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Lee Morgan: The Last Session


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9 minutes ago, felser said:

Can't see him on Strata-East for any number of non-music reasons.  Guys like Tolliver, Cowell, and Harper have always seemed to have their personal acts together, and Strata-East was "musician owned and run".  None of that sounds like Morgan.

Jazz & People's Movement notwithstanding? Have you ever read the last interview he gave, published posthumously in Down Beat? He was very much into the artist-controlled thing.

As far as Strata-East being "musician owned and run", the interpretation of what that really meant kinda evolved over time. I can definitely see it not working out, but I can also easily see it happening - or trying to happen - before it didn't.

Here's the DB interview. This guy sounds like he's just rarin' to go into "The New Land"..anybody of his stature who spoke like this in 1972 was not looking to make a move to a major label....where it all would have ended up is or course a moot point. But this is where he was at the time.

http://theguardianlifemagazine.blogspot.com/2010/02/trumpeter-lee-morgans-last-word.html

Interviewing Lee Morgan proved easy —not simply because he was loquacious, but because he knew his mind so well he would speak it without any hesitation, and do so with great insight and passion. He spoke of many aspects of music, but always in relation to one essential subject: the dilemma of jazz in America.


To Morgan, this dilemma was two-fold, or rather two-faced: lack of respect, and a lack of proportion between black American art and the general American culture.
Regarding the first lack, Morgan condemned indifference toward the music, reinforced by media tokenism, specifically the over-exploitation of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong as representative jazz personalities. “Duke Ellington on the Today Show with the Today house band — that is not Duke Ellington; to have Duke Ellington without Cat Anderson, Harry Carney, all the people’ you associate with Duke, his band — that is Duke Ellington. And the same thing applies to Louis, Louis is gone now, and I think one of the main reasons why Louis died, I saw him on his last engagement in New York, and he had to lay down between shows. The man had just had a heart attack; he shouldn’t have been playing.


“This is the tragedy of the black artist: just to live halfway comfortably he must keep on working! That’s not to say they don’t have any money -- I’m talking about in perspective to their talent. These people should have shrines dedicated to them, just like they have shrines in Europe to Beethoven and Bach: Louis Armstrong especially ;and Duke Ellington as well.”


About the second lack, Morgan noted the irony that jazz is revered internationally, and in fact is broadcast everywhere by the U .S. Information Agency, but is dismissed at home. “It’s black creative music, but something that’s not only black — it’s American black! That’s very important. I was reading about B.B. King. I think last year was the first time a black college ever invited him— because he played blues and blues was like the music of the devil! And over in Europe, you hear blues all day long – it’s a high art form!”


With better recognition, Morgan believed black artists might hope for a better economic perspective. In sports, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays each earned $125,000, because they were the best regardless of black or white, But in music, such racial equality does not seem evident: Herb Alpert became a multi-millionaire in a short time with “a nice little pop group”, while great black genius has been comparatively unrewarded, even after decades of creating.


“I’m not trying to damn Herb Alpert, because it’s beautiful. I’d just like to see an equal proportion... I don’t resent nobody for what they get, as far as they are equal. Frank Sinatra is worth millions; Frank Sinatra is a hell of a singer, that I won’t deny. But at the same time, Betty Carter is starving to death -- here’s someone who’s been on the scene since the late 1940s -- because she refused to compromise, because she always wanted to sing jazz. Look at Billie Holiday and Judy Garland: they both had the same hang-ups, but one of them was singing Over The Rainbow and the other was singing Strange Fruit.


In another view of this lack of recognition, Morgan equates jazz with symphonic music in America, both in respect and in finance, “Leonard Bernstein plays an elite music; everybody doesn’t have the temperament or the ear or the talent for listening to symphonic music or opera. And I would like to feel this way, I’ve never been drug about jazz not being heard all day long banging in your ears like you hear pop music, I would like to feel that jazz is an elite music! Most people who like jazz are the intellectual type people in college, because it’s a very sophisticated music. So if you’re doing something that only appeals to a minority, then the lovers of this music have to support it.


