Mercury label reissues (made in Japan) with Cat# suffix EXPR

[jazzcorner]

On Discogs there is a hot thread going trying to verify that this reissue series from 1982 is a special series for the US market only.

EXPR ---> Export

I bought many of those from the former Elektro Egger (Munich) and some single Items from Saturn Cologne  here in Germany.

For those who are also members at Discogs I want to point out that the "Guidelines" there are a bit strange in interpreting the prints on the record covers.

They see it like the Koran for the Muslims ---> the one and only truth?????

Has anybody knowledge about this reissue series?

Thanks

 

Edited March 26 by jazzcorner
typo

[Big Beat Steve]

Can you provide a direct link to the discussion going on at Discogs?

[jazzcorner]

On 3/4/2024 at 7:00 PM, Big Beat Steve said:

Can you provide a direct link to the discussion going on at Discogs?

https://www.discogs.com/forum/thread/1051144?message_id=10873180#10873180

The result is still  ridiculous for me. Noone of the "yes" voters had supplied any proof for that crazy theoy except me.

So I wish you happy reading. A few "big egos" do dominate Discogs and the owners are busy to make money.

Thanks for your Interest.

Edited March 26 by jazzcorner
text edition

[Big Beat Steve]

Thanks for the link. Haven't read (and absorbed) it all yet but this is a very fiddly subject, it seems. At any rate, there seem several contributors who are heavily into the details. But piecing all these snippets of info together is bound to be difficult and will lead to conflicting assessments of what the results are all about.
I have nothing to contribute to this question but the follownig sentence "For Imports, the country they are imported from is the country of release" seems to be the decisive one IMHO.

BTW, since Elektro Egger was mentioned several times (some of my older "Bielefelder Katalog" volumes were handed out by them), I am surprised that someone came up with the idea of contacting them about these reissues and their importing policies. As far as I know (and as was confirmed in the obit of Manfred Scheffner in the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" online issue) the Elektro Egger shop is long gone.
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/nachruf-der-jazz-verkaeufer-1.4595638

 

 

[jazzcorner]

On 3/26/2024 at 1:49 PM, Big Beat Steve said:

......................
I have nothing to contribute to this question but the follownig sentence "For Imports, the country they are imported from is the country of release" seems to be the decisive one IMHO.

BTW, since Elektro Egger was mentioned several times (some of my older "Bielefelder Katalog" volumes were handed out by them), I am surprised that someone came up with the idea of contacting them about these reissues and their importing policies. As far as I know (and as was confirmed in the obit of Manfred Scheffner in the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" online issue) the Elektro Egger shop is long gone.
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/nachruf-der-jazz-verkaeufer-1.4595638

 

Thanks for your reply. Discogs is a 'closed shop' with its own amateurmade rules. The real world outside Discogs looks in many situations different. The main philosophy here is at the moment that in the forum discussions the result is found by majority decisions. If a little majority decides black = white the it is valid until a new decision comes to a different result. I was in and out two times  because of this 'Kindergarten' behaviour and everytime I di leave I lost all my contributions (listed record collection, ranking a.o features) because the account will be closed then and you can start only with a new username and a new membership.

Main rule is "to submit whats printed on a official release" and not whats inside (= music). Valid is every kind of noise on the medium. Important is whats printed on the envelope/cover or what else.

The main question in the thread was are these japanese made Mercury vinyls a product for the market there or for the US. It is a fakt that I bought a great part of this EXPR series at Egger and  Saturn (Cologne). Cant imagine these big retailers did reimport from the US. The Import lists from Scheffner show clearly (have linked them in the thread)   these vinyl are Japan made  and Imports to the US and other countries. But some 'knowalls' know it better so my arguments were not seen correctly and the speculation where Egger got his merchandise did win.

Important for me is I have the music on the discs. These forum decisions are highly questionable and mostly private opinions how the guidelines have to be interpreted.

 

 

 

Edited March 27 by jazzcorner
typo

[Big Beat Steve]

I guess this problem of "reliabilty" exists with any such discussion platforms. When I read the Mercury discussion I was under the impression everything they stated boiled down to "educated guesses". But like I said, I know too little about this specific series to judge it at all. At any rate and on a more general level, my impression is that whatever the Japanese released and reissued beyond their own country certainly was aimed at the USA in the very first place. And all other target coutnries were afterthoughts. At least from the Japanese point of view.
So, looking at them from over here, I've understood Japanese pressings always as being typical "imports" (that found their way here more or less haphazardly and strictly on the initiative of individual importers).

But I'd bet ther always are exceptions to any rule anyone comes up with about pressings, releases, exports/imports, etc., so in the end it all remains "educated guesses". I am not worried too much about ths kind of "fuzziness" in these discussions anymore. I've come across the same kind of discussions on other forums in different hobby areas where you get involved once you have gathered substantial knowledge on the subject matter. But it almost always turns out that the more you learn the more you realize that there are things you don't know 100% for sure. So in most cases I'm past working myself into a temper ... 😁

At any rate, I think, beyond my use of Discogs for checks on specific releases I think I might check the discussion sites a bit more often too. Might be fun ... Although (judging by these Mercury discussions) I guess they remain more civilized than on the Hoffman forum ... 😁

[Gheorghe]

Mercury is a forrunner of Verve ? I never was clear about it, it seems it was like that as Bird on some live performances while talking to the MC mentions the "Mercury Label". And those string stuff was on Verve. 

I remember very well I was at Saturn in Cologna in the late 70´s . Found a lotta stuff I didn´t find in Viena. 

Japanese pressings of Verve.....well I think I had the Bird on Verve albums, all those "Strings" Cole Porter Songbooks, and South of the Border stuff as I remember, and I think the Bud Powell albums, all those "The Lonely One", "Blues in the Closet" also was japanese pressing......I don´t listen to them anymore, get no thrill out of ´em. 

[JSngry]

Mercury was its own label. Norman Granz released his product through them for a few years. After he separated from them, he formed both Clef and Norgran, both of which he folded into Verve once he started that label.

Mercury did quite well on it's own both before and after the Granz association.

[Gheorghe]

On 4/5/2024 at 10:14 PM, JSngry said:

Mercury was its own label. Norman Granz released his product through them for a few years. After he separated from them, he formed both Clef and Norgran, both of which he folded into Verve once he started that label.

Mercury did quite well on it's own both before and after the Granz association.

Great info, thx man !