mjzee Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 Just saw this interesting new release notice on Amazon. The cover has an Impulse logo, but the label in the listing says Blue Note. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 Already has a couple of 5 star reviews on Amazon. The street team lives! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colinmce Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 Impulse! is being re-branded/re-launched/whatever under Universal, which also owns Blue Note. At least they're putting out Ran Blake's record. See here: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king ubu Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 I recently stumbled over this - I guess a consequence of EMI being part of the fold, too: There's one more: There might be more to come, I guess, but I can't seem to find any others so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjzee Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 (edited) It looks like Roulette and Colpix went to Warners. I've always been interested in the Colpix material - I might get that Nina. Edited July 10, 2014 by mjzee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crisp Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 Yes, that was why Roulette Mosaics suddently went oop the other week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king ubu Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 Looks like, yes. There are a few more Colpixes by Simone, good stuff! Wonder if there are any news regarding ownership of MPS? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjzee Posted July 16, 2014 Report Share Posted July 16, 2014 Just saw this interesting new release notice on Amazon. The cover has an Impulse logo, but the label in the listing says Blue Note. Interesting article about this in WSJ: Modernizing Morton. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crisp Posted July 17, 2014 Report Share Posted July 17, 2014 You are right that record companies like to reshuffle music, but the Evans Riverside was issued by Fantasy, the later issues by the new owner, Concord. So I think the missing alternates were more likely down to Fantasy's ineptitude or complacency in overlooking them and Concord's comparative diligence in using them. My theory about Flac availability is that once the general public has been sold all the mp3s they can handle, they will be induced to buy them all over again as "HD" downloads, ie, Flac. Much the same as we were suckered into buying loads of lossy low-def DVDs before being sold it all again on lossless, HD Blu-ray. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king ubu Posted July 17, 2014 Report Share Posted July 17, 2014 But then the Fantasy diligence was so much better than anything Concord ever did ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted July 17, 2014 Report Share Posted July 17, 2014 But then the Fantasy diligence was so much better than anything Concord ever did ... By far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felser Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 But then the Fantasy diligence was so much better than anything Concord ever did ... By far! Yep, Fantasy was doing some great sets when they sold out to Concord. The 3 Trane boxes, the Davis Quintet, the Stitt, the Evans VV, etc. Beautiful stuff. Concord gives us the "... Plays for Lovers" series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 (edited) I too have wished for entire oeuvres to be available as flac downloads, but I suspect the reason it hasn't been done is that record companies have always operated by shuffling and re-shuffling the finite amount of recordings they own with the intention of selling and re-selling them in infinite combinations. Sell an album now, then add a couple "bonus tracks" and sell it to the same audience again in a few years time. Take a few tunes off the album, put them on a "greatest hits" compilation, add a couple new tracks, and sell it to the same audience once again. This strategy probably applies more to pop and rock, but I'm also thinking of Bill Evans: people who sprung for the "Complete Riverside Recordings" box couldn't have been happy to see a bunch of new alternate takes appear on the recent album reissues. If those alternate takes could be purchase individually, there would be little reason to buy the albums again. I'd say it's just as prevalent when it comes to 'canonic' jazz. How many times have some of those very famous Miles, Coltrane, Blue Note etc recordings been reissued promising 'additional material', deluxe packaging, super-duper remastering etc? It all boils down to owning an asset and then realising its potential to the maximum by changing the box it comes in. Standard practice in every area of commerce. Edited July 18, 2014 by A Lark Ascending Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crisp Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 But then the Fantasy diligence was so much better than anything