“The symphonic orchestras have sponsors, people who give them endowments, and I think it should be the same way with jazz — because this is a national treasure! This is the only national art form that’s here, and they do everything they can to dismiss it and put it aside. It’s really a shame the way our country treats its artists. I’ve had people ask me: ‘If you feel that way, why don’t you go to Europe’ And I always tell them, ‘first of all, I like Europe, like to see it as a visitor —but this is my home! This is my culture!”

Morgan was committed to several means of awakening recognition toward jazz: as a member of a group of musicians negotiating to buy the Lighthouse Club in California, and as a member of the short-lived Jazz & People’s Movement protesting media ignorance and indifference to jazz artists — Morgan was among the first to interrupt the taping of the talk shows in 1970-71.


“Morgan was amazed by many responses to the JPM protest: that the networks considered a few black musicians in the studio bands sufficient recognition; that talk show hosts didn’t know even established artists like the MJQ or Thelonious Monk; that the programmers tried any and all ploys to avoid commitment; and most shocking of all, that so many considered the JPM actions as only a personal hype,


“We’re saying that if each show (Carson, Griffin, Cavett, Frost) committed itself to use two artists a month’, that would he eight different artists each month. And we’re not talking about Thelonious Monk sitting down at the piano with Doc Severinsen’s bass player- if you have Thelonious Monk, have Theionious Monk’s band! And then after he plays, sit down and talk to him!…


“We tried to arrange conferences; none of them would talk to us. So we went in and took over the (Griffin) show. The next day they had the chairman of the board down there to see us! But it’s unfortunate: as soon as you stop, if you don’t do it again, they go right back... The only reason Griffin came out to, see us was because we kept on blowing whistles, Rahsaan and myself. He immediately tried to divide and conquer — he offered of have our two groups on!


“I told him I couldn’t care less if he ever had me on in fact, I would insist on not going on, at least not first, because right away, people have gotten so pessimistic that not only the public, but musicians as well thought we were just out there thinking about ourselves, I don’t care if you never show me! Put Dizzy on, Horace Silver, Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner, Blue Mitchell, Herbie Hancock-put somebody on!


“And right away he came up with that regular thing: Louis Armstrong and Duke El1ington, And then he told me about James Brown, and right away we told him, ‘look, we’re talking about jazz!’ They insult the public, some of the stuff they put on. They spoon feed the public bullshit, and they’ve given them so much I’ve found myself humming tunes that I hate?

Whether the efforts of Morgan and others, will ever succeed, whether the music will be finally respected and granted proper due within American culture, is certainly still a question unanswered. But at least, Lee Morgan knew the power of the music, even if unrecognised — and in that knowledge was a strength.


“If it wasn’t for music, this country would have blown up a long time ago; in fact, the whole world. Music is the only thing that spans across all ethnic groups and all languages. Music is the only thing that awakens the dead’ man and charms the savage beast. Without, it this would be a hell of a world!”

 

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3 hours ago, JSngry said:

Jazz & People's Movement notwithstanding? Have you ever read the last interview he gave, published posthumously in Down Beat? He was very much into the artist-controlled thing.

As far as Strata-East being "musician owned and run", the interpretation of what that really meant kinda evolved over time. I can definitely see it not working out, but I can also easily see it happening - or trying to happen - before it didn't.

Here's the DB interview. This guy sounds like he's just rarin' to go into "The New Land"..anybody of his stature who spoke like this in 1972 was not looking to make a move to a major label....where it all would have ended up is or course a moot point. But this is where he was at the time.

http://theguardianlifemagazine.blogspot.com/2010/02/trumpeter-lee-morgans-last-word.html

Interviewing Lee Morgan proved easy —not simply because he was loquacious, but because he knew his mind so well he would speak it without any hesitation, and do so with great insight and passion. He spoke of many aspects of music, but always in relation to one essential subject: the dilemma of jazz in America.


