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Jackie McLean's Post-1975 Recordings (All Labels)


Mark Stryker

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... maybe I was a little stoned at the time ...

What were the odds?

Upon further review, it was 1980, so the odds were better than 50-50.

I recall the time on Board Krypton, somebody asked tomatbluenote, hey, these recent Jackie McLean Blue Note records have been great, when's the next one, and tomat, honest man that he was/is, had to say, well, they're not really blue Note, they're leased from Japan, and you now, we'd love to have the money to make Jackie McLean records from now until infinity but we don't, and we're not, and that was that.

Honest answer, and reflective of the reality, but if Jackie developed sort of a detached protectiveness about playing being all he did to define himself, well hey, no money for no records, c'est la vie, am I going to be the one to say, oh Jackie, no, don't do that? No, I'm not.

Having a casual/random listen to Nature Boy right now, and that's just a sweet record, the kind of thing that has no real "moment", yet leaves the cumulative effect of wow, that's deep. Jackie, Cedar, Billy, and that kid, David Williams, "sound of surprise" my ass, this is the sound of, like Donny Hathaway said (through the pen of Leon Ware), there's no need to look, cause you know who's there.

Not that I don't value the sound of surprise, hell, yes, I do, but I Know It's You is of no small importance as well. At some point, the shift of investment moves from music in the abstract to the ongoing-ment voices of the people. "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes", damn, that's pure I Know It's You, and if it's not my baby's arms having been around me a long time, it IS Jackie/Cedar/Billy's voices, they too have been around me a long time, and they too have passed the test, through the good and the bad, and THIS is why I want to post...

ok, I gave up (or in ?) and will play :

be6f79564e.jpg

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I recall the time on Board Krypton, somebody asked tomatbluenote, hey, these recent Jackie McLean Blue Note records have been great, when's the next one, and tomat, honest man that he was/is, had to say, well, they're not really blue Note, they're leased from Japan, and you now, we'd love to have the money to make Jackie McLean records from now until infinity but we don't, and we're not, and that was that.

Which reminds me of the time I saw Jackie and asked him about his old Blue Note recordings and if he was still making money off of them. His rather bitter answer was that he never made any money off of them. He sounded pretty peeved and he wasn't joking. I was very surprised when I saw those latter day Blue Notes after talking to him about it.

Of course, none of this explains that date he did with McCoy Tyner ("It's About Time") for Blue Note. Maybe they paid him enough to make it worth his while?

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I know I perhaps hi-jacked my own thread by posing the question of which two records would grab out of your burning house -- but I've avoided answering myself because it's so damn hard. Almost positive that one of them would be "One Step Beyond." But choosing the second one, whew .... I mean, I want Swing, Swang, Swingin', "Bluesnik," the bebop half of "Hipnosis," "Jacknife" and, to put my money where my mouth has been, "Dynasty."

Shoulda said you could take three ...

Or five and a half...

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I recall the time on Board Krypton, somebody asked tomatbluenote, hey, these recent Jackie McLean Blue Note records have been great, when's the next one, and tomat, honest man that he was/is, had to say, well, they're not really blue Note, they're leased from Japan, and you now, we'd love to have the money to make Jackie McLean records from now until infinity but we don't, and we're not, and that was that.

Which reminds me of the time I saw Jackie and asked him about his old Blue Note recordings and if he was still making money off of them. His rather bitter answer was that he never made any money off of them. He sounded pretty peeved and he wasn't joking. I was very surprised when I saw those latter day Blue Notes after talking to him about it.

Of course, none of this explains that date he did with McCoy Tyner ("It's About Time") for Blue Note. Maybe they paid him enough to make it worth his while?

Other people know this better than I do, but wasn't the practice to pay an advance, which was offset against earnings, and also charge all studio costs, also offset, and perhaps also the fixed fees paid to the other musicians, with the result that there were usually never any net earnings beyond the initial advance?

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I recall the time on Board Krypton, somebody asked tomatbluenote, hey, these recent Jackie McLean Blue Note records have been great, when's the next one, and tomat, honest man that he was/is, had to say, well, they're not really blue Note, they're leased from Japan, and you now, we'd love to have the money to make Jackie McLean records from now until infinity but we don't, and we're not, and that was that.

Which reminds me of the time I saw Jackie and asked him about his old Blue Note recordings and if he was still making money off of them. His rather bitter answer was that he never made any money off of them. He sounded pretty peeved and he wasn't joking. I was very surprised when I saw those latter day Blue Notes after talking to him about it.

Of course, none of this explains that date he did with McCoy Tyner ("It's About Time") for Blue Note. Maybe they paid him enough to make it worth his while?

Other people know this better than I do, but wasn't the practice to pay an advance, which was offset against earnings, and also charge all studio costs, also offset, and perhaps also the fixed fees paid to the other musicians, with the result that there were usually never any net earnings beyond the initial advance?

I thought the leaders got double scale but no royalties for those Blue Notes. Chuck would know for sure.

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I have no idea about that, but I do know that Schiltten, to his eternal credit. changed the deal at Xanadu to an equal split on costs which allowed the musicians to earn fairly quickly. But then, his stuff sold next to nothing.

I read a story that said when Bruce Lundvall took over at Blue Note, he retroactively changed all the old deals to give royalties to old Blue Note recording artists. I imagine Jackie got something by then. Maybe that's why he made that date with McCoy? But I know that the concert I talked to him at was long after Lundvall took over Blue Note so it still doesn't explain his disdain for the deals he signed back in the day.

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