Chris Gage Acetates

[Donna Champagne]

I have three acetate records, 2 with the audiodisc label. One is "Jazz Workshop" CBC Oct 30 1954. Organ/piano:Ch. Gage, Bass:S Johnson, Drums:J Wightman, Trb: D Robbins, GIT:R Norris. The second says July 31 1957 Jazz Workshop. The third is slightly larger and has nothing written on it and is to large to play on my record player. I gave the first two a listen and they are definately jazz, I only listened a little bit as I understand acetates are fragile and can only be played so many times.

It is my understanding that Chris Gage didn't record commercially and am wondering if these might be of considerable value. Where might I find out? Thanks !

[Gavin Walker]

I would take them to a pro and have them transferred to disc asap. It's true that if you play the acetates they will soon disintegrate. I sure there are many people who visit this site could recommend somewhere you could take the discs for transfer.

[Donna Champagne]

Thank you Gavin, I look forward to the information. Quite an exciting find and I would love to transfer them to save them.

[Nou Dadoun]

Thank you Gavin, I look forward to the information. Quite an exciting find and I would love to transfer them to save them.

I'd recommend Si Garber over at his own Goldrush Recording Company (http://www.goldrushrecording.com/sg-frm.html); the larger disc may be a 16 RPM transcription disc and may need some special equipment to transfer. Alternately there may be a way to record it at a different speed and correct it digitally. In any case, you probably shouldn't try to play it again, acetates were never made to be played repeatedly (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetate_disc), especially on "modern" record players with diamond needles (for the same reason that you should never play 78s with diamond needles - they're too hard and gouge out the grooves very quickly).

If the dates are correct, they certainly don't match the (marginally) available recordings that I know of, the CD Easy to Love (all 62-63) and one track on a 4-cd internal CBC jazz compilation (1951 under Ray Norris's leadership); Jazz Workshop was apparently a CBC radio show in the 50s so these discs probably originate from their archives.

As for what they're worth, I wouldn't count on getting much for them despite the rarity of his recordings; he's still a pretty obscure figure and I wouldn't count on more than a handful of people outside the jazz community in Vancouver even recognizing the name. I don't think people are beating a path to Neptoon which is the only place (as far as I know) that the Easy to Love CD is available.

But if you get them transferred and would like to have them played on the radio, I can think of a couple of shows that would be happy to give them a broadcast. Good luck ... N

[Donna Champagne]

Thanks much for your reply N. I will certainly look into the Goldrush Recording site, the link you posted wouldn't work for me but I'll just Google it. Another option is to donate the acetates... which I'm seriously thinking about doing, just have to figure out where they would be of some benefit. Thanks again, Donna

[Nou Dadoun]

I'd recommend Si Garber over at his own Goldrush Recording Company (http://www.goldrushrecording.com/sg-frm.html); ...

I think the formatting parser was a little too zealous and included the ");" inside the URL which broke it, try the one above (fixed manually) .. Nou

[cweeds]

I would be interested in the possibility of releasing these on Cellar Live. Chris Gage is a huge part of the history of this city so I would entertain the idea of trying to find the money to make such a project happen. Donna you can email me at cory@cellarjazz.com

[cweeds]

Donna was kind enough to give the acetates/records to me. I will be in contact with Simon Garber to see what the next step is.

[Nou Dadoun]

Donna was kind enough to give the acetates/records to me. I will be in contact with Simon Garber to see what the next step is.

Very exciting, would be great to combine with more cbc archives - maybe MacPherson has something else kicking around, that Guy's got lots of funny stuff ... N