Similar to the Dial and Savoy sets...

[Big Beat Steve]

8 hours ago, medjuck said:

 

The Coleman Hawkins "Papermoon" record also is one that was leased from VOGUE in France. So this should explain why it is not listed in Mercer label discographies. It wasn't recorded for Mercer, just reissued by Mercer.
Available later on vinyl on Prestige 7824 ("Bean And The Boys"), so there's your Prestige connection again.

[JSngry]

So...Mercer and Vogue had some kind of thing going, through Prestige? And Prestige had a thing going with both Metronome & Vogue?

[JSngry]

Ok, this:

That's it for Mercer Records LPs. There are still orphaned singles though, right?

And waht are the last legit reissues of this stuff?

Here we go with Vogue again...straight-up Mercer LP 1000.

[JSngry]

Provided to YouTube by NAXOS of America it says.

[Big Beat Steve]

19 hours ago, JSngry said:

So...Mercer and Vogue had some kind of thing going, through Prestige? And Prestige had a thing going with both Metronome & Vogue?

I doubt that this was a matter of having a "thing going", at least as far as Vogue was concerned. No record execs snuggling up with each other in some back room.

Blue Note also leased Vogue recordings for US release in their 5000 10" series (and French and UK Vogue, in turn, issued some BN 5000s with thier own cover artwork). So it rather looked like a matter of working out international distribution deals at a time when this apparently was cheaper/more efficient than importing/exporting.
Just like Metronome releasing in the US through Prestige. And an "affair" (there you are again ...) that went both ways: Metronome distributed a LOT of Prestige recordings from the "classic" hard bop Prestige days in part of continental Europe (and in the UK Prestige was on Esquire at that time). For quite some time: And in other directions too: Metronome also distributed and license-pressed Atlantic, for example. When you come across Prestige and Atlantic EPs from the 50s and early 60s here they are very likely to be Metronome pressings.

Edited October 21, 2018 by Big Beat Steve

[mikeweil]

All that said, a Mosaic box of the Complete Original Mercer Recordings would be great. I have a lot of it but would buy or it at once, or pre-order, if necessary. 

[medjuck]

4 hours ago, mikeweil said:

All that said, a Mosaic box of the Complete Original Mercer Recordings would be great. I have a lot of it but would buy or it at once, or pre-order, if necessary. 

Agreed. 

[JSngry]

How much of it would there be? There's six 10" LPs with eight songs each and some singles...probably 2-3 CDs worth of material? I'd love to have a set, but Mosaic wouldn't do it, they're officially Go Big Or Go Home now.

If Concord does indeed own the rights, it would be something for them to do. But who does own the rights? Have they fallen into orphanage?

[Big Beat Steve]

14 hours ago, JSngry said:

If Concord does indeed own the rights, it would be something for them to do. But who does own the rights? Have they fallen into orphanage?

Well, they WOULD BE "P.D." in Europe.

[mikeweil]

17 hours ago, JSngry said:

How much of it would there be? There's six 10" LPs with eight songs each and some singles...probably 2-3 CDs worth of material?

Here's a list (mostly 78's) for starters.

http://www.globaldogproductions.info/m/mercer.html

[JSngry]

And many of those singles show up on the 10" LPs. But not all off them do.

[mikeweil]

... and some tracks do not seem to be original Mercer recordings. Mercer LP 1002 is compiled of three Eddie Shu tracks possibly done for Vogue, but recorded in New York; three Joe Roland tracks that later appeared on Savoy; and two Wild Bill Davis tracks, one with the Duke on piano. Only the latter are clearly Mercer recordings. Roland played with Pettiford and thus had a connetion to the label; don't know about Shu. The master numbers of the Shu and Roland tracks do not fit into the Mercer master numbers  scheme.

A thread about Mercer Records seems appropriate.

[JSngry]

And the Serge Chaloff session was done for Futurama, was it?

I'm thinking the common thread here might be Leonard Feather?

[romualdo]

On 21/10/2018 at 9:58 PM, mikeweil said:

All that said, a Mosaic box of the Complete Original Mercer Recordings would be great. I have a lot of it but would buy or it at once, or pre-order, if necessary. 

I proposed that to Michael a few years back

[mikeweil]

What was his response?

