Lifeline - Bill Kirchner Nonet

© -Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

It is always a pleasant event to have more of Bill Kirchner’s music available in whatever the context, but I must admit to being especially partial to Bill’s playing and composing and writing skills when they are on display in his nonet.

In addition to Bill’s soprano saxophone, the Nonet's lineup is: Dick Oatts, Ralph Lalama, and Kenny Berger, reeds;  Bud Burridge and Andy Gravish, trumpets and flugelhorns;  Douglas Purviance, bass trombone;  Carlton Holmes, piano;  Chip Jackson, bass;  Ron Vincent, drums.

Founded in New York City in 1980, the Bill Kirchner Nonet has been one of present-day Jazz's most unique bands, featuring innovative writing along with top-notch solos and ensemble playing.  

If you haven’t had the opportunity to listen to Bill’s Nonet, you might want to checkout Lifeline, a new CD that shows off the group in an exhilarating performance during a 2001 concert at the New School in New York City.

Jazz has a rich history of groups that are bigger than the 4-6 piece standard Jazz combo but smaller than full size big bands which today can included 4 or 5 trumpets, four trombones and five saxophones. The former affords flexibility and fleetness, the latter, power and solidity.

Bill Kirchner’s genius is that he is able compose and arrange the nonet in such a way so as to bring to bear the benefits and qualities of both the smaller and the larger ensembles, thereby creating a whole new texture of the sound of Jazz played by midsize groups.

This sort of blending of opposites through the use of 8, 9 or 10 piece groups has been done before, most notably by Gil Evans and Miles Davis with their 1949 Birth of the Cool recordings and shortly thereafter by Shorty Rogers, Gerry Mulligan and Jimmy Giuffre, among others, in their creation of the the West Coast Style of Jazz that predominated in California in the 1950s. Their focus was transitioning the sound of Swing Era big bands of the 1930s and sophisticated harmonies of the early 1940s bebop groups into an integrated mid-size sound.

Bill Kirchner is bridging a different gap: he is taking the modern Jazz that followed - the Hard Bop of the 1950s, the influence of Gerry Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band, the Thad Jones Mel Lewis Orchestra, Maynard Ferguson’s Big Bop Nouveau, the dynamic Woody Herman Orchestras of the 1960s and 1970s, Bob Brookmeyer and Maria Schneider’s work with the New Art Orchestra - and composing and arranging these influences into a mid-size Jazz group that takes on a whole new sonority.

Bill’s is not formulaic or cookie-cutter music. It holds together well after repeated listenings because it is constructed by a skilled and well-trained musician who is steeped in the Jazz tradition. Of course, just to put my bias once again on display, Bill also went out and built the entire framework for the nonet around one heckuva, swinging rhythm section in Chip Jackson on bass and Ron Vincent on drums.

There is no one more masterful in Jazz today who is working in this medium. Like every dedicated Jazz artist who strives to find his own voice, Bill has worked hard to find his in the form of - The Bill Kirchner Nonet.

Bill wrote the following liner notes for Lifeline after which you’ll find order information for the CD.

 

“This is the fifth recording of my Nonet to be released since 1982.  And in several ways it’s the most personal for me.

The occasion for this live recording was a 2001 concert at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, where I’ve taught since 1991.  You’ll hear from the vigorous applause that the audience was hip and enthusiastic, so the band had plenty of incentive to play at its best.

Though truth be told, players of this caliber don’t need any additional incentive to deliver the goods.  When you get musicians like this on a stage together, creative sparks are virtually guaranteed.  Plus, all of them had been associated with the Nonet for 9-21 years and knew the music well.

We began the evening with “Fancy Dance,” a great tune by pianist Joe Sample that was recorded in 1968 by the Jazz Crusaders.  The rhythm section kicks into high gear immediately with a virtuosic solo by Chip Jackson, who is one of the undersung giants of the bass in present-day jazz.  Bud Burridge on flugelhorn, Kenny Berger on baritone saxophone, and Dick Oatts on soprano saxophone all sustain the energy as the rhythm section spurs them on.

“Brother Brown” was the late Washington, D.C. pianist Reuben Brown.  I first heard this piece, written by bassist Marshall Hawkins (an alumnus of the 1968 Miles Davis Quintet and the Shirley Horn Trio), when I lived in D.C. in the late 1970s.   It’s got a bright Brazilian groove and challenging chord changes to improvise on.  Trumpeter Andy Gravish, tenor saxophonist Ralph Lalama, and drummer Ron Vincent sail through it all.

