02-September-1998 -- Norman Burt writes:

Do you know where a song, "Modern Jive," by Bernard Purdie can be found. A friend had it on a 45, but it's now broken. I have looked at track lists for "Legends of Jazz," "Soul to Jazz 1" and "2," "Master Drummers 1" and "2," and "Last Poets," but it's not there. The 45 was issued in 1963. Thanks for any help you can provide.

Norman, the best thing for something like this is to do a web search on something like "rare Soul 45" – something close to that. You will find among the returns some record dealers who will take your requests or who will let you post your want lists on their sites. You might need to use a few different search engines. Do you or your friend remember what label it was on? If you do, try a web search for that label to see if you can luck into something. Also, you can generally find reputable record dealers advertising in the back pages of large, well-known print publications. Finding another copy of that 45 is going to be exceptionally tough; once all the copies of something like that are all gone, there just aren’t any more in existence. But those are a few ways that you can get started. Good luck!

02-September-1998 -- Pamela James writes:

As a new customer I must tell you, "All About Jazz" is an exciting and important find. My question: Any information on how to obtain recordings of Eddy and Betty Cole? He was Nat King Cole's older brother. They had one commercial hit in the 50's, a single entitled, "Sweet Someone." The last information on them was some years ago, that Betty moved to Hawaii. They played club dates around the country, I don't know what recording label they were with. As a kid in the 50's, my Dad snuck me into jazz clubs around LA to see them, right up front. (No kidding!) Had to wait in the back during the "blue material." Appreciate any information or direction you might have. Thank you.

Pamela, we have to throw this one out to our "AAJ" readership. We can’t find any currently available recordings by Eddy and Betty Cole. The first appearance on record by that most famous of the three Cole brothers, Nat "King" Cole, was with Eddie’s band The Solid Swingers in the mid-1930s. Several online catalogs list one title by The Solid Swingers, but that’s about it for Eddy. We found nothing from Betty. Younger brother Freddy – what, no Teddy? – put out a pretty well-received album ("Love Makes The Changes") earlier this year, too. Here’s the strange thing: You mention that you think that Betty moved to Hawaii – every version of a song called "Sweet Someone" that we could find was by Hawaiian performers (it’s on two Don Ho compilations, for example). Can anybody help out Pamela? Thanks!