Jazz on 8-track--did you ever have any?

[ghost of miles]

OK, as a kid I had an 8-track tape player and owned several dozen titles--mostly rock, Led Zeppelin, Boston, the Ramones, etc. The technology changed way before I ever got into jazz, but I found myself wondering the other day if any fellow board members ever had, say, KIND OF BLUE on 8-track, and if they, too, hated how numbers would "segue" from one channel to another. In any case, here's one I found on the web:

Notes by Malcolm Riviera:

This month we're featuring a cart by my favorite jazz artist: John Coltrane. Tons of killer jazz was released on 8-tracks, but we've never really given it much mention here in 8-TH. From what I can tell, almost every significant jazz artist from the 50's, 60's and 70's have large numbers of releases on 8-track, including lots of Miles Davis, Yuseff Lateef, Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespe, and even Sun Ra. For more modern sounds, everything from Chick Corea's Return to Forever to the Mahavishnu Orchestra is pretty easy to find on cart format.

The great thing about jazz on 8-track is that I can put on one tape and listen to it for hours; it's just really well-suited to the endless loop format. Lots of jazz ended up in the cutout bins due to low sales, and one musician buddy of mine said that's how he learned about jazz in the 70's, from all the cheapo 8-tracks he bought at Woolworths. It was easy to take a chance on those 2 for a dollar close-out specials! I've found it a great way to fill the gaps in my vinyl & CD jazz collection without dropping the hundreds of dollars it would take to fill my wish list. Plus recently I'm discovering great jazz albums I've never heard before: Prince Lasha & Sonny Simmons "Firebirds," Alice Coltrane & Carlos Santana "Illuminations," Art Farmer "Crawl Space," John Abercrombie "Gateway," and even the 8-track of the Moment was new to me. My point here is that once again, 8-tracks are providing me with an influx of previously unheard music at a bargain price!

Edited January 28, 2004 by ghost of miles

[JSngry]

I had some jazz 8-tracks in the late 70s. Some even still play, I think, maybe. ON THE CORNER, SWISS MOVEMENT, i don't rembember what all. IMPULSE! ws distributed ny GRT (sic, not GRP, although they were later) at one time, and they purged 8-tracks, and later, cassettes, in a major way.

If obsolete formats don't bother you, the various format and label purges that end up in cutout bins, or used to, used to be essential ports of call for anybody looking to build a collection.

Edited January 29, 2004 by JSngry

[mmilovan]

Notes by Malcolm Riviera:

From what I can tell, almost every significant jazz artist from the 50's, 60's and 70's have large numbers of releases on 8-track, including lots of Miles Davis, Yuseff Lateef, Charlie Parker

Yes, Charlie Parker from Birdland on 8 track!

Edited January 29, 2004 by mmilovan

[Chuck Nessa]

I missed all this stuff. 45s, lps, reel-to-reel, 78s, cassette deck (1979), etc - thats me. I missed the cartridge era.

Now we be into exabites.

[mikeweil]

I used to read through a copy of Billnboard every now and then, step over the 8-track charts and think "What the heck is this?" This format never was available in Europe, only in the US shops reserved for US citizens. An American friend of mine had some interesting titles and I was mad I couldn't play them - he couldn't lend his machine to me.

[Tom in RI]

I don't miss 8-tracks at all (remember them well). As noted by Jim Sangrey above, I really miss cutout bins. Used to be that you could score major league at department stores, and for cheap if you were willing to flip through a lot of dross to get to the good stuff. If I only knew then....

From what I gather from a friend in music retail, his cutout suppliers just don't get much anymore. I guess cutouts and overstock all go to places like Bershire Music ect.

[jazzbo]

Man, I had On the Corner on 8-track too and there were some CRAZY ride arounds of back roads goin' on with that.

Also had Roland Kirk's "Domino".

[clifford_thornton]

A buddy of mine has the Chris McGregor "Brotherhood of Breath" on Neon 8-track. Needless to say, it hurts my feelings...

[Jim R]

With my memory, there's no way I can remember all the 8-track tapes I had (and there weren't really very many ). I know I had a few by The Crusaders (Crusaders 1, Southern Comfort, Scratch). I think I had Swiss Movement too. There were others (contemporary stuff of the early 70's... no older stuff), but I didn't have a lot of stuff at the time that I would call jazz (even if some was jazz-influenced, like Tower of Power for example).

I just had to dig this up- a photo of the home component I had (also had a unit in the glove compartment of old Corolla B) ). My best friend bought one of these (fairly high end at the time, I think), and I of course had to have one too:

[Jim R]

BTW, I still have one 8-track tape- a Robert Cray radio broadcast that I recorded using the machine above. I transferred it to cassette before I dumped the Sony... not sure where the cassette is now, though.

[7/4]

I never had any jazz on 8-track, but in the late '60s, my parents gave my sisters and I a 4-track. It was a smaller cartridge like an 8 track that never caught on.

Editttttttttttted 4 grammer. Yikes!

Edited February 6, 2004 by 7/4

[Leeway]

I never owned an 8 track player. I was a vinyl and cassette guy. I always understood 8 track to have crappy audio. I can't imagine it was very good. Was that the case?

[Guest ariceffron]

i swear to all of you i have an 8-track cart Chet Baker meets Coleman Hawkins. Its not called that but thats what it is allright

[Trumpet Guy]

Eddie Henderson-Sunburst

[Tim McG]

Never bought an 8-track.

Always found them to be crap, basically.

They would change tracks in the middle of a song or need to be bumped to make them play. One guy I knew had to wedge a piece of folded paper between the tape and the opening of the player to make it work [kinda like how you might level a table by putting a wedge of paper under the bent leg] and I figured if you need to work that hard, they weren't worth the plastic the tape is housed in.

I instead bought cassette tapes, LPs and 45s.

[birksworks]

I had an 8-track of Sonny Rollins on RCA (Now's the Time?) -- the stuff reissued on Sonny Rollins & Co 1964 and Alternatives. I'd listen to it over and over in my cool 1969 Pontiac Tempest. No wonder I'm this way.