but most sounded very bland......or worse.

I have not heard the BIG 18. Why not? Or have I and forgotten them?

Samples?

Lawrence, I see what you mean. To expound, it sounds like the main difference is that, in my opinion, The Big 18 is good music not GREAT. When I came up as a dancer/dj in 2001/2, I heard so much hype about the Big 18 from well-regarded DJs (and this forum), that I began that holy grail search for the albums. When I found them I was a bit disappointed because I was expecting GREAT and I got good.

I don't think of gap-ad era tastes as twittish - just young and unevolved. I was into swing music way before I was into swing dancing, and I was elated when my generation was starting to listen to "swing" music as pop on the radio. I didn't like the music, but I thought it was a step in the right direction. I think The Big 18 was another step in that evolution, and thank goodness for whatever creative DJs introduced them to that next digestible step. I wonder how many DJs that have been on this forum followed that same progression to their current mature taste.

Lawrence wrote:Also, things do NOT need to be difficult to listen to in order to be great music, and stuff that is "easy to listen and dance to" is not automatically low-quality crap. Indeed, wouldn't the IDEAL be something that is great music that is easy to listen to? Like... the Big 18 recordings?

As for this "assumption", I don't know where you got it. Count Basie has been my all-time favorite artist since high school - years before I started dancing. His stuff is often easy to listen and dance to, digestible, and it also tends to be brilliant (beyond GREAT).

Bear in mind, I like The Big 18 - I played several of their songs from time to time as a DJ. I just don't put them on par with Basie or my other favorites. My opinion is that The Big 18 is just good (not great) not because it's easy to listen to but because it lacks brilliance. If it hadn't been so easy to listen to (partly because it was hi-fi) it would not likely have been so popular in the gap-ad era and beyond. You apparently disagree, and I respect that. Eyeball will have to make up his mind after he gets to hear it.

Eyeball wrote:RCA in the 50s cranked out a lot of albums with great sidemen, great concepts and great tunes. They were all extremely commercial, but most sounded very bland......or worse.

I have not heard the BIG 18. Why not? Or have I and forgotten them?

Samples?

Not sure if there are samples on-line, but a writeup here ( http://www.swingmusic.net/Big_Band_Musi ... hteen.html ). The article mentions something i had forgotten, that the popularity of the recordings was in part due to Frankie Manning who often used their version of "Easy Does It" in his workshops.

morte100 wrote:. I just don't put them on par with Basie or my other favorites. My opinion is that The Big 18 is just good (not great) not because it's easy to listen to but because it lacks brilliance.

That's a fair statement. It would be hard for a studio band with two recordings to compare with one of the giants, and especially one with over a half century of recordings. Although breadth is not the same as depth, and many of the musicians on the sessions have brilliant recordings.

CafeSavoy wrote:a studio band with two recordings

FYI, I have a 3rd album by many of the same folks called Live Echoes Of The Best In BIG BAND BOOGIE. The band's moniker was changed to The Will Bradley Johnny Guarnieri Band. I liked this the least of the 3 by far, but thought some of you might find it interesting to look for it. I doubt it was put out on CD. The biggest problem with this one is that one or both of the band leaders had the less than bright idea of singing on it.