78rpm FAQ

Frequently asked questions from the new collectors

this page first published by John Wright, 13 Feb 1999
last update 14 March 2006vintage@jabw.demon.co.uk

FAQ 8

Who is Brian Rust?

See Brian's site at http://www.rustbooks.com

Born in London England in 1922, Brian Rust is still very active in the record collecting/research world and now lives on the south coast of England. His life almost spans the whole of recorded jazz history, and I've read that as an infant he loved the '20's hit"Yes Sir That's My Baby", on a Columbia recording credited to the Denza Dance Band, actually a pseudonym for the American band Ace Brigode & his 14 Virginians. He began collecting records as a young child when 78rpm was the speed of discs and Jack Hylton's band was the all the rage. At the age of 15 Brian discovered jazz on hearing his first records by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band record.
After working in a bank and the wartime Fire Service, Brian got himself a dream job at the BBC Record Library. This was THE job for a lover of records and dance band music for as well as being surronded by records brian was also able to meet some of the stars of the thirties scene like Jack Payne and Jack Jackson. During the 1950's Brian began to collect as much information as he could about musicians and their recordings and visited USA, even meeting Nick la Rocca, one-time cornetist with the Original Dixieland jazz band. When he left his BBC job around 1960 Brian embarked on a career as researcher and discographer. Much of his work at this time was devoted to early jazz records and he published the first edition of Jazz Records. Soon other books appeared on music hall, stage shows, King Oliver, the first discography of British Dance Bands and the mammoth two-volume American Dance Band Discography. Brian Rust's discographies contain vast amounts of information and he has developed a concise layout format for the kind of detailed information associated with recording sessions. You can read about Brian's discographical technique in FAQ 7
In the 1960's Brian became an important writer for music magazines 'Melody Maker' and 'Gramophone' and wrote for the 'Coventry Telegraph'. Brian Rust penned most of the sleeve notes for LP's of dance band and jazz music re-issued during the 1970's and 80's and he became a radio presenter on Capital Radio, playing dance and jazz 78's. Just to complete his involvement with jazz Brian was also a member of the Original Barnstormers Spasm Band.
Brian Rust remains the world's most knowledgable collector in the 78rpm field and is still in demand as a writer of CD 'sleeve notes'. Hundreds of collectors around the world continue to correspond with Brian Rust, still regarded as the font of all 78 knowledge.

Brian Rust's books and discographies, although now out of print, remain much sought after by collectors. You can get full details on Brian's most important books and even order copies if you look at my 78rpm Books page.

Note:

The 5th Edition of Rust's 'Jazz Records' discography was published back in 1983. The 6th Edition has now been poublished and is available in CD form from http://www.mainspringpress.com/book_rust.html

The 2nd Edition of 'British Dance Bands On Record', written with Sandy Forbes, was published in 1989.

The 2nd edition of 'American Dance Band Discography' is being revised by Richard Johnson, publication might be available around 2008-2009.

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