Dmitry Posted November 4, 2006 Report Share Posted November 4, 2006 I have a few JAZZ ANTHOLOGY Lps from the Musidisc family of labels [French?]. Having a tough time finding anything about the label. This is what a typical JA cover looks like, but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted November 4, 2006 Report Share Posted November 4, 2006 The Jazz Anthology was French, part of the Musidisc distribution conglomerate that went out of business a long time ago. They issued material from grey labels. A lot of their releases came from the Boris Rose bootlegs! Interesting material for sure but no new material. The legal stuff was released on other labels from the Musidisc family, including the America label. Those Jazz Anthology labels were sold at discounted price mainly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmitry Posted November 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2006 Those Jazz Anthology labels were sold at discounted price mainly! Thanks for the info! They still are. The ones I see are usually priced at $3-$4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Beat Steve Posted November 4, 2006 Report Share Posted November 4, 2006 These Musidisc Jazz Anthology LP's were around in Germany for a long time too and still turn up in secondhand Jazz vinyl bins. They were good buys then as they were mostly marketed at fairly attractive prices (about half the price of a standard Jazz LP). But I'd disagree that most of the material came from grey or even bootleg sources. Quite a lot of the Jazz Anthology reissues must have come from quite legit sources. A lot of the stuff they reissued was transcriptions, broadcasts and other live recordings and some of it was more or less simultaneously released on U.S. labels such as Jazz Archives, etc. (now was/is THAT a really illegal label?). Or take Don Byas' 1941 Minton sessions (JA 5121) that duplicated a release on Don Schlitten's quite legal Onyx label. Or Lucky Thompson's 1956 sessions with Gérard Pochonet (JA 5215) that was just a reissue of an original "Club francais de Disque" release. But it can get rather confusing with the reissues that Musidisc did there. The other day I actually picked up a copy of the Jazz Anthology reissue of the Cootie Williams/Rex Stewart "The Big Challenge" session they did in 1957 for Jazztone. I already have the Fresh Sounds repro reissue of this one but as the LP title and cover were totally different this was one of the cases where you tend to forget what you have and what not when you're in the record shop so I ended up with another LP for the "For sale" box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted November 5, 2006 Report Share Posted November 5, 2006 But I'd disagree that most of the material came from grey or even bootleg sources. Quite a lot of the Jazz Anthology reissues must have come from quite legit sources. A lot of the stuff they reissued was transcriptions, broadcasts and other live recordings and some of it was more or less simultaneously released on U.S. labels such as Jazz Archives, etc. (now was/is THAT a really illegal label?). Or take Don Byas' 1941 Minton sessions (JA 5121) that duplicated a release on Don Schlitten's quite legal Onyx label. Or Lucky Thompson's 1956 sessions with Gérard Pochonet (JA 5215) that was just a reissue of an original "Club francais de Disque" release. Some of the material on those Jazz Anthology LPs came from legitimate sources but I am not really sure that they were reissued by JA with proper authorizations! Which was probably one reason their LPs sold in the low-budget category. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Dryden Posted November 6, 2006 Report Share Posted November 6, 2006 I've owned a few of these LPs and CDs, but the label was often sloppy about proper listing of song titles and composers, an indication that this was basically, a bootleg operation paying royalties to no one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spontooneous Posted November 6, 2006 Report Share Posted November 6, 2006 (edited) Didn't Mingus sue them, or a related company, about 1970 for bootlegging his Candid material? I think it's mentioned in Brian Priestley's Mingus bio. Alas, my books are far away right now. Edited November 6, 2006 by Spontooneous Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted November 6, 2006 Report Share Posted November 6, 2006 Don't think Mingus sued them. He even recorded two albums in 1970 on their America label Can't recall Jazz Anthology or any related label touching the Candid catalog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim R Posted November 6, 2006 Report Share Posted November 6, 2006 Rightly or wrongly, I got my introduction to some great material via this label back in the 70's. I recall finding a numer of them at the college bookstore for about $2 or $3 a pop. The one I remember flooring me was "Art Tatum Is Art" (the trio with Tiny Grimes and Slam Stewart). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Beat Steve Posted November 6, 2006 Report Share Posted November 6, 2006 (edited) Right, Jim R. That "Tatum is Art" was/is a great one. Also remember some Teddy Wilson/Don Byas items that enabled me to explore whole new areas of Jazz artists (the big ones among the labels couldn't have cared less about reissuing this kind of material for marketing in Europe back then in the 70s). As for sloppy personnel, songwriters credits and recording date listings - agreed, but they were in VERY good company back then with quite a few U.S. reissue labels that were even sloppier, p.ex. some of those big band reissue labels that seem to have been marketed quite openly and legally, e.g. through Ray Avery's mail order service, etc. So I am not so sure if any deficiencies in this area are a clear indicator of outright bootlegging. Edited November 6, 2006 by Big Beat Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clifford_thornton Posted November 9, 2006 Report Share Posted November 9, 2006 Didn't Mingus sue them, or a related company, about 1970 for bootlegging his Candid material? I think it's mentioned in Brian Priestley's Mingus bio. Alas, my books are far away right now. At least one Candid record was reissued via America/Musidisc, as was Mingus at Monterey. I assume these were semi-legit, though maybe the payment didn't work out exactly as Mingus planned. Who knows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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