Hi,
Some more exciting news I thought I'd share with fellow board members - I spoke with the widow of the late Esmond Edwards tonight!
Esmond Edwards is one of my personal jazz heroes - but for those for those of you who didn't know was trailblazing and pioneering African-American record company executive/record producer/a&r man for Prestige , Chess/Argo,Verve/MGM and finally, Impulse. Bob Weinstock gave him his start as a clerk/photographer in 1957 for Prestige - before he essentially took over as A&R man/house producer shortly thereafter. He then produced Coltrane's first side for Prestige amongst a slew of great sides before moving on to Chess/Argo in 1962 where he perfected the 'soul jazz' sound. I contend that Edwards has not received the proper acclaim and historical recognition that is due to him as a seminal jazz producer - he certainly is the equal of figures such as Alfred Lion, Francis Woolf etc..
I've been researching and documenting the life of Edwards for a potential blog project -
and I reached out to some of his family members last week. Finally tracked down his widow
in Santa Barbara - and had a warm and friendly conversation with her tonight. Fortunately,
she was very receptive and open to a project on Esmond Edwards' life in jazz and beyond.
I'm so excited - she mentioned that there's a huge amounts of photographs, personal papers
to use as source material for a future big project. Stay tuned...
I also just completed three long interviews with John Wright - and I'll try to transcribe them when I have the time. You can visit my blog for the gist of what
John said - he had some very interesting things to say about his experiences dealing
with Weinstock!
best
trevor