Topic: JSP Boxed Sets--Blind Lemon & Others

[RobBob]

If you are looking for JSP box sets, here's a good deal:

http://www.rootsandrhythm.com/roots/JSP%20Box%20Sets/JSP_Boxes_Blues_2.htm

[dj]

Does any one have, or has anyone seen the "Breaking Out Of New Orleans, 1922-1927" set?  If so , could you comment on the quality of the liner notes and whether there is any discographical information at all?  I'm interested in dipping my toe a little deeper into early jazz, and this seems like an easy way to to this, but I'd really prefer to know at least personnel and year of recording of the tracks.

If the JSP set doesn't have any of this info, can anyone recommend a better/alternate source for this material?
   

[lindy]

DJ:

I cannot answer your question about the liner notes, but if they are anything like the notes in the three JSP box sets that I just got in the mail last week, most likely they will be real thin on detail.

This is a situation where I hope you still have a turntable in your home. I think one of the best selections of early New Orleans material was put out by Columbia back in the 1960s. It's called "The Sound of New Orleans, 1917-1947," and it was the first part of a series called "Jazz Odyssey." The big difference between this 3-LP set and the JSP set you are talking about is that the JSP set has several tunes each from a fairly small number of bands, whereas the Columbia LPs have one song each from a large number of bands. Of course, you'll hear a lot of Louis Armstrong because he played in a lot of bands, which is wonderful. The notes in the Columbia set are detailed, and the large-format booklet has lots of great pictures of the old masters who did not move from New Orleans up river to St. Louis or Chicago: Bebe Ridgley, "Slow Drag" Pavageau (great nickname), Alphonse Picou, George Lewis, etc.

If you're able to listen to internet radio during the morning hours of 9-noon, central time, wwoz.org has a New Orleans music show Mon-Fri in that time slot. If I remember right, Tuesdays and Thursdays are particularly good for '20s and '30s New Orleans recordings. The DJ on Fridays, Bob French, is 100% local color.

Finally, get yourself on a plane and go down and see it all for yourself, Frenchmen Street is where it's all happening, plus Fritzel's club on Bourbon. Before you go, read Tom Sancton's book, "A Song for My Fathers," about "The Mens" (plus Sweet Emma Barrett) who made up the first Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

Breathtaking music, enjoy your discovery period.

Lindy

[uncle bud]

Most of the JSP sets I have are actually quite good about discographical information, in fact.

Perhaps banjochris will speak up here. He recommended the New Orleans set to me, which I still have not picked up yet.  I did get the Jazz the World Forgot discs from Yazoo that he said are even better. They really are wonderful, really great material, no regrets whatsoever, and have song by song notes with year (though not date) of recording, but not comprehensive discographical info about personnel.

The thread is here: http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?amp;Itemid=128&topic=4237.0

[lindy]

Most of the JSP sets I have are actually quite good about discographical information, in fact.

Whoops, I'm mixing up discographies with liner notes. I recently bought the "Western Swing and Country Jazz," "When the Levee Breaks Mississippi Blues," and the "Frankie Lee Sims/Mercy Dee Walton" box sets. The discographic info is all there like it's supposed to be, but it's the liner notes that are slim. The Sims/Walton notes are a bit better, two whole pages dedicated to each player individually, but still not a whole lot of information. For the others the liner note writers pretty much give one sentence to each band or player then move on to the next.

I guess I'm showing my age here. Basic discographical info is good, the who-what-when-where for each song, but I liked the days when record companies paid people to write detailed liner notes. In the last couple of weeks I've also bought a lot of the Prestige/Bluesville CDs that have been on sale at Oldies--Pete Franklin, Baby Tate, Gary Davis, Mercy Dee Walton, and Emma Barrett. All of those CDs have the original liner notes from their LP versions, written by people like Samuel Charters, Art Rosenbaum, Larry Cohn, and a guy name Herb Friedwald who knew all the old New Orleans players in the 50s and 60s. The Columbia LP set I suggested to DJ has a 32-page booklet, same size as the box the records came in, with 20 pages of text written by Frederic Ramsey. Lotta meat there. The JSP box sets I just bought don't have anything like that, might be part of the reason why the sets are so cheap.

Lindy

 

[uncle bud]

Yup, I was referring to discographical information that dj had asked about (assuming that's what he meant). Recording dates, personnel, instrumentation. Raw data. Notes like you describe are certainly wonderful to get wherever you can, naturally. Some people still do it right. Old Hat are very good, as is much of the stuff I've seen on Smithsonian Folkways.

[banjochris]

Perhaps banjochris will speak up here. He recommended the New Orleans set to me, which I still have not picked up yet.  I did get the Jazz the World Forgot discs from Yazoo that he said are even better. They really are wonderful, really great material, no regrets whatsoever, and have song by song notes with year (though not date) of recording, but not comprehensive discographical info about personnel.

The "Breaking Out of New Orleans" set lists all the personnel and dates of recording for each track. As far as discography it's rather odd. Some of the tracks are listed with record numbers, e.g. Ory's Sunshine Orchestra "Krooked Blues" is listed as Sunshine 3001, but most of the tracks are listed with matrix numbers only, no label info or record number. I'm not sure why they do this; they should either put both or neither, I think. Granted that you can tell who some of the numbers are for (C-1237 is probably Vocalion, IIRC) it does seem a bit pointless. The important stuff (personnel and date) is there though.
Chris

[dj]

Thanks, Chris.  Usually JSP does a pretty good discographical job, but what always worries me about their more obscure collections is what they did with "It's Hotter In Hawaii", where there is no discographical information and reading the notes leaves you no wiser about the music than when you strarted.  Great music, though.

[jopoke]

A local music store, here in OKC, has many used JSP box sets in stock.  They had around 30 sets and most are 12-14 dollars.  Here's their website : http://guestroom-records.com/

I picked up the Riley Puckett set, which is very good.

Take it easy, Joe