Saxophonist/composer Wayne Shorter is one of my biggest heroes (more about him shortly), and following in his tradition of female portraits (“Iris,” “Delores,” “Diana,” “Miyako,” “Ana Maria,” “Penelope,” “Vonetta,” “Iska,” “Nefertiti,” several others), there are three original compositions of mine in this concert dedicated to special women.  “Lullaby” is the first of them. I wrote it for the Nonet early in 1984 (in the middle of the night, actually), and though this is the first time it’s been released on a recording, my online discography lists seventeen performances of it (http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Artists/Kirchner/index.php). The lady of the moment is a fine musician, and her image graces the cover of the Nonet’s second album, Infant Eyes. Pianist Carlton Holmes’s solo is truly incandescent. For Roxanne.

“Dream Dancing” is a Cole Porter song from a 1941 film called You’ll Never Get Rich, with Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth.  Alas, it was used in the film only as an instrumental.  Bud Burridge and Douglas Purviance gently unveil the melody on flugelhorn and bass trombone, respectively, and Andy Gravish follows them, soloing lyrically and fluidly on Harmon-muted trumpet.  Then Dick Oatts weaves a wondrous tapestry on alto saxophone, and Carlton Holmes, not to be outdone, winds up this track’s three brilliant improvisations.  The last chorus has some surprises.

The aforementioned Wayne Shorter recorded his classic ballad “Infant Eyes” in 1964 on one of his greatest albums, Speak No Evil.  This is the Nonet’s third recording of my arrangement.  The first featured Glenn Wilson on baritone saxophone, the second spotlighted Michael Rabinowitz on bassoon, and this one showcases Kenny Berger on bass clarinet.  All different interpretations, and all unique.  Kenny plays the s--- out of that difficult instrument.

Pianist Andy LaVerne’s “Maximum Density” is a challenging contemporary jazz composition that has built-in rhythms and unconventional harmonies that have to be met head-on.  The fiery Ralph Lalama and the equally incendiary rhythm section do just that, and the rest of the band helps them to build the intensity to a boiling climax.

I said that this is the most personal of the Nonet albums, and Lifeline Suite is a major reason for that.  “Holding Patterns,” the opening piece, consists of three contrapuntal lines for the horns—trumpet and soprano saxophone, flugelhorn and tenor saxophone, bass trombone and bass clarinet.  (I wrote it in 1990 for the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop Orchestra, but it works equally well with smaller ensembles.) The rhythm section has no written music, but is merely instructed to “listen and respond.”  (In particular, check out Ron Vincent’s inventive percussion and Chip Jackson’s arco (bowed) bass—“ear playing” at its finest.) It’s one of the most unusual pieces I’ve ever written, and it sounds remarkably different every time.

The second movement, “Try To Understand,” is also the second female dedication.  I wrote it in 1992 and arranged it for the Nonet especially for this concert nine years later.  (In between, it received a poignant set of lyrics from bassist/songwriter Jay Leonhart.)  When I recorded it in 2004 with a small group, it was sung by the consummate vocalist Jackie Cain (of Jackie and Roy), who said that it was the hardest music she had sung in over a half-century of recording.  Jackie nonetheless nailed it, as does the band here.  The arrangement is built largely around the alto flutes of Dick Oatts and Ralph Lalama, and Carlton Holmes is a paragon of lyricism.  For “Cinderella.”

The third and final movement—and the third female portrait--is “For Judy,” dedicated to my dear wife of (at this writing) almost two decades.  Anything I’ve accomplished during that time period she’s had a major role in making possible.  And overall, in making my life way better.  Dick Oatts begins softly and constructs an alto saxophone solo that soaringly evokes the dedicatee.

Ending the evening is “Quiet Now,” a gorgeous ballad by pianist/composer (and psychiatrist) Denny Zeitlin.  Denny has been one of my heroes since I was a teenager and has become a close friend as well.  I orchestrated this from his own written-out piano voicings.  It’s scored for two flugelhorns, two clarinets, bass clarinet, bass trombone (with a bucket mute), and the rhythm section.

