Steve Swallow on Recording Basra

[Kevin Bresnahan]

This was posted over on the Steve Hoffman forum and I thought some of you would enjoy it...

"Pete and I were acid pioneers within the jazz community, and had dropped acid before going to Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in New Jersey. I remember being transfixed in Rudy’s bathroom. Rudy had blue water in his toilet! He was a germaphobe who wore gloves when he moved microphones, and he was also the first guy I knew who put a package of disinfectant in his toilet tank to turn the water blue. After I had taken acid, the blue water in Rudy’s toilet was the most remarkable thing I had ever seen.

“One of the tunes on Basra was ‘Lazy Afternoon,’ a tender ballad. We were in full flight, mid-take, with our eyes closed, when Kuhn reached inside the piano to pluck a chord. There were immediate loud and abrupt noises over the P.A. Rudy came running out to the room in the middle of the take and angrily told Kuhn, ‘If you touch those strings again, this date is over.’ We were all sitting there pinned to our seats with our eyes bugged out.

“Another song on the date is my piece, ‘Eiderdown,’ which is actually the first recording of one of my compositions. It’s also the only tune of mine that I don’t own. Alfred Lion snatched it right out of my hands. After the date had been done, I got a phone call from Alfred and he said, ‘Oh, by the way, “Eiderdown,” who is publishing that?’ I had no idea what he was talking about. I said, ‘Gee, I don’t know.’ Alfred said, ‘No problem.’ He then proceeded to offer me this ‘wonderful’ deal. He would publish it for me and take care of everything and I wouldn’t have to worry about a thing. I was so grateful. ‘Gee, Alfred. Thank you so much.’ I haven’t been able to get that tune back after all these years. Blue Note sold it, it’s gone around, and some big conglomerate owns it now. I keep trying to buy it back because it has been recorded fairly often.

“That’s another kind of Blue Note story. It is a great blessing to jazz that Blue Note existed, but on the business side they were also sort of gangsters.

“Basra has great soloing and a great groove, but what is behind all of that is Pete’s insistence on detail. Like a good performance by a Shakespearean actor, the effort behind that record is unseen. It’s extremely artful. It’s very much Pete’s album. Pete was insistent on countless details within that music. Rehearsals were grueling and lengthy. We seldom made it through a tune without him stopping and correcting us, to the point that the rest of us were on the verge of fleeing the room. It was terrible to rehearse with him, but the results were worth it. "

[Dan Gould]

Thanks for sharing.

[jlhoots]

Interesting.

[Rooster_Ties]

Yes, thanks!! — I would have never see this otherwise.

This appears to be the original source, and there’s a bit more than just the quotes posted on the Hoffman forum.

https://jazztimes.com/features/columns/steve-swallow-pete-la-roca/

[T.D.]

Thanks, Rooster. I've seen that fuller account quite a few times before, and posted passages (about RVG's reaction to plucked piano) on other boards. The jazztimes link says "updated Sep 27, 2024", but it's been around quite a bit longer than that. I suspect the account/interview/whatever has appeared on other websites, but have forgotten them.

Edited Sunday at 02:59 PM by T.D.

[JSngry]

Yeah  Jazz Times. Might have been armorial when Pete LaRocca passed?

[Ken Dryden]

I did a pair of interviews with Pete, I will have to see what he said about Basra. He deserved more opportunities to record.

[T.D.]

That Jazz Times story has been up since at least 2021, which is when I first saw it.

[mjzee]

Interesting piece, but I would challenge Swallow on his saying this:

5 hours ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

but on the business side they were also sort of gangsters.

First off, this was standard business practice back then.  It was rare for someone like Horace Silver to establish his own publishing company.  Swallow, by his own admission, had no clue about that side of the business.  And there's no assertion that Lion cheated him: Swallow probably got his earned half of the publishing royalties.  Also, consider that Basra couldn't have been released without this detail being resolved.  Would/should Lion walk him through the process of creating a publishing company?

[JSngry]

"Gangsters" is perhaps too strong, but the practice is definitely a form of legal shakedown. And arguably predatory.

Donald Byrd "famously" instructed Herbie a.o. on the ins and outs of self-publishing and Lion tried to play hardball before finally giving in.

The other side is that it was frequently a low-margin business and how many copies was Basra going to sell? A business like that relies on more than just record sales and hoped-for hits 

Still, the lack of transparency with the artists makes one queasy. And Swallow has effectively had a 50% loss of income on this one item for 50+ years. That ain't chump change 

[Dan Gould]

I think there is always an element that musicians need to know their business.  If they weren't sure the best approach they can consult other musicians or an attorney.

Alfred would have probably said "we need to record another track if you don't want to put the tune with our publishing company" and picked a standard ballad to replace it.

I am not sure that Lion was obligated to lay out the options in full detail vs the way Swallow describes how it went down. And in the moment, what exactly were the odds of this tune, or the album, being particularly popular? I am sure Alfred saw it as "a little more in the company's pocket, and every bit helps keep the lights on, especially after that damn Sidewinder took off and everybody wants the same track and won't pay on what they've ordered."

Last thing -  paid rehearsals isn't very gangsterish.

Edited Sunday at 08:46 PM by Dan Gould

[adh1907]

To be playing composed music, as implied, after taking LSD, challenging. Will have to relisten to Basra. 

[JSngry]

Definitely legal and definitely any musicians' obligation to know their business (although for some reason that's a relatively decent concept).

But Lion could be a bit gangsterism about publishing. He dropped Horace Parlan because of a dispute over a Ronnie Boykins tune. There's a few other things I've heard .

And AFAIK, the "junkie label" era Prestige never shared publishing. Same for Savoy, etc.

It was all legal, it was all accepted business practice, and too many musicians were just oblivious to any of it. But the businesses definitely enforced their advantage in an often heavy-handed manner. One should certainly understand ill-feelings decades later.And it's not just LaRocca btw, nor is it just jazz.

50% of your money is not insignificant, no matter who you are. Leverages should be fully understood and mutually exercised.