from The Journal of the International Association of Jazz Record Collectors

For record collectors, August 1, 1942, rivals December 7 of the previous year as a date that will live in fame, if not infamy. Disturbed by the loss of income incurred by musicians because of displacement by records in public (on juke boxes) and on the radio, James C. Petrillo, the president of the American Federation of Musicians, ordered that no more records were to be made after July 31, 1942. The paths of the war and the recording ban came together in the person of Lt. George Robert Vincent. A recording engineer and record collector, Vincent had been assigned to the military unit in charge of distributing 16-inch transcription copies of commercial radio programs to the troops overseas. Because of continual requests for recorded music, Vincent proposed to the Pentagon in July 1943, that the army produce and distribute records. Surprisingly, his request was immediately granted and in late July, he was placed in charge of the new operation. In October, Mr. Petrillo gave Vincent's group permission to make new recordings, and musicians were allowed to donate their performances. Thus the first V-Discs came to be shipped in November 1943, from the Victor plant in Camden, New Jersey.

In the course of the project from 1943 to 1949, when it ended, 901 V-Discs were issued and eight million copies were shipped around the world. The discs were twelve inch 78 rpm records, typically containing two "regular" performances on one side and an extended take lasting four or five minutes on the other. Thus the 901 releases contained about three thousand different recordings. The principal sources were reissues of commercial records, airchecks, and most significantly, original recordings made at special V-Disc sessions organized by Corporal George Simon, who was associated with Metronome magazine before and after the war. Because of the recording ban, these original V-Discs are valuable documents of a significant transitional period in jazz history.

V-Discs covered all American music, from Toscanini performances to military bands, from Marian Anderson to Josh White, from country to comedy. Whether because of the tastes of the troops or the preferences of the people in the program, there was a lot of jazz. If one includes the work of Frank Sinatra and Glenn Miller, over forty per cent of the V-Disc releases were of jazz or jazz-related material. Benny Goodman was on more V-Discs than any other artist, closely followed by Tommy Dorsey, Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller, and Harry James. Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, Artie Shaw, and Count Basie were not far behind. (Bing Crosby, who was not a jazz artist in the forties, had about as many releases as Sinatra.)

V-Discs have been fully documented in the work of the late Richard S. Sears. A petroleum geologist, Sears spent his spare time during fifteen years in Latin America and North Africa compiling V-Discs: A History and Discography, published in 1980 by the Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut. The bulk of the work is the discography, listing for each artist the details of each issued recording, including source, personnel, and matrix numbers, in chronological order. This is cross-indexed with a listing of each of the 901 releases. It is a valuable reference, of course, but it also makes for fascinating browsing. The publisher is currently out of stock, but the book is not "out-of-print". It is fairly expensive, unfortunately, so libraries are the primary customers.

Sears recounts an all-night jam session in the apartment of Gjon Mili, the photographer. Life magazine had commissioned a story on the introduction of V-Discs, and Milt Gabler and Eddie Condon assembled New York's finest. The horns included Wild Bill Davison, Bobby Hackett, Lou McGarity, Benny Morton, Miff Mole, Irving Fazola, and Ed Hall. On piano were Duke Ellington, Jess Stacy, Mary Lou Williams, James P. Johnson, and Teddy Wilson. Sid Catlett and Cozy Cole played drums, and Condon and Josh White were on guitar. The singers were Josh White, Lee Wiley, and Billie Holiday. According to Captain Vincent (he had been promoted), the music was excellent, but the affair was very noisy and no useable recordings were made. The photographs were published in Life (October 11, 1943).

The agreement with the musicians' union stipulated that no commercial use could be made of V-Discs, the masters were to be destroyed, and the records were not to outlast the war. Since about 8000 copies of each V-Disc were issued, Petrillo's wish was not carried out. Copies survive, and most of the original material has been issued on bootlegs, especially in Italy, Australia, England, and Japan, possibly because of distance from prosecution, possibly because that's where the discs were sent in the first place. Apparently no efforts to suppress reissues have been made, in any case.

