[Rarebooks] FS: JAZZ Directory, Volumes I- VI

[William Van Nest]

We are pleased to offer the complete six volumes of the JAZZ Directory (1949- 1957):

Dave Carey,  Albert J. McCarthy, and Ralph G. Venables. JAZZ Directory, Volumes I- VI. Fordingbridge, Hamps.: Delphic Press, 1949- 1957 (pp. 1- 1112, adverts). Softcover, tan and olive, with black titles and decorations (two volumes with cello tape reinforced hinges, neat ms. notes). Shortly after W.W.II, Carey set himself to producing this ambitious jazz discography to be sold by subscription, but, as he says in the introduction to the first volume, ‘Whatever relief the unfortunate subscribers might feel at receiving this almost mythical volume it is as nought to that which I experience! I have been at the receiving end of the letters-- some merely hopeless, some jocular and some belligerent-- concerning the delay. This volume has had a very unhappy history and at times I shared the subscribers’ doubts as to whether it should ever appear.’ That these volumes did appear and did achieve the degree of completeness Carey hoped for is due in part to the work of McCarthy, who researched ‘coloured’ jazz, and Venables who researched ‘white’ jazz (a not unexpected division of labour for those times). Consider the entries under ‘Blind’ where you will find recordings by Blind Arthur, Blind Gary, Blind Lemon’s Buddy, Blind Mack, Blind Norris, Blind Percy, and Blind Willie (The entries for Blind Lemon Jefferson are in Volume V under ‘J’). A superficial tour through the performers’ names is a lesson in branding for marketers (Big Chocolate Dandies, Big Bloke, Blanche and Her Joy-Boys, The New Orleans Feet Warmers are some samples of the popular imagination at work).  It could be argued, I suppose, that Carey, McCarthy, and Venables have cast their net too widely and occasionally have captured in the name of jazz something other than inventive popular music. Sacred music, in particular, comes to mind. As any of the ladies in the congregation will tell you, it’s a long way from Black Boy Shine singing ‘Ice Pick and Pistol Woman Blues’ or the Back Porch Boys singing ‘Big Hip Mama’ to the Biddleville Quintette’s sacred renditions of ‘I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say’ and ‘Dip in the Beautiful Stream’.  Nevertheless, it is surely better to include than exclude when the categories are so shifty, and what better way to start your own collection of, say, the Alabama Washboard Stompers than with the entries in these first six volumes of jazz discography? Cover of Volume I chipped and a bit smudged, the set generally well-kept.  
Price 100  USD


Images

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Best wishes, 

William Van Nest

Trillium Antiquarian Books, IOBA
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