[78-L] Various Rollini Concerns

[Jeff Sultanof]

The clip is great. A pity that he didn't live to record with Red Norvo in
stereo!

What interests me is the video company that made this clip. What was this
company, and is there any information on it? Was the film made for
television given the date ala the Snaeder Company a couple of years later?

Jeff Sultanof

On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 2:37 PM, Ate van Delden <
ate.vandelden at worldonline.nl> wrote:

> Tom Faber passed away suddenly in 2006.  I sent out an announcement (also
> to
> this list) to inform the collector's world of this sad incident but also
> that Tom's great work would be continued. Tom and I had agreed that I
> should
> write the Rollini book.Tom was not a discographer, but his knowledge about
> Rollini was formidable. I will still need some years to finish this
> project.
>
> The quote from the Timeless cd is a mistake. I have it here (CBC1-053). It
> reads "In late 1927 Rollini went to Europe for a little over a year.....".
> In fact he left in Dec 1927 and returned in Dec 1929. But both in 1928 and
> in 1928 he had been back in New York for some time. The first time to marry
> and to say goodbye to his father who was dying. The second time to find 3
> reedplayers. He went to London with Max Farley, Fud Livingston and brother
> Arthur. I have the precise dates in my Adrian Rollini chronology.
> Rollini did not record with Venuti in June 1928. I think you are confusing
> him with Don Murray on baritone. During his 1928 NY visit he did record
> with
> the Dorseys though. During his 1929 NY visit he recorded with Bert Lown,
> Red
> Nichols, Cal. Ramblers, Singing Boys and possibly the Goofus 5.
>
> I said Tom wasn't a discographer, but I am. I identified nearly 3000 78rpm
> issues of his recordings. I have almost 700 of these myself but I still
> need
> data of several more. So if you think you can help with data from some
> obscure Rollini recordings, then please step forward..... (E.g. those many
> Edison takes issued).
>
> If anybody likes to see the 2006 announcement, then please ask off-list.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Lewis" <uncledavelewis at hotmail.com>
> To: "78-l" <78-l at 78online.com>
> Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2010 7:27 PM
> Subject: [78-L] Various Rollini Concerns
>
>
>
> Judging from the number of unread digests in my inbox that respond to the
> call of a search on "Rollini," there has been plenty of discussion on the
> subject of Adrian Rollini on this list and perhaps I should go through all
> of those before advancing these admittedly somewhat rhetorical questions
> about him. Nevertheless, here goes:
>
> From Rollini's Wikipedia article:
>
> During this time, a gradual shift occurs in Adrian's
> focus from the bass sax to the vibraphone.
> This is not so much that Rollini was giving up on the
> bass saxophone or his abilities, as that popular tastes
> had rendered the instrument unmarketable after the hot
> jazz era of the 20s. Rollini recorded on bass sax for
> the last time in 1938. He continued to be active with
> vibraphone and chimes, but sadly, when he gave up his
> role as a bass saxophonist, his role in jazz went with it. ~ Rollini Wiki
>
> ***
> I have observed various stances as to just when and how Rollini "gave up"
> his role in jazz. However, my impression after listening to and collecting
> even very late sides that his work still maintains a strong jazz, or at
> least swing, feel as late as you want to go. This film clip is dated 1948
> (is that possible) and it still sounds pretty swinging to me:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdNzCNQmGG0
>
> At the risk of answering my own question, my impression that Rollini is
> like
> any number of major artists who made enormous amounts of recordings like
> Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington et al: among the obviously great there are
> duds, dogs and boring titles. It's just that the mediocre things tend to
> stick more to Rollini than to the others. Does anyone have an additional
> perspective on this?
>
> I concur that his vibe playing is more pianistic and less soloistic than
> Lionel Hampton or Red Norvo; he seems never to use less than three mallets
> and in the video you can see he sticks in the fourth here and there. But I
> still find the style very attractive. Perhaps Sonny Greer was the only
> other
> jazzman to bother with the chimes.
>
> Below the clip, there is this statement:
>
> > This film is been available thanks to Tom Faber, the late Dutch
> > discographer of Adrian Rollini.
>
> Was this work ever published, and if so, how can one access it?
>
> Finally, there's this odd statement from the liner notes of a Timeless
> collection devoted to the California Ramblers, as reprinted on the
> redhotjazz site:
>
>
> In late 1927 Rollini went to Europe for a little over
> 5 years and was temporarily replaced by his protégé
> Spencer Clark, probably the only one who could
> satisfactorily follow in the master's footsteps. ~
> Hans Eekhoff
> http://www.redhotjazz.com/caramblers.html
>
> Certainly this cannot be right -- he recorded with Joe Venuti in NYC in
> June
> 1928 and with Tom Clines in 1930; doubtless there are other NY dates for
> Rollini from 1927 to 1933. What was the real duration of his time in
> Europe,
> and were these dates the result of visits back?
>
>
> Uncle Dave Lewis uncledavelewis at hotmail.com
>
>
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