Concord ever did ... By far! Yep, Fantasy was doing some great sets when they sold out to Concord. The 3 Trane boxes, the Davis Quintet, the Stitt, the Evans VV, etc. Beautiful stuff. Concord gives us the "... Plays for Lovers" series. Those were all released after the Concord sale. Excellent sets far superior to anything Fantasy put out. Sadly Concord got cold feet ater an initial flurry of great releases. My summary of the situation would be: Fantasy = quantity but no quality Concord = quality but no quantity. Take your choice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 (edited) Fantasy = quantity but no quality Your ears must be very different from mine. Fantasy reissued a lot of music and much of it was of high quality. Edited July 18, 2014 by paul secor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidewinder Posted July 19, 2014 Report Share Posted July 19, 2014 The Fantasy period was an absolute cornucopia of material from the back catalogue. The high point for me was the issue of all of those Eric Klosses and Jaki Byards. It will never be repeated.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crisp Posted July 19, 2014 Report Share Posted July 19, 2014 I don't mean the music was not high quality. Fantasy's treatment of it wasn't. I thought they were a bit cheapjack/shoestring, not like Sony, EMI or Verve. But, yes, at least they put the music out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Magnificent Goldberg Posted July 19, 2014 Report Share Posted July 19, 2014 I don't mean the music was not high quality. Fantasy's treatment of it wasn't. I thought they were a bit cheapjack/shoestring, not like Sony, EMI or Verve. But, yes, at least they put the music out. I don't think it was that. From the soul jazz point of view, they didn't have enough people with the requisite knowledge and taste working there to do a good job. Two examples Groove Holmes' 'On Basie's bandstand' was produced by a guy who didn't like organ records, so he just assembled all the burners from the unreleased material and left out ballads (the CD could do wit ha ballad or two in my view). The title track of Charles Earland's 'Funk fantastique' (produced by the same guy) is the original mix and title of 'Morgan' from 'Intensity'. After Lee's death, it was remixed and retitled for the LP release. The guy didn't know it was the same recording as 'Morgan' until I pointed it out. I don't know about other stuff, but those incidents made me think a bit about Fantasy. When they did what Prestige or the other original labels did, they got is as right as they could (and that was VERY right indeed. When they tried to push the envelope, they didn't have as much expertise as they may have needed. MG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king ubu Posted July 19, 2014 Report Share Posted July 19, 2014 But then the Fantasy diligence was so much better than anything Concord ever did ... By far! Yep, Fantasy was doing some great sets when they sold out to Concord. The 3 Trane boxes, the Davis Quintet, the Stitt, the Evans VV, etc. Beautiful stuff. Concord gives us the "... Plays for Lovers" series. Those were all released after the Concord sale. Excellent sets far superior to anything Fantasy put out. Sadly Concord got cold feet ater an initial flurry of great releases. My summary of the situation would be: Fantasy = quantity but no quality Concord = quality but no quantity. Take your choice! Not sure ... I agree about the presentation of those boxes, mostly the three Coltrane ones, which are indeed wonderfully done (but the way the discs are stored is still beyond moronic). How many of those were in the planning stages when Concord took over and/or prepared by Fantasy folks that were laid off soon after? Anyway, certainly OJCCDs were "basic" if you want - but I love them still, don't feel any need to get Japanese replacements, they sound alright in 99% of the cases, which cannot be said of the product that Verve put out in the late 80s/early 90s (they only started doing nice presentations in the second half of the nineties, too, just in case ...), neither can it be said of the early Sony CDs or of any BN CDs (we're past all those fights, but there are bad-sounding McMasters, bad RVGs ... to an extent I never felt there were bad Fantasy discs ever - and early BN CDs, 1987-89 or so, when they put out virtually their entire catalogue - were just as basic presentation wise as OJCCDs were). As for Concord, I'm not a nay-sayer in general, they put out some good stuff (those late Getz albums for instance!) that goes a bit further than their reputation (as I perceive it) admits. But their taking over of Fantasy really hasn't resulted in all that much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crisp Posted July 21, 2014 Report Share Posted July 21, 2014 All the labels were bad at reissuing at the start of the CD era, but they got much better, while Fantasy stayed the same. It may have been resources, I don't know, but I regret that Fantasy didn't sell out to a