[78-L] Fletcher Henderson 78

[J. E. Knox]

Greetings from FixitLand!

David Burnham wrote:

> Bluebird 78s seem to abound in any record collection I doubt if any of them is rare enough to become a collectors' item and I'm not really interested in the monetary value of records generally anyway, but I came across one record which I like simply because of the physical artifact itself.  It is a U.S. pressed Bluebird with the "Victor" label style used between fall 1938 and fall 1943 of Fletcher Henderson's Band, Number B 10246.  It is in such pristine condition, (it came from the CBC library and the surface shines like a new record), that I'm sure it hasn't been played more than half a dozen times if at all, (well it's been played once because I just played it).  What is particularly attractive about it is that even though it's a reissue, from April 27, 1927, unusual for Bluebird, they obviously used the original 1927 stampers.  There is no distortion and the surface is so clean that switching CEDAR on and off resulted in no audible change in surface noise whatsoever.

Early copies of Bluebird B-10246 were indeed master-pressed (some later ones are dubs), but it's not really a reissue. It offers alternate takes (BVE 38496-3/BVE 38497-2) of the original versions (-2/-3) issued on Victor 20944. It's also not unusual, being one of a bunch of reissues of late-1920s-early-'30s tracks that came out on Bluebird in 1939, in a cluster mostly within the B-102xx range (a few before then, and a few afterwards). [The 1975 Bluebird double-LP set AXM2-5507 has the Bluebird takes but quotes Victor 20944 in error.] Bluebird reissued quite a number of such tracks over its lifetime, and even B-5000 (first in the Buff series) was a reissue (of Jimmie Rodgers sides from 1930 and 1932, first issued in the Victor 235xx series).

> I'm curious to know if the U.S. ever pressed fat labeled Bluebirds; I've never seen one.  I have fat labeled Canadian pressings, both of the Buff labels and of the label style mentioned above, but no fat U.S. Labels.

If by "fat" you mean large labels like 1920s-era Victors, I've not seen such either, except on the 1970s-'80s Bluebird LPs.

As for rarity...two hard-to-come-by Bluebirds that spring to mind (and only recently acquired by me after decades-long searching) are Bluebird B-5014-B "Hold Me" by Little Jack Little and B-5131-B "Heartaches" by Ted Weems and his Orchestra. Both were reissued in the 1940s on RCA Victor, to be sure, but the reissues were dubbed. The original Bluebirds are scarce. Fletcher Henderson's only other original-issue Bluebird (B-5682 "Hocus Pocus"/"Tidal Wave") might also qualify, but I don't think it's as rare. Blues, country and gospel on Bluebird from the 1930s has got to be quite collectible. What you might be thinking about as not rare enough to be a collectors' item would be the plethora of big-band stuff 1937-45, which would largely be true. A master-pressed copy of Bluebird B-10352-A "Sold American" by Glenn Miller may qualify as collectible, though; most copies were dubbed (-1R master).

Take care,


—
J. E. Knox "The Victor Freak"


-- 
*Celebrating 30 years of service.*