Waxing and musings. Are jazz releases from Spain the dirty little secret of passionate jazz listeners? A close friend wrote me an email last week crisply reminding me that the Definitive label out of Spain is among the most abusive 'rip-off' labels of the European Union. Last week I had mentioned that the complete Buddy De Franco-Sonny Clark sessions were available on Definitive in my interview series with Buddy.
For those unaware of what the fuss is about, here's a recap—and my friend isn't completely off base. European copyright laws last 50 years, tossing recordings into the public domain once that period elapses. What does this mean? Anyone in Europe can copy recordings and sell them—including all U.S. albums released prior to 1961—and not be in violation of laws or owe a Euro in royalties. So labels like Fresh Sound, LoneHill Jazz, Definitive and others find clean LPs or CDs, make copies, re-package them with cover and liner-notes art and issue them to consumers worldwide, including in the U.S. [The U.S. version of the Teddy Charles Tentet, left, and the European Complete Teddy Charles Tentet version, right]
Two problems: First, the artists don't receive royalty payments. Second, these European releases often are timed to coincide with the issue of U.S. box sets. U.S. labels typically invest hard time and money to create lovingly restored jazz discs, often with comprehensive liner notes. Definitive's goal is to create a dirt cheap (by comparison) set and provide a knock-off alternative at roughly the same time.
Which is dirty pool and a shame. But my response to my concerned friend was "So what?" Let me explain from the listener's perspective. No one loves jazz artists more than I do. If it were up to me, they'd receive a sizable government check each month just for their artistic service to this country. But 50 years after the fact, artists rarely see much in the way of royalties even when their material is reissued here. Creative accounting takes care of that. As for Euro labels submarining U.S. box sets, there's really no comparison between the high-end boxes created here and the Euro equivalent in terms of care and consistent quality (I recently read liner notes to a European set that consistently referred to the big band trombonist as "Tony Dorsey").
I think even the original artists would agree that after 50 years, they'd rather see their material available to young and old rather than watch the mailbox each day for a small royalty check. If there's a villain, it's the U.S. record companies that continue to sit on great music from the 1950s rather than issue it digitally. Which would undercut the European labels, since they are only available on CD here. Ask yourself this: Where would jazz listeners be if all those great recordings from the 1950s weren't available at all?
Ed Thigpen (1930-2010), a graceful drummer best known as a member of the Oscar Peterson Trio in the late 1950s and 1960s and whose brush technique could be as forceful as his stick work, died January 13th in Copenhagen, where he had lived since 1972. He was 79. [Photo by Philippe Lévy-Stab]
In the 1950s, Thigpen recorded with a wide range of leading artists, including Dinah Washington (After Hours with Miss D), Joe Newman (Jazz for Playboys), Billy Taylor (My Fair Lady Loves Jazz) and Gil Melle (Thigpen is on many of the Blue Note and Prestige recordings I wrote about last week here).
But it was Thigpen's lengthy tour of duty with Peterson and Ray Brown that brought him the most acclaim. His first album with the pianist was A Jazz Portrait of Frank Sinatra in 1959. The release was quickly followed by a marathon recording session in August 1959 during which the trio recorded songbook-album tributes to nine different composers.
Perhaps the highpoint of Thigpen's work with Peterson was West Side Story, which featured the drummer employing a seemingly endless series of drum techniques. Among my favorite examples of Thigpen's later work can be found on Wig Is Here, an album led by Gerald Wiggins on piano and Major Holley on bass. The 1974 Thigpen tracks are You Are the Sunshine of My Live, Oh Give Me Something to Remember You By, Lover, FBOT, Edith Is the Sweetest and There Is No Greater Love.
Here's Thigpen on Cubano Chant, exhibiting his broad range of delicate drumming techniques...
Nelson Riddle. Wish you had been on hand to see Nelson Riddle conduct a studio orchestra? On March 5th and 6th, singer Shawnn Monteiro will perform backed by a 17-piece orchestra in The Nelson Riddle Show: Studio Sessions, featuring arrangements by the late, great arranger-conductor.
