[78-L] Sidney Bechet's Bluebird recording of "Strange Fruit"

Steven C. Barr stevenc at interlinks.net
Tue Apr 6 19:35:05 PDT 2010


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From: "Han Enderman" <jcenderman at solcon.nl>
> Rust gives Bechet's Strange Fruit on Vic 27-0127 only, plus some European 
> HMVs.
> In Jazz Directory, v.1 (1949) it is still listed as unissued.
> I do not have a 78 label image of it, but all available images in this 
> 78rpm 27-0xxx series  (range 27-0114 - 27-157) are
> the white "RCA Victor / Record Prevue / coming attractions" label, and all 
> are (re)issues of much earlier recordings.
> 27-0140 is Jacquet's Black Velvet, recd 6 April 1949.
> Evidently the 78s were only for radio promotion (not for sale).
> In "Days Beyond Recall" (how appropriate for Bechet research; also not 
> released at the time of recording),
> this was discussed on the list. The commercial issues were in a 42- series 
> at the time.
>
> Thus the orig. issue is 45rpm RCA 27-0127 (in box WPT-31) or 10" LP 
> LPT-22, both called "Sidney Bechet", and
> issued in the Treasury of Immortal Performances series.
> The LP mxs on label are E1VL-3416/17, but the 78s have earlier mxs. The 45 
> single has prefix D1VW (guessed from
> a bad image). Can the 78 or 45 be dated more accurately, and were the 
> singles issued before the LP?
> Or are the HMVs the first release?
>
RCA matrix numbers with "E1" prefixes are "after the fact" numbers, assigned 
after
RCA converted to the later date-coded numbers. The "E" is 1940's, and thus 
the "E1"
indicates 1941; this is not the original number, since RCA was using the 
zero-prefixed
numbers in 1941...!

Steven C. Barr 




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