This concert took place only two months after September 11, 2001.  It was dedicated to those who lost their lives that day, and also to composer/arranger Manny Albam, who had died of cancer on October 2, 2001.

In order to fit the music onto a single CD, two selections had to be omitted.  One was “So Many Stars,” a Sergio Mendes opus featuring bass trombonist Douglas Purviance, one of the Nonet’s charter members.  (Fortunately, it appears on two of our previous recordings.)  The other was a quartet version of “Body and Soul” with the rhythm section plus myself on soprano saxophone.

In 1993, a life-threatening illness and resulting surgeries left me unable to play all of my nine instruments except for the soprano.  This was a blessing in disguise for three reasons: 1) it enabled me to focus on the soprano, always my favorite; 2) it gave me a reason to hire Dick Oatts; and 3) it allowed me to conduct in front of the band and have the best seat in the house.

So no one had more fun that night than I did.  I hope that this recording gives you a sense of what that evening was about — a substantial portion of the music and people most important to me.”

                                                                                                                                            --Bill Kirchner

                                                                                                                                             January 2014   

Jazzheads

PO Box 0523, Planetarium Station, New York, NY 10024-0523

212-580-9065 http://www.jazzheads.com, info@jazzheads.com

New release – Street Date – March 1, 2014

Artist: Bill Kirchner Nonet

Title: Lifeline

Label: Jazzheads

Catalog Number:JH1208

UPC 809819120820

This recording is available ONLY as a digital release.  The music, cover art, credits, and liner notes are available as a download.

LIFELINE

To purchase "Lifeline," click on this link:

http://www.jazzheads.com/store.php?crn=286

NOTE:  The CD is also available on iTunes and Amazon.com

Dear Friends:

Since the release this month of my Nonet's CD "Lifeline," the response has been extremely gratifying.

1) From Steve Cerra, "Jazz Profiles":

"There is no one more masterful in Jazz today who is working in this medium. Like every dedicated Jazz artist who strives to find his own voice, Bill has worked hard to find his in the form of - The Bill Kirchner Nonet."

Read more:   http://www.jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2014/03/lifeline-bill-kirchner-nonet.html#link

2)  From Michael Gibbs, composer/arranger:

"....fabulous music!  Great 'orchestral' orchestration --- and with a nonet!!  [A] dynamite achievement...."

3)  From Marc Myers, "JazzWax":

"Bill's arranging style is just as multilayered and brooding as [Gil] Evans' charts and as shrewd and mighty as [Thad] Jones'. Songs latch onto a mood and develop with sharp elegance and intelligence, telling a story and building to a point."

Read more: http://www.jazzwax.com/2014/02/5-cd-discoveries-of-the-week.html#sthash.1nAK96TM.VAhWyRcZ.dpuf

4)  From Doug Ramsey, "Rifftides":

"....excitement, expansiveness and an impressive range of tonal colors. His adventurous three-part 'Lifeline Suite' is an important contribution to the literature of mid-sized bands."

Read more:

http://www.artsjournal.com/rifftides/2014/03/cd-recommendation-bill-kirchner.html

The Nonet's lineup is:  Dick Oatts, Ralph Lalama, and Kenny Berger, reeds;  Bud Burridge and Andy Gravish, trumpets and flugelhorns;  Douglas Purviance, bass trombone;  Carlton Holmes, piano;  Chip Jackson, bass;  Ron Vincent, drums;  and myself, composer-arranger and conductor.

This recording is available ONLY as a digital release.  The music, cover art, credits, and liner notes are available as a download.

LIFELINE

To purchase "Lifeline," click on this link:

http://www.jazzheads.com/store.php?crn=286

NOTE:  The CD is also available on iTunes and Amazon.com

Best,

Bill Kirchner

http://www.jazzsuite.com/

OCTOBOP

© -Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“In 1998, Octobop founder Geoff Roach stayed involved in jazz, like so many musicians who

held full-time jobs outside the music business, by playing in rehearsal big bands.

This enabled him to keep his chops up, but also served as a source of frustration since

this activity afforded him little opportunity to satisfy his creative juices due to being buried

in the reed section, with limited solo opportunities, playing charts that were beginning to feel tired. Inspired by his affection for the mid-sized bands led by the likes of Shorty Rogers, Marty Paich and Dave Pell, as well as by the pianoless groups led by Gerry Mulligan, Roach conceived the idea of forming a group that combined these dual influences.

