Sunday Wax Bits

By now, I'm sure you've heard that the National Jazz Museum in Harlem has acquired nearly 1,000 discs recorded from radio broadcasts in the late 1930s by engineer William Savory [pictured]. The bounty includes previously unreleased transcriptions by Coleman Hawkins, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday and other jazz giants. Many of the recordings are reported to be historically significant.

What you may not know is that a firestorm has been raging among the jazz cognoscenti since the news first broke in mid-August. At issue is whether the recordings will ever see the light of day commercially. There appears to be a hornet's nest of U.S. copyright issues looming. In addition, there's the very real threat that whatever the museum does release digitally will immediately be pirated by European record labels and sold here for less.

Why? European record labels aren't up against the same copyright restrictions that U.S. record companies face. In Europe, creative works enter the public domain after 50 years, which means anything recorded earlier than 1961 can be re-packaged and issued with lower overhead. In the digital age, the difference in audio quality between using a master and a clean analog or digital copy is good enough that consumers don't fuss, giving the European labels a huge advantage over American labels that devote time and dollars to reissues.

Jazz insiders have tended to divide into two camps over the Savory copyright issue: Some argue that copyright royalties on the Savory material should be paid to family members of the original artists, while others feel the music's importance transcends such things and the recordings should not be left gathering dust on a shelf because of the copyright issue. I tend to side with the second camp.

As someone who creates daily, I'm a big believer that original works should be protected. But the current length of time a work is protected by the copyright law seems overly extensive and antiquated, especially in light of the more liberal European laws. What's more, creative works under U.S. copyright laws were never intended to be annuities for artists' great-grandchildren. Comes a point when the music needs to be available to one and all—without the crippling cost of royalties and red tape.

As for those who slam the European labels for issuing out of print American albums, there seems to be a disconnect and some xenophobia. These labels have satisfied American jazz fans and enriched our culture at a time when our own major labels stubbornly refused to do so. It's fair to say that many jazz fans would know little or nothing about artists such as Red Callender, Sonny Criss, Bobby Scott, Med Flory, Joe Maini and so many others if it weren't for the European labels.

What's more, many of the same people who disparage the European labels think Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie were clever for using the chord changes to Tin Pan Alley standards to create new songs. Funny, I don't hear anyone screaming that the families of Ray Noble and George Gershwin are owed a few bucks today.

Seems to me the National Jazz Museum has two choices if it truly wants the music out there: Seek a grant and release the recordings as a rolling series of free downloads at its site with hopes that the generosity and publicity generated will convert into higher visibility and museum donations. Or the museum should meet with Spain's Fresh Sound to cut a deal that would allow the European label to issue and distribute the music worldwide. The royalty issue would be skirted, the museum would get a cut from sales, and Fresh Sound would be left to worry about combating the platter pirates.

Lou Donaldson. In case you missed my rare Saturday post, here's the news: Yesterday, my profile of Lou Donaldson ran in the Wall Street Journal in advance of Lou's appearance at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola starting on Tuesday. For my article, go here. 

Maynard Ferguson on Roulette. Mosaic's box The Complete Roulette Recordings of the Maynard Ferguson Orchestra is long out of print. Presently, two copies are selling at Amazon for about $1,500 each. Ouch. But wait—JazzWax reader Rick in Maryland tells me someone has put up all 146 tracks at YouTube. How good is this material? Astonishingly great. Ferguson's Roulette period is breathtaking for its energy, musicianship and rubber-burning execution. To listen to all of this Roulette material for free, go here.

CD discoveries of the week. Pianist Amina Figarova's Sketches is a stimulating, fast-paced album with a leaf-chasing spirit. Figarova has a windy, pretty sound to her playing that is uplifting and introspective. She clearly understands how to deliver lightness and intensity in equal measure. This remarkable album features Figarova compositions arranged for a sextet. The group includes Ernie Hammes on trumpet and flugelhorn, Marc Mommaas on tenor sax, Bart Platteau on flute, Jeroen Vierdag on bass and Chris Strik on drums. Figarova's luxuriant aggression on the keyboard is evident in Four Steps To...,  Whotsot and On the Road. Best of all, the album never sinks into a single mood or groove and constantly offers surprises.

You'll find Amina Figarova's Sketches (Munich) here.

Eden Brent plays a mean boogie-woogie piano. But she also sings, and on Ain't Got No Troubles, Brent's heart and passion for the music becomes fully exposed. In the great Memphis tradition, Brent slings one song after the next with a voice soaked in gospel and blues smarts. Her voice is as free as a tire rolling down a back road, traveling where it pleases, deftly escaping the out-stretched arms of pragmatic pedestrians. This is music sipped slowly and neat. Dig Brent's cakewalk-y Ain't Got No Troubles and In Love With Your Wallet. Or catch Blues All Over and Let's Boogie-Woogie for some peppery blues piano playing. This is the real deal and bound to get your feet going.

You'll find Eden Brent's Ain't Got No Troubles (Yellow Dog) at iTunes or here. 

