Sunny Murray and BAG

[clifford_thornton]

These are vinyl-only, but great sessions!

Friends of eremite records,

some new releases to tell you about...

http://eremite.com/discography/mte51.html

mte-51/sunny murray _big chief_

examples on record of sunny murray's enduring originality & influence as a drummer are many (refer to eremite 14, 45 & 46, among others), but very few recordings demonstrate his strikingly unusual voice as a band leader & composer. none do so more spectacularly than his 1969 album _big chief_. unfortunately it's been a sick collector's item since long before ebay. so it is with great pride & satisfaction that eremite returns to our friends in the human clan this long unavailable masterpiece. the

group assembled for this parisian studio date includes musicians from france, south africa, jamaica, & the u.s.a., & the huge sweeping sound they conjure while absolutely NAILING murray's highly irregular compositional structures is as thrilling as free jazz gets. hart le roy bibbs appears once only in a wildly memorable turn. everywhere & thru-out, murray uses the instrumentation's orchestral range to explore his fascination with the far extremes of the frequency range. prepare your hearing for searing high-end burn! the record resolves beautifully in a performance of 'this nearly was mine' that manages to be both otherworldly & poignant. not only is_big chief_ one of murray's great achievements, it's one of the truly special recordings in free jazz history. seriously. there is no greater love. the music was fastidiously remastered from the best available sources by mike

king (reelrecordings.org), pressed on premium HQ-180 gram vinyl by RTI, & presented in a heavyweight stoughton replica sleeve in an edition of 600. PROJECT PRODUCED WITH THE ARTIST'S FULL PERMISSION & COOPERATION.

http://eremite.com/discography/mte52.html

mte-52/solidarity unit, inc _red, black & green_

originally produced & issued by charles 'bobo' shaw himself, _red, black & green_, by the band "solidarity unit, inc." documents what happened at "the bag room" in st. louis, mo, the day jimi hendrix died. captured in a gloriously blunt & low-res recording that is as stark as the b&w cover art, shaw & the ten piece group produce a raw, teeming, clattering sound that never relinquishes. lake & bowie were by this time already powerful soloists, & both declaim fervently & damn near relentlessly over shaw's swaggering themes. dead at age 34 & recorded just four times, guitarist richard martin's performance is a true revelation; as martin leaps from blues idioms to screaming attacks to pure howling feedback, one wonders if even sonny sharrock reached these places with the instrument. furious kit & hand drumming, violently rattling little instruments, jabbing percussive rhodes, thundering bass guitar, these guys don't hold back! easy to say "lost underground free jazz classic," but that's the real story here.

the music was remastered from the best available sources by mike king (reelrecordings.org), pressed on premium HQ-180 gram vinyl by RTI, & presented in a heavyweight stoughton replica sleeve in an edition of 600. PROJECT PRODUCED WITH THE ARTIST'S FULL PERMISSION & COOPERATION. for more on BAG: http://press.umsystem.edu/fall2004/looker.htm

regarding shipping: there is a shipping & packaging charge on all brö & eremite l/ps. media mail for u.s.a. is $5 1st l/p, $1 per additional l/p. charges for priority mail depend on your zipcode. international orders are sent by standard airmail, $17.50 1st l/p, $25 for two l/ps. canada, we will update this page to include your shipping charges just as soon as we hear from you! i will insure packages at buyer's request & at additional cost.

finally, i will be going on sabbatical starting in february for approximately four months. mail order services will be suspended during this time, & resumed early summer '09, perhaps w/ a couple of fantastic new releases. for now, if you are interested in ordering the new l/ps or any catalog items, please place your order before 1 february.

many thanks again for your continued support &

best 2009 regards,

michael

eremite.com

[blajay]

Great news! Thanks.

[AndrewHill]

Wish I had a turntable...again

[clifford_thornton]

I myself do not understand why he's not doing CD's of them. I have OG copies but will report on sonic differences if anyone cares...

[AndrewHill]

I do, along with what you think about the music.

[clifford_thornton]

Well, I can tell you already, not having received these new copies, that the sessions themselves are fantastic. The Murray is well-recorded and compositionally interesting, held together a lot more than the BYG records of the same era. This was a "working" band and it shows. The quintet track with Alan Silva and Becky Friend (fl) is amazing. Solidarity Unit is an early BAG record, but the open spaces and "textural" use of little instruments is filled in and any "opening up" is in a very raw (like a wound) sort of way. Richard Martin's guitar skitters over the top of the proceedings like a hypercharged, bluesier Ray Russell or some such. So there you go!

