INSIDE: Holiday music • Jazz & Blues on DVD ... - Delmark Records

ACE RECORDS ACE RECORDS ACE RECORDS ACE RECORDS ACE RECORDS ACE RECORDS ACE RECORDS
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Mellow Cats & Kittens - Hot R&B and
Cool <strong>Blues</strong> 1946-52; post war tracks
from the Modern label (1022)
IRMA THOMAS
Time Is On My Side - 24 great
vintage hits (K10)
ARTHUR ALEXANDER’S GREATEST HITS (922)
HADDA BROOKS - Swingin the Boogie -
18 tracks taken from rare Modern recordings.
Mostly instrumental (1046)
JAMES CARR - Goldwax Singles (202)
PEE WEE CRAYTON - <strong>Blues</strong> Guitar Magic (767)
CHARLIE FEATHERS & MAC CURTIS -
26 amazing tracks from these Rockabilly kings-from
the King Vaults-newly remastered (1052)
ROSCOE GORDON - Best of the RPM Years (694)
SIDNEY BECHET
The Sidney Bechet Story (18)*
With amazing sound, beautiful packaging and informative liner notes, UK’s
Ace Records has been documenting classic and rare blues, jazz, soul,
western swing, gospel and Cajun <strong>music</strong> for 30 years now. This small sample
list are all <strong>Jazz</strong> Record Mart recommendations and are all ON SALE for
just $14.99 through 1/31/06 (regularly priced $18.99)
WALTER HORTON
Mouth Harp Maestro (252) VARIOUS ARTISTS
Welcome To The Club - Chicago
<strong>Blues</strong> Volume 2 - 24 Rare Tracks
from the Federal label (1009)
SLIM HARPO -Tip On In (606)
FREDDIE KING Early Years (454)
LITTLE WILLIE JOHN - King Sessions ’58-’60 (1061)
IKE TURNER & HIS KINGS OF RHYTHM
Great Instrumentals (782)
EDDIE CLEANHEAD VINSON - Bald Headed (877)
EDDIE WITHERSPOON “Sings the <strong>Blues</strong>”
Sessions (896)
VARIOUS - Best of King Gospel 24 tracks of vintage
gospel from ’49-’53 with the Trumpeteers, Four
LIGHTNIN’ SLIM
Nothin’ But The Devil
(616)
Interns, Spirit of Memphis Quartet and others (813)
VARIOUS - Chicago <strong>Blues</strong> 22 Rare tracks from the
Federal label with Kid Thomas, Eddie Clearwater,
Smokey Smothers, etc (717)
30th Anniversary Sampler - JUST $8.99!
20 tracks in celebration of Ace’s 30th birthday!
With Elmore James, Howling Wolf, Drifting Slim,
Joe Hill Louis, Helen Humes, Ike Turner, etc...
A Great Value!!
The Amazing Box Set Sale!
BUD POWELL
Tempus Fugue-It (22)
Just $19.99 for FOUR CDs! (regular price $26.99)
Asterisk titles are housed in a new thinner package. Sale prices good through 1/31/06.
VARIOUS ARTISTS
<strong>Jazz</strong> In Britain (88)*
CHET BAKER
The Early Years (84)*
JOHNNY HODGES
The Jeep Is Jumpin’ (58)*
BIG JOE TURNER
Shout, Rattle and Roll (89)*
BILLIE HOLIDAY
The Lady Sings (26)*
CLIFFORD BROWN - Joyspring (86)*
DAVE BRUBECK - Time Was (90)*
CHARLIE PARKER - Boss Bird (46)*
SONS OF THE PIONEERS - My Saddle
Pals And I (87)*
SISTER ROSETTA THARPE -
The Original Soul Sister (51)*
ARTIE SHAW
The Artie Shaw Story (85)*
VARIOUS - Cajun Capers (91)*
VARIOUS - The Dawn of
Doo Wop (44)
VARIOUS - Hollywood
Cowboys (75)
VARIOUS - <strong>Jazz</strong> at the
Philharmonic (82)
These 3 titles are due soon!
CHARLIE CHRISTIAN* GERRY MULLIGAN*
CHARLIE PARKER*
OUR CUSTOMERS ASK...
"WHERE'D YOU GET ALL THE VINYL?"
<strong>Jazz</strong> Record Mart's inventory boasts thousands of titles available in
mint (and sealed - please don't open them) condition, plus more
thousands that are second hand, which, by the way, we don't sell by
mail.
Well, the used LP's obviously come from purchasing collections.
We prefer to buy large collections for several reasons. Large collections
are usually in much better condition. Who has time to wear out 5,000
LP's? The collector who has made a larger investment has learned not
to discard the inner sleeves, stack naked records on shelves, etc.
"BUT YOU'VE GOT SO MANY MINT LP's ?"
