RIP Brian Rust

[John Wright]

Jazz discographer Brian Rust has died, 5 January, aged 88.

I've updated my webpage on Brian at,

http://www.jabw.demon.co.uk/faq8.htm

[PatrickOD]

A big name from the past, John. I still have my copy of Recorded Jazz: A Critical Guide, by Rex Harris and Brian Rust, which was my bible in the late fifties,
Thanks for the link to a very impressive site.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

thank you John for bringing Brian Rust's contribution to the fore ....

[Lateralthinking1]

Farewell Brian Rust, a man whose background I have considered only recently, when I learnt more about the presenters I have listened to over the decades. I was struck by what I read. He had a real love for what he did and was very authoritative but was never a household name, not to my generation. How was I aware of him at all? For that, you have to go back to the start of Capital Radio, the first official commercial music radio station in London. It is difficult now to recall the buzz of excitement when commercial radio took off in the early seventies. There was even a magazine for ILR which I bought regularly. At the time, the new approach felt full of potential. At 11 or 15, one doesn't analyse a station's output and accepts whatever it puts out, often actually not without bewilderment. It is only much later that you think "was it innovative and if so how?". Anyway, every weekend, for an hour or two - was it Saturday or Sunday evening? - a new tune, for me at least, would start and take me into a different world, one that was beyond The Generation Game and Antiques Roadshow and related indirectly to our family's history.

"Hold That Tiger". I used to think it was Al Bowlly because I first heard his name there but it was probably Ambrose. Jordan's Choo-Choo Ch-Boogie and Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag were staples. Which was the theme tune? I never pursued it all much but it left an impression. Impressions are important in radio. Exactness can crush. Brian and his programme "Mardi Gras". He could have been 88 then rather than of a similar age to me now. We were worlds apart. What he introduced seemed further away to me than Jamaica but I liked it. I tuned into the show more often than I expected and I would love to hear recordings of it today. In fact, what better example could there be for flagging up how commercial radio so rapidly lost the plot? Breadth of output was in the terms of reference. Capital was trying. When standing with mates in Croydon watching Little Nicky Horne climb up onto a box by the Capital bus, when spotting the giant Roger Scott alongside, we could have been stopped by any one of the entourage and asked what we would choose to hear. We would never have chosen jazz. I wouldn't have thought about it. I'm pleased I wasn't asked.

Endless rounds of Roxy Music and 10cc would not have been an enriching experience, even if they offered more than McFly and Lady Gaga do now. Those I knew would have said ELP for that apparently was the way forward. Oh dear! Look at independent radio in this decade. Think how it had become by the mid-eighties. I can't recall quite when it was that Brian and his show were booted off. It would though have been one of the symbolic moments. That horrible slide into "the public gets what the public wants". Inevitably, we need to consider in this light the BBC and Radio 3. It is essential that FoR3 is here to slow a similar descent into blandness. In less than a dozen years, the philistines could smash it all to smithereens. A precedent is there. "Low or highbrow they all cry now where can that tiger be". Regrettably, it is roaming inside the industry. We need to hold it and have a more robust idea of suitable strategies so that we can support the ethics that Brian and others of his time espoused. He will be missed by anyone who was ever open to the radical ideas of commitment to music and quality broadcasting.

[Lateralthinking1]

.......Research this morning tells me that the theme tune to Mardi Gras was "Tiger Rag" by Charles Dornberger and His Orchestra. I wouldn't have known that and having listened to it I have to say that it is not the version I recall. Maybe he had several! The years of the show incidentally were 1973 to 1984.

[grippie]

I very sad to hear the death of Brian! He had a wonderful prog in Mardi Gras and I used to tape them all !! His programe opening tune was always Dornberger's Tiger Rag: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7092NOB5lQ0
I still have my well thumbed copies of Jazz Records. Did anyone else listen to him? I recall his request progammes inevitably always had one from listener Mrs. M Bailey.

[Lateralthinking1]

Grippie - Could you put a couple of ten minute or so clips of the programme on YT??

[Tenor Freak]

Yes I remember listening to Brian Rust on Capital Radio. I had forgotten it was called Mardi Gras (even though it was broadcast on Sundays). I also remember Tony Myatt who had a show playing contemporary jass after Brian's show.

Courtney Pine also had a Sunday night jass show, c.1986.

I have an old book, "Capital Radio: Ten Years On" published in 1983, but I can't find any reference to Brian Rust in it. There's some nice pics though, including Wynton, Fats Domino and Dudu Pukwana. Oh, and Tony Myatt.

RIP Brian Rust. Anyone got off-air recordings of his shows?

[John Wright]

I have just a few, in mp3, on a hard disk somewhere.

I can put a couple up via rapidshare, or suchlike, at the end of the week.

[John Wright]

I'll be back with a working link

[John Wright]

I've uploaded one of Brian Rust's Mardi Gras radio programmes.

You can save directly to your computer by Right Click/Save Target As...

http://www.r2ok.co.uk/Mardi_Gras_1975-03-23.mp3

It's from 1975, long before I knew Brian. In those days I expect very few of the records he played had been re-issued on LPs, he was playing from his own 78rpm collection, mainly very rare stuff from 1920s US labels.

[Lateralthinking1]

John - It is really quite exciting to hear this in 2011. I will understand it (slightly) better. Can you imagine Capital putting this out now? Fascinating. - Lat.

[Lateralthinking1]

.......Some random thoughts and questions.

I have now listened to the whole programme. How did you get that level of sound quality? It is really very good indeed. A lot of that one seemed devoted to the string bass. Was that a particular love of Brian's or was there an instrument theme for each programme? I wonder what the audience figures were. Smaller than there would be now for a rock and roll programme? The time difference is similar.

Am I right in thinking that the very end is lost? When I listened it stopped just after 56 and a half minutes. Did I count just two commercials? What an odd one for Isle of Wight chalets. There would have been perhaps eighteen ordinarily in one hour so have a lot of those been cut out or were there fewer so as not to spoil the overall sound?

[John Wright]

Lat,

I don't know what sound recording/restoration Brian was using back in 1975 but he was heavily involved with 78rpm restoration for LP releases back then with sound engineers like the late John R. T. Davies, so I expect they worked together for the Capital shows.

That show is from a series of instrumental features, I think he said somwehere what the next week's show was about.

The very end is lost, not sure why but I expect what we have are recordings onto C60 or C120 cassette tapes. A collector friend had saved just a few of these shows.

Some great old jazz on that show, and although some early US jazz was issued on British record labels in the 1920s (Henderson, Bix, Nichols, Dorseys, Jelly) Brian loved playing stuff that basically no-one this side of the Atlantic had ever heard before.

John

[Lateralthinking1]

John W

It was well worth keeping and it would be good to hear some other ones. While the music is not in my immediate area, there is so much to respect -

- The best music presenters in any era are the true enthusiasts;

- Radio stations which "indulge" that enthusiasm, even just for an hour each week, may risk a temporary reduction in audience figures but should feel proud at being committed to standards - music education for those who enjoy learning;

- In the case of Mardi Gras, priceless from the historical perspective - the very early days of sound recordings - what was at one time real innovation - saved for future generations.

Many thanks for bringing the programme to these message boards.

Lat.