Savoy Jazz CDs made in Japan

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Dan Steele, Jul 11, 2018.

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  1. Dan Steele

    Dan Steele Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chicago suburbs
    Found this locally. Always good to have some Blakey and Jazz Messengers, and esp early Jackie McLean. This was recorded in 1957, same lineup as Hardbop. SV-0145, Nippon Columbia and Monaural. Interestingly this has a BMG sticker on the back insert. I think this is a notch below the Curtis Fullers that I have in terms of sound and music, but not complaining, $5 in used bin.

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  2. Dan Steele

    Dan Steele Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chicago suburbs
    The other cool thing about this series of cds for me is the liner notes. They copy the back cover of the original LP in a nice fold out. On the other side are the list of releases as pictured in post #3. Keep those pictures coming.

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  3. Bobby Buckshot

    Bobby Buckshot Heavy on the grease please

    Location:
    Southeastern US
    I'd definitely pick this up if I saw it. I love the fact that it's not your typical standards but rather some original compositions, and with Gryce & Waldron contributing in that regard my interest is peaked.
     
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  4. Dan Steele

    Dan Steele Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chicago suburbs
    I like the first two tracks the most, Casino (Gryce composition) and The Biddie Griddies for McLean’s sax playing. I dont know who R Draper is but he has 3 songs on here. The liner notes that I just bragged about do not address the songs on the album at all! :mad:
     
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  5. wildroot indigo

    wildroot indigo Forum Resident

    I have these (they're excellent, imo)...

    The Charlie Parker Story - Charlie Parker (SV-0105, 1991)
    Tanganyika Strut - Wilbur Harden - John Coltrane (SV-0125, 1991)
    Midnight On Cloud 69 - George Shearing (SV-0208, 1993)
    The Red Norvo Trio with Tal Farlow and Charles Mingus (SV-0267, 1995)

    Midnight On Cloud 69 includes a few Norvo tracks subsequently on The Red Norvo Trio with Tal Farlow and Charles Mingus: that one also made in Japan, but with a different label design.
     
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  6. Bobby Buckshot

    Bobby Buckshot Heavy on the grease please

    Location:
    Southeastern US
    Just picked up another from the used bins for $1, the Savoy Jazz Sampler GES-9960

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  7. Dan Steele

    Dan Steele Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chicago suburbs
    Found another one recently. Don’t know anything about Mighty Mike Cuozzo but picking these up when the price is right and it was at $3.00. This series is definitely bop oriented and this one has a lot of standards, which isn’t my sweet spot but still like them. I am working on the master list and just need to figure out how to post.

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  8. Dan Steele

    Dan Steele Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chicago suburbs
    Nice Bobby, beat me to it today! If you like that Golson song Five Spot After Dark (and I guarantee you will) then try to finding the Curtis Fuller Blues-ette cd. It has some other good songs besides that one.
     
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  9. Archtop

    Archtop Soft Dead Crimson Cow

    Location:
    Greater Boston, MA
    That would be Ray Draper, a tuba player who actually did some sessions with 'Trane in '57 or '58.

    That version of Five Spot After Dark on Fuller's Blues-ette is one of my all-time favorite performances. It oozes the soul of jazz. I've got that one, along with Fuller's Images and four Clifford Brown titles (the latter being on EmArcy) in Japanese mini-LP format and they sound great.

    Note however, that the version of Minor Vamp (another Golson composition) on Blues-ette, while very good, is absolutely annihilated by the blistering version on Blue Mitchell's Blue Soul (which also features Curtis Fuller, who quotes When Johnny Come Marching Home during his solo on that track). A big nod to Sam Jones' bass on Blue Soul for propelling that to its heights.

    Sorry; I digress. Now back to Savoy...
     
    Last edited: Jul 23, 2018
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  10. Dan Steele

    Dan Steele Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chicago suburbs
    All comments are welcome, lets keep the posts up before a Gort shuts us down. Great stuff on the Golson songs, I will have to play my Blue Mitchell Blue Soul cd and make a comparison.
     
