Absolutely first rate interview and the sense of infectuous effervescent and mission shines through, great!

Just to extend on the London "Cunard Yanks" theme i.e. the jazz musicians of Soho, Dankworth and Ronnie et al, its hard today to imagine how absolutely cool, hip and underground these guys were. The musician union in the UK had kept the doors firmly closed to American jazz musicians and it was a closed-shop up until 1962. Sure, Norman Granz had managed to get in and do benefit concerts with JATP in the early 50s, but as a paying gig, only the continent was open to Americans, particularly Paris, Scandinavia and in Italy you had Chet along with Mussolini's son.

Imported jazz records from the States were extremely cost prohibitive and certainly beyond the budget of teenagers, students and apprentinces. Only those going to the States could bring back affordably the first pressings of Blue Note, Contemporary, Riverside and other labels. Of course, Decca's off-shoot, Vogue had the licenses for many Pacific Jazz, Contemporary and even a couple Blue Note albums, which made them in reach, but modern jazz was still not as popular as trad jazz and Vogue's biggest selling albums of the 50s were dixieland trad. Modern jazz was underground, along with latin jazz. Few places, other than Soho, was hip to it all.

TSC album and EP photos are good too, but even better would be the inner labels on the original vinyl which often has interesting themed photos not on the album covers: close-ups and photos of drinks in bars, etc.

Jimbo wrote:

The interview is good because Si is a good interviewer. I also like his picture choices very much. Doing things like this is an absolute pleasure.

Jim

Nice of you to say Jim but I think its more your replies that make it worth reading. Thanks for the time.

Great interview! Thanks for the shout out!

A bump for this. This at least we know is real !

I'm doing a ton of this stuff now... Somehow my name has become known...

I'm the smallest one here !