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Picked this album up a couple of days ago: reissues of hot '20s recordings.

On the minus side, the King Oliver/Dewey Jackson disc is missing (I do have a possible lead on a replacement); on the plus side, in its place is a Louis Armstrong Hot Five reissue on Columbia.

- Bill

These Decca made Brunswick album sets are very good. I own one of the two early Crosby albums (1012), and the Ellington one (1000, which must be the first one in the series..?). I also have some other odd records from the Goodman album and from the Boswell sisters one. The 1000 and 1012 albums are dark green/dark blue velvety paper covered. They are nice.
I believe these were started when Decca bought the remainders of the Brunswick catalogue. They began to reissue these old Brunswick masters from the late twenties and early thirties. I wonder why they didn't do reissues of old acoustic masters too... Maybe the changeover to electrical recording was still pretty new, and they saw no sales potential in reissuing acoustic masters. So we lost the chance to have reissues of the great old Brunswick's.... I'm thinking of anothers out of jazz, as Marion Harris, the Mound City Blue Blowers, or the incredible Criterion Quarter. But looking on the jazz/hot dance records, there are hundreds of treasures...
I've seen later reissues of early Gennett masters on UK Brunswick, Decca pressed, maybe made in the late thirties. These must have come to England as copies of US Decca pressings, is it right? Did US Decca start repressing old Gennett material in late thirties, or was it a British initiative...?

Inigo wrote:These Decca made Brunswick album sets are very good. I own one of the two early Crosby albums (1012), and the Ellington one (1000, which must be the first one in the series..?). I also have some other odd records from the Goodman album and from the Boswell sisters one. The 1000 and 1012 albums are dark green/dark blue velvety paper covered. They are nice.
I believe these were started when Decca bought the remainders of the Brunswick catalogue. They began to reissue these old Brunswick masters from the late twenties and early thirties. I wonder why they didn't do reissues of old acoustic masters too... Maybe the changeover to electrical recording was still pretty new, and they saw no sales potential in reissuing acoustic masters. So we lost the chance to have reissues of the great old Brunswick's.... I'm thinking of anothers out of jazz, as Marion Harris, the Mound City Blue Blowers, or the incredible Criterion Quarter. But looking on the jazz/hot dance records, there are hundreds of treasures...
I've seen later reissues of early Gennett masters on UK Brunswick, Decca pressed, maybe made in the late thirties. These must have come to England as copies of US Decca pressings, is it right? Did US Decca start repressing old Gennett material in late thirties, or was it a British initiative...?

Brunswick got a lot of OKeh material and started reissuing Bix, Armstrong, etc. on Vocalion in the mid 30s. Decca must have bought a lot of the Gennett catalogue, as they even continued the Champion label, which was a Gennett subsidiary, through the mid 30s. When the two combined they had a formidable catalogue, indeed.

There was always a connection between Brunswick and Columbia as well- in fact, for a year or two, Brunswick was pressing very dark blue records on both Brunswick and Vocalion labels around 1936 in their west coast pressing plant- it was the remainder of Columbia's royal blue shellac! When Brunswick disappeared around 1940, almost all their artists went straight to Columbia- in fact, some records were pressed first on Brunswick, and continued right on into the Columbia catalogue!

Of course, there was also a huge connection between Columbia and OKeh, and OKeh was affiliated with Odeon and Parlophone in Europe, so you can see the beginnings of the two or three mega companies that own EVERYBODY's music now!

That looks like a very nice purchase! Are the reprints 78 RPM as well?

They would be--using the original masters.

I've wanted to find some of these for a long time.

Mostly master pressed. The odd-dubbing may sneak into these kinds of sets from time to time. I've heard that the AFM ban is what spurred the companies to reissue some of this stuff, just to have product out.

Lucius1958 wrote:

Photo on 11-27-19 at 7.36 PM.jpg

Picked this album up a couple of days ago: reissues of hot '20s recordings.

On the minus side, the King Oliver/Dewey Jackson disc is missing (I do have a possible lead on a replacement); on the plus side, in its place is a Louis Armstrong Hot Five reissue on Columbia.

- Bill

I have that exact album, No. B-1010. The King Oliver side is "Snag It," the Dewey Jackson is "Capitol Blues." Some real illustrious names on the Oliver, e.g., Kid Ory, Albert Nicholas, Barney Bigard, Luis Russell, Paul Barbarin---all New Orleans guys, IIRC. I'm not familiar with Dewey Jackson or his Peacock Orchestra, and don't recognize the names of the personnel there, but I sure don't claim any special knowledge.

Now you've got me wanting to play through the album; it's been a while. Four 10" records (eight sides), but aside from the Oliver and two Jelly Roll Morton sides (no personnel listed on the label for the Levee Serenaders), it's unfamiliar stuff to me.

I'm checking later the great Steven C. Barr's (good bless him, he's retired at a nursery home, I've been told, and what will be of his incredible collection!) The Almost Complete Guide.. to see when the 80,000 Brunswicks were issued.... I bet it was earlier than the Petrillo ban...

EDIT --- Oops! my ignorance (or bad memory). Started in 1943, reissued by Decca when they acquired Brunswick (defunct since 1940) from the CBS conglomerate. Also later revived again as a popular label in 1955.

Found this info on album B-1010: https://www.discogs.com/Various-Riverbo ... se/7806222

Release date given: 1943

Musicians' strike and Petrillo recording ban: 1942-44. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1942-44_m ... %27_strike