BeBop

I'm trying like h*lll to get there. Definitely want to catch Archie Shepp, Von Freeman and The Trio featuring Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis and Roscoe Mitchell. Interested in William Parker, Fred Anderson and Buddy DeFranco too. But realistically? Ain't a snowball's chance I can get even an hour off work. (They already took away all my '08 and '09 vacation time.) Sorry to piss and moan.

There's a group/assemblage known as 8-bit Operators that did send-ups of Kraftwerk songs. THAT's more musically satisfying, IMO. Here, it comes off as leaden. Maybe because Miles and Co. swung.

I remember that place too. (Gads, was it that long ago?!) And Rather Ripped Records, though I recall that came along later.

Link to Mag-ography of Jazz Magazine This doen't get to the level of detail that would show all the Nessa updates; they were usually part of the news from Chicago column.

Jazz Magazine seemed to have a Nessa News update every issue (among the six or so that I've pulled out so far): what's being recorded and issued and various interactions with Bob Koester and others. I think the usual writer was named Jerry DeMuth, though I don't have a copy of the magazine at-hand. Every time I come across one of these updates, I think "He was there...and he's still around".

HBD, SS!

Ugh. This is starting to small - and I do mean "smell" - like my Oldies/Concord Music Group sale thread.

Not that I remember.

Try here or here or here or here or here or here or here or here or here The first listed are most recent and probably most useful today.

http://www.secondspin.com/music/product-de....jsp?id=2696146 Trane "Interplay" (9 of them)

...and "9" Trane "Fearless Leaders" http://www.secondspin.com/music/product-de....jsp?id=2650161

http://www.secondspin.com/music/product-detail.jsp?id=896503 Still 3 copies of the Pepper out there. Use the coupon and it's dirt-cheap.

Now reporting "all gone"...though, if you're interested, I'd recommend trying again soon

Now reporting one left.

http://www.secondspin.com/music/product-detail.jsp?id=791423 Use coupon code: SSBIGAUGUST for 20% off your entire order and free shipping. Seller reports having two in stock (then again, that's what they said about the Art Pepper box, and I KNOW there were heaps of those sold.) As with the Oldies debacle, I assume no responsibility or liability. I've ordered from this outfit in the past (and visited their stores), so I don't have any reason to think this'll turn out to be a mess. But you're on your own. Post something here if the inventory is, in fact, depleted.

When I first came here, I had far too much money. Thanks, y'all.

Just a quick 'further thought' to give a little perspective on the CD collection at this library; not that long ago, I donated a bunch of CD jewel boxes/cases to replace the many that had cracked. None of those "long box" theft-resistant, hard plastic encasings at this library.

Ah, I see his perspective. The library I like to support recently re-opened after a long remodel/earthquake upgrade. In the past, it's been a pretty unsophisticated affair - no RFID readers or devices to detect books and other materials being removed from the premises. So CDs and VHS movies (no DVDs) remain in their original packaging, with an item number attached with scotch tape. Now, that may have changed. Thanks for the thoughts.

