Incredibly important jazz collection found

[dhermann1]

This is in today's NY Times. The late recording engineer, Bill Savory, accumulated a huge trove of recordings he had made during the 30's of all the greatest names in jazz. Being a talented musician and a brilliant sound engineer, Savory was able to preserve extended performances not available anywhere else. The Jazz Museum of Harlem now has them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/arts/music/17jazz.html?_r=1&hp

 

[W4ASZ]

Wonderful !

This is in today's NY Times. The late recording engineer, Bill Savory, accumulated a huge trove of recordings he had made during the 30's of all the greatest names in jazz. Being a talented musician and a brilliant sound engineer, Savory was able to preserve extended performances not available anywhere else. The Jazz Museum of Harlem now has them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/arts/music/17jazz.html?_r=1&hp

I imagine this is the "Savory Stew" of legend.

 

[Mike1939]

This is wonderful news! Thanks for brightening my dhermann1.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I groaned when I saw the picture of the Audiodisc brand blank, because that's the worst brand there is as far as decomposition is concerned -- but Doug Pomeroy is one of the best in the business at restoration. Hopefully once preservation is complete they'll be able to release these -- complete programs, please, not just excerpts!

 

[Doctor Strange]

Outstanding!

This sounds utterly amazing. I can't wait to start hearing this stuff!

 

[W4ASZ]

Wouldn't it be nice to see some of these gems released on vinyl ?

 

[Tomasso]

Box set......Don't hold your breath......

the copyright status of the recorded material is complicated, which could inhibit plans to share the music. While the museum has title to Mr. Savory’s discs as physical objects, the same cannot be said of the music on the discs.


:eusa_doh:

 

[davidraphael]

This is incredible. I hope they find a way to get it to us.

 

[Aristaeus]

Harry James was on the list of artist.:eusa_clap Ill keep my fingers crossed.

 

[Dan'l]

This sounds like it would be a great addition to any jazz collection. I love the stuff I've heard from the 30's, especially Count Basie.

Cheers!

 

[repeatclicks]

I won't be surprised after all the hype that it just gets recorded on to computers, discs cleaned and put behind glass, and never released to the public. Museums can be very selfish sometimes....

 

[Fletch]

The problem isn't museums. It's copyright.

This music was the pop music at a time when Big Media was the only game on the block. So 70+ years on, most of it belongs to Big Media's great grandchild, Really Big Media.

Upshot: it's owned right down to the 8th rest by companies so huge they can't possibly stop the train to cater to a niche market. And after 70+ years, this music is a niche within a niche, with the US audience (especially) ruled right out.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Adding to the issue with these particular recordings is that legally, they aren't even supposed to exist: they were privately made, by a hobbyist working on his own, with no sanction from either the performers, the radio networks, or the record labels to which the artists were signed. They're basically bootlegs: historically important, but illegal nonetheless. This explains why Bill Savory was so dodgy about admitting he had them, and makes the people who now hold the recordings all the more wary of distributing them.

If you tape a live performance off the radio today, you have every right to enjoy it in your own home. But legally, you aren't allowed to sell copies. Whether you can even make copies at all is the sort of question intellectual property lawyers make their livings on.

 

[Undertow]

I was going to chime in (as Tomasso, Fletch and Lizzie already have) and say bummer! We'll never get to hear these!

 

[dhermann1]

Get chummy with Loren Schoenberg at the Jazz Museum. I'm speculating they might have private listening session.

 

[Fletch]

Excellent idea. I sorta know Loren (altho as saxophonists and sometime bandleaders, we are technically competitors).

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

The problem isn't museums. It's copyright.

This music was the pop music at a time when Big Media was the only game on the block. So 70+ years on, most of it belongs to Big Media's great grandchild, Really Big Media.

Upshot: it's owned right down to the 8th rest by companies so huge they can't possibly stop the train to cater to a niche market. And after 70+ years, this music is a niche within a niche, with the US audience (especially) ruled right out.

YOU GOT THAT RIGHT MAN - I'm attempting to work with as a liason for a record pressing plant to "get my feet wet" in the business, to negotiate master recording licenses for vinyl re-issues of vintage stuff - it's ALL been bought up by MOSTER CORPS and unless you're gonna move tens of thousands of units they don't seem to want to TALK to you!... so much for re-issues... now I understand why *ALL* the CD re-issues of popular big band Victor artists (Goodman, Miller, Shaw, Dorsey, Ellington...) in the USA are manufactured by BMG/Sony, and not other smaller CD companies...

Funny, I called back the plant owner and told him my troubles, and he said, "Yeah, sorry guy, I just wanted to see if someone else besides me would have better luck; I ran into the same problems..."

Oh well, hold onto your old records...

(Nice find, though! - hopefully Something can be worked out so Some parts of it will see the light of day.)

- CH

 

[Aristaeus]

This would not be the first time that transcription disks were put on CD and released.
This CD set which I own are from such disks, below is a discription from the set.

The Harry James Legacy.
The recordings in this boxed set were made available by Sal Monte and Viola Monte from a private collection of radio broadcast transcriptions her husband, PeeWee had made during the years he was Harry James band manager and good friend. They were recorded on 10 inch, 12 inch and 16 inch transcription disks.
The transcriptions were personally provided to big band archivist Richard Maher by Sal Monte (PeeWee's brother). Afer a painstakingly precise and long documentation process the 1200-plus airchecks were catalogued and transferred to reference cassettes by Mr. Maher. Once these cassettes were listened to a list of preliminary songs were selected for this Hindsight release.
In otherwords Mr. Monte recorded radio broadcasts for his personel use and when he died they were provided to a record label for release.
I think Savory disks could work the same way.

Below is a link with a list of songs and a review for this CD boxed set.

http://www.answers.com/topic/bandstand-memories-1938-to-1948

 

[Tomasso]

radio broadcast transcriptions her husband, PeeWee had made during the years he was Harry James band manager ......I think Savory disks could work the same way.

Betcha Harry assigned the rights to PeeWee....Whether he knew it or not....... Savory's got bupkis.

 

[Aristaeus]

Betcha Harry assigned the rights to PeeWee....Whether he knew it or not....... Savory's got bupkis.

With the exception of the music that he composed Harry James did not own the rights to the songs to sign over. I am not sure exactly how it worked but it seems to me when you have several Big Bands performing different arrangements of the same songs that copyright is not an issue. Since the radio broadcasts of the day were not recorded by anyone for later commercial distribution no one owns the rights to them. The only possible rights to the performances I see is from the estates of the performers. Mr Monte simply handed over privately owned recordings to a record label and they restored them and sold them to the pulbic. Either the museum is pulling someones chain giving an excuse for not distributing them (after all if they were recorded to cd and sold to the public the music would only be worth the price of a box set) or a reporter is speculating.

Betcha Harry assigned the rights to PeeWee....[

If I read H.J.'s bio right he and PeeWee never had any legal documents signed between them, PeeWee's agreement to manage the band was on a hand shake so I doubt Harry wold have signed the rights to his music over.