Michael King of Reel Recordings fame has remastered them and they're pressed on heavy, quiet vinyl so I assume the reissues will sound a bit better than the OG copies, neither of which were pressed to today's SAWANO-style standards.

[clifford_thornton]

I got mine today and have not listened but they look and feel very nice. The only thing is they didn't reproduce the flipback on the Murray, rather making it into a paste-on slick. But it's still good quality vinyl and a heavy stock sleeve. Recommended on aesthetics alone.

[blajay]

Sounds good. I think I may go for red, black & green. I'm getting into BAG, and the Benjamin Looker book Point from which creation begins is probably on deck in my reading list.

[AndrewHill]

Thanks Clifford for the commentary

[clifford_thornton]

Sounds good. I think I may go for red, black & green. I'm getting into BAG, and the Benjamin Looker book Point from which creation begins is probably on deck in my reading list.

Yeah, that's a hell of a unique LP.

The Murray is strong, too, though originals aren't THAT scarce (I've had a couple).

[clifford_thornton]

Thanks Clifford for the commentary

Get a turntable, HG!

[blajay]

Just googling the Murray album for more info I found this. Regarding only issuing vinyl rather than cds of these albums, check out this little debate between Eremite and the bloggers on a site that had a rip of the Sunny Murray album posted.

I linked to the site because they took off the link for the download. Moderators, if you want to remove this because it makes you uneasy, please do so.

[clifford_thornton]

I am surprised, too, that these aren't on CD but Ehlers has his reasons. That site is a lot of mutual h/j's if you ask me...

[AndrewHill]

Thanks Clifford for the commentary

Get a turntable, HG!

I know, I know

[clifford_thornton]

Spun the BAG tonight and it's dead quiet. The recording hasn't seemingly been too enhanced by any remastering, in fact a little less in-the-red, but still pretty righteous primal/lo-fi grooviness. The first cut still knocks me out! Will report on the Murray ASAP. My original of that is a little crackly (pressing) so I think this will be an improvement sonically.

[Chalupa]

It's a needle drop??

EDIT: "the music was fastidiously remastered from the best available sources." Ah-ha.

Edited January 24, 2009 by J.H. Deeley

[Rupertdacat]

FWIW, via the Eremite Records website I sent an e-mail encouraging that all their offerings be made available on CD. I pointed out that, otherwise, those without a turntable (and arm, and cartridge, and phono pre-amp, and storage space for vinyl, and record cleaning machine, and... ) would be forced to obtain a digitized copy. That, of course, would be of benefit to neither the artists nor eremite records. If you feel as I do, consider sending eremite a note.

[eremite records]

chauncey, i was so put off by your hostile response to my new reissues & my earlier work at eremite that i spent some time this evening familiarizing myself with your contributions here at organissmo. after reading just a couple of your archived posts, i was strongly reminded of a guy who used to buy records from me in the early 90s. a sort of collector turd, to use one of your expressions. at the time i was a college drop-out living in rural new england, doing occasional l/p set sale lists under the name FOOL'S PARADISE. you, or rather the guy you remind me of, would buy records from my list, only to sell them back to me within weeks at a 65% depreciation. this guy's rejection of a particular record would typically soon be followed by a violent rejection of most-to-all other work by the artist, & finally a rejection of the entire genre of music itself. i witnessed him go through most of the collector genres of the day --jazz & free jazz, psych, folk-- until it was just too boring & sad to deal with further. as a record collector myself i'm familiar with similar manic patterns, but in all my years i've never been involved with --or even heard of-- a worse case. anyway chauncey, the suggestion that you would organize direct donations for sunny murray is as lazy, arrogant & false as this guy you remind me of creating the fictional identity of a pontificating, insecure newspaper writer from manchester. eager to get that sabbatical underway, michael ehlers/eremite records

[clifford_thornton]

Ah, but that cover is about as hot as Barney Wilen's Zodiac on 12-inch spread.

It would be nice, I agree, to have both of these out on CD as well... but maybe that'll happen post-sabbatical. I think maybe both the "Chief" and the Shandar would fit on one disc, but that might be opening up a whole 'nother can of licensing worms.

And comparing the reissue with the orig, well, the reissue sounds gorgeous. So there you go. Whether or not it's a needle drop, it sounds really, really clear. It's a well-recorded session in the first place, and I think even a bopper like sidewinder would be hip to this'n.

[Rupertdacat]

.

Eremite is limiting its LP release of "Big Chief" to 600 copies, and are not planning on a digital release (personal communication). For one who does not own (or plan to own) a system to play vinyl, is obtaining a digital copy of this album (for personal use) from someone who owns it, ethical? I think yes, but would be interested in others' opinions.

