Dinnertime for Hungry Collectors: Small groups and oddities

Dinnertime for Hungry Collectors
A twofer as a treasure box filled with collector's items of the legends of jazz
 cd 2: Small Groups and Oddities
 Hans Koert

It must be a hard time for 78-rpm record collectors ……  You won’t find your stuff at garage sales anymore …..  And how to find the last record shops? Where lp’s and cd’s were sold? …. 

A rare 78-rpm record - an Okeh Ambassador Record - the opening tune of the second cd with small bands music and oddities

If you are a record collector you have to visit specialized record fairs, like the Dutch Wageningen fair at the Doctor Jazz Dag two times a year …..    This year the Doctor Jazz Magazine celebrates its 50th year, since it was started in 1963 and due to that, it selected almost 50 unique tracks for its members to celebrate this jubileum: Dinnertime for Hungry Collectors. In a previous blog I tasted for you to the first cd of this album, entitled Big Bands – today I love to spin the second one: Small groups and Oddities.

MY JAZZ LINKS: Dinnertime for Hungry Collectors 

The second cd starts with one of the oldest tracks of the selections: What A Man by the 1926 unknown Trimp’s Ambassador Bell Hops. The trumpet player Freddie Laufketter seems to be inspired by a young Bix Beiderbecke on this Okeh limited edition – a collector’s item.

Thomas Fats Waller

When I started to collect Fats Waller recordings, forty-five years ago, the few live-recordings, released on bad transferred lp’s, were the best bits. The compilers of this Dinnertime for Hungry Collectors album did a good job to select a unique CBS radio program in its series Saturday Night Swing Club, broadcasted Saturday night, July 2nd, 1938 in which Fats and his master James P. Johnson play in duet … and what about the tune Martinique, composed and recorded  in 1943 for the musical Early To Bed. It’s not clear of this recording belonged to the so-called Ristic-recordings, issued by John R.T. Davies. John received a bunch of private recordings, glass-bases acetates, by snail mail from Bill Krasilowski (March 1962), but the parcel must have been handled roughly, as the records were  “broken to pieces”. John restored the records and released on its lp label Ristic (Ristic 22/23)…..  A half year later Thomas Fats Waller would record a V-Disc with this title: Martinique.

Russ Case

I won’t discuss all 26 tracks on this second part of this 2cd …. All tracks are unique and sought afters by record collectors.  The editors of the magazine and 2cd Dinnertime for Hungry Collectors proof that they speak the same language ….. What to think about  a test record by Frank Trumbauer, some alternative takes of Joe Venuti and Adrian Rollini recordings – Unheard radio shows by Paul Whiteman or Bing Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald accompanied by  The Firehouse Five Plus Two.  And what about a unique Lucky Strike sponsored radio program by Raymond Scott’s Quintette with a great imitation of a tobacco auctioneer by its trumpet player Russ Case.

Benny Carter

This great 2cd, Dinnertime for Hunghry collectors, a must have for all dedicated collectors who can live with 78rpm ….. ends with a Dutch alternative track of the well known Decca record, featuring Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter and Freddy Johnson accompanied by an orchestra featuring George Chisholm, Jimmy Williams, Ray Webb, Len Harrison and Robert Montmarche (The Hague August 18th, 1937)

This twofer can be ordered, even for the few visitors of this blog who are not a member of the magazine, at the site of the Doctor Jazz Magazine
Get your copy!

MY JAZZ LINKS: Dinnertime for Hungry Collectors

Hans Koert
keepswinging@live.nl
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It must be a hard time for 78-rpm record collectors …… You won’t find your stuff at garage sales anymore ….. And how to find the last record shops? Where lp’s and cd’s were sold? …. Doctor Jazz Magazine knows what record collectors want .. Due to its 50th birthday the magazine selected almost 50 collectors items for its Dinnertime for Hunghry collectors, a must have for all dedicated collectors who can live with 78rpm .....  

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