Throw another shrimp on the barbie.....

[charles t]

Speaking of The Necks...Ozzie jazz...

The group has provided (on their website) four 50"+ examples of their very unique minimalistic jazz. It ain't the cathouses of Storyville any more!

http://www.thenecks.com/presskit

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

hi Chas, photos from northern California by an LA associate

[grippie]

May be of interest?

You can now hear radio3 in "HD Sound" and I must say it's marvelous: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/hd-audio/

The HD stream does sound better than DAB radio. the sampling rate is 320 kb/s as opposed to the normal 128 kb/s. Mind you all your going to hear for the next couple of weeks is Mozart!!!

[John Wright]

Ian,

Many US bands did tour Britain in the 1920s AND the number of of American musicians (who could play jazz) who worked in Britain in the 1920s is surprisingly high. I have the discographies that were compiled by Brian Rust and I estimate between 50-100 Americans appear on records made in Britain then, just as many more may be playing in studio bands/sessions and are uncredited. They were mainly white and mainly dance band musicians but their jazz qualities are good, as well as playing improvised solos on dance records they also played/recorded proper jazz numbers. My colleagues Joe Moore/Mike Thomas are compiling information on the touring bands - ocean liner passenger lists have been useful in confirming who was here and when.

They recorded with Columbia, HMV, Zonophone etc and the published discographies by Rust are well-documented with personnel. Most of the info in my podcasts comes from those.

Most names won't mean much to non-historians: e.g. Sylvester Ahola, Frank Guarente, Al Starita, Ray Starita, Carroll Gibbons, Danny Polo, Johnny Helfer. My podcast features all of them in the early tracks on shows.

Thanks to Alyn Shipton for clarifying Benny Carter's status in UK. Henry Hall does mention in his biography that his appointing Carter raised a few eyebrows at the time, but his work is highly regarded. As well as his work with Hall, Carter formed a small band to record jazz on the Vocalion label, and there's some delightful records they made with singer Elizabeth Welch, I expect can heard on youtube.