The Riddle family has pulled original arrangements from their vault for the event. Many have not been performed in a generation. These include Lorelei from Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Gershwin Songbook, Peggy Lee's Jump for Joy and Sinatra's At Long Last Love. On hand will be Chris Riddle and sister Rosemary Acerra to recount memories of their legendary dad.
Where: Tim McLoone's Supper Club in Asbury Park, N.J. Time: Dinner at 6 pm; show at 7 pm. Tickets: $79.95, which includes a prix fixe dinner. More information: 732-774-1400.
Video clip 1: It's 11 degrees in New York. You know what that means? Time for another great bossa nova clip (stay with the opening dialogue)...
Video clip 2: Carl Woideck found this interesting mashup featuring Ellington's music against Beyonce's Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)...
Saluting the producers. Following my post last Sunday praising the contribution of jazz producers of the 1950s, Chris Fine, son of C. Robert Fine, the legendary engineer on sessions for Verve, EmArcy and other labels, sent along the following:
"I totally agree with you about the contribution jazz producers made. I would extend those comments to music in general of the time (late 1940s through the late 1960s). So many great albums of all genres owed their success to these producers as well as the musicians. Non-jazz pop examples: George Martin, Tommy Dowd, Paul Rothchild, Mitch Miller, Phil Spector, Lou Adler, Jerry Wexler [pictured] and many others. Classical examples abound as well.
In those days, you couldn’t have a credible record company without a professional producing staff. Lots of these folks were highly-trained musicians in their own right and could play right along, compose part or all of a tune, arrange or challenge the most ornery musician."
New blog. Pianist Joe Alterman had a field day at the recent National Endowment for the Arts event featuring a virtual who's who of jazz legends. You can read about Joe's stellar interactions here.
CD discovery of the week. Dig swinging big bands? Really raging, swinging bands? Back in 1996, drummer Frank Capp recorded Play It Again Sam (Concord) with his Juggernaut band. All of the compositions and arrangements are by Sammy Nestico (that's Sammy on the cover on the upright piano). The album rocks and purrs like crazy from beginning to end. Capp is a Stan Kenton veteran and a monster small group and big band West Coast stick-man. The album includes trumpeter Conte Candoli, saxophonists Jackie Kelso and Pete Christlieb, and pianist Gerald Wiggins. Best of all, this is a band led by a fierce drummer, and you can hear his leadership on every track.
By the way, if you're in Canoga Park, CA on February 12th, you can catch Capp with West Coast jazz legends Dave Pell, Med Flory, Bill Fulton and Jim Hughes at the Back Room at Henri's. More information: (818) 348-5582.
Sadly, Frank Capp's Play It Again Sam is out of print on CD but may be available at online download retailers. Try typing the album's name into Google. Hats off to Peter Sokolowski for bringing it to my attention.
Oddball album cover of the week. This gem showcasing three jazz cats swinging on a line was issued by Allegro in the 12-inch LP era. It included Standard radio transcriptions from 1951 with Norvo, guitarist Tal Farlow and bassist Charles Mingus. The art director was no mouse and certainly gets points for picking up the tabs.
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For another point of view, you might want to ask Sue Mingus what she thinks about bootleg reissues. If you dare!
You are right in that these illicit issues keep the music in the air -- but it's not only Sue Mingus who is correctly furious: think of the children and relatives who see Dad's and Mom's records ripped off . . . this hasn't stopped me from buying those naughty bootlegs myself, but I feel bad for Lou McGarity's heirs, for example. I agree that I'd rather have the music in circulation -- an artist colleague says, "All publicity is good publicity," but even the most mingy royalty check is a sign that someone is taking the artist's work seriously.
Another form of rip-off is usually performed by the original record companies when they use alternate takes as fillers (to create overpriced boxed sets, for example). In fact, this is a double rip-off: There is usually an artistic judgement behind an artist's decision to do another take, so he/she is done a disservice when a discarded performance is made public. There are, of course, instances where an artist wants to have such a take put out, but he or she is still—in most cases—ripped off, because unissued alternate takes were not compensated. The union measured a "session" by time spent in the studio or the accumulated running time of "usable" performances. If either measure was exceeded, an additional session was required.
In my experience, LPs almost always required a third session and it was almost always not recorded (on the contract, that is). Ergo, all those alternate takes that became CD "bonuses" did/do not fatten a performer's wallet. The record companies? Well, that's another story—a sordid one. Yes, performers went along with this practice, but only because it was important for them to have material out there.
