SURPRISE!!! - The Black Jazz Records Reissue Program Is Getting Wonky

[JSngry]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/it-was-the-first-entirely-black-run-jazz-company-in-decades-but-was-black-jazz-records-actually-owned-by-a-white-guy/2020/08/26/a8c764be-e211-11ea-8181-606e603bb1c4_story.html

Clear claims of ownership cannot be established, even by Dick Schory (who was certainly the bankroller, but still does have any document-of-origin (is that a term?) showing that he actually owned the label, just that he paid for stuff, and oh btw, he has documentation of an "origin story" that he recounted to a friend years after the fact..

Same with past sales, nobody can yet show who bought what and actually paid for it in full, and now, who has the rights to lease this product out for this new reissue series. Also, the legendary James Hardge Craigslist Master tapes are still missing?

Zev Feldman has asked to have his name removed from the project. I guess he's getting PaloAlto-ed again.

 

[Dan Gould]

About the only thing any one can say is "true" is ... if there are any reissues they are needle-drops.

[JSngry]

Well, there have been legit CD reissues from the master tapes, that Snow Bird series was from the masters, iirc. But lord, what a tangle the rights thing can turn out to be. What the true legal relationship between Dick Schory & Gene Russell ended up being...if not even Dick Schory, who made a lot of money from making and selling all kinds of records, surely a normal businessperson with no loose ends in any of his other deals(?), if THAT cannot be documented, then everything that follows from that just exponentially cloudifies.

Moral of the story - own your shit and lock it up tight. And even then, hey, if somebody wants it bad enough, they can try to get it anyway.

[felser]

7 hours ago, JSngry said:

that Snow Bird series was from the masters, iirc.

The ones I bought from the website like 15-20 years ago sound legit to me, not like needle drops.

[sidewinder]

I see that the Gene Russell vinyl release for RSD is getting reports of ‘bright sound’ on the Hoffmann board. Needle drop ?

[jlhoots]

Strange story. I ordered the ones I want in the new release, & they've been shipped. I'll try not to feel guilty.

[JSngry]

I'd see no reason to feel guilty on the consumer end, nor necessarily on the supply end. It's just that it's shaping up to be one of those cases where everybody's been acting in good faith except the original "original parties", and even then, maybe not actual bad faith, just...not clean - or any - paper trails.

[DMP]

Years ago (before the Japanese reissues), looking for Rudolph Johnson’s “Second Comimg,” I tried ordering it on a Black Jazz website. No luck, couldn’t get it to work. But somehow I found a telephone number, somewhere in California, the guy who answered, apologized - couldn’t have been nicer - and sent it to me for free! Sounded like the whole operation was located in his garage.  Does anyone know about this?

 

 

[JSngry]

I think that might have been James Hardge himself? Oakland?

[Dub Modal]

The Spring Rain Snow Dog reissue CD sounds really loud to me. It's the only one I have but I've always wondered if the others are EQ'd the same. Great album, love just about the entire output from the label and hate to hear the reissue program is on the rocks. It's a label that deserves some quality attention. Would've been great if it had gotten the Mosaic Bee Hive treatment. 

[felser]

3 hours ago, Dub Modal said:

Would've been great if it had gotten the Mosaic Bee Hive treatment. 

+1.  And would have been a more cohesive set than the Bee Hive set.