VA - The Savory Collection 1935-1940 [2018] (6 x CDs)

JAZZ SUNDAY

BILL SAVORY

VA - The Savory Collection 1935-1940 [2018] (6 x CDs)

The Savory Collection 1935-1940 is a six-CD, set of historic jazz radio broadcasts recorded by engineer Bill Savory. It was released in 2018 by Mosaic Records and was a limited edition of 5,000 sets. The collection contains 108 tracks locked away for more than 70 years and finally available on CD for the very first time anywhere. The recordings are from the personal collection of Bill Savory, a quirky and secretive studio engineer in New York whose day job in the late 1930s and early 1940s was transcribing radio broadcasts for foreign distribution, and whose nighttime passion was turning on the disc recorders to pull in and preserve what was happening in the clubs of New York City and other cities.

It was an era when TV didn’t exist yet, live music was everywhere, and radio stations would serve it to their audiences - in what everyone thought were once-in-a-lifetime experiences. But no one counted on a guy like Bill Savory being on the other end of a radio signal. Savory had always been cagey and unresponsive when asked about his collection. There were rumors it contained jewels. Some Jewels include:

13 tracks from the original John Kirby sextet featuring some of the finest soloists of the day: Buster Bailey, Charlie Shavers, Russell Procope, Billy Kyle and O’Neill Spencer; Chick Webb, Ella Fitzgerald and Roy Eldridge as guest stars on the CBS radio hit of the day “The Saturday Night Swing Club”; broadcasts from the legendary Café Society, Famous Door, Panther Room, Onyx Club and regularly scheduled radio programs with a cream of jazz stars; Joe Sullivan improvising at the piano - solo – during a private party. A chance for him to loosen up, stretch out, and experiment; and an unknown version of “Body and Soul” by Coleman Hawkins, recorded live just seven months after his earth-shattering recording in 1939 that most listeners believe laid down an entirely new point of view about jazz soloing. As important as that original recording was, this newly found version might be even better. The collection also includes a wealth of classic Count Basie live when Lester Young, Herschel Evans and were with that classic, trendsetting orchestra making jazz and big band history.

Scott Wenzel of Mosaic was with jazz educator and musician Loren Schoenberg to help catalog and bring these precious discs to NY from Chicago where they were being stored. Loren, as senior scholar and archivist at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, made the deal to acquire them and the hope was that someday they would be made available to the public. And, thankfully, now these boxes of shellac and aluminum discs are available for you to finally hear in brilliant sound thanks to the artistry of jazz fan and restoration services that define the era. In addition to the tracks and dates listed above, we also found these incredible gifts:

The Martin Block Jam Sessions from WNEW - featuring extended jams featuring Lionel Hampton with Herschel Evans, the tenor saxophone player cut down by heart disease just a month after this recording; Joe Marsala with Bobby Hackett, Joe Bushkin and others; Jack Teagarden playing “Jeepers Creepers” (a song just one month old); and a Fats Waller jam with Teagarden, Pee Wee Russell, Eddie Condon, Bud Freeman, and Charlie Shavers that is the essence of joyful expression. -Glenn Miller doing “Tuxedo Junction” - a song he had performed only once before live. One day later, they’d be in the studio cutting the legendary track we all know on Bluebird. -A Randall’s Island jazz festival from May of 1938 that came before Newport or anything else. The festival went on for hours in front of 23,000 fans. It was thought to be entirely lost. Savory recorded just four titles by Basie and one by Stuff Smith.

"Imagine finding an unknown play by Shakespeare or an unknown novel by Mark Twain," said Schoenberg upon hearing the recordings. "That's what this is."  It’s amazing to think of the significance of these recordings. The collection contains recordings from New York, the center of the world in jazz in that era. Other recordings in this collection were from clubs in Boston, Asbury Park, and Chicago, or from the radio studios of WNEW, CBS and NBC. Swing was still a significant factor, but the earliest strains and seeds of bebop were being planted. Everything was happening at once. At clubs such as Café Society, the Savoy Ballroom, and the Onyx Club. Or at a place called the Fiesta Danceteria on 42nd street, “the world’s first self-service nightclub,” where Hawkins topped his own recording of “Body and Soul” in a performance that was never meant to be immortalized. It was just a night like any other night, and there was magic every night.

