Revenant is planning big Albert Ayler box

[clifford_thornton]

Assume they ship to the US? Might get the Patton Box on my next paycheck. I limped along on "selections" for far too long!

[David Williams]

Even cheaper on Amazon UK - £28 Link

[sidewinder]

Even cheaper on Amazon UK - £28 Link

Thanks ! I've an Amazon voucher to use up so this will cost me the grand total of £13, inc P&P

[sidewinder]

Just got my Ayler box. Wow ! At a time of extortionate energy prices and hyper-taxes it is nice to know that you can still get great deals like this for £28. Revenant have even out-done Mosaic with this set - it is a work of art. It will be a learning experience for me too as I don't have very much Ayler but seeing the documentary film got me curious. The extras in the box are fantastic too. The Ayler book is very professionally done with some very good essays by the likes of Val Wilmer and nice to see some of Guy's (Brownie) pictures in there too.

I'll have to check out that Patton box if it's as well produced as this one.

[sidewinder]

For anyone in the UK or Europe interested in the Patton box, Tesco are doing it for £27.99.

Tesco Patton

Heck, if I order this I will even get some Tesco Points too.

[jostber]

Had them put a Patton aside...

Too bad it's not Big John Patton...

The Charley Patton box is tremendous, some of the greatest blues ever recorded.

I'm with you on that one! Suberb box and music.

[Dave Garrett]

For anyone in the UK or Europe interested in the Patton box, Tesco are doing it for £27.99.

Tesco Patton

Heck, if I order this I will even get some Tesco Points too.

Given your comment about "the UK or Europe", I assume Tesco won't ship to the US?

[sidewinder]

For anyone in the UK or Europe interested in the Patton box, Tesco are doing it for £27.99.

Tesco Patton

Heck, if I order this I will even get some Tesco Points too.

Given your comment about "the UK or Europe", I assume Tesco won't ship to the US?

It's probably OK to the US - not sure what their shipping charges would be though.

[PHILLYQ]

I was just looking on Ebay and someone has the Ayler box at $55.69 and free shipping! I have no connection to the seller:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ALBERT-AYLER-HOLY-GHOS...id=p3286.c0.m14

[WarpedOrb]

I'm probably going to catch hell for firing up such an old thread, but I just bought this box. I wanted to know how many others had a faulty Disc #6.

I'm trying to contact someone at Revenant and try and have it replaced. I hope it's not too late. Otherwise - I'm liking this set quite a lot. That Cecil Taylor session is amazing!

[wag]

I'm probably going to catch hell for firing up such an old thread, but I just bought this box. I wanted to know how many others had a faulty Disc #6.

I'm trying to contact someone at Revenant and try and have it replaced. I hope it's not too late. Otherwise - I'm liking this set quite a lot. That Cecil Taylor session is amazing!

http://www.revenantrecords.com/ayler/disc6.html

[paul secor]

Holy Ghost box is available from Jazz Loft for $59.97 - not the cheapest price ever, but less than I paid for it. http://www.jazzloft.com/p-38021-holy-ghost.aspx

[Dave Garrett]

I'm probably going to catch hell for firing up such an old thread, but I just bought this box. I wanted to know how many others had a faulty Disc #6.

I'm trying to contact someone at Revenant and try and have it replaced. I hope it's not too late. Otherwise - I'm liking this set quite a lot. That Cecil Taylor session is amazing!

http://www.revenantrecords.com/ayler/disc6.html

I think I've mentioned this here before, but I sent them an email via that link seeking a replacement disc 6 well over a year ago and never got a response. Others have reported the same results. So I'd have to say that the chances of getting a replacement at this point are somewhere between slim and none - although I'd love to be proven wrong.

[clifford_thornton]

Did I even get to disc six? Oof.

[brownie]

Disc 6 of my Holy Ghost box plays fine.

The music is the only thing that sizzles!

[Chuck Nessa]

The box is now on ESP's sale page for $50.

[AllenLowe]

uggh - just ordered the $59 dollar version. I'm thinking that this one will disappear pretty fast.

[colinmce]

OK, I swear to GOD that is the last thing I'm buying for a month...

(btw shipping was kinda steep at ESP)

[wag]

I'm probably going to catch hell for firing up such an old thread, but I just bought this box. I wanted to know how many others had a faulty Disc #6.

I'm trying to contact someone at Revenant and try and have it replaced. I hope it's not too late. Otherwise - I'm liking this set quite a lot. That Cecil Taylor session is amazing!

http://www.revenantrecords.com/ayler/disc6.html

I think I've mentioned this here before, but I sent them an email via that link seeking a replacement disc 6 well over a year ago and never got a response. Others have reported the same results. So I'd have to say that the chances of getting a replacement at this point are somewhere between slim and none - although I'd love to be proven wrong.

Revenant has closed shop except for one final John Fahey Fonotone box which will be in collaboration with Dust-to-Digital. Apparently, it is due to expensive legal battles that followed after releasing this box set. My guess is that Revenant/Dean Blackwood probably sold the Revenant assets as cut-outs and the Ayler boxes that are being sold now at discount prices are, in effect, no longer of their concern.

Jim

[wag]

I'm probably going to catch hell for firing up such an old thread, but I just bought this box. I wanted to know how many others had a faulty Disc #6.

I'm trying to contact someone at Revenant and try and have it replaced. I hope it's not too late. Otherwise - I'm liking this set quite a lot. That Cecil Taylor session is amazing!

http://www.revenantrecords.com/ayler/disc6.html

I think I've mentioned this here before, but I sent them an email via that link seeking a replacement disc 6 well over a year ago and never got a response. Others have reported the same results. So I'd have to say that the chances of getting a replacement at this point are somewhere between slim and none - although I'd love to be proven wrong.