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  11. Archtop

    Archtop Soft Dead Crimson Cow

    Location:
    Greater Boston, MA
    I think my commentary is far from shut-down worthy as most of it directly relates to a Savoy track. I just didn't want you to think I was going to veer too far off course. Anyway, another great feature of the Mitchell version of Minor Vamp is the arrangement. The horns do a great job of backing the other soloists. There's one moment just after the Johnny Comes Marching quote where Fuller does this sort of upwards glissando and riff, and then rests briefly while the backing horns toss in a complimentary riff and Fuller then answers the riff. Top shelf stuff.
     
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  12. Dan Steele

    Dan Steele Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chicago suburbs
    Sorry I wasn’t clear. Your comments are spot on and keep them coming please. The reason for what I said - When I first did a search for a Savoy jazz thread I found one recent thread (within a few years) that had less than 1 page of posts and was closed. So I was referring to activity (number of posts) not anything to do with the nature of your comments. All good, :).
     
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  13. Archtop

    Archtop Soft Dead Crimson Cow

    Location:
    Greater Boston, MA
    Gotcha. Maybe I'll go scour the used CD bins for a few $1 Savoys to keep this going.
     
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  14. Dan Steele

    Dan Steele Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chicago suburbs
    If you can find them for $1, that’s awesome. I have seen more in library collections than I have in used bins. As I put in my OP, they really stand out in the bins with their color pattern.
     
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  15. Dan Steele

    Dan Steele Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chicago suburbs
    Before I give my opinion on which had the better version of Minor Vamp, have to say that Benny Golson is one of my favorite composers. On Blues-ette, Five Spot after Dark and Minor Vamp are his. Killer Joe from the Jazztet and Stablemates. On Art Blakey and JM Moanin, he does all but the title track, including Along Came Betty and Blues March. And although I couldn't find Whisper Not on any CD when a friend asked to hear that, I realized it was on my Art Blakey and JM Live in Belgium (1958) Jazz Icon DVD, and kills.

    You said “annihilated”, I have to disagree a little. I do slightly favor the Blue Soul version of Minor Vamp because of the 3 horn lineup and Sam Jones. The horn interplay is fantastic, they swap solos seamlessly. For the Blues-ette version you get Fuller and Golson (no trumpet), but Golson is an upgrade on Jimmy Heath and it is 90 seconds more, plus I do like its languid pace, it fits that album perfectly.
     
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  16. Bobby Buckshot

    Bobby Buckshot Heavy on the grease please

    Location:
    Southeastern US
    Here's a good little write up on the Savoy label over at Jazz Wax: Savoy Bop Sessions 1945-49

    The post's purpose was to mainly highlight the Mosaic box but it goes a little farther and has some nice song links at the bottom. I know it doesn't have much to do with this CD series, but it's nice background info.
     
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  17. Dan Steele

    Dan Steele Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chicago suburbs
    Lonson was referring to the mini-LP versions of some of these same Savoy titles that came around 1995. I ended up with 2 versions of Imagination somehow. The 1995 CD has one extra track, Bang Bang.
    The later CD (CY-78996) is in a slim soft case and the 1991 one (SV-0128) is in a regular CD case with the typical colors we’ve all posted. As Lonson alluded to in another post these later ones are billed as Mastersonic (Denon) 20-bit processing.

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  18. Dan Steele

    Dan Steele Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chicago suburbs
    This is a pic of the above CD’s insert which contains a partial list of that mini LP series, officially the Savoy Jazz 20 bit Master Transfer Collection. Some great titles, all with the CY prefix. According to discogs there were 26 total.

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  19. Archtop

    Archtop Soft Dead Crimson Cow

    Location:
    Greater Boston, MA
    Here's the 1996 insert for the 20 bit Master Transfer Collection. There are more than 26, but there's some overlap with the '91-'93 series, so perhaps that's where the discrepancy lies.