To Morgan, this dilemma was two-fold, or rather two-faced: lack of respect, and a lack of proportion between black American art and the general American culture.
Regarding the first lack, Morgan condemned indifference toward the music, reinforced by media tokenism, specifically the over-exploitation of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong as representative jazz personalities. “Duke Ellington on the Today Show with the Today house band — that is not Duke Ellington; to have Duke Ellington without Cat Anderson, Harry Carney, all the people’ you associate with Duke, his band — that is Duke Ellington. And the same thing applies to Louis, Louis is gone now, and I think one of the main reasons why Louis died, I saw him on his last engagement in New York, and he had to lay down between shows. The man had just had a heart attack; he shouldn’t have been playing.


“This is the tragedy of the black artist: just to live halfway comfortably he must keep on working! That’s not to say they don’t have any money -- I’m talking about in perspective to their talent. These people should have shrines dedicated to them, just like they have shrines in Europe to Beethoven and Bach: Louis Armstrong especially ;and Duke Ellington as well.”


About the second lack, Morgan noted the irony that jazz is revered internationally, and in fact is broadcast everywhere by the U .S. Information Agency, but is dismissed at home. “It’s black creative music, but something that’s not only black — it’s American black! That’s very important. I was reading about B.B. King. I think last year was the first time a black college ever invited him— because he played blues and blues was like the music of the devil! And over in Europe, you hear blues all day long – it’s a high art form!”


With better recognition, Morgan believed black artists might hope for a better economic perspective. In sports, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays each earned $125,000, because they were the best regardless of black or white, But in music, such racial equality does not seem evident: Herb Alpert became a multi-millionaire in a short time with “a nice little pop group”, while great black genius has been comparatively unrewarded, even after decades of creating.


“I’m not trying to damn Herb Alpert, because it’s beautiful. I’d just like to see an equal proportion... I don’t resent nobody for what they get, as far as they are equal. Frank Sinatra is worth millions; Frank Sinatra is a hell of a singer, that I won’t deny. But at the same time, Betty Carter is starving to death -- here’s someone who’s been on the scene since the late 1940s -- because she refused to compromise, because she always wanted to sing jazz. Look at Billie Holiday and Judy Garland: they both had the same hang-ups, but one of them was singing Over The Rainbow and the other was singing Strange Fruit.


In another view of this lack of recognition, Morgan equates jazz with symphonic music in America, both in respect and in finance, “Leonard Bernstein plays an elite music; everybody doesn’t have the temperament or the ear or the talent for listening to symphonic music or opera. And I would like to feel this way, I’ve never been drug about jazz not being heard all day long banging in your ears like you hear pop music, I would like to feel that jazz is an elite music! Most people who like jazz are the intellectual type people in college, because it’s a very sophisticated music. So if you’re doing something that only appeals to a minority, then the lovers of this music have to support it.


“The symphonic orchestras have sponsors, people who give them endowments, and I think it should be the same way with jazz — because this is a national treasure! This is the only national art form that’s here, and they do everything they can to dismiss it and put it aside. It’s really a shame the way our country treats its artists. I’ve had people ask me: ‘If you feel that way, why don’t you go to Europe’ And I always tell them, ‘first of all, I like Europe, like to see it as a visitor —but this is my home! This is my culture!”

Morgan was committed to several means of awakening recognition toward jazz: as a member of a group of musicians negotiating to buy the Lighthouse Club in California, and as a member of the short-lived Jazz & People’s Movement protesting media ignorance and indifference to jazz artists — Morgan was among the first to interrupt the taping of the talk shows in 1970-71.


“Morgan was amazed by many responses to the JPM protest: that the networks considered a few black musicians in the studio bands sufficient recognition; that talk show hosts didn’t know even established artists like the MJQ or Thelonious Monk; that the programmers tried any and all ploys to avoid commitment; and most shocking of all, that so many considered the JPM actions as only a personal hype,


“We’re saying that if each show (Carson, Griffin, Cavett, Frost) committed itself to use two artists a month’, that would he eight different artists each month. And we’re not talking about Thelonious Monk sitting down at the piano with Doc Severinsen’s bass player- if you have Thelonious Monk, have Theionious Monk’s band! And then after he plays, sit down and talk to him!…


“We tried to arrange conferences; none of them would talk to us. So we went in and took over the (Griffin) show. The next day they had the chairman of the board down there to see us! But it’s unfortunate: as soon as you stop, if you don’t do it again, they go right back... The only reason Griffin came out to, see us was because we kept on blowing whistles, Rahsaan and myself. He immediately tried to divide and conquer — he offered of have our two groups on!