Rupe

[paul secor]

.

Eremite is limiting its LP release of "Big Chief" to 600 copies, and are not planning on a digital release (personal communication). For one who does not own (or plan to own) a system to play vinyl, is obtaining a digital copy of this album (for personal use) from someone who owns it, ethical? I think yes, but would be interested in others' opinions.

Rupe

Don't want to get into another discussion of ethics/morality/whatever, but I thought a portion of a previous post of yours was interesting:

"I pointed out that, otherwise, those without a turntable (and arm, and cartridge, and phono pre-amp, and storage space for vinyl, and record cleaning machine, and... ) would be forced to obtain a digitized copy."

Who is forcing anyone to obtain a copy of this record in any form? Is your life - or the life of anyone without a turntable based system - going to be appreciably lessened without a copy of "Big Chief"? Let's be honest. It's more like - You want a copy and you'll do what's necessary to get one. If you do obtain a digital copy, do you plan on sending royalties to Sunny Murray?

[Rupertdacat]

Don't want to get into another discussion of ethics/morality/whatever, but I thought a portion of a previous post of yours was interesting:

"I pointed out that, otherwise, those without a turntable (and arm, and cartridge, and phono pre-amp, and storage space for vinyl, and record cleaning machine, and... ) would be forced to obtain a digitized copy."

Who is forcing anyone to obtain a copy of this record in any form? Is your life - or the life of anyone without a turntable based system - going to be appreciably lessened without a copy of "Big Chief"? Let's be honest. It's more like - You want a copy and you'll do what's necessary to get one. If you do obtain a digital copy, do you plan on sending royalties to Sunny Murray?

You are right, "forced" was the wrong word. The sentence should have read, "... otherwise, one option for those without a turntable ... who desire unfettered access to this recording, might be to obtain a digitized copy from one who owns the LP. As to your second question, the answer is no, I would not have thought to (and would not now) send Sunny Murray royalties if, after concluding that it was ethical to do so, I obtained a copy in such a manner. It seems to me Mr. Murray may have forfeited his right to royalties from ethically obtained digitized copies of this work when he agreed to limit availability to only 600 copies. That is why I am interested in others' opinions on the ethics of the situation.

Rupe

[clifford_thornton]

He didn't forfeit any royalties by choosing to have something limited in its distribution. Last time I checked, even "rare" records often have an "Unauthorized lending, copying or distribution of this recording is prohibited/etc." around the circumference of the label.

There is an ethical difference between buying something used "off the books" and just flat-out downloading something illegally. Murray didn't say "well, I'll take royalties from 600 copies but the rest are free," dig?

[paul secor]

While I don't doubt this is 100% on the up and up with Sunny, I'd suggest, Paul, pondering the complications of these "grey area" reissues. Who paid for these recordings? Did all the session men agree to work for hire at the time? Make no mistake, I have no objection to artists liberating their out-of-print work from both neglect and past malfeasance but it's not totally cut-and-dried. Maybe I'm out of touch with the "free" kids but it seems obvious you sell MORE the more widely people can hear hot (i.e. "quality") sounds.

By hagging some blogger over somebody's personal transfer of the original "Big Chief" (I am presuming it wasn't a stolen copy of the Eremite version), what has been accomplished? And why are "outside" jazz reissues also outside the operative digital ethics, which is to say a more or less egalitarian ability to get your word out but also with all of the file sharing issues that go along with it?

Note also the last song on "Big Chief" is "This Nearly Was Mine" which, last time I checked, was a Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein composition from "South Pacific."

Bali H'ai!

Chaunc, the complications of "grey area" reissues are beyond my ponderings.

[Rupertdacat]

He didn't forfeit any royalties by choosing to have something limited in its distribution.

That's a not quite fair paraphrase of what I said- " It seems to me Mr. Murray may have forfeited his right to royalties from ethically obtained digitized copies of this work when he agreed to limit availability to only 600 copies." That gets us back to the question of what is an 'ethically obtained digitized copy"?

There is an ethical difference between buying something used "off the books" and just flat-out downloading something illegally. Murray didn't say "well, I'll take royalties from 600 copies but the rest are free," dig?

How did we get from the question (regarding ethics) I asked to, "downloading something illegally"? Secondly, you imply that you know Murray's feelings and thoughts on my question. Do you really? I'm not trying to raise an argument, just asking that those who choose to respond to my inquiry do so without imputing questions to me that are off the mark.

Rupe