JSngry Posted November 28, 2003 Author Report Posted November 28, 2003 This is the first I've heard of David Brooks. I'm curious, to say the least... Quote
king ubu Posted November 28, 2003 Report Posted November 28, 2003 (edited) Yeah, Dan! Why not try! The owner of TCB, by the way, is an accomplished swiss mainstream drummer himself. Read more on the history of TCB: TCB (Taking care of Business) essentially means two things: It describes on one hand the personal concept and taste in music projected by the company's head, and on the other hand means plain, simply and unavoidably stated: Business. To unite these undeniably controversial elements to one common denominator by a singular person implies a considerably strong effort - and this effort has brought success to the one who took the risk of running a record label. His name is Peter Schmidlin. The city of Basel boosts a widely heralded tradition of drumming. It does therefore not come as a surprise, that Peter Schmidlin, born and raised in Basel, took up drumming at the age of 14. At first, he aimed at a professional career as a musician, found however better economic alternatives and stayed on as a semi-pro remaining one of the finest and sought-after drummers in Europe. Would this type of a musician ever think of a career as a music-producer? The answer is no, ask any drummer and he will tell you, that playing drums is the only constructive activity within the music-world ! No time for any sidekicks...except perhaps one...! However, Peter Schmidlin at one instance began seriously to contemplate the entering into the other side of the business, become a music-producer and be able to perhaps change some of the negative experiences he made along the way. Besides that, having been a full-time pro in his position as a drummer, he had absorbed a lot of the going-ons, from a musical point of view and from other perspectives, absorbing much of the mystery of music and ist surroundings. This should serve as an explanation, why, in 1988, he decided to produce jazz besides playing it. TCB was founded in 1988. The first productions were based upon a radio series that presented a house rhythm section including P.S. on drums and featured for each new performance another famous jazz musician, mostly of American origin. Stars like Dexter Gordon, Woody Shaw, Benny Bailey, Johnny Griffin, Slide Hampton, Art Farmer and a host of others had been featured along the way. These first TCB-items were offered in the form of compilations, a series of LPs that featured the best of these recordings. Soon thereafter, the world entered the CD-age and TCB had to follow up. Schmidlin produced a substantial amount of Cds which presented the best musicians Switzerland at that time had to offer - however, inspite of fine musical quality of many of those recordings, their overall level appeared to be not high enough to succesfully enter into the competition within the international record market. Which culminated in the questions: Should the entire activities be deleted? Or should the producing of jazz records be considered as a hobby and done in one's spare time? Or should this operation continue on a completely professional bases, demanding all available time? Schmidlin decided for the latter and TCB Music was up for a fresh start midway through 1992. He assembled a couple of enthusiasts to come and assist him in getting things properly done. Office space was rented in Lausanne, the French part of Switzerland and by the 1st of January 1993, the company was up and running. The company gained further recognition and signed distribution contracts in all parts of Europe, South-Africa, Japan, US and Canada.. New ideas were initiated. Among them a great help to the potential consumer: The spine of a TCB-CD is marked with a specific colour, indicating the style and direction of ist musical content. Red depicts Bebop and beyond. Blue is dedicated to the legacy of Benny Goodman and other heroes of the swing-era. Green marks a series of previously unreleased recordings by Swiss Radio, featuring but the best jazz ever had to offer: Quincy Jones, the Cannonball Adderley Sextet, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Louis Hayes and Woody Shaw Quintet or Buck Clayton's All Stars and many more. A yellow spine indicates "contemporary jazz" with artists like trumpeter Jack Walrath, trombone wizard Ed Neumeister and German keyboard specialist Christoph Spendel. We finally find black spines that belong to productions of "World Jazz-Music" with musicians from Africa or Brazil. The red series boosts today over 40 items with top artists like Phil Woods, Clarc Terry, Bill Goodwin, Kenny Werner, Toots Thielemans, Hans Kennel, Benny Bailey, George Gruntz, Richard Galliano, Cojazz, Buster Williams, Michael Philipp Mossman, Kenny Drew Jr, Ritchie Vitale, the N.Y. HardBop Quintet and vocalist Alice Day, famous saxophonist Jerome Richardson and the Swedish "Monday Night Big Band" from Malmö to name but a few.. It is not at all easy to remain successful in view of a seriously aggressive marketing behaviour by the major record companies of this world, they all have plenty of jazz to offer! But this situation does not prevent Peter Schmidlin from being his usual optimistic self as far as TCB's future and well-being is concern. The man knows from experience, that there is a large jazz-loving audience out there, be it the millions overseas or the somewhat smaller congregation of Europe, which has all the potential in the world to keep growing. All this speaks positively for the little Swiss label that intents to grow with the times by doing the right things. (Among them a definite move to new head-quarters in Montreux, the Swiss jazz capital). This did not go unnoticed by the many TCB-artists, who enjoy working for and with P.S., who knows very well what a jazz musician needs (and what not!). His prediction, that these times are good for jazz may well be correct, he has proved in the past to be a man with vision and the will to realize his ideas. The artists are game, the market is open and Peter Schmidlin and his team are obviously ready to go further to produce and promote that great, lively music called - JAZZ !! Kurt Weil (taken from their site) By the way, they've got a real nice links site! Why not ask them to link organissimo forums? ubu Edited November 28, 2003 by king ubu Quote