“I told him I couldn’t care less if he ever had me on in fact, I would insist on not going on, at least not first, because right away, people have gotten so pessimistic that not only the public, but musicians as well thought we were just out there thinking about ourselves, I don’t care if you never show me! Put Dizzy on, Horace Silver, Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner, Blue Mitchell, Herbie Hancock-put somebody on!


“And right away he came up with that regular thing: Louis Armstrong and Duke El1ington, And then he told me about James Brown, and right away we told him, ‘look, we’re talking about jazz!’ They insult the public, some of the stuff they put on. They spoon feed the public bullshit, and they’ve given them so much I’ve found myself humming tunes that I hate?

Whether the efforts of Morgan and others, will ever succeed, whether the music will be finally respected and granted proper due within American culture, is certainly still a question unanswered. But at least, Lee Morgan knew the power of the music, even if unrecognised — and in that knowledge was a strength.


“If it wasn’t for music, this country would have blown up a long time ago; in fact, the whole world. Music is the only thing that spans across all ethnic groups and all languages. Music is the only thing that awakens the dead’ man and charms the savage beast. Without, it this would be a hell of a world!”

 

Thanks for posting.  Not only a great interview and a sad reminder that some things never chamge but I am enjoying other articles posted on the site (jazz and more).

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Don't know.  I read an interview like that, but also read where Helen Morgan basically was keeping it all together for him while he did whatever.  Or maybe he was recovered and sound due to her previous help?  And I think any number of artists in any number of genres could feel like they are underrepresented in mass media.  Don't see easy answers, but if I'm Dick Cavett in the early 70's, I need to consider viewership to stay on the air.   ABC was not publicly funded non-profit PBS.  Something like PBS or the NEA seems like a more suitable area to make the appeal.  Just thinking out loud here, I don't have the answers, but at least this may spur more interesting posts from people who are a lot more informed than I am and have thought through this stuff a lot more than I have.  I haven't seen "I Called Him Morgan", am going from articles I have read the past few years.  Why did Helen Morgan get a very short jail sentence?  Looking forward to receiving more enlightenment through this thread.

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Think about the implications of "a group of musicians" trying to buy the Lighthouse...I don't think it was Shorty Rogers and Bud Shank, if you know what I mean...

In the context of the times, that would have very much been a part of the whole "self-determination" movement, as was Strata-East (or hell, Strata itself)...all kinds of things going on at the time.

25fbb96d4f72c904e51fa2fdf925f432.jpg

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19 hours ago, JSngry said:

Lee on CTI or George Butler Columbia? How many mobsters were managing him anyway?

If the answer is "0", then watch him move to Strata-East...what happens after that, given the ongoing evolution of that label's business model is anybody's guess and maybe doesn't end well. But you never know, and besides, what's done is done.

 

No, thinking more of Bruce Lundvall Columbia. Weirdly enough, Butler landed at Blue Note not long after Lee was killed. Maybe Lee would have been content to stay on that label as the 70s progressed... it is indeed all speculation. I can’t really see him hanging with a Strata East kinda route for very long, though, simply because of the economics of it. The Blue Note association seemingly gave him some level of subsistence (bare-bones as it most likely was) that he would have had a hard time sustaining IMO on Strata East. I don’t think Lee would have “sold out” in the way that Freddie Hubbard was perceived to have done in the late 70s (Super Blue and some other recordings to the contrary), but would have looked for the continuing relative security of a mainstream label relationship that didn’t attempt to constrain or redirect his musical intentions. So maybe that’s not CTI, though it’s intriguing to me to imagine what a Morgan CTI album might have sounded like. I also don’t know my Blue Note 1972-75 history as well as I should, but with Butler on board and the Mizzell brothers increasingly at the musical helm, would they have tried to push Lee in more of a Street Lady direction? I couldn’t really see him going for that. But it’s all my armchair-early50something-white guy conjecture circa 2020. OTOH what’s an Internet forum for anyway, fer crissake? :g

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12 minutes ago, JSngry said:

You'll find that Butler was onboard at Blue Note before Lee died...

