21/11/2015 10:41 pm  #1


NEW JAZZ BLOG - JAZZ FLASHES

Dear all,

I just began a new jazz blog called Jazz Flashes. It's a companion site to The Vintage Bandstand, the blog about jazz and the crooners that I've been publishing since 2010. The idea is that these flashes will be more immediate and straight to the point than the articles in The Vintage Bandstand, which are more detailed and treat their subject matter more in depth.

When I began The Vintage Bandstand, my first post was about Bing, and so it's only fitting that Jazz Flashes would also kick off with a post about Bing. If you're interested, you may read it here:

http://jazzflashes.blogspot.com/2015/11/bing-crosby-and-some-jazz-friends.html

More posts to come, both about Bing and about other great jazz artists of all kinds!

 

22/11/2015 7:12 am  #2


Re: NEW JAZZ BLOG - JAZZ FLASHES

Very good, Anton! Keep up the good work.

 

22/11/2015 4:55 pm  #3


Re: NEW JAZZ BLOG - JAZZ FLASHES

Thanks, Malcolm! Glad you enjoyed this brief review of a CD that I've always held in high esteem!  

     Thread Starter
 

01/12/2015 1:13 am  #4


Re: NEW JAZZ BLOG - JAZZ FLASHES

That's another of your excellent contributions to our appreciation of great music Anton.

 

11/12/2015 9:39 pm  #5


Re: NEW JAZZ BLOG - JAZZ FLASHES

Thanks, Graham! I am glad you enjoyed the post! I've always thought that was a pretty good CD to illustrate Bing's credentials as a jazz singer. Another good CD that showcases Bing as a jazz singer is Bing with a Beat. Can anyone think of any others?

Last edited by Anton G.-F. (11/12/2015 9:40 pm)

     Thread Starter
 

12/12/2015 8:56 am  #6


Re: NEW JAZZ BLOG - JAZZ FLASHES

Anton G.-F. wrote:

Can anyone think of any others?

I think you have identified the best (by some margin), but don't forget some of the very early recordings with Whiteman, the Rhythm Boys and others.  There are some very good jazz instrumentalists in among them as well, whatever you might think of Whiteman as a "jazzman".  The best examples are a little scattered through the period but some of the CDs that cover the recordings in a way that brings some good examples together are - 

TIMELESS CD: CBC1-004 Jazz  "TIMELESS HISTORICAL PRESENTS BING CROSBY"
CHARLY-AFFINITY CD: CD AFS 1021  "THE JAZZIN' BING CROSBY, 1927-1940"    
ASV - LIVING ERA  CD: CD AJA 5005 R  "BIX 'N' BING"
BBC CD: CD 648  "BING CROSBY IN DIGITAL STEREO 1927 to 1934" 

 
The BBC "digital" issue was issued by others also.

All issued some time ago but I frequently come across "Bix 'n' Bing".
Any effort to bring the recordings together will result in duplication across CDs (Unless you take in the "Chronological" series and get the lot).

 

15/12/2015 5:14 am  #7


Re: NEW JAZZ BLOG - JAZZ FLASHES

Thanks, Richard! You're right that sometimes we tend to forget the Whiteman years, but those were very jazzy years indeed as far as Crosby is concerned, and his records with Whiteman are a lot of fun to listen to! I have Bix 'n' Bing and the Timeless release you mention, but not the other two. However, I do have all the volumes of the Chronological series that contain recordings with Whiteman (I am getting them chronologically from Wig, little by little). Though "The King of Jazz" was no more than a publicity-driven moniker, Whiteman definitely had an ear for talent, and his records of the period are very exciting and include lots of hot solos and some fantastic jazz soloists, and so Whiteman should be commended at least for that, in my opinion.

     Thread Starter
 

15/12/2015 6:20 am  #8


Re: NEW JAZZ BLOG - JAZZ FLASHES

Way back last century - probably 1979 or so, I was travelling from Pittsburgh by Greyhound.
After a few hours we got to a city and had some time to spend before hopping on another Greyhound to finally get to LA to connect to Sydney.
So, to fill in time, what did I do? I jumped on a local bus and went for a ride in suburbia and got off at a Mall.
What a great choice I made. I visited a record store and bought the 2 record album of The Early Bing Crosby. All those songs he made with Whiteman & Co. The LP is in a brown cover.
Songs, at that stage I had never heard Bing sing.
So, support the local Bus Company for some wonderful treasures.

 

15/12/2015 10:46 am  #9


Re: NEW JAZZ BLOG - JAZZ FLASHES

Ron Field wrote:

So, support the local Bus Company for some wonderful treasures.

Ah! Those were the days! But I doubt if any of my local bus routes will get me near anything that remotely resembles the record stores of yore. Those that might survive are more or less devoted to electronic games and devices to play them on. They might have facilities to download music onto those devices and might, if you are lucky, have stocks of CDs and DVDs tucked away somewhere in the hidden depths at the rear, but the chances of much outside the top 50 current pop charts and blockbuster films is about as likely as finding a golden hen's tooth.

At least that is my experience. Gone are the days of browsing (through a browser* of course) and finding something new and exciting. That pleasure is more or less reserved for hitting on the correct search terms when wondering around internet offerings.  

So I fear, Ron, that your trip of 1979, if replicated today, might prove to be a bus trip to nowhere in record discovery and buying terms. 

(* some years ago our last remaining truly local record store closed. After closure there were dozens of custom made browsers made for suspending from vertical backplates displayed for sale for nominal sums).
 

 

16/12/2015 7:09 am  #10


Re: NEW JAZZ BLOG - JAZZ FLASHES

Visiting an old-time record shop was a treat, wasn't it. Bing and Al discovered Bailey's House of Music and listened to records in its booth as part of their music education . I don't know when the first booths appeared in Australian record shops but in Sydney (Australia's largest city) a retailer named Alison's advertised in the late 1930s thus: 'Come in and hear your favourite records played in beautiful home-like individual audition rooms'.

 

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