Jim Dye Posted November 28, 2003 Report Posted November 28, 2003 (edited) I did some work for TCB for a short time when I was in New York back in 1997. Peter is a real nice guy. TCB released what turned out to be Jerome Richardson's last recording. There is a lot of nice stuff on the red spine series, not to mention the swiss radio days series. Edited November 28, 2003 by Jim Dye Quote
king ubu Posted November 28, 2003 Report Posted November 28, 2003 I did some work for TCB for a short time when I was in New York back in 1997. Peter was a real nice guy. They put out what turned out to be Jerome Richardson's last recording. There is a lot of nice stuff on the red spine series, not to mention the swiss radio days series. I did mention the Radio day series as often as I could, but alas nobody seems to be very interested (except, I have to admit, in the Mulligan CJB disc, discussed in some other, still recently active thread). I only know one track from that Richardson disc, but that one's so good I always wanted to pick up the album since then! (I didn't... but I will do so in the future) ubu Quote
JSngry Posted November 28, 2003 Author Report Posted November 28, 2003 I got the Thad & Mel TCB (w/Joe Henderson, btw, and NOT the same cut as on that Solid State side!), and enjoy it. The label is kinda hard to find in stores down here. Guess I need to check the website or dig deeper on line. Quote
Dan Gould Posted November 28, 2003 Report Posted November 28, 2003 Well, I am glad you guys got me reminded of David Brooks. I checked AMg and found an earlier release, called The Big Sound of Bubba Brooks. Looks real good, the first tune is called "Blues for Tina" and I am trying to remember if that's actually a Tina composition or his brother's. Anywhoo ... it got me on my internet search wagon and I think I've tracked it down at Crazy Jazz in the UK. Waiting to hear from them now. As for an interview, the question would be, how in the heck do I get in touch with him? I need contacts, gentleman, contacts! (Jim Dye-can you get in touch with TCB again? It was only a year ago that his second TCB release came out; maybe they could get a contact number?) Quote
Jim Dye Posted November 28, 2003 Report Posted November 28, 2003 I'll see what I can do, Dan. I actually worked for the company who handled the US marketing and distribution for TCB. Things ended kind of badly between Peter and my old boss, so I can't make any guarantees, but I'll see if I can find out anything. Quote
Dan Gould Posted November 29, 2003 Report Posted November 29, 2003 Just took another look at the liner notes to "Smooth Sailing," the TCB release I have, and if nothing else, it shows that David and Tina Brooks were fairly close by each other at the end of Tina's life: "Then Brooks joined a group called the Soul Four which was booked for a two week gig, with a two week option, at a Long Island club. The Soul Four made quite an impression, because it played the club, on and off, for the next six years, from 1966 to 1972." (Didn't Brooks die in '72 or so?) Interesting fact, too-the organist in that group was Don Pullen. Quote
Dan Gould Posted November 29, 2003 Report Posted November 29, 2003 Also says that Brooks played and recorded with Jimmy McCracklin, whose AMG profile has me kind of curious about him. Wish I knew exactly what LPs Brooks is on. Quote
Jim Dye Posted December 4, 2003 Report Posted December 4, 2003 No news yet, Dan. I'll keep tryin'! Quote
Dan Gould Posted December 4, 2003 Report Posted December 4, 2003 Thanks, Jim! I've got the other two of Bubba Brooks CDs on their way to me as we speak! Quote
king ubu Posted December 5, 2003 Report Posted December 5, 2003 Dan, being a little closer to the source, tell me if I should try to get in contact with somebody at TCB. I have not much time to do such things right now, but I think it would be a couple of phone calls or emails. But it would be good to have a small piece of information about what you've done so far. ubu Quote
Dan Gould Posted December 5, 2003 Report Posted December 5, 2003 Well, if you think you can get with the label and get the info from them-phone number and also address if possible-that would be great. I just figured since Jim had something of a working relationship, that might help him in getting in touch. But anything you can do would be great! Quote
king ubu Posted December 5, 2003 Report Posted December 5, 2003 Dan, let Jim try first. I just thought to offer some help - I cannot guarantee anything, but the swiss scene is quite small, and it might be worth a try. I think I could get to Mr Schmidlin somehow and then pass it on to you. But let's wait till Jim comes up with something. Maybe the man (I cannot remember his name) who produces the "agb" series (agb being his initials) could help. He's living in america and/or is an american, if I remember right. ubu Quote
Jim Dye Posted December 5, 2003 Report Posted December 5, 2003 Actually, I thought he was from Europe. Spanish, perhaps, but I don't quite remember. I did meet him once. Mr. Aleardo G. Buzzi (pronounced Bootsy!). He was the head of Philip Morris in Europe. After retirement, he went on to produce Jazz records. When I was in New York and working for TCB, I caught a set of the Mingus Big Band at Fez and sat at a table with Mr. Buzzi any my boss on one side and Sue Mingus and Peter Schmidlin on the other. Surreal! Quote
king ubu Posted December 5, 2003 Report Posted December 5, 2003 Actually, I thought he was from Europe. Spanish, perhaps, but I don't quite remember. I did meet him once. Mr. Aleardo G. Buzzi (pronounced Bootsy!). He was the head of Philip Morris in Europe. After retirement, he went on to produce Jazz records. When I was in New York and working for TCB, I caught a set of the Mingus Big Band at Fez and sat at a table with Mr. Buzzi any my boss on one side and Sue Mingus and Peter Schmidlin on the other. Surreal! Hell, what was Sue Mingus doing there?! You may be right about where Mr Buzzi's coming from (the name to me implies italian or spanish), but he seems to handle quite a lot of the NY productions of TCB. ubu Quote
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