[78-L] Bix tests

[Scott]

Hi all 

 

A couple of weeks ago in Connecticut - not too far from Bridgeport - I found
about 40 mint one-sided test pressings of mostly Bix & His Gang and
Trumbauer Orch sides. Many of them are 10" while some are the 11" variety
where you can see the title, artist, tune, etc, from the metal part. 

They are all issued takes but just wondered if anyone has ever come across
these particular tests. The label design is of the 1930s variety and I'm
guessing they were made around 1938 as the date etched in the run-on area of
"Sweet Sue", an edited version of 12" Columbia 50103-D, states 11/23/38.
However, the matrix of this particular "Sweet Sue" is B23751-1 What is weird
is that this matrix is not the one made for Columbia's 10" edited pressing
for album C-29. That matrix is W24050. The matrix on this 11" disc looks to
me like a Brunswick number. Was this then a custom pressing or was this to
be issued as a Brunswick release?

 

I also have "Cryin' All Day" and "A Good Man..." that has the Columbia
reissue matrix of 17066 and 17067 in the wax and I believe that was pressed
in January of '41. 

 

best

Scott Wenzel