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On Internet since 1999 The Birka Jazz Archive Records we have bought and sold over the years - the rare and the beautiful! Please note! Birka Jazz record store is closed but Birka Jazz Archive is still available. Scroll down and use the links to browse this comprehensive archive of rare jazz album covers AMERICAN LABELS COLUMBIA RECORDS CLEF, NORGRAN, VERVE (1) CLEF, NORGRAN, VERVE (2) BLUE NOTE 10" LPs BLUE NOTE 1500 series BLUE NOTE 4000 series PRESTIGE RECORDS RIVERSIDE RECORDS PACIFIC JAZZ CONTEMPORARY SAVOY RECORDS DIAL RECORDS ATLANTIC RECORDS EMARCY RECORDS BETHLEHEM RECORDS DEBUT RECORDS CANDID RECORDS ESP-DISK IMPULSE RECORDS RCA VICTOR VARIOUS US labels (1) VARIOUS US labels (3) EUROPEAN LABELS SWEDEN (1) SWEDEN (2) SWEDEN (3) SWEDEN (4) DENMARK NORWAY FINLAND FRANCE ENGLAND
GERMANY ITALY HOLLAND POLAND OTHER COUNTRIES ARGENTINAThe first jazz legend in Argentina was Oscar Aleman, a swing guitarist often compared to Django Reinhardt. He was hired by Josephine Baker in the 1930s, while she was performing in Buenos Aires. It take him to Paris where he played and recorded with European and American musicians before World War II. He then returned to Argentina and a successful career until the end of his life in 1980.It took to the 1960s before two other Argentinian jazz musicians archieved international projection. It was Lalo Schifrin and Gato Barbieri. Schifrin had a big band in Buenes Aires when Dizzy Gillespie in 1956 gave several concerts in the town. He heard Schifrin and was impressed by the young composer and director. A few years later Gillespie asked Schifrin to compose some music for him. One thing led to the other. Soon Schifrin was the pianist and musical director of Gillespie´s new quintet in 1960. Gato Barbieri played in Lalo Schifrins orchestra in the mid 1950s. Later he started leading his own groups and in 1962 moving to Italy. He met Don Cherry and, upon joining Cherry´s group, became heavily absorbed in the jazz avant-garde. But it was with the soundtrack to the film Last Tango in Paris (Bertolucci, 1972), that he got the attention of a larger audience. Barbieri returned to Argentina for a period in 1973 and assembled a group of Latin American musicians with a strong emphasis in the different and varied rhythms of the whole region. It resulted in some albums issued in USA for Flying Dutchman and Impulse, which are among his most important work. LINKS Jazz in Argentina AUSTRALIAThe best known Australian jazz group in the 1950s was Australian Jazz Quartet/Quintet. They was formed in 1953 and included pianist Bryce Rohde and saxophonist Errol Buddle among others. The group was working in America and made several albums for Bethlehem records.There were several jazz clubs in both Melbourne and Sydney in the 1950s. The most important was El Roco in Sydney, a small cellar club which opened in 1955 and closed in 1969. It was the main venue for the various forms of progressive jazz performed in Australia. Important clubs in Melbourne were Fat Black Pussicat and Jazz Centre 44. Among the pioneers in Australian modern jazz in the late 1950s and 1960s were The Three Out Trio with Mike Nock on piano, tenorist Don Barrow´s Quartet with George Golla and John Sangster, pianists Judy Bailey and Col Nolan. Nock and Bailey came from New Zeeland, wich many of the musicians in Australia did, such as Dave MacRae and Barry Woods. After some difficult years in the late 1960s, there was a major resurgence of Australian jazz in the 1970s. It took place mostly in Sydney. The guitarist Peter Boothman describe this Jazz Explosion as "very much a Sydney thing, not following some current worldwide trend. Most of the jazz that was played here in the 70s was fresh, vibrant, exiting and new. People turned up in droves to hear it". The Basement was the hottest jazz club. Before it opened in 1973, another club, Rocks Push, had opened as a jazz venue with the popular band Galapagos Duck as an instant crowd pleaser. Their mixed-bag repertoire of swing, mainstream and latin jazz was later also drawing big crowds to the Basement club. Associated with both the clubs and the Galapagos Duck, was the jazz promotor Horst Liepolt. He also set in motion a number of other jazz venues and events, such as Manly Jazz Festival and Music Is An Open Sky festivals. In 1973 he began to produce records for the Philips label and after the success of the first albums, Philips decided to start an exclusive label for Australian jazz. In the latter half of the 1970s nearly 30 albums were produced by Liepolt on this new "44" label. Another significant break for Sidney jazz was the inception of the jazz studies course at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. It was started by the american saxophonist Howie Smith. Among all bands that played in Sydney in the 1970s were Jazz Co-op and The Last Straw. Booth groups worked close to the main stream of contemporary jazz, but created a new and fresh aproach to the genre. Howie Smith played in Jazz Co-op and so also did Roger Frampton. Members in The Last Straw were pianist Dave Levy and drummer John Pochee among others. Free jazz had a high profile during the 70s with musicians such as Eddie Bronson, Louis Burdett, Jon Rose and Serge Ermoll with the group Free Kata. The jazz boom in Sydney had flow-on effects in the jazz scene throughout Australia. Many jazz musicians came to Sydney from other areas of Australia during the 1970s. There was also a more than usual interest for jazz in Melbourne. Based there were musicians such as Tony Gould, Brian Brown, Bob Sedergreen and Ted Vining. LINKS Jazz in Sydney Peter Boothman AUSTRIAThe most important jazz group in Austria after World War II was Hot Club Vienna under the leadership of Hans Koller. But it could not exist more than about three years. It was difficult for pure jazz to make headway with the audience. Hans Koller went to Germany in 1950.Since both the audience, the cultural institutions and the radio stations seems to be uninterested in jazz, more and more leading musicians followed Koller and left the country. Attila Zoller, Roland Kovac, Joe Zawinul, Karl Drevo, Hans Rettenbacher and others went abroad to make their careers elsewhere. Some of them returned periodically such as clarinetist Fatty George, whos jazz clubs were centres of Viennese jazz life in several years for both traditional and modern jazz. Hans Koller returned some times and made recordings for Austrian labels in mid 1950s. The 1960s saw a grewing interest in Jazz. Many American musicians visited the country, many of them brought along by Friedrich Gulda and his various recording and concert project, the Eurojazz-Orchestra among others. Also the establishment of the Austrian Jazz Federation made the situation better so that the leading Austrian groups finally have the possibility of making their living by working in Austria. |
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