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Mainstream Records


Head Man

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According to Wikipidia the Mainstream Records back catalogue was sold to Legacy Records (part of Sony)in 1993.

There are some tasty looking albums in the catalogue:

Mainstream Records Discography

some, (or all?) of which have appeared as Japanese reissues on P-Vine.

Does anyone know whether any of them ever came out as domestic releases on Legacy/Sony or if there are plans to release them as such in the future?

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Can't answer your specific question re cd releases, but there are quite a few Mainstream titles available for online listening on Spotify. They appear to be mostly listed as "copyright <year> Mainstream Records," which is different than most of the Sony titles I have seen. Those are listed as "copyright <year> Sony Music Entertainment." I would guess that most of the ones on Spotify are there because they were reissued on CD at some point.

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According to Wikipidia the Mainstream Records back catalogue was sold to Legacy Records (part of Sony)in 1993.

There are some tasty looking albums in the catalogue:

Mainstream Records Discography

some, (or all?) of which have appeared as Japanese reissues on P-Vine.

Does anyone know whether any of them ever came out as domestic releases on Legacy/Sony or if there are plans to release them as such in the future?

I came across this compilation from Ace records (UK) which contains tracks by various artists from the Mainstream roster:

Mainstream Jazz Compilation

There's also one containing tracks by soul and jazz artists:

Mainstream Soul/Jazz Compilation

Both look tasty!

I've e-mailed Ace to ask whether they intend re-issuing any complete jazz and/or soul albums from the Mainstream catalogue.

Edited by Head Man
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I'll go out on a limb and say that Maynard's Color Him Wild is a masterpiece within its own world. If I'm only having one Maynard (and I more or less am), this is the one.

As faar as Hadley's work goes, the first Mainstream album was...eh... but Iapetus...I continue to represent for Iapetus.

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Looking at the discography I'm astonished that so little of it has been re-issued on CD in the US and Europe. Even the Japanese re-issues are difficult to get hold of. Does anyone know why this is? Who owns the re-issue rights? BTW I've heard nothing back from Ace re my query about possible future releases by them.

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Looking at the discography I'm astonished that so little of it has been re-issued on CD in the US and Europe. Even the Japanese re-issues are difficult to get hold of. Does anyone know why this is? Who owns the re-issue rights? BTW I've heard nothing back from Ace re my query about possible future releases by them.

I wonder if there is enough Blue Mitchell or Harold Land stuff on Mainstream to make a Mosaic Select? Wondering too if there would be interest in it if there was.

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Part of my issue with Mainstream was always the horrible engineering -- the rubbery bass recorded direct and far too upfront in the mix, with drums, especially cymbals, too far in the back and dead sounding and the whole ensembles frequently a muddy mess. The '70s -- a horrible decade for fashion and recorded sound. That said, at least two of the three Charles McPherson records have some nice playing with interesting writing by Ernie Wilkins: "Siku Ya Bibi," ballad album with strings dedicated to Billie Holiday; and "Today's Man" with a seven piece horn section. On the later there's a quartet version of "Stranger in Paradise" on which Charles turns in one of the truly spectacular recorded bebop solos of the decade -- inspired melodies and phrasing, beautiful flow of rhythm, singing sound, shadowed perfectly by Barry Harris' piano. Nothing else on the record is at this level, however, and the sound of Billy Higgins' drums and Lawrence Evans' bass brings tears (of sorrow) to my eyes.

I also like the two Hal Galper records, "Inner Journey," an acoustic trio with Dave Holland and Bill Goodwin, and "The Guerilla Band" with the Brecker Bros, two drummers, electric piano and bass and guitar. The latter is a very creative example of the zeigeist mix of the early '70s that married modal post-bop improvising and textural jazz rock. I'd love to hear this remastered to get some clarity into the presentation. Galps is always great -- loose, fearless, messy in the best sense, with a sense of adventure grounded by the discipline that comes from having done your homework. Very underrated musician -- still is.

Edited by Mark Stryker
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Part of my issue with Mainstream was always the horrible engineering...

Definitely.

But what's up with this? Mainstream made its debut in the 1960s, then seemed to go kinda quiet for a while, then came back with that new look (and bad engineering) in the early 70s. What caused to off time? Or am I wrong about that?