bigger company sooner. Their refusal to licence to Mosaic is another irritation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted July 21, 2014 Report Share Posted July 21, 2014 Do you think that a larger company would have reissued recordings like Don Ellis' New Ideas, The Louis Cottrell Trio, Shorty Baker & Doc Cheatham, Joe Albany w. Warne Marsh: The Right Combination, the four George Russells, Art Taylor: Taylor's Tenors, Rene Thomas: Guitar Groove, the Lem Winchester material, Fats Navarro w. Tadd Dameron, The Brew Moore Quintet, Charles McPherson: Bebop Revisted!, Prince Lasha & Sonny Simmons: Firebirds, Steve Lacy w. Don Cherry: Evidence, Taft Jordan's Mood Indigo, The JFK Quartet: the 3 Ernie Henry LPs, not to mention all of the gospel and blues material - I could go on and on and on. I can't imagine that happening with a large company. Has Concord done anything like this? Not even in your dreams. That's what happens when a large company takes over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crisp Posted July 21, 2014 Report Share Posted July 21, 2014 It's what happens when a large company takes over just before the record industry collapses. EMI put out loads of great jazz albums before the digital revolution and EMI was a large company that took over lots of little ones. We had a taste of what Concord was planning with that intual flurry of excellent boxed sets. They can't be blamed for reigning it in when the axe fell -- all the others did too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyo Posted July 21, 2014 Report Share Posted July 21, 2014 I wouldn't mind getting a Gene Ammons set at last. Or a Yusef Lateef one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
felser Posted July 21, 2014 Report Share Posted July 21, 2014 (edited) But then the Fantasy diligence was so much better than anything Concord ever did ... By far! Yep, Fantasy was doing some great sets when they sold out to Concord. The 3 Trane boxes, the Davis Quintet, the Stitt, the Evans VV, etc. Beautiful stuff. Concord gives us the "... Plays for Lovers" series. Those were all released after the Concord sale. Excellent sets far superior to anything Fantasy put out. Sadly Concord got cold feet ater an initial flurry of great releases. My summary of the situation would be: Fantasy = quantity but no quality Concord = quality but no quantity. Take your choice! Not sure ... I agree about the presentation of those boxes, mostly the three Coltrane ones, which are indeed wonderfully done (but the way the discs are stored is still beyond moronic). How many of those were in the planning stages when Concord took over and/or prepared by Fantasy folks that were laid off soon after? Anyway, certainly OJCCDs were "basic" if you want - but I love them still, don't feel any need to get Japanese replacements, they sound alright in 99% of the cases, which cannot be said of the product that Verve put out in the late 80s/early 90s (they only started doing nice presentations in the second half of the nineties, too, just in case ...), neither can it be said of the early Sony CDs or of any BN CDs (we're past all those fights, but there are bad-sounding McMasters, bad RVGs ... to an extent I never felt there were bad Fantasy discs ever - and early BN CDs, 1987-89 or so, when they put out virtually their entire catalogue - were just as basic presentation wise as OJCCDs were). As for Concord, I'm not a nay-sayer in general, they put out some good stuff (those late Getz albums for instance!) that goes a bit further than their reputation (as I perceive it) admits. But their taking over of Fantasy really hasn't resulted in all that much. Previous discussions have indicated that those boxes were all developed by Fantasy, and that Concord just pushed out what had already been done, then laid off the people involved. Overall, I have no complaints about Fantasy. Unbelievable how many obscure but worthy titles they re-released from the Prestige/Riverside/Contemporary catalogs. Edited July 22, 2014 by felser Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted July 21, 2014 Report Share Posted July 21, 2014 Do you think that a larger company would have reissued recordings like Don Ellis' New Ideas, The Louis Cottrell Trio, Shorty Baker & Doc Cheatham, Joe Albany w. Warne Marsh: The Right Combination, the four George Russells, Art Taylor: Taylor's Tenors, Rene Thomas: Guitar Groove, the Lem Winchester material, Fats Navarro w. Tadd Dameron, The Brew Moore Quintet, Charles McPherson: Bebop Revisted!, Prince Lasha & Sonny Simmons: Firebirds, Steve Lacy w. Don Cherry: Evidence, Taft Jordan's Mood Indigo, The JFK Quartet: the 3 Ernie Henry LPs, not to mention all of the gospel and blues material - I could go on and on and on. I can't imagine that happening with a large company. Has Concord done anything like this? Not even in your dreams. That's what happens when a large company takes over. Amen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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