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Mingus Takes Manhattan - Complete Birdland Dates (legit release)


mjzee

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27 minutes ago, mjzee said:

I own one of those 3 CD boots, and am very happy with it.  No desire to buy an LP box set and pay that astronomical price.  If the main allure of the LP box (other than improved sound quality) is that it's licensed from the Mingus estate, then just tell me where I can send a $20 bill directly to the estate as royalties for owning the CD set.

+1 on all counts.

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On 2/4/2024 at 10:11 PM, david weiss said:

I actually don't know specifically. 

Jazz Workshop had/has a staff and I'm sure Sue left specific instructions about the continuation of the Mingus Estate. 

The Mingus Big Band is still working as well so I assume it's still pretty much business as usual with a staff that knows what they are doing. 

Yes, I believe her son Robert Ungaro took over but he works closely with the Mingus organization, I don't think he plays the same role as Sue.

I met him briefly at Sue's NEA Jazz Masters induction.

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On 2/4/2024 at 9:33 PM, tranemonk said:

WTF is it with these vinyl-only releases of stuff that's never been out before?... It's bugging me for those of us who don't want to go back to 1972....

It's about asking horrendous prices .... and creating artificial "collector items" ....

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On 2/6/2024 at 10:24 PM, gvopedz said:

Since this topic started with Mingus and is now alluding to political economy, here is a video that shows Mingus at the Jimmy Carter White House:

 

Thank you for showing this. So sad, I remember how I cried when I saw that. 

Due to lack of infos over here in Europe we still thought that Mingus is active and playing. I think "Cumbia" came out right that spring and I recognized to great suite I had witnessed live less than one year before. 

So the death of Mingus literarly shocked me...... 

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On 2/5/2024 at 6:43 AM, Dan Gould said:

He didn't define "collectors of jazz" but I've been an obsessive collector for 30+ years and never risen above any definition of 'average' income.  So right there your presumption that this belief is accurate fails.

And, if jazz is attracting younger people at all you inevitably have a large proportion of less than average means. If younger people only purchase new recordings (or stream them) then perhaps the collectors are all made up of the older, more affluent cohort. But that's not likely.

Generalizations can be accurate with individual cases being exceptions.  So the presumption doesn't fail based on your one case, same as my individual case (also not being more well-to-do) doesn't disprove the accuracy of the generalization.  And I think it is safe to say that most jazz vinyl collectors skew older and more well-to-do.  I would hope that that isn't always the case.  

I think your second point has an embedded really important point.  Younger, not-wealthy buyers need to see some less expensive releases in order to buy the vinyl, so that there will be a future for jazz.  Here in Los Angeles (big city), there are solid crowds for experimental and improvised music (and very small audiences as well), but I don't know if many of those people are looking at buying jazz from the 1940s-80s, and at $30 or $40 a record, they aren't likely to pick any up on a lark.  

Limited edition high-cost box sets from New Land (last year's Dorothy Ashby, and now this) aren't really going to be the primary practice of the industry; these are exceptions, and may or may not find enough buyers at that price point.  It costs a lot to do all the work for a nice box set - restoration, paying for essays, licensing images & music, pressing records, storage, paying personnel to administer, assembly, shipping etc for a product that will never have mass sales.  And their break-even point needs to be somewhere below selling all 1000 copies.   I mean, I won't buy it, and they probably won't sell all 1000.  Would they sell them all if they priced it at $100?  $75?  That doesn't seem likely either.  Might as well price it high, so they can break even after selling X number (200?  300?)

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17 hours ago, JSngry said:

It is. 

Was there more music from that event recorded ! 

I think once I heard an incredible all star setting, that played "April" and maybe "Caravan" with Diz, Dex, George Benson, Herbie, Ron, Tony Williams ? 

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5 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

Was there more music from that event recorded ! 

I think once I heard an incredible all star setting, that played "April" and maybe "Caravan" with Diz, Dex, George Benson, Herbie, Ron, Tony Williams ? 

The whole thing was broadcast live on NPR, so I'm sure that recorded documentation, official and otherwise, exists. 

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On 2/5/2024 at 9:43 AM, Dan Gould said:

He didn't define "collectors of jazz" but I've been an obsessive collector for 30+ years and never risen above any definition of 'average' income.  So right there your presumption that this belief is accurate fails.

And, if jazz is attracting younger people at all you inevitably have a large proportion of less than average means. If younger people only purchase new recordings (or stream them) then perhaps the collectors are all made up of the older, more affluent cohort. But that's not likely.

There are a fair amount of younger people who also don't fool around with physical media in the traditional sense (digital objects being physical in another sense). $150 LP boxed sets are nothing new, but it seems like there should be a cheaper option. I also do not have a better-than-average income and have been collecting for over 25 years.

Then again, there are a lot more millionaires now than there were when I started collecting, and a lot more poor people who don't have time to think about $150 Mingus boxed sets as well. 

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Interestingly, or not, the Special Thanks in the booklet starts with Sue Mingus so maybe she was involved with the project

1 minute ago, clifford_thornton said:

yeah, the grip-and-flip secondary market for limited edition new releases is a bummer. That happened big time with the Resonance Ayler box, though I was lucky to get one no problem on RSD.

And there's plenty available these days and not at mad prices the last I looked

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On 2/6/2024 at 4:24 PM, gvopedz said:

Since this topic started with Mingus and is now alluding to political economy, here is a video that shows Mingus at the Jimmy Carter White House:

 

It was one of the high points of the Carter administration, along with the performance of Vladimir Horowitz, which was also broadcast live.

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