Major players were not paid the minimum, but most were, and if there was a performance royalty arrangement, it usually did not benefit so-called "sidemen."
One problem with your "So what?" response is that you can't lump together pirate Euro label issues of, say, ABC-Paramount material that otherwise probably would languish in the vaults forever and Euro label pirating of Mosaic and Uptown's carefully assembled and properly paid for sets (Mosaic's consisting of previously issued material, plus often newly discovered alternate takes; Uptown's of material that often has never been issued before). In such cases, just to be clear, the Euro pirates do not themselves assemble packages that mimic what Mosaic and Uptown already have done (in the case of the typical Uptown set, that would be impossible); instead, they simply acquire copies of the Mosaic and Uptown sets and literally duplicate them. A "knock off" to me is a cheap imitation, like a fake Rolex watch or a fake Gucci handbag. This is more like counterfeiting or identity theft.
In any case, this behavior and the resulting loss of sales to Mosaic and Uptown (despite their handsome booklets) may put those estimable labels out of business. And then where will that leave us -- and, for that matter, the Euro pirates? They'll still be able to take the first route mentioned above, but their ripoffs of Mosaic, Uptown, and the like will cease -- you can't steal from an empty cupboard.
I once had an email exchange with Michael Cuscuna of Mosaic regarding those quasi-bootleg, copyright-expired sets by Europe-based Proper, JSP, Lone Hill, and others. He was of course offended by their unfair competition, lack of royalty payments, and so on. But he also acknowledged that they were able to operate with an ease of access denied to U.S. reissue producers.
We were discussing the lack of any box set delineating the across-many-labels history of Swing-Becoming-Bop (late '30s/early '40s up to the late '40s revolution), and he glumly admitted that any project that diffuse would have to be done by someone other than Mosaic.
I confess to owning sets on Wardell Gray, Lennie Niehaus, Paramount Masters, J.R. Monterose, early Blues anthologies, and more, but really only because the overseas guys got there first. I'd rather buy knowing that the artists or their estates were benefitting, but I am too greedy for the diverse music to pass up opportunities not available in the U.S.
The one comment I would like to make is that as consumers, we have been forced to purchase cd's at vastly inflated prices. For example, all of the great jazz labels of the 50's were bought up and are now owned by huge conglomerates. Do you think it is reasonable to ask consumers to pay $20 or $25 dollars for a cd reissue of vinyl album that Hampton Hawes or Red Garland recorded back in the 50's? How much of that money is going as royalties to anybody? Most sessions on labels like Prestige required the minimum amount of studio time, because that's all that was in the budget. Some other labels were more professional, but come on here folks, none of these companies spent a lot of money on these artists when they were alive. Compare the money record labels spent on these records with the ridiculous amount budgeted for rock and roll recordings, many of which were unlistenable and self indulgent musical twaddle. At least the labels from Europe are providing us with the music at a more reasonable cost. Actually, I have found the sets I purchased to have very good liner notes. Copyright law is what it is in different jurisdictions.
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Marc Myers writes frequently on music and the arts for the Wall Street Journal. He is author of "Why Jazz Happened" (University of California Press). In 2012, JazzWax was named the Jazz Journalists Association's "Blog of the Year."
these producers as well as the musicians. Non-jazz pop examples: George Martin, Tommy Dowd, Paul Rothchild, Mitch Miller, Phil Spector, Lou Adler, Jerry Wexler [pictured] and many others. Classical examples abound as well.
For another point of view, you might want to ask Sue Mingus what she thinks about bootleg reissues. If you dare!
Posted by: Doug Zielke | January 31, 2010 at 10:19 AM
You are right in that these illicit issues keep the music in the air -- but it's not only Sue Mingus who is correctly furious: think of the children and relatives who see Dad's and Mom's records ripped off . . . this hasn't stopped me from buying those naughty bootlegs myself, but I feel bad for Lou McGarity's heirs, for example. I agree that I'd rather have the music in circulation -- an artist colleague says, "All publicity is good publicity," but even the most mingy royalty check is a sign that someone is taking the artist's work seriously.
