Count Basie, Live at the Savoy Ballroom

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Bob the Builder · #1 Post by **Bob the Builder** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 3:54 pm

I've come across an LP on the internet called
"Count Basie, 1937, Live at the Savoy Ballroom"
Other than the name of the Album, I can't find any other info about it.
Does anyone have it, and if so, what’s it like. From my experience Ballroom recordings were never great quality back then. Does this album fall with in this?

Bob

julius · #2 Post by **julius** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 4:12 pm

It's probably this:

http://www.welwyn11.freeserve.co.uk/LY_countBlive.htm

Most live recordings of broadcasts were amateur captures and hence are really, really poor sound quality. They're even worse if cleaned up. Still, you never know.

CafeSavoy · #3 Post by **CafeSavoy** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 6:04 pm

As you can tell from that link Julius posted, there aren't that many recordings of Count Basie from the Savoy, just a few airchecks. They include two of the three songs Billie Holiday recorded with Basie (actually one of the songs was at the Meadowbrook). The EPM label (Jazz Archive) includes decent versions of these songs on their Golden Years series on Volume 1 and Volume 2.
http://jazz-music.mainseek.com/91/18-32 ... page1.html
http://music.bizrate.com/,mpoi__cat_id- ... --wgg.html

The Billie Holiday tracks are also on Count Basie, America's #1 Band (Columbia).
http://www.fye.com/catalog/musicProduct ... d=11006527
http://www.jazztimes.com/JazzNews/XcNew ... cleid=1007

Some of those live tracks are also on Count Basie & His Orchestra 1937/Chick Webb & His Orchestra 1936 although Allmusic describes this set as:
"Fans of both Basie and Webb can do much better than this poorly packaged, badly mastered split release. -- Jason Ankeny"
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=am ... uf6j487180
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... 0U3GS53SRF
http://www.jazztimes.com/JazzNews/XcNew ... cleid=1007

Bob the Builder · #4 Post by **Bob the Builder** » Mon Sep 22, 2003 6:22 pm

Thanks you so much guys for that help.
I've bought that Basie/Webb CD.
It just so happens I'm having a Savoy House Band night down here in Melbourne on the 12th of March (Savoys 78th Brithday) and I didn't have some of those Chick Webb charts.

Thanks Againn

Bob

Lawrence · #5 Post by **Lawrence** » Tue Sep 23, 2003 3:09 pm

I have the 1937 Basie at Savoy recording on LP. I also have two 1950s Savoy appearances on CD. All three recordings are more than just airchecks. The 1937 album features about ten songs, including the Billie Holiday songs and one or two with Jimmy Rushing; the 1950s recording features about 10-12 each. I suspect the 1950s CDs are from the same show, but the liner notes don't clarify. All of them have very shoddy sound quality, but are interesting for obvious historical reasons.

Oddly enough, the front cover to the 1937 album mistakenly says it was "recorded" in 1962, which was impossible. The back has the correct date; I suspect the 1962 date was the date of the LP production.