Dragon records - Art Blakey live

[JSngry]

Well, the Bluebird CD liner notes tell a different story as per Beny Golson. He says taht when he showed up to the club, he noticed a mobile recording van out front, followed the cables to back behind some double doors, and that him and the rest of the band refused to play until they were paid, in advance, in Aamerican money. They went so far as to begin to pack up and leave! Blakey remained silent through all this, acting like he knew nothing of it. Finally a call was made, the monies paid, and things got under way.

That's Golson's 1989 account, anyway. Should I be suspicious of his "memory"?

I ask that seriously.

[John L]

Wasn't the St. Germain stuff going to be done under the table, at least until the band found out about it?

No way.

I was at the Club Saint-Germain on the night the proceedings were recorded.

Lucky you.

But did you have sing Wade in the Water so loudly during Timmons' solo?

[brownie]

Wasn't the St. Germain stuff going to be done under the table, at least until the band found out about it?

No way.

I was at the Club Saint-Germain on the night the proceedings were recorded.

Lucky you.

But did you have sing Wade in the Water so loudly during Timmons' solo?

Twasn't me B-)

There was a lot of shouts coming from a table close to the bandstand. Hazel Scott and Mae Mezzrow (Mezz's wife) were very loudly digging the sounds

Think that's who got heard on the records...

Edited January 17, 2005 by brownie

[brownie]

Well, the Bluebird CD liner notes tell a different story as per Beny Golson. He says taht when he showed up to the club, he noticed a mobile recording van out front, followed the cables to back behind some double doors, and that him and the rest of the band refused to play until they were paid, in advance, in Aamerican money. They went so far as to begin to pack up and leave! Blakey remained silent through all this, acting like he knew nothing of it. Finally a call was made, the monies paid, and things got under way.

That's Golson's 1989 account, anyway. Should I be suspicious of his "memory"?

I ask that seriously.

I tend to presume Golson's memory should not be questioned. But the truth of the matter probably lies in the phrase 'Blakey remained silent through all this, acting like he knew nothing of it.'

I was not involved in any of these business dealings but I am sure Blakey knew exactly what was going on!

And Filipacchi made another deal later with Blakey which enabled him (and French RCA) to release the November 15, 1959 concert at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees (with Wayne Shorter having replaced Golson).

Golson should have been happy however with the royalties money he got when Filipacchi and Frank Tenot played his Blues March every night for at least a couple of years at the beginning and the end of each of their radio show!

[kdd]

Evidence proves you wrong on this - look at Art Blakey's recordings in the 1958-1961 period when he was recording in the U.S. exclusively for Blue Note. He recorded in Europe for Fontana (Paris Olympia, Des Femmes Disparaissent, Paris Jam Session) and for RCA (Club St. Germain).

And until you have seen those contracts, you can't say what the stipulations of the radio contracts were.

Mike

I was referring more to Miles actually and Columbia. As Blue Note was an independant label and many others recorded records for other labels while on Blue Note I wasn't talking about this.

[Bill Fenohr]

This is just my opinion, but i dont think there was a jazz artist alive,including Miles, who,at that time, brought in enough profit to the record companies that would enable them to justify the legal costs they would rack up trying to pursue a case outside the US.

After all if i remember correctly,did'nt it take 40 years for Kind Of Blue to sell a million copies. In Columbia's case, if the artist had been Streisand then its a whole different ballgame.

For the independents the legal costs were out of the queston period. Not to mention that they spent most of their time trying to get their distributors to pay them.

Like i say, thats just my two cents. However i do think the Dragon stuff is legit.

[Daniel A]

This was the only thread I could find with "Dragon Records" in its title. Maybe not so much about that particular label, but nice to read it again. And perhaps the appropriate place to note that Lars Westin, who founded the label together with pianist Jan Wallgren in 1975, passed away late last year, somewhat under the radar.

I would be surprised if there were more releases from the label. They had almost a 50 year run under the same ownership. Incidentally, the first and last original releases for the label (from 1975 and 2020, respectively) were by the same artist, Swedish trumpeter Bengt Ernryd.

[Big Beat Steve]

On 6/18/2024 at 10:48 PM, Daniel A said:

This was the only thread I could find with "Dragon Records" in its title. Maybe not so much about that particular label, but nice to read it again. And perhaps the appropriate place to note that Lars Westin, who founded the label together with pianist Jan Wallgren in 1975, passed away late last year, somewhat under the radar.

I would be surprised if there were more releases from the label. They had almost a 50 year run under the same ownership. Incidentally, the first and last original releases for the label (from 1975 and 2020, respectively) were by the same artist, Swedish trumpeter Bengt Ernryd.

Sad to hear about his death. I had been wondering off and on during the past 4-5 years about their catalog. It seemed like not much at all was still available from Dragon in recent years, and looking at their website now I cannot see any trace of a mail order section anymore.  Pity ... will have to look elsewhere for those reissues of 50s and 60s Swedihs jazz that I had passed up in the past.

[Clunky]

Sad news. Dragon was a great source of early modern Swedish jazz. The run of LPs and CDs covering Lars Guilin are just excellent. 

[Ken Dryden]

On 1/17/2005 at 4:32 PM, Bill Fenohr said:

This is just my opinion, but i dont think there was a jazz artist alive,including Miles, who,at that time, brought in enough profit to the record companies that would enable them to justify the legal costs they would rack up trying to pursue a case outside the US.

After all if i remember correctly,did'nt it take 40 years for Kind Of Blue to sell a million copies. In Columbia's case, if the artist had been Streisand then its a whole different ballgame.

 

For the independents the legal costs were out of the queston period. Not to mention that they spent most of their time trying to get their distributors to pay them.

 

Like i say, thats just my two cents. However i do think the Dragon stuff is legit.

I remember discussing this topic with Dave Brubeck, whose lawyer told him the same thing. It would cost far more than a jazz artist would likely recover.