[Dixielandjazz] Stomp Off Tune Titles and Composers Index--finished?

[Dick Baker]

Friends and Colleagues,

For a year and a half now you've been seeing my inquiries in pursuit 
of my 30-year quest to track down the correct titles and composers 
for the nearly 4,000 titles that have appeared on Stomp Off Records 
since it was begun in 1980.  It was a quest that will never be 
complete, but at some point you have to give up and deliver a 
manuscript to the publisher--and I sent mine off to Stomp Off owner 
Bob Erdos yesterday.  I've been working on the project since the late 
1980s, but the last year and a half have been the most intense, and 
the success I've achieved would not have been possible without the 
help of our listmate Bill Haesler, who jumped in to help early last year.

The results can be seen at http://stompoff.dickbaker.org/, where 
you'll find links to

         -- a "clean" listing that shows title, composer, and what 
Stomp Off bands have recorded each tune.  This is the version that 
Erdos will publish.

         -- the "annotated" list: the above with all the research 
notes that led us to the decisions we made about titles and 
composers.  The true jazz nerds and academics among you may find it 
fascinating reading.  And I urge you to read it before writing 
composer credits for your next CD releases, since the existing 
scholarship is woefully inadequate.  (E.g., every reissue of Jimmy 
Blythe's recording of "Messin' Around" on your shelves probably cites 
Blythe as the composer; it was really Tiny Parham.  And you knew, of 
course, not to confuse this "Messin' Around" with the ones written by 
Doc Cook, Sissle & Blake, and Lovie Austin.  Didn't you?)

         -- the "unsolved" list:  the 30 or so titles that we simply 
never could come to definitive conclusions about.  These are truly 
arcane jazz puzzlers, and I invite you to test your chops by working on them.



--Dick Baker
Working on an updated version of the Stomp Off Records Tune Titles 
and Composers Index
See working draft at http://stompoff.dickbaker.org/index.pdf