Dub Modal

Good question - I would guess that these folks were essentially acting as marketers for the movement. Not so much by way of printed ads, etc. but via periodical columns, interviews, etc. that have messages that get broadcasted further should other major media outlets pick them up. Whatever it was, their influence got amplified to the point where they were still a commanding force for the Burns doc...which has been replaying lately. Crouch & Marsalis telling stories about Sidney Bechet just seems like bona fide theater of the absurd to me.

Sparked by a comment in the 80s jazz album thread about how the Young Lion "movement" in the 80s was an example of corporate astroturfing (something I tend to agree with as a distinct possibility), and the fact that I don't want to crowd that thread with extraneous discussion, I figured I'd put this here to live or die, and will probably regret doing so but whatever - it's miscellaneous at least. While the focus of the below tweets - note, not my own - is on current musical pop culture, the same concept probably applies to just about all genres of music published on major labels. I wasn't into jazz back when the YL's were advertised as saving jazz, and I certainly don't fault most of those artists that were able to cash in, produce records, get gigs and have careers and whatnot, especially if they didn't backstab during the whole process. But the message of "saving jazz," attached to that promotion was indeed phony and manufactured. At a high level review of trends within jazz and improvisational music since that happened, it seems that there haven't really been any further astroturfing trends that were as aggressive against its own scene as the YL trend was, and that's a good thing. For instance, I don't detect shade being thrown in promo stuff for an artist like Kamasi Washington. His label for The Epic was Brainfreeze, whose ultimate parent is Ninja Tune which reports billions in revenue.

I know they became the label that reissued the Nighthawk catalog (reggae) and did so on both CD and LP. I only got one of those CDs, but reports I've read about their vinyl were positive. Seems they put in solid efforts regarding SQ and pressing quality.

The set will more than likely sell out, similar to the Mobley set. There's probably plenty of interest for the amount of sets they'll produce. Maybe they don't think they need to market it as much due to that, but it just seems to me that additional traffic to their site would also help sell some other sets that are sitting in inventory (or possibly with hold orders until enough sets are ordered).

Good lord when I read that top post ad from "DL Media Music" I swear I thought it read "Di Meola Music" and wondered if ol' Al had gone into production or publishing too.

I love the grooves on that record. No shame in the game!

So many good albums there. And astroturfing is probably the correct word for that situation back then. Don't know who the publicist/agent/marketing team involved was but they obviously had good connections. A few more 80s albums I enjoy: That's obviously a comp that was released in '88 And some more:

That would indeed be bizarre and raises questions in my mind about them continuing to be a going concern. Get those other sets while you can I guess.

They gotta do better though. Emails and word of mouth are a bare minimum in terms of real advertising. Doesn’t cost them anything to put stuff on their blog and other avenues of digital marketing can be cheap as well. I have to think they know this....

Some great albums here. I'll try and list some that I really enjoy without repetition of what's already been mentioned: That'll do for now...tons more. Just about the entire Bee Hive catalog could be posted.

Mosaic - so bizarre these days. They don't advertise their products nor their consignment deals for other labels like Resonance & Dot Time. Not even on their own Jazz Gazzette blog! For example, they've got the Nat King Cole 10 LP set at $150 which is about $50 off Resonance's own site. There's several other deals from that label but they just don't tell anyone. You have to stumble onto the True Blue page to even find them. That there's absolutely no mention of this Joe Henderson set anywhere other than here and maybe some other forums is crazy. They've really given up.

At the very least the Mosaic set should drop prices on those single discs like the one linked above.

Waiting to see this Joe Henderson track list like

Great stuff! I dig VF too. Common One less so...

Yeah me too. Although I'd need to have some folks take pics of me working on the computer and then convert them to posters for the office space.

Agreed. and Natty Rebel is a great album. I overlooked Serious Matter back in '99 but it's got some fantastic songs on it. He was a true original and from what I've read a very kind soul.

Dexter's Take the A Train via CD.

I basically listened to U Roy all day yesterday. A couple of excellent albums:

RIP U Roy

Awful. The only recommendation I have is that if you, or any of his contacts have the time, please go and get the BTC sudafed for him (store brand if they have it, cheaper & the same thing) and just leave it at the door. Also, if he doesn't have a pulse oximeter, I do recommend picking that up too (probably $30 - $35). It got in my tonsils badly, which made breathing and functioning in general difficult. Sudafed and advil/tylenol were absolutely crucial to alleviating those symptoms. My doc gave me an antibiotic too, which was mostly precautionary based on the color of mucus I had. No idea if it did anything, but I took it just as well. The pulse oximeter can help let one know when you might need to go to the hospital, because if you are consistently below 95% or something like that you need to advise the doc immediately and possibly go on to the hospital. The other thing I did, and this is personal preference, but I basically drank hot water with honey and lemon as much as possible. And then 1 oz of whisky before bed. The whisky worked better than the cough syrup (Delsym is what I tried). I couldn't taste it of course, but it's more medicinal at that point rather than sipping for enjoyment. Best of luck to him. Shit is no joke.

With the current interstate highways, that's about an hour's drive or so at that time of night per Google maps. Back then, I'm wondering if it was more like 2 hours, or even more. Great story.

Quartet with Ed Bickert, Ron Carter & Connie Kay