ECM Deletions

[Guy Berger]

It seems like a lot of ECM titles are getting deleted in the US, at least if Amazon is any indication. Hopefully these will continue to be available from Europe.

Guy

[GregK]

Which ones are you referring to? I've noticed there are a few that I have ordered from Amazon that have the Made in Germany sticker on them, and they seem to be from an older batch, possibly produced in the 80s (they still have those archaic compact disc audio blurbs on the last page of the booklet).

[Guy Berger]

Which ones are you referring to? I've noticed there are a few that I have ordered from Amazon that have the Made in Germany sticker on them, and they seem to be from an older batch, possibly produced in the 80s (they still have those archaic compact disc audio blurbs on the last page of the booklet).

Just to pick three random ones, Jan Garbarek's Triptykon, Gateway's Gateway 2 and Keith Jarrett At the Deer Head Inn.

Guy

[GregK]

Doesn't ECM periodically reissue many titles? Maybe they are preparing to do that. I know that in 2000 a lot of their older titles were reissued.

[Guy Berger]

Alright, I consulted one of those knowledgeable about such things and the wise one said:

ECM is distributed by Universal Classics in the States. So it's not ECM

deleting them; it's Universal Classics deciding to discontinue them, largely

( I suspect) because they're such smal sellers that it's not worth their

while to press them and stock them.

The good newws, of course, is that (as you say) Munich still  has them - and

Munich has a policy of never discontinuing a title.

But you have to realize that ECM in the US is through a distributor, and

they function with a different set of priorities.  Yes, ECM has a publicist

and office in the US (and she's a fine person to deal with), but ultimately

she's part of the Universal moniker, which means she has to answer to a

different set of criteria than Munich.  Sad but true.

Hope this helps.  Whether or not the situation is permanent, by the way, is

anybody's guess.  I certainly couldn't speculate.  But I'd guess that if a

title is a relatively small seller it will ultimately be discontinued over here.

And also

On the plus side, though, and I think you should mention this, there used to

be sometimes very, very large gaps between European and US releases. While

the occasional title gets delayed, the gaps are generally much shorter, and

a lot of titles are released almost simultaneously on both sides of the

Atlantic, which is a very good thing for a completist like myself!

[Martin]

Munich has a policy of never discontinuing a title.

Not true. They discontinued the CD editions of ECM 1372 (Alex Cline) and ECM 1436 (Christy Doran a.o.).

[Claude]

Doesn't ECM periodically reissue many titles? Maybe they are preparing to do that. I know that in 2000 a lot of their older titles were reissued.

I haven't seen new ECM reissues for a very long time. 85% of their catalog is available, and the remaining OOP titles will probably never be reissued on CD. Some Steve Kuhn reissues were announced on jazzmatazz but never materialized.

[Claude]

They discontinued the CD editions of ECM 1372 (Alex Cline) and ECM 1436 (Christy Doran a.o.).

Surprising, I didn't know that. The LP version of the Alex Cline album is available though.

Are there other titles which were issued on CD and have gone OOP, apart from those two?

Edited May 2, 2005 by Claude

[Martin]

They discontinued the CD editions of ECM 1372 (Alex Cline) and ECM 1436 (Christy Doran a.o.).

Surprising, I didn't know that. The LP version of the Alex Cline album is available though.

Are there other titles which very issued on CD and have gone OOP, apart from those two?

Gallopping through the current ECM catalogue, I found those (all of them still available in LP format):

ECM 1307 (First House)

XtraWATT/5 (Karen Mantler)

XtraWATT/6 (Steve Swallow)

There may be others which have been discontinued in their CD AND LP incarnations, but I would have to examine my collection closely to find those...

There are some titles which were re-released on CD in Japan, but meanwhile have gone OOP, too (ECM 1039: Dave Liebman; probably ECM 1026: Stanley Cowell).

AFAIK, the original plans were to re-release three Steve Kuhn originals (Trance, Ecstasy, Playground) as a 3-CD-Set. The first two of those, however, are available in Japanese CD editions.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

That Steve Kuhn 3-CD set seems odd - why not keep the stuff with Sheila Jordan together (Playground and Last Year's Waltz) - exact same band.

Maybe someone realized this. Anyway, I've got my vinyl.

Mike

[clifford_thornton]

ECM 1372 (Alex Cline)

I didn't know the Clines had an ECM.

[GregK]

Doesn't ECM periodically reissue many titles? Maybe they are preparing to do that. I know that in 2000 a lot of their older titles were reissued.

I haven't seen new ECM reissues for a very long time. 85% of their catalog is available, and the remaining OOP titles will probably never be reissued on CD. Some Steve Kuhn reissues were announced on jazzmatazz but never materialized.

I'm referring to straight reissues of older titles. I recall looking for some Keith Jarrett titles in late 2000 or early 2001 and was told that they were being reissued that year. Nothing different, same mastering, packaging, etc., just reissued.

[Guy Berger]

Doesn't ECM periodically reissue many titles? Maybe they are preparing to do that. I know that in 2000 a lot of their older titles were reissued.

I haven't seen new ECM reissues for a very long time. 85% of their catalog is available, and the remaining OOP titles will probably never be reissued on CD. Some Steve Kuhn reissues were announced on jazzmatazz but never materialized.

I'm referring to straight reissues of older titles. I recall looking for some Keith Jarrett titles in late 2000 or early 2001 and was told that they were being reissued that year. Nothing different, same mastering, packaging, etc., just reissued.

I think this is when they changed distributor from BMG to Universal -- they deleted the BMG versions and replaced them with Universal versions. Not really reissues...

Guy