Woody Herman - Woody’s First Herd on V-Disc
Recorded 1994-1946.
Tracklisting:
1. Apple honey (04:38)
2. Red top (04:29)
3. Happiness is just a thing called Joe (04:34)
4. It must be jelly 'cause jam don't shake like that (02:50)
5. Flying home (03:04)
6. Don't worry 'bout that mule (03:56)
7. Wedding in gold (03:01)
8. Your father's moustache (06:08)
9. Jones beachhead (03:26)
10. Blowin' up a storm (05:00)
11. Jackson fiddles while Ralph burns (02:58)
12. "C" jam blues (01:59)
13. Mean to me (02:27)
14. Caldonia (02:57)
15. 125th street prophet (04:11)
16. A kiss goodnight (03:21)
17. Goosey gander (03:23)
18. Northwest passage (03:12)
19. Bishop blues (01:51)
20. Helen of Troy (02:31)
21. Yeah man (Amen) (02:18)
22. Blue flame (01:33)
Released 2001.
V-Discs (Victory Discs) were 12 inch records (30 centimeters) produced by the American army as part of its package for caring for troops abroad. These records were not for sale and the participating artists, record companies and publishers were expected to donate their services without remuneration as well as to forgo any claims to royalties, either completely or in part. Partically all of the 904 V-Discs were made out of the synthetic material, vinylite. As a rule, two titles per side were included on each record, or a correspondingly longer one, with a playing duration of up to six minutes. The V-Discs' musical material stretched from popular music, to jazz, to the classics and could be divided into three groups: new pressings of records already in existence and mostly from the catalogues of leading labels like RCA-Victor and Columbia; tapes of recording session held especially for the V-Disc label, which constituted the bulk of its repertoire, and finally live cuts from concerts made by the 'Armed Forces Radio Service' (AFRS). Of special interest to jazz-record collectors are those recordings from the second and third groups. To begin with, musicians played together at the V-Disc recording sessions who never, or hardly ever, would have had that opportunity because of contract commitments. Secondly, many of these recordings are the only sound documents from the time of the recording ban. This ban was enforced by a musicians' union strike called by its president, James C. Pedrillo and lasted from July 1942 until November 1944. Since playing for V-Disc recordings was considered patriotic, the musicians' strike carried no weight in this matter. George T. Simon, editor of the magazine "Metronome," was mainly responsible for the excellent jazz prgram of the V-Discs. With the landing of American troops in Europe, more and more of the V-Discs fell into the hands of European jazz fans and jazz musicians. Unfortunately, almost all of these discs are practically worn-out and through the decades they have acquired the status of rare collector's items.
We have made the effort for the RST-Records releases to choose original recordings in the best possible shape (condition: E) as well as to select titles which have not yet appeared on the numerous LP or CD re-releases, produced primarily by Italian, Japanese or American labels.