Adam

Brand new New Yorker interview with Pharoah Sanders: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/if-youre-in-the-song-keep-on-playing-pharoah-sanders-interview

Someone somehow really needs to do an affordable reissue of all the Japanese Waldron albums. Sigh.

Where does one get "The Reminiscent Suite"? Thanks!

Just saw Don Preston a few weeks ago playing keyboards with Bobby Bradford in Pasadena as part of Bradford's band for his Jackie Robinson suite.

Stamped from the Beginning: the Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, by Ibram Kendi. Really liking it.

Article in LA Times: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2019-09-25/bobby-bradford-jackie-robinson-stealin-home Performing 4 times between now and the end of the year. The other person interviewed, Terry Cannon, is a wonderful person who, besides running the Baseball Reliquary now, also founded Pasadena Filmforum in 1975. Pasadena Filmforum evolved into Los Angeles Filmforum, which I now run.

I just saw Mel Chin present thoughts at the Getty. he did indeed seem quite brilliant.

That's really quite the set; not to figure out if I actually have money for it. I noticed Vol. 14 has the titles in alphabetical order. Curatorial humor?

Any way to see what might be on the discs, please?

It will be really long, and there are lots of photos, but mostly of people whose recordings were lost. It's from the Magazine. The Day the Music Burned It was the biggest disaster in the history of the music business — and almost nobody knew. This is the story of the 2008 Universal fire. By Jody Rosen June 11, 2019 1. ‘The Vault Is on Fire’ A version of this article appears in print on June 15, 2019, on Page 27 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: The Day The Music Burned . Moderator, please Delete if not allowed Summary of what was lost: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/us/master-recordings-universal-fire.html?module=inline

Overall, it's really quite an article.

More for those who can't access the NY Times: "One insider said, “Most senior executives in the record business have no understanding of what masters are, why you need to store them, what the point of them is.” Crucially, masters were not seen as capable of generating revenue. On the contrary: They were expensive to warehouse and therefore a drain on resources. To record-company accountants, a tape vault was inherently a cost center, not a profit center. These attitudes prevailed even at visionary labels like Atlantic Records, which released hundreds of recordings by black artists beginning in the late 1940s. In his Billboard exposé, Holland mentioned a 1978 fire in an “Atlantic Records storage facility in Long Branch, N.J.” Holland did not reveal that the “facility” was the former home of Vogel’s Department Store, owned by the family of Sheldon Vogel, Atlantic’s chief financial officer. Late in the 1970s, Vogel told me, Ahmet Ertegun, Atlantic’s president, complained about tapes cramming the label’s Manhattan office. Vogel suggested moving the material to the empty Long Branch building. Vogel was on vacation on Feb. 8, 1978, when he learned the building had burned down. The 5,000-plus lost tapes comprised nearly all of the session reels, alternate takes and unreleased masters recorded for Atlantic and its sublabels between 1949 and 1969, a period when its roster featured R.&B., soul and jazz luminaries, including Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman. Today the importance of those tapes is self-evident: thousands of hours of unheard music by some of history’s greatest recording artists. But to Atlantic in 1978, the tapes were a nuisance. According to Vogel, Atlantic collected “maybe a couple of million dollars” in insurance on the destroyed masters. It seemed like a good deal. “We thought, Boy, what a windfall,” Vogel says. “We thought the insurance was worth far more than the recordings. Eventually, the true value of those recordings became apparent.”

Jack White's Third Man Records did an elaborate LP reissue last year, a deluxe edition sold out in presales. But the straight LP seems to be in print: https://thirdmanstore.com/records/trout-mask-replica

One could just call the department at UCLA and ask if it is true. He is faculty there.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-hal-blaine-obituary-drums-wrecking-crew-20190311-story.html

Agreed, it's quite consistent with most Blaxploitation films of the time (and other exploitation films) except perhaps Coffey and Foxy Brown, but those can also be read that way.

I saw it last night with the Sun Ra Arkestra performing live, at the Red Bull Music Festival in LA. https://www.redbull.com/us-en/music/events/space-is-the-place-with-sun-ra-arkestra-live-score The audience was full in a makeshift cinema at the Ukrainian Cultural Center, a haven decades ago for punk shows, experimental film exhibition in the 1960s, and more. It was great to see the Arkestra, but as one might expect, the music balance between the Arkestra and the film caused a lot of drowned out dialogue from the film. Not always a bad thing, as much of the dialogue is silly, and the visuals tell the story. The film is also really misogynistic; it's a shame that such a crucial film in Afro-futurism has that flaw, which I didn't fully see in 2004. My partner pointed out how the Arkestra always drowned out any women's dialogue. Every person presenting as female in the film, besides June Tyson, is a hooker, or the woman of the Overseer or a cigarette seller in a night club. I mean, it is also low-budget and very much of its time, but those other factors are pretty fun. The digital version that was projected seemed to be from a print or a not great negative; scratches in various places. Producer Jim Newman was in attendance again (see my post regarding the 2004 screening above, which is the previous time I have seen it) but did not speak.

I am also saddened. He was marvelous. Condolences to all his friends and family.

I have #4160, direct from import CDs. All the discs are present.

Where do I look for the number?

Ack - I retract my prior statement. near the start of the booklet they have a section called Artwork which DOES have color reproductions of the original covers. They did make some effort to gather some texts. For example, they have a few pages from Jack DeJohnette's book to use as text on one of his albums. More substantial are four essays at different points by Steve Lake, Craig Taborn, George Lewis, and Vijay Iyer. There are clippings of reviews and other b&w photos scattered throughout the booklet.

Trying to upload images. My images are all below 100 kb but not matter what I do, it just has a message saying that the maximum I can upload is 102.4 kb. Even just for one image of mine, 44 kb, it shows that message and won't upload. What's an alternative solution? here they are on Flickr https://flic.kr/s/aHsmuJrtyc

I have received it. The box is ok, a heavier plastic. If hard shell is like a DVD case: it is not that hard, just a firmer cardboard. The booklet is fine. The individual discs are uniform cardboard, black text on white. Original album cover art has been reproduced in b&w in the booklet and not on each record. There is no color ink anywhere except some red on the box. The booklet reproduces original notes if there were any, and has new short essays or notes or memories for some albums but not all, plus full production notes. I guess I could take a picture or two later. Overall, I would say the production matches the price point. I have yet to listen to any to comment on mastering.

According to Simon, it's not his last concert, just his last tour. So this is the last concert of his last tour, but he still will play occasional & local concerts, theoretically. I saw this tour in Los Angeles and was glad I went. I regret not seeing a variety of people when they played (Ray Charles, James Brown), and I just want to see some of these folks while I can. Simon has a solid band and a lot of songs that I like. Simple as that. But I've seen Los Lobos in person more. Not mentioned as much is that George Clinton has said that this P-Funk tour is their last tour, and that's a show that must be seen! I've seen them twice in the past.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/17/arts/music/big-jay-mcneely-dies.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fobituaries&action=click&contentCollection=obituaries&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront https://www.laweekly.com/music/rip-big-jay-mcneely-april-29-1927-sept-16-2018-9870238