More Keepnews reissues

[montg]

Released Sept 11. (apologies if these have been mentioned elsewhere)

clark terry seranade to a bus seat

george russell ezz thetics

mccoy tyner horizon

sonny rollins sound of sonny

monk at town hall

Other upcoming reissues

concord upcoming releases

Edited September 6, 2007 by montg

[Big Al]

Gotta admit, I'm happy that there's nothing in the list of Keepnews issues that hasn't already been re-released umpteen million times. For that alone, this is a good set of reissues (although none really interest me personally).

Edited September 6, 2007 by Big Al

[Claude]

So now they are reissuing on CD the 1970's 2LP reissues (consisting of 2 original albums most of the time)? Who is supposed to buy them, when the original albums are available with the original artwork and with bonus tracks from the same session?

[montg]

Has the Tyner session been out before? That's the one out of the Keepnews batch that interests me.

[Claude]

Apparently not. AMG only lists the LP and the new CD.

http://wc03.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&...10:gxfrxq8gldje

Edited September 6, 2007 by Claude

[Big Al]

Other upcoming reissues

concord upcoming releases

Y'know, on the one hand, that's pretty cool that they're releasing those old 2-fers on one CD. I'm guessing the sound will be the usual 20-bit mastering & all that.

OTOH, some of those titles are either:

a) redundant (the Coltrane 2-fer, which is already out in the Concord/Prestige RVG series as Soultrane and Traneing In, not to mention the Trane Fearless Leader box, the OJC, etc etc etc; the Griffin is also readily available in more complete form on the OJC's Thelonious in Action and Misterioso)

or

b) lacking (the necessity of the bonus tracks from the Burrell All Day/Night Long sessions, which are easily available on the OJCs, cannot be overstated enough. It also looks as though a track or two has been left off of the Parker 2-fer (according to the jazzdisco.org site), but that may be due to duplication of titles. I'm not sure, having never heard the album. The Miles leaves off "My Old Flame" from the Dig session that was originally on the 2-LP set).

That said, I still think this is a cool thing Concord is doing. I mean, it sure beats another issue of "Trane for Lovers" or some such crap. For those of us who value quantity for the price paid, you really can't beat these deals.

[felser]

Other upcoming reissues

concord upcoming releases

Y'know, on the one hand, that's pretty cool that they're releasing those old 2-fers on one CD. I'm guessing the sound will be the usual 20-bit mastering & all that.

OTOH, some of those titles are either:

a) redundant (the Coltrane 2-fer, which is already out in the Concord/Prestige RVG series as Soultrane and Traneing In, not to mention the Trane Fearless Leader box, the OJC, etc etc etc; the Griffin is also readily available in more complete form on the OJC's Thelonious in Action and Misterioso)

or

b) lacking (the necessity of the bonus tracks from the Burrell All Day/Night Long sessions, which are easily available on the OJCs, cannot be overstated enough. It also looks as though a track or two has been left off of the Parker 2-fer (according to the jazzdisco.org site), but that may be due to duplication of titles. I'm not sure, having never heard the album. The Miles leaves off "My Old Flame" from the Dig session that was originally on the 2-LP set).

That said, I still think this is a cool thing Concord is doing. I mean, it sure beats another issue of "Trane for Lovers" or some such crap. For those of us who value quantity for the price paid, you really can't beat these deals.

Beware on those twofers. I bought a bunch of them when I first got into jazz in the early 70's. Two caveat emptors. Some of them just cherrypicked cuts from several different session. Also, in some cases on the CD's, as mentioned, they have deleted a cut or two from the original albums to make everthing fit on one disc. They did that on the Hank Mobley twofer which came out several years ago, and on the Gary Bartz Harlem Bush Music twofer (though they picked the right cut to delete in that case).

[jazzbo]

I'll say one thing about the Keepnews series: the sound is awesome! (I even prefer the sound to K2 and DCC versions of some titles I've heard). For that reason I may get the Town Hall and maybe the Clark Terry, because those are albums I really dig. . . and the improved sound would be cool!