R-4981651-1428147981-1514.jpeg.jpg

R-2409265-1457390459-8389.jpeg.jpg

Oops, my bad—though it’s also the bad of my sources, both Ben Ratliff’s 2008 NY Times obit for Butler and Butler’s Wiki entry, which each have him arriving at Blue Note in 1972. Since The Last Session was recorded in September 1971, I had assumed that precluded any Butler involvement. But... but... I read it on the Internets! :g

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Finding our exactly when Butler came on board is one of the many still-unresolved mysteries of Blue Note. It is amazing how little solid research has been done on the label considering its critical role in post-war jazz history. Lion was a very secretive person, which does not help, and canards perpetuated on the internet do not either. But there are some records few people have seen, including the session notes. And clearly there are some records of sales figures.

I am curious how George Butler and Duke Pearson split up their roles. Duke of course was still there up to 1974-1975. The often repeated claim that he left in 1971 after Wolff died was proved to be false earlier on this board. But it seems Butler edged him out of a lot of his duties...

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My understanding is that the Black Byrd concept was offered to Morgan prior to Byrd and he turned it down.  1972-1975 Blue Note was all over the place, so impossible to project what way Morgan's albums would have gone.  Hubbard's Columbia recordings are a better listen in retrospect than they were at the time, and some of them are quite good.

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Butler was a United Artists guy, seems like he was being "transitioned" (groomed"? to run Blue Note somehow. What if any input Wolff or Person had in that, I don't know.

But here he is on UA in 1970:

R-2108657-1301962183.jpeg.jpg

and on BN in 1971:

 

R-2601828-1466797048-9142.jpeg.jpg

R-666859-1355429523-1423.jpeg.jpg

The Mizells didn't get invoked at BN until late-1972, and there was no guarantee that was going to work as successfully as it did. Before that, though, here's what Blue Note was recording in 1971-1972 : https://www.jazzdisco.org/blue-note-records/discography-1971-1972/#720909

Of the stuff that was actually released at the time, Butler's name is on more of it than you might expect.

Lundvall didn't step up in a jazz way at Columbia until 1976, and let's just say that...a lot had changed between 1971-72 and 1976.

Now here's a salient point - at the time of Lee's death, what was his contract situation at Blue Note? Because if it was about to run out, and if he was in the right mood on any given day, I could totally see him bolting for a Strata-East type situation. I could also seeing that falling apart real quickly, or maybe never even getting of the ground at all. But the guy seemed to be really into the "self-determination" concept at least, and somebody like Clifford Jordan might well have been able to get his ear his ear. Also, Philly guys like the Heaths were in there, Sonny Fortune getting in there, for a quick minute, there were a lot of people getting in there.

A quick minute or two was all it ended up being, but Lee's apparent empathy to that movement should not be underestimated. He was still young, had been through a lot career-wise, and really was looking to do business with a different set of assumptions in place.

The other side of that coin, though, is that the business of Starta-East might well have been fraught with drama, ego, money games (like, how can we pay you when the distributors don't pay US, the usual rigged business system that made altruistic indie venture without a sustainable source of capital such an uphill battle/losing proposition ). In retrospect, the window the label had of releasing a large-ish amount of "name" product was a limited one - but that window synced up perfectly with the Lee Morgan of 1971-72.

Maybe, as with Coltrane, Lee's death was a real-time tragedy, but it also looks like maybe there was also no good place left to go.

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, bertrand said:

Finding our exactly when Butler came on board is one of the many still-unresolved mysteries of Blue Note. It is amazing how little solid research has been done on the label considering its critical role in post-war jazz history. Lion was a very secretive person, which does not help, and canards perpetuated on the internet do not either. But there are some records few people have seen, including the session notes. And clearly there are some records of sales figures.

