[78-L] Tenor Sax Styles.

[Dan Van Landingham]

I first heard Wardell Gray via some CDs of Earl Hines from 1947.He also cut an album for
Modern/RPM Records sometime in the fifties.It was called "Way Out Wardell".Gray was
murdered in 1955 while appearing with Benny Carter's band in Vegas.The CD was put out
by LaserLight/Delta Music around 1991.They were transcription discs.I actually picked up
several of them including a good CD of Jimmy Dorsey's band circa 1946-49.Others I bought
were of Louis Prima,Tommy Dorsey,Artie Shaw,Les Brown circa 1936,Basie(which had 
some horribly recorded tracks),the aforementioned Hines sides and a CD of Buddy Rich's 
rock band of the late sixties.The Prima CD I bought because it had a track of "Saint Louis
Blues" on it and I had that one on a Varsity 78 circa 1946.From an engineering standpoint,I
thought it was quite good as opposed to those Varsities from the late thirties to early forties.Those Varsities from the thirties were as bad as the aforementioned Brunswicks and
Vocalions(I'm also including sides issued on Melotone).What can anyone out there tell me
anything about the Variety and Master Records labels.The latter label,Master,was allegedly
owned by Irving Mills.There are a few Brunswicks in my collection that were manufactured
by Master.The master numbers were prefixed by the letter "M".Regarding Varsity,I had 
heard that the label was started by Eli Oberstein after he left RCA.The Varsities were iss-
used as being produced by the United States Record Corporation.I know of his Elite recordings by way of a handful sides Bunny Berigan recorded for between November of
1941 and March of 1942.A couple of those Elites came out on Design Records in the
early to mid sixties.I never knew who bought the masters to them save the fact that some
time in the forties Firestone Tire and Rubber issued them on the Philharmonic Air Chief 
label.Firestone used to market a cheap line of radio and phonographs back then.I had a
Firestone clock radio.Those Berigan sides were reissued on Melodie Jazz along with some
of Georgie Auld and the Artie Shaw Orchestra from January-February 1940.

--- On Fri, 1/8/10, Bill McClung <bmcclung78 at gmail.com> wrote:


From: Bill McClung <bmcclung78 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [78-L] Tenor Sax Styles.
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Date: Friday, January 8, 2010, 9:02 PM


I've tried to avoid this discussion because I don't play sax and it is an
incredibly long thread but I can't stand by and just watch any more.  My
favorite is Alvin "Red" Tyler who personifies the New Orleans rocknroll/r&b
style from the 50s through the 80s.  Other favs are Wardel Gray and selected
Jay McNeeley.

And, with that, I'm back on the sidelines.

On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 3:34 AM, Julian Vein <julianvein at blueyonder.co.uk>wrote:

> Dan Van Landingham wrote:
>  I taught myself to play tenor sax back in late 1969 as a junior in
> high school.I used Hawkins
>  as my role model as well as listening to the likes of Don Byas,Webster as
>  well as a few now forgotten players such as Dick Wilson of Andy Kirk's
> band and Bob
>  Carroll who played tenor for Don Redman in the thirties.One tenor
> player I can't really
>  classify was Chu Berry,whose tone struck me as being somewhere between
> Hawkins
>  and Lester Young whose tone I could never duplicate even though I
> tried to do so.I still
>  prefer Hawkins and his school over the some of the later tenorists I
> also heard from the
>  late thirties.I heard Georgie Auld by way of a handful of Bunny
> Berigan recordings but he
>  was never a favourite of mine.Charlie Barnet I got a kick out of but I
> admired his arrangers
>  even more so.Whatever respect Flip Phillips had was lost after that
> infamous solo he took
>  on "Perdido" with the JATP in the late forties.The sound Hawkins had
> by 1950 left me so-
>  mewhat befuddled:was he losing his lung power by then or was he just
> changing his tone
>  to accomodate the newer jazz fans?I cite his recordings from 1950 on
> Roost as examples.
> =======================
> Dick Wilson, I thought, was a rather ordinary, staid player. Bob Carroll
> played in a slightly "swashbuckling" way with Redman, as I recall.
> Berry's uptempo and blues playing were usually excellent (his work with
> Calloway and ballads rather less so). Another swashbuckler was Jack
> McVea with JATP, who outclassed Illinois Jacquet, where they played
> together. McVea's playing was more exciting and more musical.
>
> Georgie Auld, Charlie Barnet and Wayne Johnson (with Bob Wills) played
> in a rather old fashioned rootie-tootie way, which I have an affection for.
>
> Flip Phillips's best work was mainly before he joined Woody Herman (with
> Norvo on V-Disc). After that he became an "animal cunning" playing and
> clinging too closely to the beat. A couple of other sessions where he
> did play well was with the Teddy Wilson Quintet and the Norvo band, at
> the Town Hall Concert, June 9, 1945. Also a session under Buddy Rich's
> leadership (Verve 1957).
>
> Never thought too much about Hawk's tone in later years, more interested
> in his ability to compile long, structured solos. Listen to his Prestige
> sessions, if you think he'd lost his lung power! True, his early 50s'
> stuff was rather listless.
>
>      Julian Vein
>
>
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