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david weiss
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Posts posted by david weiss
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OK guys, I can't say I'm really that familiar with his writing style but I met the author at the Schomburg when we were both going through Sonny's archives stored there.
I know he talked to Sonny a lot and did a lot of research. When we talked about all things Sonny, he did seem to have some knowledge on the subject so from the research side of things, this should be good. I believe he is/was a saxophone player not that that matters much but I think he has more of a back round in Jazz then a Lou Reed bio might imply. He is well versed on the subject, that is for sure but as I said, I can't speak on his writing style yet but I think this will be the most thorough bio we've had on Sonny and that is probably a good thing.
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On 6/18/2021 at 8:12 PM, Hardbopjazz said:
Here is some more on what happened. Apparently he had a stroke the other day, but is doing much better right now. Billy is still in the hospital.
HE DID NOT HAVE A STROKE!!!!
This was a false rumor spread around in an e-mail chain earlier this week and is completely not true.
He is fine. He was released from the hospital on Tuesday and is home and doing OK.
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22 minutes ago, JSngry said:
They got the money, right?
Not to hear them tell it....
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14 minutes ago, JSngry said:
I find that honest thieves are the easiest people in the world to deal with.
And sometimes they treat you to the nicest dinners....
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1 hour ago, David Ayers said:
Mosaic has done a small number of original releases, in fact.
On licensed reissues, I suspect that the license is sold for a fixed sum and not on a royalty basis.
Well, there would be a different deal for original releases I suspect and negotiation directly with the artist if they were the source of the material.
I never said the licenser got a royalty as well (though this is not unheard of), I said they get a fixed price based on the number of LPs or CDs pressed...
But then there is also downloads....
38 minutes ago, corto maltese said:I'm sorry, but I don't see the logic in your reasoning. Would Mr. Thomas deliberately have fewer records (or CDs) pressed than he could sell, just so that he would not have to pay an acceptable fee to the artist?
I also believe that you are grossly overestimating the profit that Mr. Thomas could ever make from this release.
I have a lot of respect for your efforts in the interest of the artists and I agree with much of what you write, but are you really sure about your allegations in this particular case? To be clear: I am in no way involved in this release or other projects of Mr. Thomas, with whom I only had a conversation once when I was in Paris. It was about music and it was very pleasant.
It depends on how it is released. If it is for record store day, it does need to be a fixed amount. If for general release, it does not have to be a limited edition.
I have not implied any nefarious intent on Mr. Thomas' part for only pressing 2,000 copies and making it a vinyl only release. I've just said that this could effect the artist's ability to earn a decent paycheck for his work.
I have not estimated any profits for Mr. Thomas, just stated that his payday was bigger then the artist involved. Perhaps that's fine but it really depends on how much more, no?
I've had plenty of pleasant conversations with many record label executives, many were pretty honest and some were outright thieves....
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6 hours ago, corto maltese said:
But you criticised the "limited edition model" because it brought the artist less income, didn't you? Mosaics sell out too...
Isn't it possible that the licence agreement with INA also contain provisions on the size of the pressing? And would the "percentage of the pie" offered to the artists not be determined by INA, the owner of the recording? The Sam Records website mentions that the album is released "with the full permission and cooperation" of Billy Harper. Is there any reason to doubt this?
Of course I have no intention of accusing you of anything and I want to respect that you cannot reveal all your information on a public forum, but I honestly don't really understand your criticism on this specific release and label. Taking into account the high quality of the production and presentation and the very reasonable price, this can hardly be considered as an example of making quick money on the backs of the musicians. I don't need to tell you that there are hundreds of new releases in the shops every week where such practices are taking place.
Again, Mosaic is doing collections of previously (but for an alternate take or two) released material not new material. Mosaic will deal with the record company in question, not the artist in most cases. A new recording requires permission from the artist and a fee to be paid to release this new work. INA owns the physical recording but does not own the rights to the music created on said physical recording. Technically, they can not release the music without the artist's permission. Yes, the artist can turn down the deal if it is not a good deal for them and I have had to do this a few times myself but sometimes an artist will need the money especially during, say, a pandemic and might accept an offer they would not usually accept. You can lay this at the feet of an artist saying it's the artist's fault for excepting all the shitty deals they felt they had to accept through the years but that would not really be fair. Historically, artists have been given shitty deals and that has changed a bit over the years but it has not gone away. Artists are more aware certainly but they are offered crap all the time and feel they have no choice sometimes. I can probably guess that both INA and the record label made more money off this release then the artist. I personally don't think that is fair. This might not be the cases if more records were pressed or CDs were pressed as well. I recently turned down a low offer for a similar situation to this and they remedied it by pressing more LPs to give the artist a more acceptable fee.