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

I'm thinking the common thread here might be Leonard Feather?

Most likely ...

[medjuck]

Ellington scholar David Palmquist tells me that Mercer Records was sold to Coral which was a subsidiary of Decca which is now part of Universal. 

[JSngry]

Looking up the mysterious Chubby Kent...Discogs has just one record of hers, and it's on Vogue: https://www.discogs.com/artist/1560527-Chubby-Kemp?noanv=1

But it seems most likely to be a Mercer date?

So again, there's this weird nexus between Mercer-Prestige, Mercer-Vogue, Prestige-Vogue, Prestige-Metronome...does it all go through Leonard Feather?

6 minutes ago, medjuck said:

Ellington scholar David Palmquist tells me that Mercer Records was sold to Coral which was a subsidiary of Decca which is now part of Universal. 

and Mercer did two(?) records for Coral in 1958-59...do we know when the sale took place?

https://www.freshsoundrecords.com/mercer-ellington-albums/5013-stepping-into-swing-society.html

[mikeweil]

Yes they are Mercer recordings. Kemp made a total of eight tracks, two of which remain unissued, one was only on a Up-To-Date LP. Three tracks showed up on different Vogue LPs. All six issued titles are on one of the Duke CDs on Chronological Classics (1950) - just found an affordable copy and ordered it.  

It gets even more complicated when you consider the Ellington/Strayhorn piano duets and the Pettiford cello tracks, which were reissued on Riverside, later on a Prestige twofer with Duke's Musicraft sides .... 

The rarest may be the two tracks with Wild Bill Davis.

Edited October 22, 2018 by mikeweil

[JSngry]

What is this "Up-To-Date LP"? Was that an American label?

Ah, I see, on of THOSE labels: https://www.discogs.com/label/104260-Up-To-Date-Records

[mikeweil]

They did issue a lot of unreleased or rare Ellington stuff. 

I just read in the liner notes Jack Maher wrote for the Riverside LP reissue that most of the original Mercer tapes were destroyed by a fire in the Apex studios where they were stored ....

[medjuck]

 

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

 

and Mercer did two(?) records for Coral in 1958-59...do we know when the sale took place?

https://www.freshsoundrecords.com/mercer-ellington-albums/5013-stepping-into-swing-society.html

David wrote:

Feather sold his shares in Mercer Records Inc. to Mercer Ellington on May 28, 1957 for $100 plus 25% of the sales proceeds of certain recordings by Mercer Records Inc. to Coral Records Inc., net $300, and an earn-out of 25% of any additional money received from Coral Records in respect of those recordings.

Edited October 22, 2018 by medjuck

[JSngry]

Thanks!

That does kinda line up, the Mercer/Coral chronology.

but the next question is...how did some other certain recordings (namely, the Ellington/Strayhorn & Pettiford selections) go to riverside, which of course would become Prestige...just how messy was all this?!?!?!?!?!

[felser]

48 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Thanks!

That does kinda line up, the Mercer/Coral chronology.

but the next question is...how did some other certain recordings (namely, the Ellington/Strayhorn & Pettiford selections) go to riverside, which of course would become Prestige...just how messy was all this?!?!?!?!?!

Riverside catalog to ABC, who then sold it to Fantasy, who were then bought out by Concord.

Prestige bought out by Fantasy, who were then bought out by Concord.  Fantasy made miraculous CD releases we never expected to see.  They sold 12 copies each (John Dennis, Ada Moore, etc.) along with almost every other scrap of music in the Prestige/Riverside/Debut/Contemporary/Milestone catalogs (except for Sonny Simmons' "Rumasuma" and Gary Bartz's "Home").

Concord then reduced the entire joint catalogs to "Miles Davis Plays for Lovers" and "Wes Montgomery Plays for Lovers" 34-minute CD's.

[sidewinder]

Any idea why the ‘Rumasuma’ was held back on CD? Quite like that one.

[mikeweil]

There are some items that seem strange in the Mercer catalog, like this, but the püblishing co, is Tempo Music ....

These Joe Roland tracks were obviously recorded in connection with Savoy, but first issued on Mercer - look at the publisher and the master numbers. Roland was close with Pettiford.

Edited October 23, 2018 by mikeweil