Oddball album cover of the week. The music on this Buddy Collette album from 1956 is fabulous. It features John Anderson (tp), Buddy Collette (cl,as,ts,fl), Gerald Wiggins (p), Jim Hall (g), Curtis Counce (b) and Chico Hamilton (d). As for the cover concept, it's strange to say the least. I'm not sure of the figurine's significance, but it certainly gives new meaning to the sculptural term "bust."

Comments

[RM_Alost]

Hi Marc,

I've been reading your blog for a couple of days now, and you got me hooked here.

About the European labels, they actually got me into a lot of the good stuff, and made me look for the original albums. Some albums (and artists for that matter) I wouldn't have known about if it wasn't for those labels. What I think is sad though, is the poor quality and lack of information (or wrong information, not to speak of typos) on most those discs. But yeah I paid the Miles Davis estate enough already :)

cheers from Holland.
Ruud.

[Rab Hines]

I am also conflicted about buying stuff from some of those Spanish labels. It's a very thorny issue, but on the whole I tend to agree with you - but I consistently pass over those Fresh Sound releases when I see them, (and they put out some remarkable stuff, I admit), but mostly on the grounds that they tend to be poorly/inaccurately presented. Yet, so do the Savoy Nippon releases and I buy them whenever I come across them. Go figure.

And not to create trouble, but how different is putting all the Fergusson Mosaic things on Youtube? I doubt that Mosaic greatly appreciates that.

I'm wondering if the Smithsonian might negotiate with the Savory folk - they've done some excellent (and some mediocre) presentations of classic music.

[Doug Zielke]

I'm all for the artists estates getting their fair share. That is, if anything is left after the lawyers are done feeding.

[Rick]

Marc

We're on the same wavelength again.
As a regular attendee of the Newport Jazz Festival, it is frustrating to not be able to hear every act that performs there each year due to the staggered timing of the sets. Nevertheless, each year I take away a new favorite that I had not heard before. This time it is Amina Figarova!

Her NJF set is a free download on NPR.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128983331

[David]

This quote is from a review by Chris Byars of a Fresh Sounds issue of the complete recordings of Jimmy Cleveland:
"Having spoken to Jimmy Cleveland about this CD, it's a bittersweet story. He was never contacted by the record company, didn't even know it was being reissued. I sent him my copy - he wasn't thrilled with it."
Mosaic licenses the right to a limited number of pressings from the copyright owners. They wouldn't have a commercial reason to be upset by youtube postings of editions that have sold out, except to the extent that it makes it harder for them to get licenses in the future.
Jazz musicians have a hard enough time earning a living without having their recordings stolen.
Historically, societies that don't respect property rights haven't prospered economically.

[David]

Tanganyika is a true classic. Although recorded at one session, it was a working band of highly sympathetic musicians with a great selection of original material. I love the way Chico tunes his drums to the the bass on the title track. The album is a great blend of well-rehearsed arrangements and spontaneous interaction with everyone in top form.

[Rab Hines]

The same when I asked Steve Turre about the reissue of Woody Shaw's Master of the Art. He didn't know about it, and said they didn't even send him a copy.

[ortega]

And all that about some recordings that were themselves pirated in the first place!

[Mus14]

I am for them getting their fair share as well. That's a lot of music.

[Ed Leimbacher]

It's a complex and un-Savory issue. One can understand heirs wanting to keep some control, keep some royalties coming in (and maybe some compromise on a secondary rate of payment could be worked out), but in fact most of the legal gambits and copyright agitating and lobbying within our both-hands-out Congress has come from movie studios and the Disney mega-Org, from publishers and record labels all trying to hang onto the money for another 50 or 60 years.

I had an email exchange with Michael Cuscuna once about such matters... some projects he couldn't take on due to conflicting copyrights and estates, whereas Euro record groups could just grab up the tracks, package and put 'em out. Some better-quality re-issuers are at work over there too, like LoneHill, Gambit, JSP and Proper. (What of the great Bear Family box sets--all copyrights paid on those?) I think American citizen consumers are once again being screwed by our once-American, now-global-and-be-damned conglomerates. Fifty-six years of sole copyright should be sufficient.

[blbs]

I wish that Fresh Sound can do it. If the Museum limited to offering free downloads for America, the whole world will miss the opportunity to know these wonders. Like iTunes would work only for USA's citizens. The culture in USA is a selfish ghetto.

[Michael Steinman]

It is all complicated. The music-lover in me wants to hear the music, the music . . . but the writer whose work gets stolen without anyone asking permission wonders how the children of, say, Lou McGarity or Jimmy Rushing feel. Do they feel that having their parents remembered is more than sufficient return for the absence of a surprise royalty check? Like all ethical discussions, this one shifts greatly depending on which side of the invisible fence you're standing on. It also says something about technology that we can now turn out near-flawless copies of art: if we were only able to make cassette recordings of a CD, perhaps everyone would be calmer. And "the culture in USA might well be a selfish ghetto," (please define your terms!) but the USA also was the place where Benny Goodman could broadcast on the radio -- for everyone to hear for free, I might add . . .