“jive talk is the lingo all the jitter bugs use today” Final, and fullest, edition of Calloway’s famous little book, which has been described as “the first dictionary authored by a black person” (Calt, p. xxi), and is surely the first jazz-derived lexicon. Although produced in large numbers this has now become most decidedly uncommon, an online search of institutional libraries citing copies at Chicago, Indiana State, and Evergreen State only. “In 1938 he published the first edition of Cab Calloway’s Hepsters Dictionary. He explained that he mainly assembled it from language heard on the street, but in some instances he claimed to have coined words, including ‘jitterbug.’ In 1939 he published Professor Cab Calloway’s Swingformation Bureau, teaching how to apply the vocabulary in the dictionary. It went through six editions to 1944, the last as The New Cab Calloway’s Hepsters Dictionary: Language of Jive, by which point it had been adopted as the official jive language reference book of the New York Public Library. Millions of copies were distributed. At some unknown date New York University gave Calloway the honorary title of ‘Dean of American Jive’” (ANB) . Calloway immortalised his diminutive glossary when he performed “Mr. Hepster’s Dictionary” in the musical-comedy Sensations of 1945 – advertised here on the back wrapper – in which, impeccably attired in white tie and tails, he proceeds to explain that “jive talk is the lingo all the jitter bugs use today”. This is a particularly dapper copy, or, to coin a hepsterism, “a hummer”. Duodecimo, 16 pp. Original sepia photographically illustrated wrappers, wire-stitched as issued. Slight rust stain from single staple, scattered foxing, yet a remarkably well-preserved copy. ¶ Stephen Calt, Barrrelhouse Words: A Blues Dialect Dictionary, 2009. £2,650 [145541] 6 CHAPMAN, Harold. Collection of 7 original exhibition prints of the Mandrake Club and Soho in the 1950s. London: Harold Chapman, 1950s “a crummy cellar dump where jazz musicians would gather after their gigs and hold informal jam sessions” Highly evocative group of superb images that distill something of the essence of 1950s Soho – the cynosure being jazz at the Mandrake Club – and which forms a picturesque pictorial study of London’s
most famous bohemian quarter: “But in Soho, all the things they say happen, do” (MacInnes). Harold Chapman (b. 1927) remains best known for his images of Paris in the mid-50s and early 60s, particularly those captured at what became known as the Beat Hotel, a guesthouse on the Left Bank which saw a remarkable series of artists cross its threshold, among them Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky, William Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Brion Gysin, and Harold Norse. But his first love was jazz. Of the Mandrake Club, Chapman remarked in an interview that it was “a crummy cellar dump where jazz musicians would gather after their gigs and hold informal jam sessions. I particularly liked this venue as the complications of the licencing laws for alcohol in England were particularly bizarre. After 11pm at night, which was the closing time of English pubs then, you could only get a drink if you bought a meal. At the Mandrake they served a huge plate of salad which legally constituted a meal, so every time you wanted to have a drink, say, a pint of beer, you got a plate of salad. Most of the salads sadly never got eaten nor were they intended to be, they were all scrapped at the end of the night’s session and probably ended up as pigswill. So, as the place was always littered after 11 o’clock at night with salads, if one was discreet, one didn’t even have to buy a drink but simply helped oneself to two or three salads and had a large healthy meal!” (website blues.gr). All prints are annotated and signed on the verso, some also with studio wet stamp (further details on request). At the Mandrake Club (on board, 343 × 483 mm) Dancing at the Mandrake Club (on board, 330 × 470 mm) Anne Winston at the Mandrake Club (on board, 483 × 343 mm) Frank Freeman: jam session at the Mandrake Club (on board, 508 × 407 mm) Tony Coe jamming at the Mandrake Club (on board, 457 × 356 mm) Diz Disley, resident guitar at Aux Caves de France (on board, 330 × 483 mm) Ruth, Soho (on board, 457 × 356 mm) As Colin MacInnes, Chapman’s slightly older contemporary, remarked in Absolute Beginners, his novel of youth rebellion set in late 50s London, “in the jazz world, you meet all kinds of cats, on absolutely equal terms, who can clue you up in all kinds of directions – in social directions, in culture directions, in sexual directions, and in racial directions – in fact, almost anywhere, really, you want to go to learn”. 7 original silver gelatin prints, various sizes (detailed above), all on board, 5 presented in window mounts. In excellent condition. ¶ Colin MacInnes, Absolute Beginners, 1959. £5,000 [150203]
4
5
4 BASIE, Count – PANASSIÉ, Hugues. The Real Jazz. Translated by Anne Sorelle Williams. Adapted for American publication by Charles Edward Smith. New York: Smith & Durrell, Inc., 1942 signed by basie, joe williams, and five members of the band First US edition, first printing, the first in English. This copy is attractively provenanced by being autographed across the title page and facing blank by seven members of the Basie band, including the Count himself, vocalist Joe Williams, Wendel Culley, Joe Newman (trumpets), Bill Hughes (trombone), Marshal Royal (alto, clarinet), and Charlie Foulkes (baritone sax, bass clarinet). All were involved on Basie’s 1955 album Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings (Clef MG C–678), Williams’s
debut as featured vocalist, the album described by Allmusic as “one of those landmark moments that even savvy observers don’t fully appreciate when it occurs, then realize years later how momentous an event they witnessed. Williams brought a different presence to the great Basie orchestra than the one Jimmy Rushing provided; he couldn’t shout like Rushing, but he was more effective on romantic and sentimental material, while he was almost as spectacular on surging blues, up-tempo wailers, and stomping standards. Basie’s band maintained an incredible groove behind Williams”. Influential French jazz critic, historian and record producer Hugues Panasié (1912–1974) was co-founder, with Charles Delaunay, of the Hot Club de France, one of the earliest jazz fan clubs. He also established Le Jazz Hot magazine (1935) and was the author of a series of historical, biographical and discographical studies. He was an ardent exponent of what he saw as “true” or “real” jazz, a music strictly rooted in the blues and the work of the New Orleans founding fathers. Octavo. Original black cloth, spine lettered in white, front cover with decoration of a drummer in tuxedo. Front free endpaper bearing neat typed ownership slip of “B. J. Randall. I32I843” and pencilled list on front pastedown identifying signees. Spine cocked and creased, slight wear to extremities, a little shaken, some general signs of handling otherwise a good copy. £1,250 [136002] 5 CALLOWAY, Cab. The New Cab Calloway’s Hepsters Dictionary: Language of Jive. 1944 Edition. New York: Cab Calloway, Inc., 1944
6
4
6
4
JAZZ
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
5
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online