[78-L] A novice-y type Purple OKeh question

[David Lennick]

The Bessie Smith is a dub, per Rust's Jazz Records..all 4 of those 1933 sides 
were dubbed for the Columbia and OKeh 40s reissues. About the only way you 
could tell visually is if the matrix numbers and run-out grooves look as if 
they're from the wrong period and if they have lead-ins.

Lots of OKehs from the early 40s sound muddy just because they were processed 
quickly and cheaply with substitute materials owing to wartime restrictions. 
But from 1940 on, every new recording on OKeh and Columbia is a dub from a 
16-inch lacquer original..some of them were awful, some of them sounded fine, 
and if the record stayed in print for a while, new dubs were made.

dl

Andrea Walsh wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I have recently (on a whim) been playing all my 78's that were issued on
> Purple OKeh, and I was planning on posting them to my blog.  While
> listening, I notice some are muddy sounding, or at least sort of far-away,
> and others are really clear and the sound is much more defined.
> 
> This may seem like a stupid novice type question, but what are the
> differences?  Are some of these dubs and others original?  I have been
> listening to everything from country and western swing to jazz and swing,
> novelty, gospel, rhythm and blues and blues.
> 
> I read what Rust has to say about the purple issue OKehs in the American
> Record Label Book, that the revived OKeh series of 1940 and after have
> normal CBS series masters, but what does that mean?  Is, for instance the
> recording of Bessie Smith doing "Gimme A Pigfoot" (OK 6893) a dub of a
> Vocalion and say, Blind Boy Fuller doing "Step It Up And Go" (OK 05476) an
> original?
> 
> How can one tell an "original" recording, if there is such a thing?
> 
> I am confuzzled.
> 
> Thanks in advance--
> 
> Andrea
> _________________________________