I knew about the separation of their jazz and gospel lines, but I still cannot get over the fact that the Savoy gospel catalog was never given the type of treatment that the Specialty gospel catalog was (and rather profitably too). I don't know the status of Savoy gospel ownership today. When you find used gospel vinyl records today, they are often in poor condition as they were played countless times.
Indeed. Those records tended to be very well loved, well worn if not outright abused. And often on less than good equipment, never given preventative maintenance, often ran until it failed, not unlike many R&B, Blues, and Country music classics often were.
Just found a few more of these in the used bin wilderness. In the Beginning...Bebop comp; The Hawk Returns and the Coltrane-Harden CD. The Bebop comp CD was made in Japan, the Coltrane-Harden in West Germany (which I'm guessing is why the paint variance) and the Hawk in the US. Of note is that Sun Ra is an uncredited piano player for six songs on the Hawkins album. I'm traveling right now so can't listen to these just yet. Looking forward to when I get back though.
Great finds Bobby! The Coleman Hawkins one is definitely part of the 1991-92 series, SV-0182, and it has Jasrac logo so I’m assuming it is what the rest of these are considered: Japan for US. Most interesting to me is that discogs has Sun Ra as uncredited pianist on the last 6 tracks, any way to confirm that Bobby or someone else? It would be worth having for that reason alone. The BeBop compilation is SV-0169 (although for some reason that number is skipped on my “complete” list on page 3 of this thread) and unless discogs is wrong Fats Navarro is only on 4 of the 12 songs so that is some creative marketing on the disc itself. The Countdown Harden-Coltrane comp is 1985 WG but obviously ties to this series. Always something interesting with these Savoy CDs!
Tribute, you sound like more of a vinyl guy but I’ve noticed that Reckless Records in Chicago (Broadway store) has 2 Savoy CDs that seem to be in your gospel category. Bishop Robert Evans and the Bethel Temple Voices of Christ, He’s Everything to Me $6.99 Rev, Clay Evans and the AARC Mass choir, I’m Going Through $8.99 Dont know where you are but I think they have reasonable shipping.
I'm going to post this over in the Sun Ra thread to see if anyone there knows for sure because I don't; although the Discogs entry I linked to cites the following: "Geerken, Hartmut & Trent, Chris (2015) - Omniverse Sun Ra: p177#16"
Not a CD, but this 78 RPM surprised me. I forgot that Savoy had also recorded "society big bands" Denny Beckner had a successful career, but did not make many records. My copy of this 78 is signed in white ink by Beckner. This image is from the web
Looks like Sun Ra's involvement may be indeed legit - see the comment below that I quoted from another forum member the All Purpose Sun Ra thread. "Don't have the book, but this is from here:FROM SONNY BLOUNT TO SUN RA: The Chicago Years "Coleman Hawkins (ts); Sun Ra (p); unidentified (b); unidentified (d). Chicago, August or September 1953 [6994] Flight Eleven Savoy MG 12013, Savoy SV-0182 [CD], Classics 1416 [CD], Transparency 0316 [CD, disk 11] [6995] Modern Fantasy Savoy MG 12013, Savoy SV-0182 [CD], Classics 1416 [CD] [6996] Confessin' Savoy MG 12013, Savoy SV-0182 [CD], Classics 1416 [CD] [6997] September Song Savoy MG 12013, Savoy SV-0182 [CD], Classics 1416 [CD], Transparency 0316 [CD, disk 11] [6998] You Can't Take That Away from Me [They Can't Take That Away from Me] Savoy MG 12013, Savoy SV-0182 [CD], Classics 1416 [CD] [6999] Should I? Savoy MG 12013, Savoy SV-0182 [CD], Classics 1416 [CD] It is not known where these sides were recorded. But the out-of-tune piano and the weird balance rule out Universal Recording, or any other studio worthy of the name. An empty club is the likely venue. Enough sides were cut at Hawk's two Parrot sessions to make an LP. But Al Benson never carried through with the plan. He put out two singles (Parrot 783 and 784), both consisting of material from the session with organ, piano, guitar, and (on two of the sides) a chorus. Al Benson sold Parrot and Blue Lake Records to John Henry "Lawyer" Burton in March 1956. Burton operated the labels for a few months, and threw in the towel before 1956 was out. Burton sold all of the Parrot Hawkins tracks to Herman Lubinsky. Savoy MG 12013, The Hawk Returns, was an LP released in 1957; it consisted of the 12 sides that Hawk had done for Parrot, including all 6 from this quartet session (the quartet tracks were grouped together on Side B). The original Parrot matrix numbers for the session remain unknown; the numbers in brackets were assigned by Savoy. "You Can't Take That Away from Me" is the way the title was rendered on the Savoy release. A straight CD reissue of the LP, under the same title, appeared in 1994 as Savoy SV-0182." And of note, I listened to this Coleman Hawkins CD today and loved it. There's some doo-wop style vocal accompaniment on several of the tunes (none of the Sun Ra track though) that really add a great flavor. They don't say any actual words, but intone in a way that reminded me of a subtle string section - only much much better! I definitely recommend this one. Hawk's playing is fantastic as well.