[mikeweil]

Those twofers were a mixed bag. Some were straight releases of two complete albums, in a few cases with bonus tracks, some were compilations with the effect you had no session complete.

Some, like the Wes Montgomery Pretty Blue, were even weirder: one straight LP plus bonus tracks (the strings album) plus the ballad type selections from all organ LPs. (Keepnews even had exchanged one master take from the Bags meets Wes LP when he prepared the twofer LP ....).

This only shows that the people now in charge don't really know what they have and pick old master tapes by rather doubtful criteria.

I will get the Clark Terry as this is the one I don't have. At least Keepnews knows his stuff, although he has taken some weird decissions over the years when preparing reissues.

Edited September 6, 2007 by mikeweil

[mikeweil]

I took a closer look at some:

The Kenny Burrell All Day Long & All Night Long reissues the two LPs straight - the OJC CDs had two long bonus tracks.

The Pre-Rahsaan is the recently RVG'd Funk Underneath plus the Jaki Byard Experience still available as OJC.

The Getz/Tjader I still have on LP: The collaboration Fantasy LP which is out as a superior sounding SACD, and several leftovers from Getz early Prestige sessions.

If I go on I might go wild: What are they thinking? Or rather, the same confusion as in Universal's jazz reissue department. Oh my God!!! Not to think about what tapes they use for the remastering .....

All of these have been available in some form, some in better compilations, few in worse, but this looks like trying to take it all back to the time when Fantasy entered its first path of glory as a jazz reissue label. That's not the way to do it, gentlemen!

Edited September 6, 2007 by mikeweil

[mikeweil]

george russell ezz thetics

If you click on the George Russell on the Concord site you get the new Keepnews Collection offered at $ 11.98, while the list of other releases by that artist on the side shows the OJC CD reissue at the same price, reduced to $ 8.98 - now what do they expect you to buy? Okay, you pay 3 $ for two bonus tracks and remastering .....

Edited September 6, 2007 by mikeweil

[paul secor]

george russell ezz thetics

If you click on the George Russell on the Concord site you get the new Keepnews Collection offered at $ 11.98, while the list of other releases by that artist on the side shows the OJC CD reissue at the same price, reduced to $ 8.98 - now what do they expect you to buy? Okay, you pay 3 $ for two bonus tracks and remastering .....

I'm confused - not all that unusual. Do the two takes of "Kige's Tune" come from the Ezzthetics session? "Kige's Tune" was recorded on the Stratus Seekers session eight months later. Did they record it earlier also? Either way, I'm getting this - I love all of Russell's bands from this period. And if the bonus cuts are with the Dolphy band, all the better.

[Big Al]

I took a closer look at some:

The Kenny Burrell All Day Long & All Night Long reissues the two LPs straight - the OJC CDs had two long bonus tracks.

The Pre-Rahsaan is the recently RVG'd Funk Underneath plus the Jaki Byard Experience still available as OJC.

The Getz/Tjader I still have on LP: The collaboration Fantasy LP which is out as a superior sounding SACD, and several leftovers from Getz early Prestige sessions.

If I go on I might go wild: What are they thinking? Or rather, the same confusion as in Universal's jazz reissue department. Oh my God!!! Not to think about what tapes they use for the remastering .....

All of these have been available in some form, some in better compilations, few in worse, but this looks like trying to take it all back to the time when Fantasy entered its first path of glory as a jazz reissue label. That's not the way to do it, gentlemen!

Agree for the most part; I just wish Concord would indicate on their website why they're doing this, what tapes are being used, etc. Are they only going to release the 2-fers that will fit nicely on a single CD? What gives? That's the problem with all of this speculation is that is all it is: speculation!

But you may be onto something: maybe Concord really is trying to retrace Fantasy's first steps. Oy!

[Big Al]

BTW, is there a complete list of the Fantasy, Milestone, and Prestige 2-LP sets somewhere? The jazzdisco site has the list of Prestiges, but that's it.