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  20. Archtop

    Archtop Soft Dead Crimson Cow

    Location:
    Greater Boston, MA
    In browsing the release lists from 1991/1992 and 1992 (other than what I have from 1993, not much else grabs me), here are some I'd like to score:

    1991/1992

    Presenting Cannonball Adderley
    Modern Jazz Quartet - Milt
    No Count - Frank Foster
    Surfride - Art Pepper
    Introducing Lee Morgan
    Jazz Way Out - Wilbur Harden
    The King and I - Wilbur Harden/Tommy Flanagan
    Nica's Tempo - Gigi Gryce
    Imagination - Curtis Fuller
    The Jazz Message of Hank Mobley (I have an interesting anecdote about Mobley if y'all are interested)
    Curtis Fuller Jazztet
    Patterns of Jazz - Cecil Payne
    Bluebird - Hank Jones
    Midnight Session - Messengers
    The Hank Jones Quartet
    Cookin' - Booker Ervin

    1992

    Opus de Jazz - Milt Jackson
    Roll 'Em Bags - Milt
    Dexter Rides Again - Dexter Gordon
    Mainstream 1958 - Wilbur Harden
    First Miles - Miles Davis
    Two Altos - Art Pepper and Sonny Redd Kyner
    Meet Milt Jackson
    Jackson's Ville - Milt
    The Jazz Skyline - Milt

    What a great series for how few releases there were.

    I've got to admit (and I mean this with due deference and respect to the reality that we all like different things), that when I was a gigging double bass player, I saw Killer Joe and thought "There's no way in hell I'm ever gonna play this twice." Scripted bass lines annoy me, although So What and A Night in Tunisia are exceptions. I'm there to improvise. Killer Joe is my arch enemy.

    The other thing is, whenever someone called a tune and asked how we wanted to do it, my answer was inevitably "Up."

    The Blue Mitchell version of Minor Vamp is up and gritty. While I do agree that the smoky version on Blues-ette is more in keeping with the feel of that album, I'll take the blood and guts of the Blue Soul Version twelve ways to Sunday. And I'll also take Jimmy Heath, but I've been contrary enough!
     
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  21. Dan Steele

    Dan Steele Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chicago suburbs
    Yes please, on the Mobley story, the so called Middleweight champion of the tenor. A friend and I both started collecting jazz at the same time around 20 years ago. Mobley is his guy, mine is Joe Henderson, and we are both completists on their respective catalogs.
    Archtop, like your wantlist. From the 1993 series I’d add the Yusef Lateef Jazz Moods that you reviewed earlier.
     
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  22. Bobby Buckshot

    Bobby Buckshot Heavy on the grease please

    Location:
    Southeastern US
    Interested :kilroy:
     
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  23. I have around 20 or so titles in this series and do like most of them. Have to double check when I am back home.
     
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  24. Dan Steele

    Dan Steele Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Chicago suburbs
    Roland, that would be great to have your expert knowledge added to this thread. Your preferred Black Sabbath CD thread has been my guide!
     
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  25. Archtop

    Archtop Soft Dead Crimson Cow

    Location:
    Greater Boston, MA
    Well, it's nothing Earth-shattering, but when 'Trane left Miles' band for the second and final time in early 1960, Miles eventually settled on Mobley as his replacement. The first sessions (or certainly very early) were for Someday My Prince Will Come. Miles was apparently not terribly impressed with Mobley's rather pedestrian solo on the title track (starts at 3:10 on the studio track), so he called 'Trane and asked for a favor. 'Trane came into the studio after the track was allegedly already completed and Miles had the engineer cop a chunk of rhythm section support to extend the track to include a solo space for 'Trane (starts at 5:53 just after Miles' recapitulation and the vamp). Needless to say, 'Trane was just emerging from his sheets of sound period and was in full flight. He lays down an aggressively angular solo which Miles liked very much. He then played the track for Mobley as a way of explaining what he was looking for and apparently it worked, as Mobley remained for a couple of strong years.

    Lastly, regarding Joe Henderson, I'm assuming, Da, that you have or have heard the 1968 release Tetragon. If not, check it out; Ron Carter is all over Invitation.
     
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