Imagine Count Basie at the Famous Door with Lester Young, just three years after Lester's recording debut. He was first heard on songs such as "Boogie Woogie" and "Lady Be Good" with Basie, and here he was performing them live. And alongside him was Herschel Evans, whose talent can now be reassessed.  Or revel in the showmanship and exuberance of Fats Waller from a place called The Yacht Club, where the fun and frivolity of a casual club date takes you deep in the world of these men and women who did this night after night.  You couldn't see it at home - or Savory from his recording studio – but you can imagine the spotlight hitting the microphone and Ella Fitzgerald or Mildred Bailey stepping into the light to hold a room - and a radio audience - in their hands.

Savory’s achievement in recording and preserving this material can’t be overstated. The glory of these broadcasts in many cases heard here is that he was capturing live music without the limitation of a 3 or 4 minute 78 rpm recording. If the club version of a song went for six minutes, no matter. Savory got every note of it. (B)

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Track lists

CD1

01 Coleman Hawkins - Body And Soul 5:54

02 Coleman Hawkins - Basin Street Blues 5:53

03 Coleman Hawkins - Lazy Butterfly 1:05

04 Ella Fitzgerald - A-Tiskit, A-Tasket 2:25

05 Ella Fitzgerald - (I've Been) Saving Myself For You 2:53

06 Fats Waller - Yacht Club Swing (Theme & Intro)/Hold My Hand 3:42

07 Fats Waller - I Haven't Changed A Thing 3:58

08 Fats Waller - Summer Souvenirs/Who Blew Out The Flame? 5:41

09 Fats Waller - You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby/Sixty Seconds Got Together 3:47

10 Fats Waller - I've Got A Pocketful Of Dreams 2:29

11 Fats Waller - When I Go A-Dreaming 2:53

12 Fats Waller - Alligator Crawl 1:42

13 Fats Waller - The Spider And The Fly 2:43

14 Lionel Hampton - Dinah 7:03

15 Lionel Hampton - Star Dust 3:01

16 Lionel Hampton - Chinatown, My Chinatown 2:27

17 Lionel Hampton - Blues 9:54

18 Lionel Hampton - Rosetta 4:09

19 Carl Kress & Dick Mcdonough - Heat Wave 2:22

20 Emilio Caceres Trio - China Boy 2:29

CD2

01 Albert Ammons - Boogie Woogie Stomp 3:06

02 Roy Eldridge - Body And Soul 4:27

03 Roy Eldridge & Chick Webb - Liza 2:06

04 Fats Waller - Honeysuckle Rose 6:34

05 Fats Waller - China Boy 5:56

06 Fats Waller - I'm Comin' Virginia 4:38

07 Fats Waller - Blues 5:26

08 Fats Waller - I Got Rhythm 2:09

09 John Kirby - From A Flat To C 2:41

10 John Kirby - Blues Petite 3:45

11 John Kirby - Front And Center 2:53

12 John Kirby - Effervescent Blues 2:46

13 John Kirby - Minnie The Moocher's Wedding 2:26

14 John Kirby - Echoes Of Harlem 3:38

15 John Kirby - Boogie Woogie 2:59

16 John Kirby - Milumbu 3:25

17 John Kirby - Rehearsin' For A Nervous Breakdown 3:29

18 John Kirby - Honeysuckle Rose 1:09

19 Benny Carter - More Than You Know 4:29

