Jay McShann

The Big Apple Bash

1979 · Atlantic SD 8804 · Stereo · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Atlantic
Catalogue number	SD 8804
Year	1979
Mono / Stereo	Stereo
Country	US
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Swing/Big Band, Kansas City Blues
Producer	Ilhan Mimaroglu; Ahmet Ertegun (executive producer)
Performer / Orchestra	Ernie Wilkins (arranger & conductor of the all-star big band)
Musicians	Jay McShann (piano, vocals), Earle Warren (alto saxophone), Herbie Mann (tenor saxophone), Gerry Mulligan (baritone & soprano saxophones), Doc Cheatham (trumpet), Dicky Wells (trombone), John Scofield (guitar), Jack Six (bass), Eddie Gomez (bass), Milt Hinton (bass, on 'Dickie's Dream' and 'Jumpin' The Blues'), Joe Morello (drums), Connie Kay (drums), Sammy Figueroa (percussion, on 'Crazy Legs & Friday Strut'), Janis Siegel (vocal, on 'Ain't Misbehavin''), Ernie Wilkins (arranger, conductor)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  ST-A-794249-A
Side B:  ST-A-794250

Condition

Cover: VG+
Vinyl: P

Variant chronology

1979 - US original, green/orange label with 75 Rockefeller Plaza rim text (plant suffixes PR Presswell, MO Monarch, SP Specialty, RI Richmond)  <- this copy
1979 - US promo (DJ copy with promo stamping/sticker)
1982 - US reissue, later Atlantic label design

This Pressing

US 1st press (stereo, 1979) - Atlantic green/orange label, 75 Rockefeller Plaza rim text; RI suffix = Philips/PRC, Richmond IN plant.

The Album

Jay McShann was one of the last great links to Kansas City's swing-era heyday: a blues-drenched pianist and vocalist whose late-1930s orchestra gave the young Charlie Parker his first important bandstand and his recording debut. Recorded at Atlantic's New York studios on August 3 and 10, 1978 and released in 1979, The Big Apple Bash was conceived as an all-star celebration of McShann's music, mixing veterans of his own era - Basie alumni Earle Warren, Doc Cheatham and Dicky Wells, plus bassist Milt Hinton - with younger admirers like Gerry Mulligan, Herbie Mann (playing tenor, not his usual flute), Joe Morello, Connie Kay and a then up-and-coming John Scofield, all framed by Ernie Wilkins' big-band arrangements. The program revisits McShann classics: 'Dickie's Dream,' the Basie flag-waver he co-wrote with Lester Young, and 'Jumpin' The Blues,' recreating the tune he recorded with Parker, whose lyric 'I'll be jumpin' the blues until the day I die' serves as McShann's own defiant credo. Manhattan Transfer's Janis Siegel drops in for a playful vocal duet on 'Ain't Misbehavin',' and McShann's weathered, rock-solid voice and two-fisted piano carry the session throughout. Liner notes by New York Times critic Robert Palmer frame the album as a statement of the timelessness of McShann's music at a moment when Kansas City jazz was enjoying renewed attention. Critics received it warmly - AllMusic's Scott Yanow praises the spirited blowing-session atmosphere - and it stands as one of the strongest major-label showcases of McShann's late career, bridging classic Kansas City swing and the modern mainstream.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Crazy Legs & Friday Strut (7:47)
2. Georgia On My Mind (7:50)
3. Dickie's Dream (6:05)

Side 2

1. Ain't Misbehavin' (5:07)
2. I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water (4:41)
3. Blue Feeling (5:10)
4. Jumpin' The Blues (7:11)

The Label

This copy carries Atlantic's late-1970s green-over-orange stereo label with the big multicolor box/fan logo and the 'MFG BY ATLANTIC RECORDING CORP., 75 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA, N.Y., N.Y. / A WARNER COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY' rim text, with a (c) 1979 copyright line - the standard original-issue design for Atlantic LPs of 1977-79, before the early-1980s label revisions that mark the 1982 reissue of this title. The label-printed matrix ST-A-794249-RI / ST-A-794250-RI ends in the RI plant code, which Atlantic used for the Philips/PRC pressing plant in Richmond, Indiana (other 1979 copies carry PR, MO or SP codes for Presswell, Monarch and Specialty). The Rockefeller Plaza address plus RI suffix therefore places this copy squarely in the first 1979 pressing run, at the top of the hierarchy alongside the other 1979 plant variants, and ahead of the 1982 reissue.

Fidelity

Recorded and mixed by Bobby Warner and mastered by George Piros at Atlantic Recording Studios, New York - a clean, well-engineered late-70s Atlantic analog production. The RI plant (Philips/PRC, Richmond) pressed to Atlantic's usual decent late-70s standard, a notch below the Monarch and Presswell variants some collectors prefer but still a quiet, full-bodied cut. There are no audiophile reissues to compete with: no Analogue Productions, Music Matters or Speakers Corner edition exists, so any clean 1979 US original such as this one sits at the top of the album's fidelity hierarchy, with the 1982 reissue a step behind.

Notes

1979 Atlantic SD 8804 stereo - US original first pressing. Green/orange label with 75 Rockefeller Plaza / Warner Communications rim text and (c) 1979 line matches Atlantic's 1977-79 original-issue design; the 1982 reissue carries a later label. Label matrix ST-A-794249-RI / ST-A-794250-RI (collector's deadwax transcription ST-A-794249-A / ST-A-794250) - the RI suffix denotes the Philips/PRC plant, Richmond, Indiana, a standard first-run Atlantic plant variant. Recorded August 1978 at Atlantic Studios, NYC; released 1979.