Revenant has closed shop except for one final John Fahey Fonotone box which will be in collaboration with Dust-to-Digital. Apparently, it is due to expensive legal battles that followed after releasing this box set. My guess is that Revenant/Dean Blackwood probably sold the Revenant assets as cut-outs and the Ayler boxes that are being sold now at discount prices are, in effect, no longer of their concern.

Jim

Which, btw, sucks because I heard they were discussing doing a similar Ornette box of unreleased stuff in collaboration with Ornette and Denardo.

[brownie]

Revenant has closed shop except for one final John Fahey Fonotone box which will be in collaboration with Dust-to-Digital. Apparently, it is due to expensive legal battles that followed after releasing this box set. My guess is that Revenant/Dean Blackwood probably sold the Revenant assets as cut-outs and the Ayler boxes that are being sold now at discount prices are, in effect, no longer of their concern.

Jim

Bad news! Looks like this is the same problem that arose after the release of 'The Copenhagen Tapes' on Ayler Records. The CD had to be pulled out of circulation after the Ayler estate objected to its release!

[king ubu]

That sucks indeed!

But then I thought labels such as Revenant and Ayler Records would check these issues before releasing anything?

Or would the demands be so ridiculously high that they just jump ahead and hope for the best?

[brownie]

But then I thought labels such as Revenant and Ayler Records would check these issues before releasing anything?

Both Revelant and Ayler Records did that.

The Ayler 'Copenhagen Tapes' release has a note indicating:

'Licensed from the Ayler Estate, p and copyright 2002'

Had an email exchange with Jan Ström after he was ordered in 2008 to stop the publication of the CD. Jan mentioned it had been impossible to reach an agreement with the Ayler family for a renewal of the licence and added that the family was simply asking for too much money!

It looks like Albert Ayler has been enrolled in the Erroll Garner school of copyright problems.

[paul secor]

Were Revenant's legal problems due to conflicts with the Ayler estate, or with ESP, or both?

I look forward to the Fahey release. Too bad there won't be a Revenant Ornette. Maybe if Mosaic's not hurting too badly, they could do something.

[wag]

Were Revenant's legal problems due to conflicts with the Ayler estate, or with ESP, or both?

I look forward to the Fahey release. Too bad there won't be a Revenant Ornette. Maybe if Mosaic's not hurting too badly, they could do something.

Oh hell, let me just cut and paste the email from Glenn Jones that I'm getting this from. It's publicly available from the Yahoo Fahey group at:

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/FaheyGuitarPlayers/message/5266

Re: [FaheyGuitarPlayers] John Fahey Fonotone Box Set // NOW IT CAN BE TOLD

Well, gang, it’s official — signatures are on paper and the Fahey Fonotone box is set to proceed! I am so psyched that it’s finally back on the board, after sitting on the back burner, cold as a dead mackerel, for several years now.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As some of you know, I began work on a reissue of the Fonotone Fahey material for Revenant Records back when John was still among us. In fact, my last visit to him the summer before he died was to discuss and this project.

In the two years or so after John’s death, we made some fairly significant progress on the project, but then things ground to a sudden (and to everyone, including me for a while) inexplicable halt.

Why? It’s a long story, and it took a long time — a couple years -- to sort itself out, during which time I was unable to talk about it, partly because there was a lot I didn’t know (though Dean was pretty forthcoming with me, there was lot he couldn’t talk about himself), partly because there were legal issues that couldn't be made public, and partly because it was my hope that once things were sorted out we’d pick up where we left off -- but I didn’t know that for sure, and I had no idea how long the legal battles would take.

Several of you wrote me to ask what was going on during this time. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to respond.

The problem had nothing to do with Fahey or his estate.

The upshot is that an expensive and protracted legal battle followed the issue of the Revenant Albert Ayler box set, and that Revenant has decided to call it a day and get out of the record business. Such a shame, since Revenant is / was one of the best labels going, as anyone who bought their Patton or Ayler or Beefheart boxes, or any of the fabulous American Primitive volumes (must haves!) knows.

But lawyer fees ate up Revenant’s finances, which shut down everything in the Revenant pipeline, including the Fahey project, and the experience, ultimately, was so ugly and left such a bitter taste in Dean’s mouth, that he decided to call it quits.

As things unwound, the growing realization that all the work we’d done might be for naught just broke my heart.

But In the midst of Revenant's legal blood-shedding, Dust-to-Digital issued a four-CD of Joe Bussards Fonotone recordings, after which they also began looking into reissuing the Fahey Fonotone recordings. And that’s how Lance Ledbetter, at DTD, and I happened to get in touch with each other.

The good news is that Dean and Lance have brokered a deal whereby the project will be a Revenant / Dust-to-Digital co-production, and probably the last release to have the Revenant imprint.

As for Dust-to-Digital, truly, I can’t think of a better label to have taken over the reins of the project. Their Art of Field Recording volumes (both 4-CD sets) are among my favorite releases of the past couple years. Their packaging (also done by Susan Archie, Revenant’s designer) is terrific. Besides the Fonotone 4-CD box set, there is a fantastic album of vintage Sacred Harp recordings, one of the best gospel collections ever issued, and much more. Everything they put out is worth investigating.

From a strictly ME point of view, I’m chuffed that I’m still be involved in producing the set, gathering together liner notes, etc.. Though the set will be (must be) scaled back from the version I’d planned for Revenant, it will still be a great thing — five CDs worth of material, give or take -- a lot of it previously unissued, plus notes, photos, etc.

More info as things proceed.

Cheers!

Glenn Jones

Cambridge, MA