This group would require the players to exercise the discipline necessary to play in an ensemble and also allow them ample occasions for soloing. The result was Octobop. In addition to the benefits to the players in his group. Roach was also determined to have an ensemble that would attract an audience by playing arrangements that were accessible to listeners. He understood that too many jazz groups failed because they did not recognize the importance of communicating with their audience.”

- Joe Lang, Past President, New Jersey Jazz Society

Baritone saxophonist Geoff Roach has been quietly going back in time for the past fifteen years or so with an octet whose instrumentation and resulting music is very reminiscent of the cool style of Jazz that largely flourished in Los Angeles in the decade of the 1950’s.

But while acknowledging this earlier influence, Geoff’s group Octobop is very much expanding the dialogue by adding some new dimensions to these older sounds.

Since 1998, Geoff and his Octobop colleagues have put their own stamp on a style of Jazz pioneered by Gil Evans, Miles Davis, Shorty Rogers, Gerry Mulligan and Howard Rumsey’s Lighthouse All-Stars, by crafting arrangements that bring forth a heightened softness and lushness in the sonority of Cool Jazz.

They have also taken the lighter, bouncier and subtler rhythmic shadings of this style of Jazz and broadened its compositional base with the inclusion of tunes that were written outside this approach to Jazz including Charles Mingus’ Goodbye Porkpie Hat, Bob Mintzer’s Mosaic and Wayne Shorter’s El Gaucho.

In addition to these “new faces”  and Octobop’s reworking and of the compositions of West Coast Jazz stalwarts such as Rogers, Mulligan and Paich, it is also nice to see the group reaching out to the music of Henry Maincini with superb new rendering of Hank’s Dreansville, Pink Panther, and Baby Elephant Walk.

To his credit, because it is not an easy thing to do this day in age, Geoff has taken Octobop outside the recording studio and made it into a working group thanks to appearances at clubs and festivals in the greater San Francisco and San Jose area.

He believes in what he does and loves what he does to the point that he and the members of Octobop devote the personal time and support necessary to further the continuance of a style of music that his very little general recognition in current times.

Uniqueness notwithstanding, this is complicated music that requires great skill to perform. You can’t just drop it for a couple of months and then one day get up on the stand and play it. To get eight musicians to play as one voice demands great dedication and constant practice.

As someone who literally grew up in Los Angeles and played this music with some of its notables, it is such a treat to hear Geoff and the members of Octobop continuing the rich tradition of West Coast Jazz while finding their own expressiveness in it.

www.Octobop.com is the website on which you’ll find more information about the octet’s CD’s, upcoming appearances and reviews about its music.

Here’s what Ken Poston of the Los Angeles Jazz Institute had to say about Octobop in the sleeve notes to its After Dark CD.

© -Geoff Roach/Octobop/Ken Poston, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“The West Coast Jazz sound rides again thanks to this third CD release by northern California based Octobop. The brainchild of saxophonist/arranger Geoff Roach, Octobop has successfully taken the essence of the mid-size West Coast ensembles of the 1950s and created a modern approach for the 21st century.

Octobop's musical influences begin with the legendary Miles Davis Nonet of 1949 and 1950. This East Coast Nonet was unique in both musical concept and instrumentation. From a composition standpoint, there is an equal emphasis on the written arrangements and the improvised solos. Appropriately, these recordings would come to be known as The Birth of the Cool. Surprisingly, when the first Davis Nonet records were released they didn't make much of an impact on the critics or the audience. They did, however, have a major impact on several young arrangers, many of whom ended up in Los Angeles during the 1950s.

By the end of 1951 Shorty Rogers had departed the Stan Kenton Orchestra and

settled in Southern California. He found regular work at The Lighthouse Cafe in Hermosa Beach,CA and joined saxophonist Jimmy Giuffre and bassist Howard Rumsey to form the nucleus of The Lighthouse All-Stars.

Shorty, once established in Los Angeles, was approached by impresario Gene Norman to organize a recording. In choosing the instrumentation for that session, Shorty decided to follow the Miles Davis Nonet format. The subsequent release, titled Modern Sounds, gave news that something new was brewing near the Pacific.

In the meantime, Gerry Mulligan had grown tired of the New York scene and began hitchhiking to Los Angeles. Gerry’s arrival, with the success of the house All-Stars and Shorty's Modern Sounds, led to the birth of West Coast Jazz.

