RCA Victor Vintage Series

Some records you end up buying almost by accident.  You might know of the artist (but not the specific record) or you know about the reputation of the label it is on.  The VVers have talked about this in the past; sometimes you have faith in a label and buy whatever they issue.  Examples that come to mind: Light in the Attic, Blue Note, Stax.  At some point a few years back, the VVers realized they had a few of these RCA Victor Vintage Series jazz records (Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman) and have since been collecting more, just because.  The iconic, black and white, diamond-shaped wine rack on the cover makes it fairly easy to identify a release from this series.  Had it not been for easily identifiable cover, we may not have picked up Earl Hines (hearing of him, but not hearing him) or Sidney Bechet (again, only known by name, not sound).  What is also nice is that many of them were recorded before vinyl LPs, and thus were available only on shellac 78s from the 1930s and 1940s.  This new series brought jazz and folk music on the as-advertised "microgrooves" of the vinyl record.  Each album is a well curated compilation of these musician's careers.  All the liner notes from this series are fairly thorough, speaking both of the background of the artist and the tracks selected.

"The RCA Victor Vintage Series has been created to bring you selected reissued performances, unavailable for some years, by great personalities of popular, jazz and folk music worlds.  All recordings in the Vintage Series have been remastered with the latest recording techniques, but the artistic values of the performances are the only consideration for inclusion.  There are truly great recordings of the past for your present and future enjoyment."

Duke Ellington Daybreak Express 1964
Recordings from 1931 to 1934, notable contributions from Cootie Williams on trumpets, Johnny Hodges on alto and tenor sax, and Sonny Greer on drums, amongst others.  Tracks are classic Ellington and sound "of the time," whatever that means.  This is perhaps the first of the series that the VVers bought.  The appeal of the cover art, known musician, and track listing certainly helped.  Jazz standard "Dear Old Southland" closes out side one on a familiar sounding high note, yet when turning to the sleeve write-up wanting to learn more about it, the pathetic one sentence just mentioning this song doesn't do it justice.

Leadbelly The Midnight Special 1964
Imagine being teleported to a time of the deepest blues.  You're not even close.  Try a little harder, get into the mind of the dusty field worker.  Leadbelly pulls the blues from his belly and pushes the lead out from his throat.  He belts out tunes like a solo, baritone gospel singer all while strumming on his twelve-string guitar.   Not the sort of record you just pop on for giggles.  He cuts up a howling jam pretty well: "New York Citay! Wooh!  Ain't that a citay! Eeeh!"  Puts Little Richard into perspective.  "Whoa Back Buck" is just amazing.  Good luck figuring out exactly what the words are in this work song--sounds like marbles in his mouth are occasionally spit out by kung-fu "hi-ya" shouts.  Even his back-up singers provide a "whoa, hey, whoa."  "Midnight Special" is especially affecting; swinging in soul and harmony like an ancient spiritual.  The liner notes on the rear sleeve are flush with information.  These VVers didn't know the story behind what the midnight special was--what did they think it was exactly?  "A popular legend among inmates at the prison . . . was that if the midnight express [train] shined its light in a prisoner's window as it went roaring by, that prisoner would be the next man released."  And now you know.

Earl Hines The Grand Terrace Band 1965
Jumping' swingin' rollickin'.  All three apply here to high effect.  Considering he is apparently known as the "King Pianology" his pianology isn't quite the focus here; most tracks feature horns and even the write-up credits saxophonist Budd Johnson for most of the arrangements on the album.  Overall it doesn't matter, it's still a great listen.

Sidney Bechet Bechet of New Orleans 1965
While it assuredly helps when an older record is in pristine shape, the audio on these recordings from 1932 through 1941 are stunningly quite crisp.  Perhaps this is because these New Orleans classics were mostly recorded in RCA Victor's New York studios (as opposed to field recordings) with Bechet on both the clarinet and soprano sax.  His self-taught style sounds like a hummingbird zooming in tight tremolo.  Final track, "Sheik of Araby" is an odd one, he played all the instruments, overdubbing one after another.  This was 1941.  Who did that!?!

Benny Goodman B.G., The Small Groups 1965
Literally every time one of the VVers plays this for others, usually the stand out "Bei Mir Bist Du Schon," someone asks what it is and comments positively on it.  It's a guaranteed conversation piece defined by multiple tempo shifts directed by Goodman's narrative clarinet and accompanied by a playful, shimmering xylophone and crisp female vocals.  About half of the tracks on here are fast numbers that will get your toes tapping in a pleasing frenzy of percussion, while the other half of the tunes are more patient and magical.  All are colored nicely with Mr. Goodman's clarinet and smooth swing.

Fast vs. Slow

Gary Clark Jr. put out a spectacular 12" this year that the VVers picked up at The Sound Garden in Syracuse. Maybe you've heard of Mr. Clark? He's been playing the circuit of summer festivals and played at the White House recently with BB King, Mick Jagger, Buddy Guy, and other blues rock legends. Well this guy is basically crushing it and comes from out of nowhere. He's been given the crown before raiding the castle. So we pick this up not really knowing what we're getting into at all. Drop the needle and it's like being transported to the first era of Black Sabbath. Pure thunder sludge (you get what I'm saying here, right?  No?  Oh... ). He. is. ever. so. patiently. crushing. it.  Right around the time when you can imagine sparking up the crack pipe things go a little funny. You see, this guy is all stoned out, distortion riffs and we have no real concept of what his voice sounds like. At first, the glances exchanged across the room were to the tune of, "is this guy doing a Barry White impersonation?" Pretty shortly into the vocals we recognize we've had it at the wrong speed for the first third of the song. Damn, but it sounded great like that! Not that he doesn't sound good normally, but it's hard to go there since we've gone there.  I still pretty much play it at the slow speed every time up till the vocals start.  As impressive as Mr. Clark is at "real" speed the crushing it just doesn't last as long.

Oddly enough, the opposite scenario recently played out where Beastie Boys 12" 3 MCs and 1 DJ was removed from the turntable and en queue was Duke Ellington's Daybreak Express, which has been on pretty good rotation for the past few years at the VVers house.  However, during this listen, there was a renewed "wow" factor in the sound, and I'm pretty sure there was some serious hipshakin' going on (most likely while cooking dinner).  Again, no vocals until a few tracks in, and POW... chipmunks.  Female vocals are NOT supposed to sound like that.  Having realized that I never changed the speed from the previously played 12", things started making sense.  I was so impressed by the jazz sounds flying from the speakers - they were on super speed and so were we.

Does it matter that the wrong speed is sometimes the right one?  Possibly, but it's all in good fun.  It's not like these records have a guide on them anywhere as to what speed you are supposed to use.  As the listener, you get to decide. This discovery was a happy accident; this ain't happenin on other music formats!