Yes, we do have almost as many mint titles in our bins as we do
second-hand. For two reasons:
1 - A LOT OF TITLES ARE STILL BEING PRESSED
Fantasy's Original <strong>Jazz</strong> Classics series released more than 600
titles from Prestige, Riverside, Milestone, Pablo, Good Time <strong>Jazz</strong>,
Contemporary, and (oh yes) Fantasy on vinyl. Many of them have
already been deleted but since Fantasy sold out to Concord, Michael
Cuscuna went through the warehouse and found small stocks of OJC's
so we now have titles we didn't think we'd see again on LP. The fact
that the national distributor for Concord, et al handles only the CD's may
be an indication that they will cease LP production. (Fair Warning!) I
suspect they'll keep certain major artists’ work (Miles, Monk,
Coltrane,etc.) available -- at least for the present.
Michael Cuscuna also unearthed some pressings made for the
Japanese market about twenty years ago, even 10" stuff.
Many labels (Columbia, Atlantic, Uni / Mercury / Chess / Verve /
Decca, etc.) press on such reissue labels as Classic, Four Men With
Beards, Get Back, Sundazed, and imports also enter the picture,
sometimes in 180 or 200 gram formats.
Bear in mind that today's LP pressing is invariably going to be
superior to an original from the 80's or 90's because they used a lot of
My wife and I took a couple of days off recently to go up to the
Addison House Bed & Breakfast in Wisconsin. We slept in a 19th
century building that had been a bar, a hotel, and a brothel. The B&B
is run by Susie Fish, the sweetest woman truck driver you could
imagine. (I specialize in movie character act-persons and I couldn't
cast her - maybe Patsy Kelly) in the tiny barely-a-town of Addison,
next to Allentown.
On the way back to Chicago, we decided to dine on some great
fish in picturesque Port Washington. So I had, of course, to visit the
Wisconsin Chair Company site down by the harbor. What surprised
me was that everyone I spoke with knew about
Paramount Records and its important blues
recordings of the late 20s and early 30s.
Thus encouraged we stopped off in Grafton
which is right next to Port Washington to see if we
could find the site of the old pressing plant and
studio. In a front yard, just before we crossed the
bridge, we saw a large wooden sign advertising
"Record Sale" and it looked tantalizing because it
had actual LP's, 78's & 45's tacked up on it. The
guy who was running the sale knew all about
Paramount. I presumed this was because he grew
up in Grafton but he had only recently moved there
from Milwaukee, where he had been a neighbor of
John Steiner, who bought Paramount back c. 1948.
"That's my buddy! I lived up the street from him."
PARAMOUNT LEGACY
remilled vinylite then but there's no stocks of old vinyl to regrind
today.
2 - WE’VE BEEN BUYING FOR THE FUTURE
Remembering that we were able to sell 78's for decades after the
LP was introduced in 1948, and that we capitalized our business by
buying up distress stocks of 78's, 10" LP's, mono LP's (during that
brief mono panic c.1963), we knew just what to do when the LP was
considered obsolete in the record industry: Buy!
Delmark was then distributed by a dozen wholesalers around the
country. They had LP's to dispose of. <strong>Jazz</strong> Record Mart purchased
virtually all these inventories of jazz & blues product, including
imports such as French RCA, Fresh Sound, Timeless, Swaggie &
Pathe.
We also picked up remainder inventories of quite a few labels
including Caravan Of Dreams, Adelphi <strong>Jazz</strong>, Boris Rose's many
labels, Sea Breeze, Aircheck, IAJRC, Inner City, Pinnacle, Euphonic,
Principally, Totem and others.
We once bought the entire inventory, including a very few CD's,
of a Michigan distributor, which is why we have cassettes at 19¢ and
LP's at 99¢ in the folk, classical, Broadway and sound track fields.
We price the product on a supply/demand basis. So a 99-cent
price on a jazz or blues album, rather than being a statement of
<strong>music</strong>al quality. usually means we have (or had) a lot of copies.
$1.99 will usually signify a pretty good quantity. After that it'll mean
many fewer pieces. We often adhere to these original prices until the
stock runs out but they are subject to change with later listings in
Rhythm & News. We advise you not to wait too long.
Oh, if a mint LP in the bins doesn't have a stock control card on
it, we probably have only that one copy.
Thanks for asking, hope this isn't TMI*
-Bob Koester
*Too Much Info
Upon asking about the Grafton plant we learned that "You can see
it from the bridge as you cross the river" and he gave directions to the
old pressing plant building which has been beautifully remodeled and
now houses artists' studios. One of the artists directed us to a nearby
corner where we took the above picture in front of what had been the
Bienlein Central Hotel, 1304 12th Avenue, said to have been a haven
for blues artists while in Grafton.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported recently of plans to
restore the old hotel bulding to its historical character and operate on
the first floor an upscale, blues-themed restaurant featuring American
contemporary cuisine. It would be called the
Paramount Restaurant and the planners are
hoping to open in September 2006.
What are the odds we'd meet a Steiner
buddy who knew about Paramount, an artist
who knew about the old hotel building, and that
the Journal Sentinel had just done an article on
the proposed Paramount Restaurant?
Plus - we just found out that "a
burgeoning interest in Grafton's role as a
centerpiece in blues <strong>music</strong> history could land
the community on television screens across the
country next year." Stay tuned.
-Bob Koester
Photo: Peter Beuscher
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