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2 hours ago, corto maltese said:
These are recordings from the archives of Radio France, owned by the French National Audiovisual Institute (INA). INA works with Fred Thomas, but also with other labels, to make selected recordings from these archives available to the general public.
18 hours ago, David Ayers said:So is this the Eleventh Commandment or the First Amendment to the Ten? Asking for a friend.
“Thou may rip but if thou seeest Billy/Duke/Pops (insert name here) round or near thine ownmost gaff or within a few clicks bung him threefold of tenners and be on thine way mutely and meekly.”
And by the way somebody should have explained the morality of the limited edition to Mosaic a long time ago...I'm well aware of the INA archive. INA licenses these recordings to labels for a fee based on a percentage on the number of albums pressed. I've had offers where a larger percentage of the pie was offered to INA then to the artist. Another example of the artist, who produced the actual music, always being last in line for payments...
Different situation I believe. Mosaic dealt with collections of previously issued music for the most part (with some alternate takes) and licensed the music from various labels. Sometimes the license deal would be based on the number of albums pressed and hence, one of the reasons for the limited edition....
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19 hours ago, Pim said:
I thought again about what you said David but isn’t it true that with these releases, at least somebody is releasing it and offering Mr. Harper some compensation for his incredible music. Apparently en very unfortunately none of these bigger labels is interested anymore in releasing it. After all: they only release music for its market potential. Or is this to easy thinking of me?
Again, I can't get too deep into it in a public forum. To prove a point, I would have to get into numbers and that is personal. Yes, independent labels do not have the budgets the major labels do but there is still a fair wage to pay a musician even if you are an independent label. But that really wasn't my point anyways though. I was saying that this limited edition model makes it more difficult to pay a musician a fair wage since you are limiting how many you can sell and therefore depriving the artist of potential royalties from more sales. The limited edition might guarantee you make a splash and sell out but it is not the best model for the musician who made the music in first place. I see that the album sold for 28 euros on their web-site so at maximum (if they sold them all through their web-site), 28 x 2,000 is 56,000 Euros. I'm sure a certain amount sold through distributors where the label would see less money per album and there are expenses as well but I don't know about non-profit. Non-profits do have salaried employees and sometimes they take a decent salary as well. I'm just trying to say I'm a little skeptical. More power to him for starting a label and more power to him for these great releases but I remain a bit skeptical about all the limited edition and non-profit stuff.... There is a reason all these labels are jumping into this record store day stuff....
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24 minutes ago, mjazzg said:
I have no reason to doubt this but I also have no idea what compensation Sam agreed with Harper. For all we know it could be an exception to that rule.
I do but I'm not going to go into it on a public forum. I stand by my statement.
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On 5/25/2021 at 1:13 PM, bertrand said:
It confirms that there will be a CD version. Hopefully real CDs and not CDrs.
For fucks sake Bertrand, I confirmed it was an 8 CD set months ago and yes, I'm pretty confident it will be real CDs.
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1 hour ago, Brad said:
Sam is a one person company, Fred Thomas. As stated in his website it’s a non-profit company. From his website: “This non-profit label is devoted to reissuing jazz records recorded and produced in France during the 50’s and 60’s.” Several of his recent re-issuances are repressing of records that have gone out of stock so he’s not reissuing a lot. His re-issuances seem more like a labor of love. Making money is obviously not his objective.
1 hour ago, mjazzg said:And all power to his elbow. As the owner of several of his releases I'm pleased he does what he does in the way he so chooses.
And I agree with Pin, this Harper is special.
1 hour ago, mjazzg said:One thing not really considered here is the artist. I don't want to get too deep into it but limited edition releases like this guarantee a low payday for the artist with no hope of any additional sales to make it even a half way respectable payday. These limited edition record store day type things have resulted in some of the lowest offers for compensation to the artist that I have seen in many years. It's nice for the music to come out and I understand the nature of a non-profit and their supposed good intentions but it would be nice to see the artist compensated a fair amount as well.
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9 minutes ago, Chuck Nessa said:
I have a DAT somewhere of this stuff from a project Uptown was working on. I'll dig it out.
I believe this was one of the sources for this....
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On 3/27/2021 at 9:37 PM, tranemonk said:
I'm totally in.. but I'd love to know the label and a rough eta....
Blue Note is releasing it.
End of July supposedly....
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4 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:
Not much new in this article (unless I’m overlooking something).
One thing though, is that this article says it’s an 8LP set (and makes no mention of CD) — where all the prior intel up-thread seemed to suggest a 12LP / 8CD set.
But I’m not putting a ton of stock in this new article necessarily, and I haven’t done the math — but 8 CD’s does seem a lot more inline with what I’d expect (given the rough number of tunes on the 3CD set, and about how long the list of unreleased alternates there were) — just eyeballing it.