In addition to Shorty and Gerry, a majority of young composers and arrangers migrated west to take part in the growing jazz scene. Opportunities provided via clubs and recordings enabled writers to try different combinations to create the new sounds. Gerry Mulligan continued exploring the mid-size format by creating a West Coast Tentette. Shorty Rogers did more recording with the 8-9 piece ensemble and both Shorty and Giuffre continued to come up with new ideas as members of the Lighthouse All-Stars.

Shorty, Gerry and Howard Rumsey opened the floodgates for a whole new generation of jazz artists on the West Coast. Dave Pell, Shelly Manne, Marty Paich, Jack Montrose and Lennie Niehaus all formed their own mid-size ensembles that helped establish the West Coast Jazz tradition.

Thanks to Geoff Roach and Octobop, that tradition is once again in full swing. …

The West Coast Jazz era left an amazing legacy and it’s very gratifying to hear Geoff Roach and Octobop not only continue that legacy but to add to it as well.”

- Ken Poston

Director, Los Angeles Jazz Institute

Long Beach, California

www.lajazzinstitute.com

This video features Octobop’s performance of Henry Mancini’s Dreamsville.

Revisiting Riverside Records - Orrin Keepnews

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“When Orrin Keepnews, the Grammy Award-winning jazz-record producer, writer and reissue master, was growing up in New York in the "30s and "40s, a teenager -- for the cost of a beer or two, when the legal drinking age was 18 (and, says Mr. Keepnews, carding was lax) -- could listen for hours to world-class jazz musicians at one of the clubs along 52nd Street or in Greenwich Village. According to Mr. Keepnews, now 85 and speaking from his home in Northern California, ‘It was advertised as: "Hey, this is a good way to have a cheap date," and I ended up getting interested in the music. That's being a little too cute about it -- but that's really, basically, where it started from.’”

- Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal, September 9, 2008

In 1953, Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer founded Riverside Records. Despite, the latter’s best efforts to the contrary, Orrin managed to keep Riverside going for ten [10] years as an independently owned and operated record label devoted exclusively to Jazz artists, many of whom were virtual unknowns when he recorded them.

“One of the key elements in the development of Riverside and other independent labels, Mr. Keepnews says, was the "postwar deflationary period": ‘At that point, union-scale pay for a sideman for a three-hour session was $41.25; double that for the leader. Among other things, you could do a trio album for a total musician cost of, in round numbers, $250. That is probably the most important factor in the growth of independent jazz labels -- and why, as it turned out, the "50s was such a golden age for recorded jazz, I think.’”

- Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal, September 9, 2008

Yet, this illustrious background notwithstanding, just like that, after I had put out a call for help via an internet chat group to which we both belonged, Orrin waked into a restaurant in San Francisco in 1999 and granted me an interview for an article I was working on about the late pianist and vibraphonist, Victor Feldman.

What a pleasure it was to listen to him respond to questions and to recount his stories about the music. For example, on the signing of Thelonious Monk for the Riverside label, Orrin shared:

"When we were told about his possible availability as a recording artist, we set up a meeting with Thelonious, and to my total surprise, he knew exactly what our past relationship had been.  Seven years before, I had interviewed him for what he informed me was the first article about him ever to appear in a national magazine. So that really made it very feasible for us. Prestige wasn't interested in retaining him; he wasn't selling records, and he was difficult to deal with... . So we signed him. And that really was the beginning of me as a jazz producer."

Orrin subsequently went on to establish Milestone Records with pianist Dick Katz in 1966 where he recorded pianist McCoy Tyner and tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson.

He moved to San Francisco in 1972 to take on the Jazz Arts and Repertoire responsibility at Fantasy Records after it purchased Milestone where he was reunited with pianist Bill Evans and signed and recorded tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins.

Back on his own again in 1985, Orrin brought Landmark Records into existence and where he featured recordings by vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, among others.

After selling Landmark in 1993, Orrin remained active in producing CD reissues such as the Duke Ellington 24 CD centennial set for RCA in 1999.

Ultimately, The Concord Record Group bought the catalogue of a number of independent Jazz record labels, including Riverside, and Orrin played a variety of roles in helping with Concord’s CD reissues under the rubric of “Original Jazz Classics.”

