Rabshakeh

Thanks. This is interesting. It's a shame there's never going to be a book covering what happened to the jazz indies as a group, from a position that is neither discological nor just a hagiography for one particular label. It's an interesting story that contains a lot of the actual facts that lie behind the more visible events that were going on at the time. At a certain point, probably late 80s, it felt like the Blue Note legacy became marketable. There were suddenly all sorts of hip hop tie ins and coffee table books. I presume that wasn't a natural organic development, and it reflected a concerted but quite far sighted marketing campaign (at least, that's how I saw it as a 14 year old in the mid-90s). But it is still hard for me to imagine a time before Blue Note has its current "aura", and was just another name on a list of past acquisitions that had proved not to have long term prospects.

Even worse

Yes! That's exactly it. Grim.

This is great. Thank you. I love the write ups too.

Anything with vibrant dancing stick men or naive cartoons.

Tony Scott - Golden Moments (Muse, 1982)

What would inoculations have been like then? I imagine the needles were just big glass straws. And it was before germ theory, so one can only hope they at least wiped them down in between jabs.

Anyway, can we all agree at least that the Verve reissue series in the 1990s was the absolute pits? Everything looks designed to be sold over the counter at Starbucks, in the 90s.

HutchFan, you’ve been listening to a lot of Moody recently, and I remember him showing on your Playing Favorites blog too. If you had to take three James Moody albums to your desert island, which would they be? I’m a big flute fan, but I don’t really know his work. I’ve spent a while in the last few days trying to track them down but to no avail. I a vintage record collector’s list (@rostasi mentioned the Nurse With Wound one earlier in the week; the slightly queasy Thurston Moore one is another). I see that the EFI Sheffield page used to link to it, but the link’s now down.

My biggest takeaway from this thread is that 90s/00s Blue Note needed to get a better graphics team. I could do a better impression of Reid Miles cover artwork using the filters on my phone. My other takeaway is why on earth is there not already a “Blue Note” filter on my phone? It would give my family snaps of the kids eating fish fingers and granddad sleeping on the beach that ineffable look of mid century cool. Come on guys, it’s licensing/tie in time. Get monetising. Finally, a question that probably answers itself: why don’t other corporate legacy rights owners take the same approach? Prestige, Contemporary, Pacific and Argo all had their unique own looks too, even if Argo’s was just ‘Men in a room play some jazz’. Obviously, they don’t have the archives, and, unlike Blue Note, there’s no brand awareness and no one gives a single solitary, but it would still be entertaining.

I’m a great fan of San Francisco. It’s one of the records I listen to most. Linger Lane much less so.

Mario Schiano - De Dé (Splasch)

Thanks

LT was all about just trying to get out alive before the bloodhounds got the scent and the bullets started flying. What are these comments a reference to? Not asking to be arch. I genuinely don't know the history.

Sounds like Verve is reissuing Alan Shorter's Orgasm, on gold vinyl for some reason.

Flightily?

I am interested if anyone has a copy. I have tried to find it on the internet but without success. The Gustafsson / Discaholics auction lists, which I now see are based on this one, I have found to be a good source of obscure records that, even if I'll never own them, are interesting to hear.

Sorry! I got enthusiastic because of this thread. I certainly didn't mean to distract from this one!

Interesting. Will review post work.

More recruits. We'll have a whole jazz police squadron soon.

And before that I was listening to Lem's Beat by Lem Winchester - another record I didn't know until recently. My two main take aways from this are: (1) Oliver Nelson actually plays some good solos here (far better I think than on B&tAT, but maybe he's drowned out by the company there); and (2) it's weird that I'd never heard of Lem Winchester: is he the only recorded example of the real life Jazz Police? Oh gosh. What an anniversary.

Helmut Brandt Combo - Berlin Calling A comp of tracks from Germany in the 1950s. Another excellent recommendation from the jazz modernism in Europe thread. There really are some great ideas and great playing on this one. Mostly in an "early cool" style not far off the Miles Davis Nonet or the Mulligan Quartet (there's a lot of variety).

Arthur Blythe - Illusions (Columbia)

That track isn't mentioned enough in the context of either Stitt or Rollins or battles in general. We've all heard battle tracks, but 'Eternal Triangle' is the sort of moment that should be given a paragraph in your obituary notice, no matter what your other achievements.

Miguel Zenon - Law Years: The Music of Ornette Coleman (2021) It has been love at first site with me on this one. Recommended for non-free fans too. It really has a classic bebop feel to it.