And if that’s right, then 8 CD’s would seem to translate into 12 LP’s
Definitely 8 CDs and 12 LPs. CD box is supposedly going to be "moderately priced"
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I have not heard the final product but I heard the original tapes and it's pretty killing.
The intensity level is high.
I think the Land is from the Penthouse in Seattle but I'm not sure....
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59 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:
With John Gilmore I’m not only a suit and tie, but button-down collared shirt too!
I’d seen this 30+ minute video of Blakey numerous times (below) — also with Gilmore (Lee, Hick’s, and Spoles) on the BBC in ‘65 — but I had no idea there was another hour of that band on video/film in Paris that same year (above).
For whatever reason, timing, mood or what have you, I'm finding this Paris concert to be much stronger. "The Egyptian" is earth shattering. There is also some footage from an Italian date from the same tour floating around as well.....
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Not an album but I've been listening to this Live Art Blakey thing a lot lately...
It's off the hook for me....
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1 hour ago, Mark Stryker said:
Just a note on this. The vocalist here, Bill Tragesser, was subbing for Flora Purim, who had either just had a baby or was about to.
Interesting.... had no idea...
Mark, I read your piece on Chick and enjoyed it but how can you not include this?
It is one of my favorites if not my favorite....
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12 minutes ago, JSngry said:
Lavishly illustrated, perchance?
That's a major seduction point for me, lavishly illustrated is, makes me melt in my mind.
Then you're just the sucker they are looking for after all
Big booklet, lots of cool photos. The ones mentioned above plus some other nice live shots.
More essays then one would even need as well....
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1 hour ago, mjzee said:
IIRC, the compilations were only available to libraries. I tried buying some of them but couldn't. I think the situation persists today:
Album/track(s) not available for download, but you may listen to clips below.
I've seen them plenty of times in used records stores over the years...
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27 minutes ago, JSngry said:
8 CDs at what price point?
And will there be pictures?
Reaching for the dice already....
I think the CDs will be moderately priced. I'm not as privy to such discussions but I think the general philosophy these days is deluxe, pricey LP box set and reasonably priced CD set. There are a lot of cool pictures from the Lighthouse photo shoot and I think the photo shoot from the Lee's last album in the booklet. They are of course more glorious in the LP box
but the CD booklet will have all this stuff as well...
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16 minutes ago, felser said:
I do like the band plenty (though not sold on Merritt on the electric bass) plus it was the first jazz album I ever bought in 1972, so holds plenty of appeal on those criterea. Good to hear that the sound quality is so much better and that the alternates are of high caliber. How much do the performances of a given tune differ from each other?
Well I think the sound is a lot better at least but I'm biased...
As for track timings, the timings of a particular tune are pretty much in the same ball park with a fluctuation of a minute or two in either direction in general.
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44 minutes ago, sidewinder said:
Just read an article in this month’s UK Jazzwise magazine on Morgan and Live at the Lighthouse and it mentions that this new set will be 8LP and no mention at all of a CD version - presumably they got their information wrong? Or maybe this is a special UK expurgated version?
12 LPs or 8 CDs. I don't know if there will be different versions for different parts of the world but I seriously doubt it.
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On 2/14/2021 at 0:27 AM, felser said:
Looking in the Ruppli Blue Note discography, the 3 CD set contained the master takes of all 13 titles from the stay. The 8CD set will contain those and 13 alternate takes, seemingly those would be equal or inferior to the masters overall. Can't see where I can justify even $75 for that.
14 previously unreleased tracks plus 5 previously unreleased Speedballs of various lengths, not that it matters that much. I chose the master takes back in the '90s and I will say, most of the decisions were pretty easy then except for two tunes. Going through it this time though, I have to admit I found the level of the performances consistently high throughout all the sets. The energy is infectious throughout and it's exciting to hear such a good band hitting on all cylinders set after set. I really like this band though, others might not be as high on them... I do have to say I think the sound is greatly improved over the 3 CD set. If you really like this band, it might be worth the plunge but if it is not amongst your favorites, then perhaps the 3 CD set would suffice.
Lee Morgan - Complete Live at the Lighthouse
in Mosaic and other box sets...
Posted
Not much you can do about the drums I'm afraid. 4 track recording with the drums all on one track so there is not much one could do about the balance of the kit or panning or whatnot.
He is still a great player. I hear a lot of Joe Henderson in him on these recordings....
More precisely, they turned the tape machine off the minute they heard the first notes of the melody of Ceora. Saving tape I assume and not recording a tune they knew they would not use for the recording.
Hey, the LP set is sold out already
I'm told it shipped sold out. As I said months ago, I believe the vinyl craze got this made and a reasonably priced CD set is the byproduct of this phenomena and the least they could do for the rest of us. I guess the CD sales will tell them how much real interest there was in this set in the long run and yes, I assume they can do another LP pressing run down the road at some point.