Or as Orrin explains:

“You stick in this business long enough," he says, "and the damnedest things happen." The archival materials he's now repackaging are the once-contemporary albums he himself produced half a century ago.

"I'm not complaining," Mr. Keepnews says with a chuckle. "I'm not bragging. But it's there -- and I must say that I find these things hold up rather well."

- Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal, September 9, 2008

There’s no one individual to whom the Jazz World is more indebted than Orrin Keepnews who turns 88-years-of-age on March 2, 2011.

Our video tribute to him features a track from one of Orrin’s Riverside albums under the leadership of drummer Philly Joe Jones [Drums Around the World – Riverside LP 1147; Original Jazz Classic OJCCD-1792-2]. During our visit, Orrin happened to mention the fact that Philly played on more Riverside LP’s than any, other drummer.

The tune is Benny Golson’s Jazz classic Stablemates, which he also arranged for the date. On it, Philly and Benny [tenor saxophone] are joined by Lee Morgan and Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Cannon ball Adderley on alto sax and Sahib Shihab on baritone sax, Herbie Mann on flute and piccolo, Wynton Kelly on piano and Sam Jones on bass.

Boris Rose: Recording Jazz History As It Was Made

© -Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Jazz has been well-served over the years by hobbyists, especially those who go through [sometimes extraordinary] lengths to preserve the music.

Jazz is the epitome of The Ephemeral in Art. Once it’s played, it’s gone. No “mulligans;” no ‘we will fix it in the edit’; no additions or subtractions.

In his treatise The Imperfect Art: Reflections on Jazz and Modern Culture [New York: Oxford University Press, 1988], Ted Gioia describes the fleeting nature of Jazz this way [paragraphing modified]:

"If improvisation is the essential element in jazz, it may also be the most problematic. Perhaps the only way of appreciating its peculiarity is by imagining what twentieth-century art would be like if other art forms placed an equal emphasis on improvisation.

Imagine T.S. Eliot giving nightly poetry readings at which, rather than reciting set pieces, he was expected to create impromptu poems—different ones each night, sometimes recited at a fast clip; imagine giving Hitchcock or Fellini a handheld camera and asking them to film something— anything—at that very moment, without the benefits of script, crew, editing, or scoring; imagine Matisse or Dali giving nightly exhibitions of their skills—exhibitions at which paying audiences would watch them fill up canvas after canvas with paint, often with only two or three minutes devoted to each 'masterpiece.'

These examples strike us as odd, perhaps even ridiculous, yet conditions such as these are precisely those under which the jazz musician operates night after night, year after year."

Enter the Jazz enthusiasts who over the years conjured up techniques to record live concerts using shellac-based acetates, or adapted fledgling “portable” tape recorders in such a way so as to preserve countless AM and FM radio broadcasts by local and national Jazz musicians, and those “dilettantes”  who made kinescopes or tele--recordings of Jazz programs thus saving these performances for posterity.

Morally and ethically, the person operating in such a manner was on safer grounds if they used such recordings, tapes [and now] digital files for personal rather than commercial purposes. If the latter was involved, then copyright permissions should be sought and the associated fees and royalties paid.

Boris Rose was once such Jazz archivist [for want of a better term] and his travels in the World of Jazz are recounted in the following essay by Will Friedwald, the noted and award-winning Jazz writer.

“Rare Performances by Modern Legends Awaits Its Fate in a Bronx Basement”

WILL FRIEDWALD, Wall Street Journal, Dec. 4, 2010 © -copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“Elaine Rose, daughter of famed jazz archivist Boris Rose, holds a portrait of her father in front of a small portion of his many mastertape recordings from Birdland and a number of other New York jazz venues. Philip Montgomery for The Wall Street Journal

In a dark basement in a quiet residential neighborhood in the Bronx, a well-known archive of privately recorded live tapes and acetates is gathering dust and waiting for some institution to acquire it. The Boris Rose archive, named for the New Yorker who amassed it, is so capacious, in fact, that no one has even cataloged all of it and Elaine Rose, who has owned it since her father died 10 years ago, can't even begin to guess how much it's worth.

"This collection certainly deserves to be in a major institution, such as the Smithsonian, Library of Congress, or Institute of Jazz Studies—intact," said John Hasse, the curator of American music at the Smithsonian Institution.