Most of the Shaw, James, and Dorsey V-Discs were repressings of their pre- and post ban commercial releases. Ellington, Sinatra, and Miller were also represented extensively by air checks. Count Basie, Woody Herman, and Benny Goodman, however, each recorded a large amount of original material for V-Discs, and many small groups were assembled for recording sessions. About a third of all jazz V-Discs, more than 450 tracks, came from such sessions. These, of course, are the most interesting V-Discs. The Herman and Basie sides are not currently available in the U.S., but the Goodman V-Discs are in a three-lp set on Sunbeam (P.O. Box 85, Santa Monica, California 90406). Among the best of the original V-Discs are those recorded by Red Norvo early in the program, in November 1943. His octet, which included Flip Phillips and Ralph Burns, was the musical ancestor of Woody Herman's first Herd, and these are the only recordings of this influential group. It is great jazz and in print on lp (IAJRC 24) and cd (Vintage Jazz Classics 1005).

In a major breakthrough, in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the V-Disc program, Time-Life Music (1-800 521-0042) has now legally broken the record ban. A new 4-cd set, V-Disc: The Songs That Went to War, bears official permission of the American Federation of Musicians, the song publishers, and the record companies to whom the artists were contracted at the time. The discs are packed-- there is five hours of music on them. Of the 79 tracks, all but a few are jazz or swing. Sixty-three are from V-Disc recording sessions, and the others are from V-Disc related radio programs. The remastering is excellent and the set is a bargain at $60.

The contents are a good sampling of V-Discs and the period. Most artists appear only once, so the spectrum is broad. Tommy Dorsey is represented by Sy Oliver's Paramount on Parade, with good contributions from Gene Krupa and Buddy DeFranco. Kay Starr's fine reading of Willard Robison's Share Croppin' Blues is much longer than her commercial releases and has lyrics not otherwise recorded. Count Basie, Jimmy Rushing, and Don Byas do Harvard Blues, and Glenn Miller and Mel Powell are on Bill Finegan's Tail End Charlie. There's a fine original blues by Elliot Lawrence. Jo Stafford and Billy Butterfield deliver a lovely Blue Moon. Woody Herman's V-Disc Apple Honey is over four and a half minutes long. Perhaps the high spot in the collection is a 1945 jam organized by Sy Oliver called That's Rich. The tune is After You've Gone, and it's the Buddy Rich-Charlie Shavers reply to the famous Krupa-Eldridge treatment. Just when you think it can't get any better, Ella Fitzgerald comes in with a terrific scat that may be her first on record.

Playing these disks recalls juke boxes and 78 rpm record changers-- the sides are in random order, so Jack Teagarden follows Stan Kenton, Glenn Miller's strings are followed by the King Cole Trio. It's a surprisingly pleasant experience, and it reminds one of the musical and cultural significance of the period. When the record ban and V-Discs began, it was the only time in history that jazz was America's popular music, thanks to the big bands. The many V-Discs by Goodman, Ellington, and Dorsey testify to that. But during the record ban, the war, and the V-Disc program, the big band phenomenon fragmented. One offspring was the small group revival: performances on records and in saloons for the jazz audience. Popular music, however, now belonged to the band singers, who found they didn't need the orchestras to reach mass audiences. The transition can first be noticed in the V-Disc catalog, in solo recordings by Goodman veterans Peggy Lee, Dick Haymes, and Helen Forrest, by Dorsey alumni Frank Sinatra and Jo Stafford. It's all there, the big band swing, the singers, first with the big bands and then on their own, the beginnings of bop, Armstrong and Teagarden reunited, the Condon crowd, the rediscovery of Bunk Johnson, and precursors of rock in recordings by Louis Jordan and Lionel Hampton. Even without the war, it would have been a very interesting time. Captain Vincent and his associates deserve great credit for recording it.