[78-L] Goodman / Carnegie at 80

[David Jessup]

Omnibus answers to some questions & thoughts:


Carnegie concert was first released November 13 1950 (two-LP set SL-160), also either simultaneously or shortly after released on two single LPs (Columbia ML 4358 / ML 4359). By mid-May 1951 the 12-disc 45rpm box set Columbia B-250 was on the market (it entered Billboard's Best-Selling 45rpm Albums chart at #10 in the May 26 '51 issue).


The 78-rpm disc jockey issues to publicize the concert: Russ Connor believed they were issued in advance of the 11/13/50 album release. For a variety of reasons, I don't think they appeared until sometime in 1951, probably to give the LPs a further push and publicize the 45rpm release.


David Lennick's query about a small-label LP release of previously-omitted music: that's probably Sunbeam SB-127, with "Sometimes I'm Happy" and "If Dreams Come True." They'd circulated privately before then via tape, but that was the first public issue. Hefty chunks of the jam session remained unissued until the '99 CD. Russ Connor hadn't heard it "whole" until he was contacted by someone with dupe lacquers in the late 1990s, and I didn't hear it until most everybody else did in early November '99.


The announcement's been made: Benny's daughter Rachel Edelson said Tuesday that Sony will soon issue a new edition of the concert. Jon Hancock has been working with Sony to prep this; he had help from George Avakian over the past few years. The aim is a definitive release, as I'd hinted Tuesday.


-- Dave Jessup