[BruceH]

I've been thinking about getting the Monk At Town Hall on CD for a long time.

[DMP]

I'm probbly the only person here who feels this way, but I've actually bought a couple of the "Keepnews" titles for his liner notes!! (I know, self-centered, blowing his own horn, but usually a couple interesting stories.)

[Big Al]

I'm probbly the only person here who feels this way, but I've actually bought a couple of the "Keepnews" titles for his liner notes!! (I know, self-centered, blowing his own horn, but usually a couple interesting stories.)

FWIW, I thought his extended notes to Jimmy Heath's REALLY BIG were more heartwarming than I was expecting.

[Kyo]

I'm probbly the only person here who feels this way, but I've actually bought a couple of the "Keepnews" titles for his liner notes!! (I know, self-centered, blowing his own horn, but usually a couple interesting stories.)

I haven't bought any yet (got all the old editions or box sets so far), but I really like his liner notes most of the time.

So what if he's congratulating himself for producing some of those sessions or giving some of those artists exposure -

he's damn right to do so. Especially seeing how he pushed guys like Monk or McCoy into unusual environments

(often with very interesting results) that would probably not have happened with other record labels.

I'm glad to see that the McCoy Tyner album will finally be released, I think it's the last of

his Milestone albums that hasn't been on CD yet. I hope Sonny Rollins - Reel Life will be next!

[Cliff Englewood]

DMP, if you really are buying some of these purely for the liners, you need to put down the Crack Pipe, or at least take a break for a while. Also, in the notes to "Really Big" he goes on for ages about how HE came up with the title, like it was the be all and end all of the whole project, and how it was borrowed from Ed Sullivan, who apparently was really popular at one time, I'm under 40 and I live in Ireland and even I knew that.

It's still a neck and neck race between him and good old Ira for most pointless liner notes...........EVER. :rolleyes:

[Big Al]

It's still a neck and neck race between him and good old Ira for most pointless liner notes...........EVER. :rolleyes:

Are you kidding? They're ahead of Leonard Feather???? When did that happen?

[paul secor]

It's still a neck and neck race between him and good old Ira for most pointless liner notes...........EVER. :rolleyes:

Are you kidding? They're ahead of Leonard Feather???? When did that happen?

I think it's a given that everyone is ahead of Leonard Feather.

[mikeweil]

No matter how one looks at Keepnews uncureable tendency for self-promotion, I'm grateful for the records he produced - we would be a lot poorer without them.

We're all only human - I guess as a record producer you got to have some personality trait of that kind to survive in the business.

Edited September 7, 2007 by mikeweil

[Big Al]

I listened to clips of SERENADE last night. Looks like that'll be a good one to get! I didn't realize it had Johnny Griffin, along with the rhythm section of Kelly-Chambers-Philly Joe!

[Kyo]

It's still a neck and neck race between him and good old Ira for most pointless liner notes...........EVER. :rolleyes:

Heh... While I like Keepnews' work, Gitler's liner notes make me want to break things. The funny thing

is that while he might have been short on time back when he wrote some of the original notes, the

new ones that come with the Prestige RVGs are usually just as pointless. Ain't nobody like Ira...

[Cliff Englewood]

Heh... While I like Keepnews' work, Gitler's liner notes make me want to break things.

I give a hearty "AMEN" to the later half of this sentence.

The thing I think is most reveling about the Keepnews notes in this series and others before the series is that he seems to have had more dumb luck than a Lottery winner throughout his career. In the notes for “Really Big” he claims he didn’t even know most of the musicians that ended up on the album were going to be at the session and then kinda takes credit for making the thing happen at the same time.

I’m not against the guy being proud of being involved in some great music during Jazz’s so called classic years, but come on, a lot of it, if not most of it, would have happened without him anyway. For example there is no way Monk would have continued to be ignored for the whole of his career, when so many musicians rated him so highly during the 50's, and he only really "made it" when he went to Columbia.