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DISCOGRAPHY
- University Press of Mississippi
- Chapter
- Additional Information
- 188 Discography when i first set out in the late 1980s to produce a Wilbur Sweatman bio-discography , virtually nothing of Sweatman’s recorded output was available on CD or microgroove reissue. As for the Internet, downloadable music was but a pipe dream! A couple of sides had been reissued on a Neovox audio cassette in the 1980s, and one Columbia title had been released on a BBC LP devoted to music featured in their television production of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender Is The Night. Fortunately my good friends Colin Bray, John Wilby, and the late John R. T. Davies at the record label Jazz Oracle thought my idea for a CD devoted to Sweatman was a good idea, and ultimately a double CD album (Jazz Oracle BDW8036) was released, containing one take of every known track by Sweatman. Since then another CD has been produced of Sweatman’s Columbia recordings, and another has been released featuring his Edison recordings. Therefore, the aspiring student of Sweatman’s recorded music has numerous options available for obtaining his recordings. What has been lacking, however, is a comprehensive discography. Brian Rust’s Jazz Records, 1897–1942, in its various editions, has tended to gloss over Sweatman’s recorded output with the minimum of detail. (Brian was never a lover of the music of Wilbur Sweatman, as has been made very clear in numerous LP liner notes he has written over the years.) What follows is my attempt to start from scratch, referring wherever possible to primary source material. Sadly, Sweatman was never closely questioned in his pitifully few interviews about the personnel of the bands he recorded with, so much of the information about the personnel of the Columbia sessions in particular is speculative. The information herein is based on contemporary sources of information as to who was working with Sweatman at the time, and also on aural identification. abbreviations and user notes personnel. Much careful research has gone into ensuring the most accurate personnel possible, using contemporary documents, photographs, interviews with participating musicians, and careful listening by the author and a number of other researchers. A notable source was Wilbur Sweatman himself, who not only kept copious amounts discography 189 of notes, but also had a very good, if not entirely accurate, memory. Considering the length of his recording career, from wax cylinders made in Minneapolis in 1903 to a privately recorded session in 1950 (the latter of which are not known to exist), it is not surprising that he was occasionally wrong about names and dates. Given the time span of over a hundred years from Sweatman’s earliest recording session to the present day, and the lack of documentary evidence from the early days of jazz recording, much vital information as to the participants on Sweatman’s records, such as cash books, checks, or recording ledgers, no longer exists in most cases. Record companies that did maintain accurate files that are still extant, such as Columbia, Edison, Victor, and Gennett, paid little heed to who actually participated on a record, paying more interest to such details as who was to be paid (in nearly all cases Sweatman himself), issue dates, pressing runs, and details of music publishers and how much they were to be paid for the use of their material. Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of personnel, there are cases where it has been impossible to supply any more than an educated guess. In these cases the musicians’ names are shown in italics. instruments are abbreviated to save space, using internationally accepted abbreviations as follows: as—alto saxophone bar—baritone saxophone bb—brass bass (tuba, sousaphone etc.) bcl—bass clarinet bj—banjo bsx—bass saxophone c—cornet cl—clarinet Cm—C-melody saxophone d—drums g—guitar ldr—leader mb—mandolin-banjo p—piano sb—string bass t—trumpet tb—trombone ts—tenor saxophone v—vocal vn—violin recording dates. The recording dates for Columbia issues are taken from a relatively recently discovered source and are at variance with the dates quoted in published jazz discographies. The reason for this is that the dates shown on the Columbia matrix number file cards for recordings made prior to 1923 have, in the past, been assumed to be the recording dates. This is not so; the dates on the matrix number file cards are in fact the [13.58.82.79] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 15:20 GMT) discography 190 dates when the masters...