Again, I enjoy the 78s more than the CDs. From a sentimental point of view, this is my favorite Charlie Parker performance.
Another find from tonight's shopping: Hank Jones Quartet-Quintet with Eddie Jones, Kenny Clarke, Donald Byrd or Matty Dice (what a name!) on trumpet. Haven't listened to it yet but I'm looking forward to that 15:05 tune An Evening At Papa Joe's! It really is cool finding these Savoy CDs out in the used bins.
Had a gift card to use and found one of my Savoy CD wishlist items on Amazon, Images of Curtis Fuller. This was the last Curtis Fuller led session on Savoy that I did not have. At first I thought we had another quality control issue in the Savoy marketing dept when I saw the credits on the back insert because it lists Fuller as composer on all 5 songs, but it turns that is accurate. The band is Fuller, Yusef Lateef (ts and f) and McCoy Tyner (not a bad core) on all 5 tracks and on tracks 1,5 Harden (t), Garrison (b), Clifford Jarvis (d) and on tracks 2-4, Lee Morgan, Milt Hinton (b), Bobby Donaldson (d). 1. Accident - nice straight ahead bop groover to start things off 2. Darryl’s Minor - always partial to minor mode songs and this is right up my street with Yusef on flute and all 3 of the horns soloing before they come back to play the theme together. I will be listening to this a lot! 3. Be Back TA-Reckla - I have no idea what this means and it is a little slower song, ok, not my favorite 4. Judyful - another modal sounding song and my second favorite, stretches out to 8+ min and all the horns solo 5. New Date - similar to Accident and shares the same band. Whole CD clocks in just over 30 min, no bad tracks, standouts for me are the songs with Lee Morgan, Darryl’s Minor and Judyful.
It's a phonetic spelling of "Directly" as in "I'll be back directly." Not sure if that term is used far and wide but it means "I'll be back soon." Aside - I'm really hoping to find some of these Fuller discs at some point. Would love to hear them! Nice find Dan!
Nice find and how coincidental I didnt know you had posted as I was writing my summary of the Fuller album.
I have Images (as well as Blues-ette) in 20-bit mastering in Japanese mini-LP format. I don't know if they are actually Japanese, as the only markings to suggest that possibility is that the re-mastering is done by Yujiro Kasai. Each has three alternate takes, including Darryl's Minor.
I forgot to mention I paid $18 plus shipping, and it was off Amazon not a bin find. There was one offered on discogs for $9 listed as mint but no liner notes. I’d recommend getting that and I can mail you a copy of the inserts if you want to PM me. It is the typical Savoy foldout and either I am getting old or these are extra small letters, almost need a magnifying glass to read it.
I'll bet they're just small as I think they just put a photocopy of the LP rear cover on there. Give me a bit and I may pick it up and thank you for the offer of sending the liner notes! Been spending some $$$ on CDs lately
Yes those mini LPs from later in the 1990s are really nice. They have the CY prefix. The only album I could do a comparison on was Fuller’s Imagination and I didn’t hear a noticable sound difference either way iirc. However alternate takes are always nice to have.
I finally got around to counting. I have 20 of those early 90s Japanese CDs, as well as maybe a dozen later reissue CDs of Savoy material.
No problem. You have been on a tear lately picking up some good stuff. I had a decent jazz day too, which I’ll post in some thread, found Donald Byrd’s Kofi, a Rare Groove Blue Note CD, for $4. And have Tina Brooks The Waiting Game on the way, the last of his Coonoisseur Ed CDs that I didn’t have.
Man I love this music. At the store tonight the guys let me at the jazz CDs recently priced but not yet put out yet and that's where I found the Hank Jones. I told them these Savoy CDs are pretty much immediate buys for me if I don't already have them. Just a fantastic series from a great era. Finding a Rare Groove for $4 is awesome! They put out some RVGs tonight (specifically Byrd's Byrd in Hand and Horace Silver's Finger Poppin') but they were priced a bit high for me tonight. I'd rather snag a Rare Groove that's for sure! Nice work and I hope you enjoy that Tina B when you get it. One of my favorite tenors.
Hah! Another amazing coincidence, I passed on Silver’s Finger Poppin today at my local, it was $10 which seemed high for an RVG nowadays. That’s great that you are in with owners to get a preview. The find of the day for me, besides Kofi, was a Fair condition Turrentine Let it Go LP (Impulse) for $4. Record scratched to heck, but...I only needed the cover. I already had the LP as it was in a Cherry (CTI) cover when i bought that 2 yrs ago and shame on me for not checking (I probably glanced at condition but hard to mistake those labels!)
Crazy! I hate passing on these as there's no guarantee they'll be there again - I actually missed on a live Art Pepper disc that I was hoping to grab and put several CDs back due to that stack they directed me to but I guess that's part of the hunt.
