Three recent double CDs are neatly representative of the extensive re-issue series launched in October 2008, as a partnership between Nimbus Records and veteran nostalgia specialist Ray Crick with audio restoration by Martin Haskell.
RTS 4414: Cab Calloway, The Hi-de-ho Man,
RTS 4417: Sarah Vaughan, The Divine One
RTS 4420: Dinah Washington, Queen of the blues
There is some interesting backstory to these releases which I’ll briefly explain, before diving into the music. Nimbus is not your usual record company and although the name carries a lot of clout inside the hi-fi and classical music world, it will be largely unknown in the jazz domain.
Nimbus the company is based in a stately pile called Wyastone Leys overlooking the River Wye near Monmouth. It was set up in 1972 by Michael and Gerald Reynolds and the late Count Numa Labinsky, who recorded for the company as a bass vocalist under the alias Shura Gehrman. It was all a bit cloak and daggerish and Numa was never short of a caustic comment, as I found out when I suggested they record some jazz as well classical. But Grace Kelly did work there once.
The three founders were soon joined by Dr Jonathan Halliday, a brilliant engineer and the Nimbus policy was to record everything using the Ambisonics surround-sound system mainly invented by another brilliant Brit, mathematician Michael Gerzon. Ambisonics could and should have become a studio standard for recording sound but clumsy handling by a UK tech Quango successfully stymied that.
Nimbus has always done things ‘their way’, like playing old 78s on a modernised horn gramophone, in their acoustically excellent drawing room, and re-recording the sound in stereo ‘as live’. When they wanted well-pressed LPs they built their own plant to produce vinyl of legendary quality. From there Nimbus progressed to pressing CDs (in the UK’s first plant) while Jonathan Halliday developed and patented key CD mastering technology that was bought by CD pressing plants all round the world.
The company survived, with difficulty, being seriously messed around by Robert Maxwell. But Captain Bob’s money helped build a fine concert hall with recording facilities in the Wyastone grounds. It was filled for music festivals but after local government cut-backs, the rather remote location is now only used for recording all shapes and sizes of classical music, up to full orchestral. Still no jazz, though.
More recently Nimbus pioneered large-scale legitimate CD ‘burning’. The system is used not just by Nimbus for its own releases, but by big name record companies that do not want to press big runs. If you buy a new CD of limited appeal (i.e. not Taylor Swift or Beyonce or Snoopy Dog Dog rap) there is a good chance the disc and fine sleeve art will have come, often uncredited, from the relatively small disc-copy facility inside the Wyastone Leys mansion.
Although Nimbus has continued to make and issue new classical recordings, recorded in the Hall or house, the only jazz, blues and pop CDs to issue from Wyastone are restored old recordings, mostly quite early material. As is to be expected from anything Nimbus, the restoration is of very high quality and the sleeve notes excellent. Often this material has broader than obvious appeal, because the CDs frequently feature the early work of band sidemen and arrangers that later became the biggest names in jazz.
By way of tribute and belated introduction to this sterling work, I’ve bundled together brief comment on three relatively recent jazz re-issues from Nimbus:
RTS 4414: Cab Calloway, The Hi-de-ho Man, with 52 tracks on 2 CDs spanning 1930-1952
RTS 4417: Sarah Vaughan, The Divine One, with 50 tracks on 2 CDs covering 1944-1962
RTS 4420: Dinah Washington, Queen of the Blues, with 52 tracks on 2 CDs dating from 1943-1962.
The Cab Calloway collection is rollickin’ good jump ’n’ jive fun with a good selection of Cab’s best tracks (Minnie the Moocher, Kicking the Gong Around and Jumping Jive) played by the terrific musicians who passed through the King of Hi-De-Ho’s various bands as he progressed from alternating with Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club, to topping the bill at all the top US clubs and halls. As well as Cab’s characteristic vocals there are some great instrumentals, especially with his later and tighter bands. There’ s also a rare recording of Cab guesting in Porgy and Bess in Berlin in 1952
Cab’s bands variously included Dizzy Gillespie, Chu Berry, Jonah Jones, Milt Hinton, Benny Carter and just about everyone who was anybody in jazz.
The discs come with great notes by Digby Fairweather, well-respected UK trumpeter and Founder of the National Jazz Archive.
Fairweather also wrote the notes for the Dinah Washington releases. Washington started life in Alabama as Ruth Lee Jones in 1924 and died at the shockingly early age of 39. Even by then she had done great work with Lionel Hampton (Evil Gal, Salty Papa and Blowtop Blues) and helped shape R&B (with five Number One Top Ten hits,). Those were the days when pop could still be jazzy. Her early backing bands and sidemen here include Quincy Jones, Joe Zawinul, Wynton Kelly, Terry Gibbs, Clark Terry, Ben Webster, Lucky Thompson, Paul Quinichette and Paul Gonsalves. It would probably be easier to list who didn’t play behind her.
Sarah Vaughan would have turned 100 this year. She had astonishing range, pitching and tone (comparable to Cleo Laine or vice versa) and played with all the early jazz modernists. She went “Las Vegas” later and I remember regretting paying an arm and leg to see her squander her talent at the Festival Hall in London. There’s a good mix here of early and late Sarah, including the famous vocal duets with Billy Eckstine, who had also turned his jazz skills as a boppish trumpeter to pop richesse.
The Retrospective jazz catalogue is packed with goodies like these three releases. You can check it out on line at https://www.wyastone.co.uk/all-labels/retrospective.html?product_list_order=sku
The web site indexing feels a bit like it was designed by a classical music expert, not a jazzer, but perseverance pays off. You will probably find the band you are looking for by searching under Conductor.
