ghost of miles Posted February 25, 2016 Report Posted February 25, 2016 Wonder what the unreleased Parker is--live performances, perhaps? Verve Records Celebrates 60 Years Label will celebrate landmark anniversary with releases throughout the year LOS ANGELES, Feb. 24, 2016 -- One of the most prestigious labels in the history of jazz, Verve Records will celebrate its 60th anniversary throughout 2016 with a trove of historic reissues and stunning new collections from its legendary archives. The release schedule constitutes a who's-who of jazz legends, including such pioneers as Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery, Louis Armstrong, Jimmy Smith, Stan Getz, and the label's heart and soul, Ella Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald will be honored with the release of Jazz at the Philharmonic: The Ella Fitzgerald Set, a new compilation bringing together all of her Jazz at the Philharmonic performances previously issued by Verve on various albums, on a single collection for the first time ever. The collection -- which includes concerts from 1949, 1953 and 1954 and features appearances by Parker, Lester Young, and Hank Jones among others -- will feature newly re-mastered music and an essay by author Will Friedwald. The first set of releases, due out in March 2016, is also highlighted by the new digital collection Verve 60, featuring 60 stellar tracks by 60 different artists from throughout the label's history, spanning from Ella and Oscar through Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock to Diana Krall and Christian McBride. In addition, five favorites from the Verve catalogue will be reissued on vinyl, including Ella and Louis, the first pairing for the label of Fitzgerald and Armstrong; Billie Holiday's Lady Sings the Blues; Charlie "Bird" Parker's innovative Charlie Parker with Strings; Oscar Peterson's Night Train; and Count Basie's April in Paris. Several classics will also make their debuts in HD digital audio and iTunes, including titles by Fitzgerald, Evans, Parker, Wynton Kelly, and Stan Getz. Organ master Jimmy Smith's classic singles for the label will be compiled into a digital box set. The release schedule continues in May and June with more vinyl and digital reissues, including Getz/Gilberto and albums by Wes Montgomery, Blossom Dearie, Coleman Hawkins, and Anita O'Day. A new CD collection will compile unreleased music by Charlie Parker, while Louis Armstrong's complete studio recordings for the label will be collected onto one multi-disc set. Verve was founded in 1956 by Norman Granz, the forward-thinking impresario responsible for the hugely popular Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts, which brought the music to new audiences and garnered jazz an unprecedented level of respect in the popular culture. Granz also managed Ella Fitzgerald and launched the label in large part to create new opportunities worthy of the singer's immense talent, including her landmark series of Songbook recordings. Under the visionary leadership of Granz and later Creed Taylor (after MGM purchased the imprint in 1961), Verve continued to set new trends. The label sparked the Bossa Nova craze with the 1964 release of the Grammy Award-winning Getz/Gilberto and brought a lush, elegant new sound to jazz with the arrangements of Claus Ogerman and Oliver Nelson. Its focus also encompassed groundbreaking comedy, and later widened to embrace folk and rock recordings, including now-iconic releases by The Velvet Underground, Richie Havens, Frank Zappa The Mothers of Invention and Janis Ian. It was its jazz legacy that cemented Verve's place in the popular imagination however, and after a fallow period in the '70s and '80s Verve was revived in the mid-1990s, again signing many of the biggest names in the music: Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, John Scofield, Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln, Jeff Lorber, Chris Botti and Incognito all recorded for Verve during this period. Its diverse and distinguished lineage continues today through the work of artists like Diana Krall, Sarah McLachlan and Third Story. Over the course of its six-decade history, Verve has become synonymous with the very best in jazz, venerating the music while charting its course and helping to break down racial and stylistic barriers. There's no better way to celebrate that legacy than with the music itself, and 2016 will allow listeners to revisit the breathtaking sounds of Verve in new and exhilarating ways. Source: Verve Recordshttp://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/verve-records-celebrates-60-years-300225287.html Quote
Bill Nelson Posted February 25, 2016 Report Posted February 25, 2016 Ahh, the thought of digital-sourced tracks from Universal's storage mountain, EQ'd and compressed into various artist configurations and JATP box sets... ... fills me with inertia. Quote
bertrand Posted February 25, 2016 Report Posted February 25, 2016 How about reissuing some Argo stuff? Quote
king ubu Posted February 25, 2016 Report Posted February 25, 2016 yup, lots of goodies hidden in the vaults ... re: Parker, unissued ... wondering if it will be some stuff that has just never been out "officially", such as the 1949 jams from Paris? Quote
paul secor Posted February 25, 2016 Report Posted February 25, 2016 Whatever Bird material they've uncovered might be interesting. Most of the rest looks like it might be the sort of thing Blue Note does these days - "Let's see if we can sell them the same stuff again." Quote
tranemonk Posted February 25, 2016 Report Posted February 25, 2016 Anybody got any more info on this Ella JATP release? Quote
JSngry Posted February 25, 2016 Report Posted February 25, 2016 My how time flies...it seems like it was just a few years ago they were having their 50th anniversary! Quote
thirdtry Posted February 25, 2016 Report Posted February 25, 2016 If Verve really wanted to do something nice for their 60th anniversary, they could bring back into print some of their great box sets like the Jazz at the Philharmonic set, the complete Lester Young set, and the Norman Granz Jam Sessions box. That would be worthwhile. Quote