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Part of my issue with Mainstream was always the horrible engineering...

Definitely.

But what's up with this? Mainstream made its debut in the 1960s, then seemed to go kinda quiet for a while, then came back with that new look (and bad engineering) in the early 70s. What caused to off time? Or am I wrong about that?

Discogs doesn't show much of a gap, if any , from the 60s into the 70s for Mainstream, although the 70s were clearly the heyday for the label.

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Part of my issue with Mainstream was always the horrible engineering...

Definitely.

But what's up with this? Mainstream made its debut in the 1960s, then seemed to go kinda quiet for a while, then came back with that new look (and bad engineering) in the early 70s. What caused to off time? Or am I wrong about that?

Discogs doesn't show much of a gap, if any , from the 60s into the 70s for Mainstream, although the 70s were clearly the heyday for the label.

I found this http://www.bsnpubs.com/new/mainstream.pdf which is as likely complete as can be...looks like 1969 was the only really "off" year, the only release being a Best Of for the Amboy Dukes (just think - both Ted Nugent & Janis Joplin recorded for Mainstream!).

What this also reveals, and was the basis of my impression, was that the label had a rather lengthy gap where there was no jazz activity, not really coming back to the fore until 1971. So that's what I'm wondering what the story is... how Shad went from jazz record producer to all this other stuff and then back to jazz.

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Sony bought Mainstream because it released the first Big Brother and the Holding Company album, and Columbia wanted to add it to their Janis properties. They pretty much ignored the catalog except for repackaging some Sarah Vaughan & Carmen McRae albums (both were at their peak during those years). It appears that some titles have been released through the Japanese P-Vine label. I love Charles McPherson's Today's Man, with great Ernie Wilkins charts.

That stuff was first released on Time, iirc, Shad's label before Mainstream.

IIRC, Mainstream had a "Time Series" for rereleases of Time material.

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I imagine most people at Sony don't even *know* they own it. Still, Mosaic has been busy with Sony-owned material, so maybe we'll see some Mosaic Mainstream sets down the line. That would be nice. They could do a Sarah Vaughan box, maybe a Maynard Ferguson one.

gregmo

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I imagine most people at Sony don't even *know* they own it. Still, Mosaic has been busy with Sony-owned material, so maybe we'll see some Mosaic Mainstream sets down the line. That would be nice. They could do a Sarah Vaughan box, maybe a Maynard Ferguson one.

gregmo

In almost the same vein as Mainstream, how about Cameo (or Cameo/Parkway) for a couple of fine Maynard Ferguson albums... Were there other jazz releases on that label?

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I imagine most people at Sony don't even *know* they own it. Still, Mosaic has been busy with Sony-owned material, so maybe we'll see some Mosaic Mainstream sets down the line. That would be nice. They could do a Sarah Vaughan box, maybe a Maynard Ferguson one.

gregmo

In almost the same vein as Mainstream, how about Cameo (or Cameo/Parkway) for a couple of fine Maynard Ferguson albums... Were there other jazz releases on that label?

There were a couple of Clark Terry releases on Cameo:

1364730.jpg?427

and

l06993orp6x.jpg

Edited by paul secor
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I imagine most people at Sony don't even *know* they own it. Still, Mosaic has been busy with Sony-owned material, so maybe we'll see some Mosaic Mainstream sets down the line. That would be nice. They could do a Sarah Vaughan box, maybe a Maynard Ferguson one.

gregmo

In almost the same vein as Mainstream, how about Cameo (or Cameo/Parkway) for a couple of fine Maynard Ferguson albums... Were there other jazz releases on that label?

There were a couple of Clark Terry releases on Cameo:

1364730.jpg?427

and

clark-terry-sextet-octet-ben-webster-cd-cover-art.jpg

Thanks! I even have the second one...forgot the label.

Edited by Ted O'Reilly
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Yeah, I once had that Clark Terry LP with Ted's image of the cover. :tup

Both the CT records have cover pictures from the same photo session, obviously. Geez, they could have asked him to bring a different shirt and take off the hat so they didn't look so cheap! "Let's just grab another pic -- no point in hiring a photograper again..." :smirk:

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