Posted by: Michael Steinman | January 31, 2010 at 11:23 AM
Another form of rip-off is usually performed by the original record companies when they use alternate takes as fillers (to create overpriced boxed sets, for example). In fact, this is a double rip-off: There is usually an artistic judgement behind an artist's decision to do another take, so he/she is done a disservice when a discarded performance is made public. There are, of course, instances where an artist wants to have such a take put out, but he or she is still—in most cases—ripped off, because unissued alternate takes were not compensated. The union measured a "session" by time spent in the studio or the accumulated running time of "usable" performances. If either measure was exceeded, an additional session was required.
In my experience, LPs almost always required a third session and it was almost always not recorded (on the contract, that is). Ergo, all those alternate takes that became CD "bonuses" did/do not fatten a performer's wallet. The record companies? Well, that's another story—a sordid one. Yes, performers went along with this practice, but only because it was important for them to have material out there.
Major players were not paid the minimum, but most were, and if there was a performance royalty arrangement, it usually did not benefit so-called "sidemen."
Posted by: Chris Albertson | January 31, 2010 at 03:51 PM
One problem with your "So what?" response is that you can't lump together pirate Euro label issues of, say, ABC-Paramount material that otherwise probably would languish in the vaults forever and Euro label pirating of Mosaic and Uptown's carefully assembled and properly paid for sets (Mosaic's consisting of previously issued material, plus often newly discovered alternate takes; Uptown's of material that often has never been issued before). In such cases, just to be clear, the Euro pirates do not themselves assemble packages that mimic what Mosaic and Uptown already have done (in the case of the typical Uptown set, that would be impossible); instead, they simply acquire copies of the Mosaic and Uptown sets and literally duplicate them. A "knock off" to me is a cheap imitation, like a fake Rolex watch or a fake Gucci handbag. This is more like counterfeiting or identity theft.
In any case, this behavior and the resulting loss of sales to Mosaic and Uptown (despite their handsome booklets) may put those estimable labels out of business. And then where will that leave us -- and, for that matter, the Euro pirates? They'll still be able to take the first route mentioned above, but their ripoffs of Mosaic, Uptown, and the like will cease -- you can't steal from an empty cupboard.
Posted by: Larry Kart | January 31, 2010 at 05:15 PM
I once had an email exchange with Michael Cuscuna of Mosaic regarding those quasi-bootleg, copyright-expired sets by Europe-based Proper, JSP, Lone Hill, and others. He was of course offended by their unfair competition, lack of royalty payments, and so on. But he also acknowledged that they were able to operate with an ease of access denied to U.S. reissue producers.
We were discussing the lack of any box set delineating the across-many-labels history of Swing-Becoming-Bop (late '30s/early '40s up to the late '40s revolution), and he glumly admitted that any project that diffuse would have to be done by someone other than Mosaic.
I confess to owning sets on Wardell Gray, Lennie Niehaus, Paramount Masters, J.R. Monterose, early Blues anthologies, and more, but really only because the overseas guys got there first. I'd rather buy knowing that the artists or their estates were benefitting, but I am too greedy for the diverse music to pass up opportunities not available in the U.S.
Posted by: Ed Leimbacher | January 31, 2010 at 07:42 PM
The one comment I would like to make is that as consumers, we have been forced to purchase cd's at vastly inflated prices. For example, all of the great jazz labels of the 50's were bought up and are now owned by huge conglomerates. Do you think it is reasonable to ask consumers to pay $20 or $25 dollars for a cd reissue of vinyl album that Hampton Hawes or Red Garland recorded back in the 50's? How much of that money is going as royalties to anybody? Most sessions on labels like Prestige required the minimum amount of studio time, because that's all that was in the budget. Some other labels were more professional, but come on here folks, none of these companies spent a lot of money on these artists when they were alive. Compare the money record labels spent on these records with the ridiculous amount budgeted for rock and roll recordings, many of which were unlistenable and self indulgent musical twaddle. At least the labels from Europe are providing us with the music at a more reasonable cost. Actually, I have found the sets I purchased to have very good liner notes. Copyright law is what it is in different jurisdictions.
Posted by: Mike Milner | February 01, 2010 at 08:08 PM