Does Wayne Shorter hold the record?

[bertrand]

So the new Wayne Shorter record is his first for Blue Note in 43 years. The previous ones were from late 1970, and most of this was recorded in the Fall of 2011, so that's 41 years between recordings but almost 43 between release dates.

That's a LONG time - Lee Morgan didn't even live that long.

So I started wondering:

1) Does any other artist have as long as stretch between two albums as a leader on Blue Note?

2) Does any other artist have as long as stretch between two albums as a leader on any 'national' label?

(I guess some local artist could self-produce something on his own label every 43 years).

I haven't had too much time to think about it yet, but I'm pretty sure that for #1 at least, Wayne Shorter may forever hold the record

I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with.

Bertrand.

P.S. If Blue Note ever decides to offer Freddie Redd another date, then he will have Wayne easily beat. He's still out there and still playing...

[robertoart]

So the new Wayne Shorter record is his first for Blue Note in 43 years. The previous ones were from late 1970, and most of this was recorded in the Fall of 2011, so that's 41 years between recordings but almost 43 between release dates.

That's a LONG time - Lee Morgan didn't even live that long.

So I started wondering:

1) Does any other artist have as long as stretch between two albums as a leader on Blue Note?

2) Does any other artist have as long as stretch between two albums as a leader on any 'national' label?

(I guess some local artist could self-produce something on his own label every 43 years).

I haven't had too much time to think about it yet, but I'm pretty sure that for #1 at least, Wayne Shorter may forever hold the record

I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with.

Bertrand.

P.S. If Blue Note ever decides to offer Freddie Redd another date, then he will have Wayne easily beat. He's still out there and still playing...

Literally your probably right. But in reality Blue Note bears negligible relationship to the label Shorter originally recorded for. Maybe when they re-booted the label in the early eighties with the opening of the vaults -and got some of the old-guard back - it might have felt like a return of sorts. But not now. Imagine them recording Freddie Redd today. They'd probably have to do a google search to find out who he is.

[CJ Shearn]

So the new Wayne Shorter record is his first for Blue Note in 43 years. The previous ones were from late 1970, and most of this was recorded in the Fall of 2011, so that's 41 years between recordings but almost 43 between release dates.

That's a LONG time - Lee Morgan didn't even live that long.

So I started wondering:

1) Does any other artist have as long as stretch between two albums as a leader on Blue Note?

2) Does any other artist have as long as stretch between two albums as a leader on any 'national' label?

(I guess some local artist could self-produce something on his own label every 43 years).

I haven't had too much time to think about it yet, but I'm pretty sure that for #1 at least, Wayne Shorter may forever hold the record

I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with.

Bertrand.

P.S. If Blue Note ever decides to offer Freddie Redd another date, then he will have Wayne easily beat. He's still out there and still playing...

Literally your probably right. But in reality Blue Note bears negligible relationship to the label Shorter originally recorded for. Maybe when they re-booted the label in the early eighties with the opening of the vaults -and got some of the old-guard back - it might have felt like a return of sorts. But not now. Imagine them recording Freddie Redd today. They'd probably have to do a google search to find out who he is.

Exactly. I have noticed Don Was' knowledge seemingly lacking about the history of the artists, like him not realizing just how much of a force JOS was. To me, as it's been for a while, this seems more an extension of the Blue Note circa '73-76, not the classic Lion/Wolff era. I say that because they are broadening their scope to many musics and just using Blue Note as a brand name.

[bertrand]

Considerations about how record labels have evolved are definitely valid. There is no doubt that Blue Note now looks nothing like the label Alfred Lion conceived. And now with the new Universal purchase, it may become something else again. One could argue that Shorter's recordings Night Dreamer, Etcetera, Super Nova and Moto Grosso Feio are on four different labels.

But I put this in the discography thread because I really wanted to consider the topic from a discographical point of view, taking into consideration the record label not as a business entity, but as historical entity within the evolution of recorded sound.

So bringing this thread back to my original intent , I came up with some initial results for the Blue Note label.

Could Have Been Contenders

Gil Melle - 32 years between Patterns In Jazz (1956) and Mindscape (1988-1989)

Pete LaRoca Sims - 32 years between Basra (1965) and Swingtime (1997)

Could Still Be Contenders

Dr. Lonnie Smith (nothing since 1970)

Herbie Hancock (nothing since 1969)

Ornette Coleman (nothing since 1968)

Tyrone Washington (nothing since 1968)

Grachan Moncur III (nothing since 1963)

Freddie Redd (nothing since 1961)

Does anyone know of any other long stretches between dates on other labels (not necessarily jazz)?

Bertrand.

P.S. Did anyone else other than Andrew Hill come back to Blue Note twice?

Edited October 27, 2012 by bertrand

[GA Russell]

Freddie Redd (nothing since 1951)

Bertrand, is that a typo? Wasn't the Freddie Redd Mosaic from the early 60's?

[mjzee]

Does anyone know of any other long stretches between dates on other labels (not necessarily jazz)?

Billie Holiday on Columbia?

[bertrand]

I corrected the typo almost right away, but you posted in between

Bertrand.

[JSngry]

P.S. Did anyone else other than Andrew Hill come back to Blue Note twice?

Jackie McLean, but only if you want to count a co-led date with McCoy Tyner and then the Something Else dates issued in America. So that get an asterisk.

For that matter...McCoy Tyner, maybe more three, possibly more times. Don't know how you want to count that.

Could Still Be Contenders

Dr. Lonnie Smith (nothing since 1970)

Herbie Hancock (nothing since 1969)

Ornette Coleman (nothing since 1968)

Tyrone Washington (nothing since 1968)

Grachan Moncur III (nothing since 1963)

Freddie Redd (nothing since 1961)

Lou Donaldson, Curtis Fuller, and....does Donald Byrd still even play?

Sonny Rollins!

[robertoart]

Kenny Burrell. I know he recorded the Generations album on the early 80's revived BN. So that's been a while now.

[Swinging Swede]

For #2 Flip Phillips may be the winner.

In 1954 he recorded an album for Clef (soon to be renamed Verve) that was first named The Flip Phillips Quintet, and later reissued as Rock With Flip (on both Clef and Verve). In 2000 he recorded Swing Is The Thing for Verve.

That's a stretch of 46 years!