[Dixielandjazz] Big Sid Catlett

[Ken Mathieson]

Hi Bill et al,

Many thanks for your helpful pointers. I've got various books by Whitney 
Balliett including  'Collected Works' as he's one of the most perceptive and 
imaginative writers on the music. I've also got Grove, Rough Guide, the CD 
'Roll 'Em' as well as loads of other books, many of which have info on Big 
Sid. The one I'm currently chasing up is the Dan Morgenstern book. It was 
one I hinted broadly about before Christmas, but Santa failed miserably.

As I wrote in another post, there's actually quite a lot about Sid in print, 
but spread over a wide range of sources and often just snippets here and 
there. Pulling the most relevant of this existing material together in a 
coherent way would be a step forward in ensuring Sid retains his rightful 
place in the story of jazz and jazz drumming. I've browsed a few new books 
on jazz over the last decade or so and have been surprised at the paucity, 
or total absence, of entries for him in their indexes.

Regards and thanks,

Ken Mathieson
www.classicjazzorchestra.org.uk



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Haesler" <bhaesler at bigpond.net.au>
To: "Ken Mathieson" <ken at kenmath.free-online.co.uk>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2009 1:56 AM
Subject: Re: Big Sid Catlett


> Ken Mathieson wrote [in part]:
>> ........ Yes, I've got the Rex Stewart book and the Barney Bigard
>> book, which has a brief section on Catlett and of course Burt
>> Korall's fine book Drummin' Men, which devotes a whole chapter to
>> him.......
>
> Dear Ken,
> Another book worth tracking down, with lots of references to Big Sid,
> is:
> Whitney Balliett's 'Collected Works. A Journal of Jazz
> 1954-2000' (2000. St Martin's Press).
> It contains dozens of items involving Sid including the pieces
> published in Balliett's 1954 book 'The Sound Of Surprise'.
> You might also check the bibliography under Catlett's entry in 'The
> New Grove Dictionary Of Jazz'; the Catlett biog in 'Jazz. The Rough
> Guide' (1995. Penguin Books. Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather and Brian
> Priestley) which contains some interesting comments and the notes by
> Dr Ian Crosbie to the 'Benny Goodman and Sid Catlett CD 'Roll 'Em'.
> (1991 Vintage Jazz Classics. VJC-1032.)
> Dan Morgenstern's book of essays 'Living With Jazz'. A Reader edited
> by Shelton Meyer (2004. Pantheon Books) also has information about Big
> Sid including specific references to his work with Armstrong,
> Commodore, Ellington, Keynote and Hot Lips Page.
> Very kind regards,
> Bill.
>
>


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