20 Benny Carter - Honeysuckle Rose 1:25

21 Joe Sullivan - China Boy 1:31

CD3

01 Joe Marsala - Jazz Me Blues 5:29

02 Joe Marsala - California, Here I Come 6:56

03 Joe Marsala - When Did You Leave Heaven? 7:24

04 Joe Marsala - The Sheik Of Araby 4:45

05 Bobby Hackett - Body And Soul 2:15

06 Bobby Hackett - Embraceable You 2:51

07 Bobby Hackett - Muskrat Ramble 2:12

08 Jack Teagarden - Honeysuckle Rose 5:07

09 Jack Teagarden - Jeepers Creepers 6:13

10 Mildred Bailey - My Melancholy Baby 3:43

11 Mildred Bailey - Truckin' 2:44

12 Mildred Bailey - Rockin' Chair 4:16

13 Mildred Bailey - The Day I Let You Get Away 2:10

14 Stuff Smith - Crescendo In Drums 4:00

15 Stuff Smith - I'se A-Muggin' 2:31

CD4

01 Teddy Wilson - Cocoanut Groove 2:20

02 Teddy Wilson - Jitterbug Jump 4:31

03 Teddy Wilson - Sweet Lorraine 3:50

04 Glenn Miller - By The Waters Of The Minnetonka 4:45

05 Glenn Miller - Tuxedo Junction 4:23

06 Glenn Miller - In The Mood 3:19

07 Joe Sullivan - Gin Mill Blues 3:10

08 Joe Sullivan - Just Strollin' 1:36

09 Joe Sullivan - Little Rock Getaway 2:18

10 Joe Sullivan - Improvisation #1 10:03

11 Joe Sullivan - Improvisation #2 7:13

12 Joe Sullivan - Improvisation #3 2:30

13 Joe Sullivan - Improvisation #4 5:15

CD5

01 Count Basie - One O'clock Jump 4:40

02 Count Basie - Every Tub 3:10

03 Count Basie - Boogie Woogie 2:02

04 Count Basie - Farewell Blues/Moten Swing (Closing Theme) 3:37

05 Count Basie - I Ain't Got Nobody 3:12

06 Count Basie - Every Tub 2:50

07 Count Basie - Honeysuckle Rose 4:09

08 Count Basie - Stop Beatin' Around The Mulberry Bush 4:04

09 Count Basie - Roseland Shuffle 2:19

10 Count Basie - Texas Shuffle 4:50

11 Count Basie - Alexander's Ragtime Band 2:02

12 Count Basie - St. Louis Blues 4:21

13 Count Basie - Rosetta 3:33

14 Count Basie - Blue And Sentimental 3:28

15 Count Basie - He Ain't Got Rhythm 2:43

16 Count Basie - Moten Swing 3:09

17 Count Basie - Harlem Shout 3:10

18 Count Basie - Oh, Lady Be Good 2:31

CD6

01 Count Basie - Limehouse Blues 2:35

02 Count Basie - Texas Shuffle 4:25

03 Count Basie - Russian Lullaby 2:27

04 Count Basie - Shout And Feel It 2:20

05 Count Basie - Good Morning Blues 3:08

06 Count Basie - Limehouse Blues 2:28

07 Count Basie - I Never Knew 2:25

08 Count Basie - One O'clock Jump 2:52

09 Count Basie - Sent For You Yesterday 3:27

10 Count Basie - Swingin' The Blues 3:46

11 Count Basie - Every Tub 3:10

12 Count Basie - Jumpin' At The Woodside 4:16

13 Count Basie - Pound Cake 2:47

14 Count Basie - Roseland Shuffle 1:41

15 Count Basie - Boogie Woogie 3:04

16 Count Basie - Pannasie Stomp 4:35

17 Count Basie - Oh, Lady Be Good 2:53

18 Count Basie - The Apple Jump 2:44

19 Count Basie - The Apple Jump 3:05

20 Count Basie - I Never Knew 3:30

21 Count Basie - Bugle Call Rag 2:45

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