[78-L] National Records

Sun Apr 4 18:34:16 PDT 2010

The Alamac LP came from Jubilee programs. I had it, and as I remember, all
performances from two programs were included. These were later issued on CD
on the Drive Archive label. I have this floating around.

Eckstine recorded for two labels during that period - DeLuxe and National.
It is hard to know which label put out worse-sounding product, but it is
true that those last recordings of Eckstine with strings were beautifully
recorded. When I studied with Budd Johnson while at Queens College, I was
constantly asking him about the Eckstine band, and Eckstine in particular
(Budd wrote most of Billy's arrangements when they both were with Earl
Hines). The band was an exercise in futility; a great ensemble that just
couldn't get the right breaks. Eckstine would get very upset when
interviewers brought it up later and told him what an important band it was.
He lost a lot of money on it, and other modern bands had a much easier time
of it later on (Gerald Wilson and Gillespie off the top of my head).

Eckstine knew that he should have been as big as Sinatra; he had the looks
and the vocal equipment. He signed with MGM Records because they talked
about him being in movies. The racism involved on many levels destroyed
those dreams; the fact that he had a lot of female fans who were white
scared many people and organizations. Eckstine was not a particularly easy
person to deal with later in life, because he knew he'd been screwed, and by
then it was too late.

Jeff Sultanof

On Sun, Apr 4, 2010 at 8:02 PM, Dan Van Landingham <
danvanlandingham at yahoo.com> wrote:

> The bootleg LP I had was from the Plantation Club somewhere in southern
> California from 1945.I liked his
> recording of "I Stay in the Mood for You".I felt that it was the best of
> the blues stuff he did considering that
> he hated the blues as he told Barbara Hodgkins in a 1947 article for either
> Downbeat or Metronome.Geor-
> ge T. Simon reprinted part of the interview in his 1967 book "The Big
> Bands" originally published by Mac-
> Millan.
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: simmonssomer <simmonssomer at comcast.net>
> To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Sent: Sun, April 4, 2010 3:48:53 PM
> Subject: Re: [78-L] National Records
>
> If you're interested in  Eckstine band material I know a guy who has a good
> deal of that live stuff. He told me that he has a complete Jubilee from
> March 9, 1945...some March 1945 air checks from The Club Plantation, some
> early 1945 Jubilees with Sarah Vaughn, . Further, he sez that he owns all
> of
> the studio stuff  from the DeLuxe and National labels.(except National 9030
> and 9123.)
> He's a busy chap and has to be treated with some care and planning..
> Further he tells me that he owns almost all of Fats Navarrro's recordings.
> What a be-bop nut cake eh?
>
> Al Simmons
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dan Van Landingham" <danvanlandingham at yahoo.com>
> To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Sent: Sunday, April 04, 2010 2:56 PM
> Subject: Re: [78-L] National Records
>
>
> > The best sounding Nationals I heard were the ones that Billy Eckstine cut
> > in 1946 with a string section.I
> > wondered if they were cut at Radio Recorders.I have them somewhere on a
> > Savoy LP called "Mr.B and
> > the Band".I should replace it with a CD copy as I gave the LP alot of
> hard
> > use.I bought it new back in
> > 1978.Prior to that I had a bootleg LP of Eckstine on Alamac I bought new
> > in Denver back in 1975.It was
> > said to be the only album of the Eckstine band live.I recently found a CD
> > copy of that same album.I got it
> > off of ebay a couple of years ago.It had a great version of the 1928 song
> > "Together" which had a good tr-
> > umpet solo by Fats Navarro who was one of my favourites.I was listening
> to
> > an album of Miles Davis which is a German import.It has no personnel and
> > Davis was in relatively good form but he was no Fats
> > Navarro in my opinion.I'm also a trumpet player myself although I
> > eventually switched into saxophone se-
> > ction playing tenor then baritone sax.Navarro,from what I remember via an
> > article in Downbeat in the early
> > '70s,started out playing tenor in some big band in Key West,Florida.He
> > struck me as a no nonsense kind of
> > player who didn't clown around the way Dizzy did.Ray Linn was in the
> > orchestra that backed Eckstine on
> > those late 1946 dates which were cut in the L.A. area as I recall.
> >
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: Geoffrey Wheeler <dialjazz at verizon.net>
> > To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> > Sent: Sun, April 4, 2010 11:35:05 AM
> > Subject: [78-L] National Records
> >
> > Dan Van Landingham comments: “I was paraphrasing a writer named Charlie
> > Gillette who wrote a book on the history of Atlantic Records and he
> > alluded to National Records and its
> > founder Al Green.He described National's records as being a mixture of
> > manure and gravel.”
> >
> > I was told years ago, that the owner of National Records had another
> > business that produced some kind of material  he decided to use for
> > pressing his records. I forget what the material was said to be but
> > everyone acknowledged it resulted in quite inferior playing surfaces. I
> > have quite a few Nationals; some play better than others.
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> >
> >
> >
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