Welcome
Fortunately within the EU, the 50 year period of copyright on material issued in and upto the 1st half of the 20th century is expiring, moving this material into the public domain.
In combination with electronic distribution, it is possible to share this culturally valuable material where it would not be commercially viable.
- it is therefore primarily intended to promote the appreciation, the preservation and aid research.
The modest intention of this blog is to allow me to highlight some of this material, to perhaps encourage others to discover and enjoy.
If it creates a valid awareness of our rights to access this material, which has often long out of print or available only in very limited numbers, then all the better.
Background
There is a strong difference in the interpretation and enforcement in different countries, particularly with recent legal cases on each side of the Atlantic highlighting these differences.Given the aggressive push by organisations and corporations within the United States, to enforce copyright laws (globally, often to their advantage and effectively erode our rights), it is particularly interesting given the attitude of the United States to others copyright during the 18th and early 19th Centuries.I recommend the article over at wikipedia, to get an overview of the situation, perhaps quite different than you might have thought from impressions given by the Music Industry and their lobbying organs - History of Copyright Law
"In Great Britain's North American colonies, reprinting British copyright works without permission had long happened episodically, but only became a major feature of colonial life after 1760. It became more commonplace to reprint British works in the colonies (mostly in the 13 American colonies). The impetus for this shift came from Irish and Scottish master printers and booksellers who had moved to the North American colonies in the mid 18th century.
They were already familiar with the practice of reprinting and selling British copyright works, and continued the practice in North America, and it became a major part of the North American printing and publishing trade.
Robert Bell was an example. He was originally Scottish, and had spent almost a decade in Dublin before he moved to British North America in 1768. His operations, and those of many other colonial printers and booksellers, ensured that the practice of reprinting was well-established by the time of the American Declaration of Independence in 1776. Weakened American ties to Britain coincided with the increase of reprinting outside British copyright controls.
The Irish also made a flourishing business of shipping reprints to North America in the 18th century. Ireland's ability to reprint freely ended in 1801 when Ireland's Parliament merged with Great Britain, and the Irish became subject to British copyright laws.
The printing of uncopyrighted English works for the English-language market also occurred in other European countries. The British government responded to this problem in two ways: 1) it amended its own copyright statutes in 1842, explicitly forbidding import of any foreign reprint of British copyrighted work into the UK or its colonies, and 2) it began the process of reciprocal agreements with other countries. The first reciprocal agreement was with Prussia in 1846. The US remained outside this arrangement for some decades. This was objected to by such authors as Dickens and Mark Twain."
I don't want to get into a fiery discussion regarding opinion on copyright, I'd like to discuss the actual legalities of copyright law and how they effect material now entering the public domain in some geographical areas and how this effects us, given our present communications inter-connected-ness.
Terms of Use
This space for intended to create a place for encouraging the enjoyment and awareness of older music, often long out of print or available in very limited numbers - it is therefore primarily intended to promote preservation and aid research.Obviously depending upon your present country of residence, downloading and keeping material, in areas other than the EU may breach your country's laws regarding copyright infringement. As a specific illustration, the United States enforces copyright, some 90 years from the date of publishing, whereas copyright in the EU expires after 50 years of either performance or first publication.I therefore ask you to exercise discretion, I must presume you are adults and part of that is exercising a little self-rule, where applicable
- do not download material if you know it is illegal to do so in your country.
This blog is based within the EU and is therefore entitled to discuss and publish material in order to further that discussion.
This is one of my favourites and as you probably know, (a) not easy to get (b) often expensive (c) never re-issued.
This one has a good story behind it as well - which only adds to the enjoyment (at least for me...).
Mike Nevard worked for Melody Maker and in the course of Leonard Feather's Jazz Club USA tour and other entrepreneurial activities, Feather commissioned him to assemble the cream of GB's (read London's) jazzers.
I'm sure some of you will agree with me that there were others, who could easily and should have been included in the selection - I'm thinking specifically of some guys from North of the Border (more north than the Watford Gap mind you).
If you can read the liner notes - you will enjoy it.
You also get Johnny Dankworth playing under the pseudonym of 'King John I'
In the past, I tried to research where the session was recorded and who had the copyrights - it would seem they were owned by Decca at some point and absorbed into another catalogue, and absorbed again probably - I never did get to the bottom of it.
However, I did find out that these songs were not the entire session, yes, there are more and I tracked them down - as well as getting a copy of the record.
I'll share them with you, once we reach the end on the 5000 series, as a form of mop-up and bonuses section.
For specific tracklistings, have a look at the excellent Jazz Discography Project
-Never Released on Blue Note-
featuring Clifford Brown
There are 3 volumes listed by Blue Note, but Volume 3 was never issued. However for complete-ism, I have assembled the tracks together.
Again Vogue. Lionel Hampton at this point is, 'More and More Crazy'.
For specific tracklistings, have a look at the excellent Jazz Discography Project
featuring Clifford Brown
featuring Clifford Brown
Again Vogue. Lionel Hampton must have been, 'Real Crazy'.
There are 3 volumes listed by Blue Note, but Volume 3 was never issued.
For specific tracklistings, have a look at the excellent Jazz Discography Project
The Digital Economy Act 2010 was recently forced through into law by the UK Labour Government, with full assistance by the Conservative front bench.
Regardless of how you feel about piracy and whether or not rampant illegal downloading has detrimentally affected the UK economy, it is now with us.
Although many MPs are trying to distance themselves from the Act, it is questionable that it will be repealed.
From wikipedia;
History of the Act
The Act follows the Digital Britain report[7] of June 2009 and contains many of its suggestions. It was announced in the 2009 Queen's Speech before the United Kingdom parliament.[8]
The first reading of the bill was presented to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom on 16 March 2010.[9] The bill received its second reading on the 6 April 2010 in a Commons debate and was given support by the Conservative front bench[10] and as expected[11] was not debated at length in the Commons, and was instead pushed through in the "wash up". It passed third reading on 7 April[12] with Royal Assent granted on 8 April.
The Digital Economy Act 2010 has been brought into law - a sad day indeed.
featuring Clifford Brown
Again Vogue. At this point you begin to see why Lionel Hampton was getting angry. He had specifically banned his band from playing outside and solo. You can see by the number of sessions getting done in Paris, that the young ambitious players were taking every opportunity to record.
I have read different stories about Lionel Hampton's savvyness, when it came to extracting the maximum from promoters - so these out sessions would have cut him out of any earnings.
Touring a Big Band was an expensive proposition, so extra income would probably have helped to pay for the tour - I have to sympathise with him in that respect.
Still these 'out-of-school' / extracurricular recordings documented some up and coming talent.
There are 3 volumes listed by Blue Note, but Volume 3 was never issued.
For specific tracklistings, have a look at the excellent Jazz Discography Project
