OFTEN UNDER-RATED, ALMOST FORGOTTEN - BUT NOT BY US! THE DREAM CHU BERRY COLLECTION WE HAD TO CREATE.We like to think that every Mosaic set adds something noteworthy to the archive of collected jazz. Our sets might reveal more than you ever knew existed from a favorite artist; provide an outlet for our personal love of an overlooked original; or provide, at last, the definitive library of an acknowledged giant.
Those are the measures we aim to accomplish each time out. And then, there are the projects that achieve all of that, and then go further. They seem to define why we open the doors every morning here on Melrose Place; search line by line through hand-written session logs and worn discographies and beg and plead with the owners of recorded masters to release them to us. The Classic Chu Berry Columbia and Victor Sessions is one of those defining projects.
A Comprehensive Collection
This set - featuring 203 separate recordings on seven CDs, originally cut over a span of eight years - collects both the sessions he led and others where he contributed significantly as a sideman. You can study his remarkable surefootedness as a soloist; remember an era where evolution in the music was running rampant and Chu Berry's tenor saxophone was one of the things making it run. Consider the opinion of many that this man, if he hadn't died young in the passenger seat of a wayward auto, might have become the most influential tenor saxophonist of the 20th Century. While many hear the sugar-sweet, florid runs of Coleman Hawkins, who came before him, the drive and swing and surprises belong to Chu Berry, and those elements are about the jazz that was to come.
Countless Pivotal Sessions
Berry's prominence and versatility put him on the spot in a number of pivotal sessions including the first featured performances by the incomparable Teddy Wilson; the final recording session by the incomparable Bessie Smith; the recording debut (and what a debut it is) by Roy Eldridge who became Berry's musical soul mate; key recordings by Fletcher Henderson; one of the greatest sessions ever by trumpeter Henry “Red" Allen; and a 1936 Chicago session led by Gene Krupa with members of the Fletcher Henderson band and the Benny Goodman band (including Goodman himself) that was light years ahead of its time, and which Berry himself called “the greatest record date on which I ever played."
You'll also find Teddy Wilson's late-30s chamber recordings for Brunswick that are sheer heaven; the jazz side of Cab Calloway, heavily influenced by Berry and other stellar players to downplay the shtick and play the music; and on September 10, 1941, Chu Berry's last recorded solo with the Calloway band.
From the first recording in 1933 to the last in 1941, there were so many luminaries with whom he shared the bandstand: Benny Carter's Chocolate Dandies (with Teddy Wilson and Sid Catlett), Bessie Smith, Teddy Hill (with Roy Eldridge, Bill Coleman, Dicky Wells, and Russell Procope), Gene Krupa (featuring Goodman), Fletcher Henderson, Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday, Lionel Hampton, and more.
Just the Best - and Some New Discoveries
An important note: As Chu Berry participated in many sessions led by other bandleaders, the songs didn't always feature him. He may have blown a short break, or played only on an ensemble rendition of the song's theme. To give you as much Berry bang for your buck as possible, we've eliminated those sides, not because we think they are insignificant musically, but because this set focuses on Chu.
Our research turned up a dozen alternate takes, never released in any format but all included here. To find the rest today, you'd have to amass a collection of French Classics CDs by Henderson, Manone, Calloway and Wilson; Sony's “Study in Frustration" collection by Henderson; a series by RCA released in France; whole box sets by Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith, plus Mosaic's own Mildred Bailey box (sorry, it's sold out); and various Sony CD releases that included some of the Cab Calloway recordings. Good luck!
And what you'd be left with wouldn't benefit from our dedication to finding the best-sounding source possible, whether it be the original metal parts, lacquer discs, test pressings, or 78s held in private collections, not to mention our state-of-the-art digital re-mastering by the award winning engineer Ted Kendall. Without question, this music has never sounded better.
The set also includes a number of rarely-seen photographs of Chu and his cohorts, an illuminating essay and track-by-track analysis by Loren Schoenberg, and a discography that addresses numerous discrepancies that have appeared in various releases and accounts of the time.
Hearing these recordings again, there's no mistaking his influence on Charlie Parker (who named his first son for Berry) and every other bebopper, John Coltrane, and a host of other saxophonists today who may not even know from whom the ideas originated. Now, they'll know.
7 CDs - $119.00
For more information contact All About Jazz.