felser Posted February 25, 2016 Report Posted February 25, 2016 5 hours ago, paul secor said: Whatever Bird material they've uncovered might be interesting. Most of the rest looks like it might be the sort of thing Blue Note does these days - "Let's see if we can sell them the same stuff again." only this time as digital downloads.... Quote
A Lark Ascending Posted February 25, 2016 Report Posted February 25, 2016 23 minutes ago, felser said: only this time as digital downloads.... ...or vinyl... Quote
medjuck Posted February 25, 2016 Report Posted February 25, 2016 1 hour ago, thirdtry said: If Verve really wanted to do something nice for their 60th anniversary, they could bring back into print some of their great box sets like the Jazz at the Philharmonic set, the complete Lester Young set, and the Norman Granz Jam Sessions box. That would be worthwhile. I'd like a complete Prez live set. I don't think they've ever done that. Quote
duaneiac Posted February 25, 2016 Report Posted February 25, 2016 Heck, I'd be happy if they just completed the Complete Verve Singles collection of Ella Fitzgerald. They issued a 2 CD Volume 1 set back in 2003 and then never followed up on it. Quote
sidewinder Posted February 25, 2016 Report Posted February 25, 2016 Wish they would team up again with Mosaic.. Quote
gmonahan Posted February 25, 2016 Report Posted February 25, 2016 2 hours ago, duaneiac said: Heck, I'd be happy if they just completed the Complete Verve Singles collection of Ella Fitzgerald. They issued a 2 CD Volume 1 set back in 2003 and then never followed up on it. I'd definitely second that one. gregmo Quote
erwbol Posted February 26, 2016 Report Posted February 26, 2016 So no more previously unreleased Coltrane? Pricks! Quote
paul secor Posted February 26, 2016 Report Posted February 26, 2016 This seems to be a Verve 60th anniversary. John Coltrane never recorded for Verve. Quote
erwbol Posted February 26, 2016 Report Posted February 26, 2016 (edited) 3 hours ago, paul secor said: This seems to be a Verve 60th anniversary. John Coltrane never recorded for Verve. I thought the A Love Supreme Complete Masters 3 CD set released late last year was a part of this 60th anniversary celebration. At least that is how it was presented in the press release. It said more box sets celebrating Verve's 60th were to follow in 2016. I assumed this announcement applied to the wider Verve Music Group. Edited February 26, 2016 by erwbol Quote
paul secor Posted February 26, 2016 Report Posted February 26, 2016 Everything in the article referenced at the beginning of the thread referred to the Verve label. Just from that, I assume the 60th anniversary is strictly Verve and not associated labels. If I'm wrong, it won't be the first time. Quote
JSngry Posted February 26, 2016 Report Posted February 26, 2016 Oh, we are so not going to see any kind of comprehensive look at the entire Verve catalog, not at 50, not at 60, not at 75, not at 100, never. Quote
paul secor Posted February 26, 2016 Report Posted February 26, 2016 2 hours ago, JSngry said: Oh, we are so not going to see any kind of comprehensive look at the entire Verve catalog, not at 50, not at 60, not at 75, not at 100, never. It would be cool if Verve (and other labels) reissued all of that obscure stuff - along with all of the obscure but perhaps more worthy (I guess worthy" depends on who's ascribing the value) items in their catalogs. Won't happen, but it is a cool dream. Thanks for bringing that up, Jim. Quote
JSngry Posted February 26, 2016 Report Posted February 26, 2016 Japan got this one, we should too. It's a good record. http://www.allmusic.com/album/spotlight-on-jacy-parker-mw0000856399 Quote
felser Posted February 27, 2016 Report Posted February 27, 2016 Wow, never heard of her or it. Would be more rewarding than the 5th or 6th repackaging of some Wes/Oscar/Ella side. Quote
JSngry Posted February 27, 2016 Report Posted February 27, 2016 She was(?) a good singer, a reasonably good pianist, but the main thing I find attractive about her is her punchiness. The woman kicks, hard, in that kind of "local" way the way it was when local was cool because every town had one or two. And Don Cinderella (Joe's brother?) is just pumping on the bass. Kicking and pumping, hey, baby, they're playing our song, right? Rob & Laura would go see Jackie & Roy with the gang, but when they wanted to party solo, get high, hit a club and sit in the back where they could do the things you can do in a club when you sit in the back, and then go home and screw, it'd be Jacy Parker they'd go hear, just them, just that. And you know that happened more than once. If this makes any sense, it's a record that deserves to become obscure in America only after it becomes available in America. But hell, I'd buy it and feel good not just about buying it, but about listening to it more than once or twice. There's a bongo player who i would find obtrusive if I thought about it, but that's the beauty of free will - fuck that bongo player, just because he's there don't mean I have to hear him. Everything else is in there. Put another way - her groove is such that she sounds like she was feeling Horace Silver's left hand. That's where her pocket was. Quote
mikeweil Posted February 27, 2016 Report Posted February 27, 2016 (edited) On 25.2.2016 at 6:08 PM, thirdtry said: If Verve really wanted to do something nice for their 60th anniversary, they could bring back into print some of their great box sets like the Jazz at the Philharmonic set, the complete Lester Young set, and the Norman Granz Jam Sessions box. That would be worthwhile. I agree - I have the Prez box but would get the other two, now - was not so fond of jam sessions when they were first issued, but they're worth a closer look, of course. They could take care of some item from the Verve catalog that never were on CD, like some Tjader albums, or Gary McFarland's Profiles - there must be an hour of unreleased material from the latter's session, a full-fledged big band concert. Edit: This was an Impulse! LP. I'd also go for budget prcied versions of the Johnny Hodges Verve stuff. Edited February 27, 2016 by mikeweil Quote
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