The collection contains everything from rare performances by modern jazz legends like Charlie Parker and John Coltrane to swing stars like Benny Goodman, Count Basie and Mr. Rose's own favorites, like Sidney Bechet and Eddie Condon. Ms. Rose is well aware of the need for finding a permanent repository; the acetates and the tapes are, she said, in delicate condition.

"It needs a home. I just can't keep it in storage. I'm giving myself a time frame of six months to a year to do something with it," she said.

Boris Rose (1918-2000) was one of those legendary characters who seem to proliferate in the world of jazz. He was tall, articulate, always very well groomed—and by all accounts an outrageous character. An inveterate prankster, he dreamed up a dizzying array of fake label names (including "Titania," "Ambrosia," "Caliban," "Session Disc," "Ozone" and "Chazzer Records"), many of which he tried to pass off as European imports. Most of his albums bore an address on the front, such as "A Product of Stockholm, Sweden." But if you looked closely on the back, it would say something like "Manufactured in Madison, Wisconsin" in much smaller type.

The truth was that Mr. Rose produced them all from his brownstone on East 10th Street. He told me once that he took great delight in confounding collectors and discographers, whom he regarded as the bean counters of jazz.

"I always felt something about jazz," Mr. Rose said in an undated interview with historian Dan Morgenstern that was taped for German television. "As far back as 1930, I listened to broadcasts from the Cotton Club. I heard Duke, I heard Don Redman, I heard Cab Calloway."

During his years at City College, Mr. Rose practiced the c-melody saxophone but began to find his calling when he got a job at the MRM Music Shop on Nassau Street.

"As far back as 1940, I purchased a home [disc-cutter] recorder and I began to dub records," he told Mr. Morgenstern. "For the next few years while I was in the Army, I was able to dub records for collectors who couldn't find the originals."

From there, he branched out to recording radio broadcasts and then live bands in clubs. "Getting out of the Army in 1946, I had professional equipment, and began to take down all of these jazz broadcasts," he explained. "First on 16-inch acetate discs. Later on, when tape came into the picture, I was able to record on tape."

Mr. Morgenstern remembers Mr. Rose as "a man who never sat down—he was always monitoring three or four tape recorders or disc-cutters at any given time." For decades, Mr. Rose ran a thriving business, recording jazz wherever he could, then making and selling copies or trading them for rarer material.

He operated from 10th Street, but stored most of his original tapes and acetates in the basement of his house in the Bronx, where he raised his three daughters.

It's still fairly well organized: Discs are mostly in one area; soundtracks are in one set of cabinets; 10-inch reels are in one spot and 7-inch reels in another. 78 RPM discs and LPs are all over the place. A thick layer of dust rests on top of everything, but considering the vastness of the collection, the few tapes I recently took out and examined seemed to be in good shape—though neither tape nor shellac will last forever.

Mr. Rose kept detailed notebooks of most every recording he made. The trick, though, is to find the tape to match the written entry.

"We won't know what's in there—or what shape it's in—until somebody wants it," Ms. Rose said.

The centerpiece of the Rose archive is the Birdland Collection: Mr. Rose recorded virtually every band that played this most legendary of jazz joints, either directly off the airwaves or by smuggling a concealed tape recorder into the club.

Over time he amassed a spectacular library of modern jazz from the glory years—the 1950s. His friends found this amazing since he rarely listened to the stuff himself; his own tastes ran to Louis Armstrong and Kid Ory. Still, he documented an entire era of music, the great majority of which hasn't been heard in 60 years.

Around 1970, Mr. Rose's business entered a new phase when he began using some of his material for mass-produced LPs that were distributed internationally, generally bearing amateur-looking artwork and misleading information. According to friend and researcher Arthur Zimmerman, Mr. Rose rarely if ever bothered to negotiate with the actual musicians or pay mechanical royalties for the compositions (with the exception of several country albums by Gene Autry, after the singing cowboy's lawyers got in touch). He sold Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday material to ESP Records, and a famous double-LP set of Parker at Birdland to Columbia Records.

In the end, Mr. Rose released hundreds of albums, under dozens of label names, up through the mid-'80s. When compact discs took over, he gradually lost interest. In the '90s, he made it known that the archive was for sale, but kept raising the price whenever anybody expressed interest.

"He left it to me so I could have an income," said Elaine Rose. "His words to me were, 'Make money with it.' But it's a whole different era now."