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That's all well and good, but surely the younger me will not be the only one here who, as a novice listener and fan, has benefited greatly from reading liner notes or record reviews? And I often got a lot of pleasure out of it too.

I sincerely want to believe it's legit (through the Hampel connection). It's just that they overemphasise this a bit on all channels without giving much concrete information. For example, they put the following post on their webpage: "What an important task you undertake reissuing such seminal recordings AND with the ethicality of benefiting performers and protecting their moral and artistic (and financial) rights. Thanks guys/gals and look forward to your future releases." Sounds a bit artificial, doesn't it? It could just be my suspicious mind, but some more info about the source would be welcome. It seems that this new release will be a reissue of the Earthforms (second) pressing, which has a cover design that's slightly different from the original.

There was a reissue of this album a couple of years back, but that was labelled "unofficial" by Discogs. Can we be sure that this new release is not a bootleg? I don't know the label (apparently it's their first release). The bandcamp page doesn't dispel all my doubts. "An independent label reissuing music that is important but out of print. artists that should be heard more and remunerated. All the artist (or there families) retain all copyright & publishing ownership, and the royalties/benefits from there compositions. The label only profits from its share of selling LPs" (sic)

Transversales has indeed released several live recordings in cooperation with the INA, but only on vinyl (no CD's).

I'm sorry, but I don't see the logic in your reasoning. Would Mr. Thomas deliberately have fewer records (or CDs) pressed than he could sell, just so that he would not have to pay an acceptable fee to the artist? I also believe that you are grossly overestimating the profit that Mr. Thomas could ever make from this release. I have a lot of respect for your efforts in the interest of the artists and I agree with much of what you write, but are you really sure about your allegations in this particular case? To be clear: I am in no way involved in this release or other projects of Mr. Thomas, with whom I only had a conversation once when I was in Paris. It was about music and it was very pleasant.

I don't know if they have the right to make a download available. I guess that will depend on the terms of the licence agreement with the owner of the recording (INA). Let me be clear: I would love to have this music (maybe the complete concert?) on a CD produced with the same care. But that, for whatever reason, is apparently not an option.

This is a larger excerpt from the interview with Steve Feigenbaum (Cuneiform) cited above. Some interesting observations and a lot more nuanced than that one sentence about sales figures. I’ve read a lot about the vinyl revival, does vinyl sell? I released a lot of vinyl and the only way it sells is if the band is playing a lot, and is selling it themselves from the merch table. The big legacy is going to be all these people with unsold vinyl albums and unsold CDs. I went very broke chasing the vinyl thang. If the artist sold it, it sold. If the artist didn’t sell it, it didn’t sell. That’s really it. And when I say the artist sold it, I mean they took it on tour with them. What about these small, boutique vinyl stores? They seem to be selling records. They may be doing great, but it’s not enough to pay for the huge amounts of money you have to spend to make a vinyl record. The amount you have to spend to make a vinyl record is huge compared to making a CD. Are CDs still relatively cheap? Yes. When I release something on CD, I can sell between 300 and 1,000 copies, even now. That’s what I am doing now. That’s what Cuneiform is doing now. I was selling a hell of a lot more than 1,000 of my better titles when I had a staff that I was paying. A great title was selling 10,000 copies. You don’t see much about CD sales. They don’t talk about it because it isn’t perceived as interesting or hip by the media. Something that I can sell 1,000 copies of as a CD, if it comes out on vinyl, and the band doesn’t take any from me, maybe I can sell 75 or 100. That’s what I can sell. Now if the band takes the rest, it can work, but they have to take them. It is very nice when the band buys copies of the CDs from me, but I don’t require it to release a recording. But if the band says to me, “WE WANT VINYL.” I say, “Great, my minimum quantity is 250, and I want 30 of them. Are you going to take 220?” If they say, “Sure,” then we do it. If they say, “What the fuck are we going to do with 220 copies?” I say, “Well, what the fuck am I going to do with 250?” Why does it work if the band sells vinyl? Vinyl is great to sell off the bandstand. People want a souvenir. They want a shirt—they had an incredible time at the show—they want to talk to you after the show, and shake your hand, and tell you, “I had an incredible time.” Even if they don’t have a record player, a record is this nice big thing, and it’s a perfect thing for the band to autograph. It’s a way to show how much you loved the show you just saw, but it’s not necessarily the way people are listening to music. There are people who like vinyl and they do buy it either mail order or from stores, but it’s not enough. At Wayside Music, which buys other people’s releases from distributors and makes it available to people through mail order and online sales, we have a lot of vinyl customers. We sell a lot of vinyl, but it’s all one of this and one of that. It’s 1,000s of things, but one of this and one of that. A really big vinyl seller for Wayside Music is three or four copies. That’s great. And since I am buying them one at a time, that’s fine. But if they cost me a fortune, and my minimum quantity is 250, selling four copies kind of sucks.

Format war all over again. Sigh. I don't know if the situation is different in the US, but friends - musicians and others - who are active in niches within the niche (decidedly "non-commercial" music) assure me that they sell a lot more vinyl than CDs today. To such an extent, in fact, that it makes little sense to release their music on CD, even though it is a lot cheaper (and therefore potentially much more profitable) than releasing a record. That is not a value judgment, but an observation. And it's not the same thing as the largely artificial vinyl-hype on the commercial music market (the music as lifestyle accessory you refer to).

