Caught in the Limbo of Vinyl

[Brownian Motion]

The New York Times

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August 19, 2006

Editorial Observer

Caught in the Limbo of Vinyl: The Case of the Jerry Hahn Brotherhood

By VERLYN KLINKENBORG

The other day a song popped into my head, just a few up-tempo instrumental phrases — guitar, bass, drums and a Hammond B3 organ. I knew instantly what it was, though I hadn’t heard it in at least 20 years. It was a passing moment from “Martha’s Madman,” the first song on the first side of an LP called “The Jerry Hahn Brotherhood.” I bought the record when it was released in 1970. I was a freshman at Berkeley.

It would have been easy to see the Jerry Hahn Brotherhood performing that year, though I never did. Its lone record was a sunny mixture of straight-up jazz with a blues spine, a music that wants the latter-day word “fusion,” though that word does so little good. Above all, it was a reminder of the eclecticism of the time. Audiences that would soon diverge found themselves packed in a hall together all night long, like one October weekend at Fillmore West when the Jerry Hahn Brotherhood shared the bill with Van Morrison and Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band.

I heard “Martha’s Madman” in my head, and I did what I usually do. I went to the iTunes Music Store. Nothing. Same at Amazon. So I walked down to the barn, where all my old albums are stored, and dug out my vinyl copy of “The Jerry Hahn Brotherhood,” which is now sitting on my desk. I no longer have the equipment to play it. Nearly every album in those boxes in the barn was converted to CD long ago — some of them several times over. But not “The Jerry Hahn Brotherhood.”

We live, of course, in an age of accelerating digital replication. Before long, it seems, every recording of every kind in existence, along with all the outtakes, will have been turned into a CD or a DVD or a digital file for download over the Internet. But some things get left behind.

Digital conversion seems almost effortless, a virtual transcription of the world as we know it. But there is a financial friction to it nonetheless. These days it’s no longer necessary to produce an actual physical CD to sell in record stores. Downloadable files will do — no packaging required — but even making these has its costs.

What it takes to push a work from analog to digital is a marketing opportunity. The death, for instance, of Johnny Cash and a movie based on his life was a wonderful chance, as one industry spokesperson put it, to revisit his inventory, which, as it happens, is partly on Columbia, a company now owned by Sony BMG.

There will probably never be a movie based on the Jerry Hahn Brotherhood, no commercial incentive to remaster and rerelease this album. The story of the band is a good one but all too familiar — the inevitable clash between the artistic and business sides of the recording industry. The band fell apart disputing the honesty of its manager.

What’s left is an orphaned vinyl LP. The inner sleeve, a space for record company promotion, says, “If It’s in Recorded Form, You Know It’ll Be Available on Records.” Well, I wish it were available on CD.

I talked to Jerry Hahn the other day. He teaches jazz guitar in Wichita, his hometown. He’ll be 66 in September, with grandkids. He sounds good. “You should have heard us,” he said. He also said that the master tapes of “The Jerry Hahn Brotherhood” are stored somewhere in New York State. The man who produced the record has retired to Hawaii, where he and his wife own several restaurants. I haven’t been able to track down the manager. I’d like to hear his side of the story.

And as for hearing “The Jerry Hahn Brotherhood,” one fan has posted the whole album in MP3 form — ripped from the vinyl — on the Web. I downloaded it the other day. It’s a digitally compressed version of an analog recording that was, according to Hahn, too compressed to begin with.

Even through the mist you can still hear the brightness of the music. But someone needs to find those master tapes, breathe some air into them, and do this minor masterpiece (and all the outtakes) justice at last. I’d buy a copy, especially if I thought that some of the purchase price might make its way to the artists.

[JSngry]

So I walked down to the barn, where all my old albums are stored, and dug out my vinyl copy of “The Jerry Hahn Brotherhood,” which is now sitting on my desk. I no longer have the equipment to play it.

Boo hoo hoo.

[Dan Gould]

So I walked down to the barn, where all my old albums are stored, and dug out my vinyl copy of “The Jerry Hahn Brotherhood,” which is now sitting on my desk. I no longer have the equipment to play it.

Boo hoo hoo.

And I somehow doubt that barn is an especially good place to store the records he can't play.

[Stereojack]

This record was a fave around my house back in the day. The band was Jerry Hahn (guitar), Mike Finnegan (keyboards/vocals), Clyde Graves (bass), George Marsh (drums). Basically a rock & roll album with a jazz sensibilty to it. Don't think it ever found much of an audience, which would limit its appeal as a reissue.

[Eric]

BTW, Hahn, a Kansas guy living in Wichita. has a brand new solo album out, titled "Hahn Solo". BTW 2, Mike Finnegan is also a Wichita guy.

Edited August 20, 2006 by Eric

[Spontooneous]

BTW, Hahn, a Kansas guy living in Wichita. has a brand new solo album out, titled "Hahn Solo". BTW 2, Mike Finnegan is also a Wichita guy.

Wasn't aware of the new disc. Thanks, Eric! Heard Jerry twice last year, and both times it seemed he was playing the guitar about as well as it can possibly be played.

[7/4]

BTW, Hahn, a Kansas guy living in Wichita. has a brand new solo album out, titled "Hahn Solo". BTW 2, Mike Finnegan is also a Wichita guy.

Finnegan is also an Electric Ladyland guy, he plays on two cuts: Rainy Day, Dream Away and Still Raining, Still Dreaming. Wet, baby.

Wichita guy Glenn Alexander produced Time Changes by Hahn. Jerry had a regular column for years in Guitar Player. I think Glenn was Hahn's teaching assistant at a U in Kansas.

[JSngry]

That Columbia side must have had "status" of some sort, because I remember seeing it available in stores all throught the 70s & early 80s.

[clifford_thornton]

Surprised the Columbia isn't available. Wasn't there a Hahn private LP that Arhoolie reissued? I can't remember the title, though the cover art fits the tenor of the times.

[Stereojack]

Surprised the Columbia isn't available. Wasn't there a Hahn private LP that Arhoolie reissued? I can't remember the title, though the cover art fits the tenor of the times.

The Arhoolie album was originally on the short-lived Changes label, which was a subsidiary of Arhoolie. It was entitled "Ara-Be-In" and the lettering was typical psychedelic poster style.

[Guest akanalog]

they do an ornette coleman cover on the columbia one.

most of the album is kind of cheesy but i guess in an authentic way.

hahn had one or two cool fantasy albums too also not on CD-i have one called "moses" with merl saunders and marsh and graves that is sort of hippy trippy jazz but definitely jazz and not too trippy. it is good though and since saunders is on it, it will have an audience of some sort.

[BFrank]

I still have both the Columbia album and the Fantasy album, "Moses". I really liked both of them back in the 70's. I listened to the "Brotherhood" album again after reading that piece and still like it. It's kind of an odd mix of country, blues and progressive jazz. George Marsh really sets this album apart from what could have been a bit run-of-the-mill in places. There's some phenomenal drumming there. I forgot that Finnegan played on Electric Ladyland....good catch!

BTW, that website with the MP3s mentioned towards the end of the article is here: The Jerry Hahn Brotherhood

There's an Arhoolie album that's still in print called "Jerry Hahn & His Quintet", although at 29 minutes it's more like an EP. It has an all-star lineup, though: Michael White, Noel Jewkes, Jack DeJohnette and Ron McClure.