Bear Family sets

[Haydn]

Inspired by the Mosaic Sets thread, I thought we should have one for the German Bear Family label, which is comparable in some ways to Mosaic. Bear specialise in 1950s and 1960s re-issues rather than jazz, but include a lot of 'danceable' Rhythm and Blues and Rock and Roll.

Bear Family website
Wiki page

I have their Louis Jordan and Ella Mae Morse sets as below:

Louis Jordan
9-CD set
Let The Good Times Roll (1938-1954)

Ella Mae Morse
5-CD Set
Barrelhouse, Boogie and the Blues

I really recommend the Louis Jordan set, which is packed with swinging 40s tracks, including:

My Baby Said Yes
Never Let Your Left Hand Know What Your Right Hand's Doin'
Knock Me A Kiss
Pan Pan
Sure, Had A Wonderful Time

It's expensive but worth it if you are into this sort of music.

The Ella Mae Morse set is good, but less swing-orientated.

Please share your experiences of Bear Family sets

[J-h:n]

Ella Mae Morse
5-CD Set
Barrelhouse, Boogie and the Blues

Ella Mae Morse is great, but if you don't feel the need to own a huge box set, this is an excellent one-disc sampler. A couple of semi-dancable tracks, even.

I have a few sets of country music from Bear Family - and they are things of beauty - but nothing remotely swing-orientated. Might check out the Louis Jordan, though.

[lipi]

All the Bear sets I have I bought primarily for listening. The two I've DJed from:

Nellie Lutcher and Her Rhythm (4 discs):
I don't DJ from it much, but almost every track is fine for dancing of some kind--many have non-swing latin rhythms. Some excellent things I've played at dances before: "Pig Latin Song", "Fine Brown Frame", "St. Louis Blues", and "On the Sunny Side of the Street".

The Capitol Recordings of Louis Prima, Keely Smith, and Sam Butera (8 discs):
I almost never DJ from this anymore. I love Prima, and I DJ his earlier things, but I haven't touched this later stuff in a while. I should play some of it again. Anyway: all the classic over-played tracks are here: everything from that best-of Capitol disc everybody had in the 90's. If you like Prima's Vegas act, then buy this for listening. If you only want it for DJing, just get that best-of CD.

The Louis Jordan has always tempted me, but I already have the JSP Tympany Five set (1938-1950), the Definitive 1950-1952, and a transcriptions set from 1948-1949. If you don't care about a little overlap or missing a few tracks in between, and don't want the liner notes, that's certainly a cheaper way to go. There's a 1953-1954 JSP set, too.

[dogpossum]

I have the Julia Lee one:



It has lots of danceable stuff, but actually gets quite tiresome and samey when it's Julia Lee and her Boyfriends doing one song-about-food/sex after another. But there are other sessions which are really cool, and it's really nice to hear Lee stretching a bit.

Some of my favourite sessions include early ones with George E Lee's band in the late 20s, and then some rehearsal sessions in Lee's house in 1946 with Clint Weaver and Sam 'Baby' Lovett which I really like.

To be honest, I've neglected this set a bit, but I come back to it sporadically, finding some really interesting and lovely stuff. And some really good musicians pop up all over the place in it.

There's a lot of DJable stuff for lindy hop.[/img]

[Gong-Oh]

I have the Cliff Bruner and the Jimmie Rodgers box sets and about 10 other CDs issued by Bear Family. I bought them mainly for my listening and for some occasional gigs dedicated to Hillbilly/Rockabilly music. However, I DJ-ed songs for Lindy and Bal dancers off almost all my Bear Family sets/CDs. When I DJ at Western Swing bands' shows, about once a month, I like to play some vintage swinging Honky-Tonk and Hillbilly boogies, along with some Jazz, Blues and Western Swing.

If you like Western Swing music and especially the recordings of bands such as Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies, the Cliff Bruner set is great and most of the tunes in there are not covered by any other re-issue. There are several tracks from his 1930s Hot String and 1940s Western Swing bands that I like to play for the dancers. However, it is not a very cost effective investment, if you are only looking for DJ-able tunes.

If you are interested in swing danceable Country and Western Swing from the late 1940s and 1950s and don't want to buy expensive box sets, the Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight series is awesome. There is a lot of excellent material on the CDs dedicated to artists such as Hank Williams, Little Jimmy Dickens, Webb Pierce, Leon McAuliffe, Pee Wee King, ... Each CD comes with a 30-40 pages booklet and more than 30 tunes. Same story for the '...Rocks' series, dedicated to early Rock'n Roll and R&B. All those Bear CDs cost a bit more than similar CDs issued by other labels, but they are worth every extra penny because of the track quality and the liner notes.

As for the notes, one of the authors for Bear Family is Deke Dickerson, a musician from Los Angeles. He posts on his web site some of the brilliant essays he writes for Bear. For instance, I really enjoyed reading his notes for the Johnny Horton compilation in the Shake This Shack Tonight series.

[trev]

I just wanted to post a note that I got my first Bear Family set this week - The Nellie Lutcher & Her Rhythm 4CD Box.

As noted above it has a high density of fine dance tunes - most at a relaxed tempo. It does go a bit into novelty territory, but I think I'll be able to use it quite a bit for my DJ sets.

Now that I've broken the Bear Family seal, my bank account is looking at me nervously.