My post was not about the format war. I was surprised by the (implicit) allegations against the Sam label and this particular release. The care (and undoubtedly expense) that was spent on the production of this release seems to testify of great respect for the music and the musicians. If my impression was wrong, I would like to know why.

But you criticised the "limited edition model" because it brought the artist less income, didn't you? Mosaics sell out too... Isn't it possible that the licence agreement with INA also contain provisions on the size of the pressing? And would the "percentage of the pie" offered to the artists not be determined by INA, the owner of the recording? The Sam Records website mentions that the album is released "with the full permission and cooperation" of Billy Harper. Is there any reason to doubt this? Of course I have no intention of accusing you of anything and I want to respect that you cannot reveal all your information on a public forum, but I honestly don't really understand your criticism on this specific release and label. Taking into account the high quality of the production and presentation and the very reasonable price, this can hardly be considered as an example of making quick money on the backs of the musicians. I don't need to tell you that there are hundreds of new releases in the shops every week where such practices are taking place.

These are recordings from the archives of Radio France, owned by the French National Audiovisual Institute (INA). INA works with Fred Thomas, but also with other labels, to make selected recordings from these archives available to the general public.

Roy DuNann left Contemporary in the early 60s. The number of recordings with him as a sound engineer is surprisingly (and disappointingly) small. The funny thing is that he started working for Koenig recording dixieland jazz (for the Good Time Jazz label). That's where his heart was. He didn't like at all the modern jazz that Koenig started recording for Contemporary. I remember from an interview I've read the question what his thoughts were when he was recording those historic first sessions of Ornette Coleman. His answer was something like: "I would have sent the boy home."

I am tempted, but have yet to overcome my aversion to Laswell.

Forgive my ignorance, but why do you have to choose?

Sad news. He was a great player. From the late 80s onwards, he seemed to be omnipresent, but I cherish his playing on recordings from the late 60s and early 70s with Paul Bley, Annette Peacock, Nature's Consort and so on. Quite an impressive curriculum. I also have a soft spot for his 3 records on (his own?) Alacra label: Shodo, Digit and Sharpeville. Thank you for the music.

"Revenge" was reissued a few years ago as a "proper" Annette Peacock album on her own (?) Ironic label.

Pim, the album was recorded at the concert hall of the Schola Cantorum, a private music school in in Paris. In the late 60s Nathan Davis taught jazz history and improvisation there. The concert hall is the former church of the Benedictines’ Convent, dating from the 17th century.

Surely the Ayler with Marte Röling cover was never actually released?

I'm glad they did; it's a particularly strong performance. I have the impression that you can hear that the quintet is more familiar with this piece, which they recorded a few days earlier in the studio, than with "Cry Of Hunger". Anyway, an excellent release from Sam.

A "chief cook and bottle washer" would be a person who has a wide variety of duties in the organization. At least that's what I thought it meant. "I speak English very well. I learned it from a book." (Fawlty Towers, 1970)

Some lunchtime sleuthing : Paula Records launched its jazz series in 1973. Part of it were the "Carson" recordings by AEC ("Chi Congo") and Mal Waldron ("On Steinway"). Other titles in the series were originals (James Moody, Sonny Stitt, Young-Holt Unlimited...). Those albums were recorded by Paul Serrano at his PS Studio. Dandy Don Logan worked as chief cook and bottle washer for Stanley Lewis' record companies. He gets a credit on some of these jazz series albums, including "Chi Congo", as "co-ordinator".

I understand and I will respect that. Just one thing, though: do you mean negative feelings about the music or about what happened with those recordings ("Chi Congo", "Go Home"...) ? Whenever Berjot/Jaubert's name comes up, you're bound to have a discographical mess...

I know Berjot recorded the Art Ensemble for the "Certain Blacks" album (released on his Musidisc label), but was he also involved in the "Chi Congo" session?

The "Chi Congo" album was recorded around the same time as "Les Stances à Sophie" and was also issued in Japan by Emi/Odeon. There seems to be quite a bit of discographical confusion about this album. I suppose that session was not part of the recording deal with Pathé Marconi? Do you know what happened with those masters?

I thought the first song started out very promising, until the male voices joined in. From there on it succumbed to an excess of clever turns and effects. The group is already identified as Roomful Of Teeth; the track is called "Quizassa". I read above that the composer is a "name" in pop music. I don't know her and, based on this track, I am not convinced. Marie Daulne/Zap Mama already did this translation of traditional vocal music into quasi-pop music 30 years ago (she was mainly inspired by the Pygmy music of her childhood) and, for this listener, with much more charm. I liked the last track more than I would have expected, considering the ensemble playing here. Some added effects bothered me a bit: in general, I prefer either a piece built entirely on (the manipulation of) the vocal loops (like the early Steve Reich tape pieces mentioned above) or the preservation of the unedited/unadorned field recording. Still, an attractive piece, full of atmosphere (the guitar part was not necessary for me, but I can assume that it helps to warm up a wider audience for this music). The gorgeous snippet of Bartok is the first of his 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs. I have the complete Bartok piano music by Zoltan Kocsis, but it's not him playing. Remembering your enthusiasm about György Sandor, that name seems a safe bet.