I am curious how George Butler and Duke Pearson split up their roles. Duke of course was still there up to 1974-1975. The often repeated claim that he left in 1971 after Wolff died was proved to be false earlier on this board. But it seems Butler edged him out of a lot of his duties...

Well, lookie here!

R-1600033-1540719083-7125.jpeg.jpg

I'm telling you, this guy was corporate all the way.

https://books.google.com/books?id=rQoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=george+butler+minit&source=bl&ots=bzMTaSt7ip&sig=ACfU3U1jQfPq01iMcLv2DzutZxmBn6QPuA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiDwv3OmJjpAhUJTKwKHdj3A-YQ6AEwEHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=george%20butler%20minit&f=false

the-mighty-gospel-giants-let-there-be-pe

buster4.jpg

there's a precedent for the Butler/Ott collaborations. Here's another one:

R-6788097-1426628437-1138.jpeg.jpg

Now...Minit was originally a NOLA indie labeel that got bought by Imperial, who in turn got bought by Liberty as did BN), who in turn go bought by UA

I can't find anything with butler's name on it pre-Minit, and there only once the label had been brought under the UA umbrella.

I've seen allusions to Butler participating in the running of (and creation of!) Solid Sate records, but have seen nothing confirmed with hard proof. Maybe another one of those internet-only "truths"...

What's interesting, though is that Butler attended Howard, where Donald Byrd both studied law and, later, taught music. They were about a year apart in age, and nothing indicates that they were at the school together. But a good corporate man knows how to leverage alumni connections...and Byrd was also very much into Black Business power, and was not at all a street cat with the street instincts of Lee Morgan.

Maybe that explains all kinds of things?

 

 

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You bring it up a good point about contracts. How do we know the contract dates? If a rare tape shows up of a Lee concert, and Blue Note claims he was under contract at the time, how can they prove It? Even if it is sandwiched between two studio dates, that is not a guarantee. Those records probably exist in the Capitol vaults.

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I'm thinking that anything contractual, if it's archived at all on the corporate level, is going to be best found through legal.

Now, maybe, were there any "family archives"? If so, then. But does that seem likely here, at this point in time?

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On 5/4/2020 at 1:25 PM, JSngry said:

I'm thinking that anything contractual, if it's archived at all on the corporate level, is going to be best found through legal.

Now, maybe, were there any "family archives"? If so, then. But does that seem likely here, at this point in time?

His nephews actually have a lot of items, including a trumpet and flugelhorn, but maybe not contracts. I will try to find out.

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How many known existing copies of Blue Note contracts are there? I have no idea myself, never been the type of thing I'd be consciously aware of.

Another factor to that might be, ok, he got a deal and Sidewinder was a smash, so did he renegotiate his contract with BN right away (or they with him)? If so, for how long, and was it done in such a way that he never had to re-up with Liberty, then UA, then Transamerica? Were there options that kept getting picked up, things like that?

I have what I think is an OG copy of the LP, and the label is talking about UA, and the inner gatefold doesn't even mention BN, it all UA and then fine-printy a division of Transamerica/et. "Blue Note" is basically just a microscopic logo down in the corner of the front cover (and maybe elsewhere?).

If Helen was really handling all of his business, then Helen would most likely have had the papers, right up until the end, right? Is there any record of Lee actually retaining council? Becusae without being Captain Obvious, Helen's life kinda went into disarray there for a while.

Point just being, the longer you go into corporate ownership re-upping a contract, I'd think you'd need to engage legal if there was ever a dispute or a question about where the money was to rightly go. Because if there's "real money" involved, there's gonna be legal to have their say, period.

Of course, if nobody's worried about rightly, then hey...we all know where THAT money gonna go!

I would say to talk to Donald Byrd, Donald Byrd was ALL up inside the business of that label all through the transitions, but that's no longer an option. (said Captain Obvious). And the more the actual participants disappear, the more the lawyers are going to have their say about who owns what.

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