From Jazz Magazine, Summer 1978 By Jerry DeMuth Nessa Records Comes of Age A duke Ellington record brought home by his father, a job at Bob Koester’s Jazz Record Mart, an encounter with saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and a job loss that ended a ten-year career managing record stores. Those are, perhaps the key events that have gone into the making of Nessa Records, a small, Chicago-based all-jazz independent label. Begun eleven years ago by Charles (Chuck) Nessa, the label – whose releases range from the AACM avant garde to Ben Webster – in now a full-time operation, with an increasing number of releases (album number twelve is set for release this fall) and wider distribution. It’s a far different situation than existed in early 1975, when the entire Nessa catalog consisted of four releases, the most recent, a 1970 recording and the earliest an August 1967 recording, Lester Bowie’s “Numbers 1 & 2”. With the trumpeter plus saxophonists Mitchell and Joseph Jarman and bassist Malachi Favors, this was the first recording made by the Art Ensemble of Chicago. A year earlier, Nessa had recorded these and other AACM musicians for Delmark, albums that were the first vinyl representation of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians – Mitchell’s “Sound” (DS-408) and Jarman’s “Song For” (SD-410). “Those early Roscoe Mitchell albums are something I still try to measure up to with all my releases”, Nessa said. Nessa was in high school in and Iowa farm community, collecting Fats Domino and Little Richard records, when he received that Ellington record. “He gave me that records and said “I want you to hear this record once a week””, Nessa remembers. “I liked it and, within six months, I had 50 jazz records”. Nessa also traved to Des Moines, 40 miles to the south, to hear his fist live jazz – George Shearing. Then while in college at the University of Iowa, he often traveled west to Grinnell and east to Chicago to hear jazz, in addition to whatever he was able to catch on his own campus in Iowa City. Nessa moved to Chicago in 1966 and, with an interest in producing records, got in touch with Koester, who owns Delmark as well as the Jazz Record Mart. “I told Bob I would work running the record store if I could produce records,” Nessa said. “He agreed. I then went looking around for someone to record and I discovered the AACM.” “I didn’t quite understand their music,” he admitted, “but I could tell they knew what they were doing. I met Roscoe at the first concert I went to and within three weeks I worked out a contract for him to do an album for Delmark”. Mitchell referred Nessa to Jarman, who he also recorded for Delmark, and Nessa also signed Muhal Richard Abrams to the label, but left before the pianist did any recordings. “I had a personality conflict with Bob and I left but I had no intention of starting my own label”, Nessa explained. “A few months later, Roscoe said it was time to do another record. I said ‘I don’t do recording any more for Bob.’ He said “Then do it for yourself.” Thus Nessa Records was born, and Nessa did the Bowie album (Mitchell actually was the leader but he was under contract to Delmark so the trumpeter’s name was used), followed by “Congliptious” by the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble (Mitchell, Bowie, Favors and drummer Robert Crowder.) “Then I moved out of town,” said Nessa, who was then working for the Discoutn Records chain, for whom he was to manage stores in Bloomington, Ind. And then Madison, Wis, before being sent to Boston as regional manager for a dozen stores in New England and New York City. During that six-year period he released two Art Ensemble LPs (“People in Sorrow” and “Les Stances a Sohpie” with Fontella Bass), both from tapes made by the group. “All this time, I was getting deeper and deeper involved in my job with Discount Records and then on the day before Thanksgiving in 1974 I got fired,” he said. The Nessas returned to Iowa for two months and then in May they returned to Chicago. “I decided to try to make a go of the label,” Nessa said. Using what money was left from his severance check, he bought tapes for “Old Quartet” (N-5) with Mitchell, Bowie, Favors and drummer Phillip Wilson and the label was reborn and soon began expanding its musical base. Nessa and Terry Martin were spending Monday nights at the Enterprise Lounge on the South Side, listening to tenorist Von Freeman, father of AACM tenor saxist Chico Freeman and brother of guitarist George Freemen and drummer Bruz Freeman. “After five or six nights there I decided I wanted to make a record with Von and Terry introduced me to him,” Nessa said. Freeman’s “Have No Fear” (N-6) featured two Freeman group regulars – pianist John Young and bassist David Shipp – plus Wilbur Campbell, Nessa’s suggestion for taking over the drum chair that had been in a state of flux, Campbell was a good choice, reflecting Nessa’s keen ear as a producer, for the drummer drove Freeman to make his most inspired appearance on LP. That was followed by Warne Marsh’s “All Music” with Lou Levy on piano, Fred Atwood, bass, and Jake Hanna, drums, all members of Supersax, when the LP was recorded in February 1976. With these two albums, Nessa went back one generation from the AACM and with his nest release went back to still an earlier generation. Nessa was working for a classical distributing and recording firm at this time, HNH in suburban Evanston whose releases included classical reissues from a Spanish company, Discos Ensayo. A box of records they sent to HNH included a Ben Webster recording. “I took it home to listen to it and it was terrific,” Nessa said. “Ben plays so well – a combination of his romanticism with tight, concise modernism. I told the people at HNH and they said, “Why don’t you release it?” He did, as “Did You Call?” and a Lucky Thompson LP from the same source – “Lucky’s best album since the ‘fifties” will follow in the fall. In the meantime, Nessa also did a two-record Mitchell set, “Noonah”, the reed player’s strongest recorded work to date, cuts from concerts in Berkeley and Switzerland plus three Chicago studio dates with Abrahms, Jarman, Anthony Braxton, George Lewis and others, and also the first domestic album by Air (Henry Threadgill, reeds; Fred Hopkins, bass; Steve McCall, drums), a group Nessa had been trying to record for several years. Like Nessa’s other AACM productions, it’s a fine release. He has been able to bring out the strengths of these musicians and keep to a minimum their weak points – primarily a certain rambling, unstructured raggedness. “I’ll do my homework well before a record date,” he explained. “By the time we go in the studio, it will amount to filling in the outline already worked out. We’ll have a week of intense rehearsal before going into the studio. I want to leave as little to chance as possible.” Note from BeBop Sorry for typos and transcription errors; I’m a terrible typist and a worse proofreader. If use of this 31+ year old story from a long-defunct magazine runs afoul of any legal or ethical issues, please delete.

I (tried to?) cancel my order because of this. First, I really don't want to give an abused item as a gift - even to a library - and second, NO MORE VIOLENCE even against jewel cases. Don't be silly - you wanted to give a $5 item to a library and the cut would shame you? The library will deface it many ways and you would deprive the library of a nice bunch of music. I had most of the music in the Stitt box and never pulled the $30 trigger. For $5 I can live with the mark. If they insist on sending you the "abused" set, send it to me, I'll give you a dollar bonus and give it to my library. Actually, the question is not about whether to donate to the library, but WHAT to donate. My intention is to donate a good condition, non-abused Stitt's Bits. I'm something of a believer in the 'broken windows' theory. To place abused items in a library - wherever the abuse came from - only encourages (or "permits"?) abuse of other library materials. I've recently seen copies of SB at (blanking out on the name - independent shop in Denver, big, just down from Second Spin) and Record City in Las Vegas for around $10. Buy from a local shop, support the busines and still "do right" by the library. I'd originally gone for the Oldies deal because I'd never received "abused" merchandise from them before.

I (tried to?) cancel my order because of this. First, I really don't want to give an abused item as a gift - even to a library - and second, NO MORE VIOLENCE even against jewel cases.

Is s/he still around here? Happy Birthday!

Hear hear!

40% Off One of Anything thru 9 August Exclusions apply. Brick and Mortar only. Just curious: excludes vinyl LPs. Does YOUR Borders sell LPs?

Hey, I speak for myself: Happy Birthday, Lon!