[78-L] "Hot" dance bands

[Taylor Bowie]

Julian wrote:
> There's one area of collecting that needs tidying up. We have jazz
> discographies which include "hot dance band" recordings and we have
> dance band discographies, which include the hot performances but don't
> specify them. We can't be sure if the jazz discos have included all "hot
> dance band" recordings, in other words whether have they auditioned
> every dance band recording. Of course they haven't. We're always turning
> up dance band recordings with "hot" content which aren't listed in the
> standard discographies.
>
> So a collector of "hot dance bands" can't be sure which recordings to
> obtain. What is needed is a listing of dance band recordings which have
> been auditioned and definitely found to have no "hot" content. What you
> might call an "anti-discography"!
>
>      Julian Vein


A good concept but difficult to work out in practice.  Much of what is 
considered "hot" in some context or another is pretty subjective.  Is it the 
flavor and style of the arrangement,  even if there are no solos?  I know a 
few people who think a dance record can't be "hot" if no one solos.   Or 
would a Freddy Martin record with George Van Eps doing nice fill-ins on 
guitar be considered to have "hot" content?  I would say yes,  others would 
say no.

We end up coming back to Mike's idea that each of us finds our own direction 
by listening and experimenting and picking up all sorts of odds and ends of 
records and playing them.  No discography can ever replace that experience.

Taylor