Groove Merchant / Lester Radio Corp

[Rabshakeh]

Two record labels that were founded by Sonny Lester and covered one of jazz' commercially / critically tougher periods, working a commercially minded soul jazz vein after its original popularity has ceased.

I'm quite partial to the former label's work in particular, and I have never understood it's comparatively low profile among fans of soul jazz. 

Did Sonny Lester have a bad reputation? Or is it just that the distribution etc was not enough to keep up with the likes of Kudu?

[Kevin Bresnahan]

For some reason, these two labels have somehow managed to attain permanent "low budget" status on the used market. There is some great music in their catalog too, which makes it even weirder. Don't sleep on those Lucky Thompson dates.

[jazzbo]

Solid Records Japan has released a lot of these on cd in the last few years. Good titles in good sound.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

26 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

Solid Records Japan has released a lot of these on cd in the last few years. Good titles in good sound.

I never did get around to getting any of those. I do have the Lucky Thompson dates on LP though.

[Rabshakeh]

1 hour ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

For some reason, these two labels have somehow managed to attain permanent "low budget" status on the used market. There is some great music in their catalog too, which makes it even weirder. Don't sleep on those Lucky Thompson dates.

I mean, the Groove Merchants look great and they often sound great.

As a label, it has a high hit rate in my view in terms of quality. The cover art is often so good that you wonder why they haven't been picked up by the Insta-clout crowd, and the music is in that soul jazz sweet spot such that you would have assumed acid jazz and rare groove fans would be all over them. Leaving aside Kudu, the similar Mainstream label has far less attractive cover art and generally weaker records, but it has a far larger presence.

Edited Tuesday at 12:37 PM by Rabshakeh

[Big Beat Steve]

4 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

Two record labels that were founded by Sonny Lester and covered one of jazz' commercially / critically tougher periods, working a commercially minded soul jazz vein after its original popularity has ceased.

I'm quite partial to the former label's work in particular, and I have never understood it's comparatively low profile among fans of soul jazz. 

Did Sonny Lester have a bad reputation? Or is it just that the distribution etc was not enough to keep up with the likes of Kudu?

I'm not familiar with these labels but broadly know who Sonny Lester was (as a producer). So I felt the need to read up on him online now and see that he has an entry dedicated to him on a site named "spaceagepop". 😉 So maybe this (also) explains that (in terms of immediate Soul jazz credentials with the harder-core jazz fraternity)??

[Ken Dryden]

Sonny Lester had a reputation for cutting corners and not verifying things like song titles and composers, while more than once he issued music that he didn't have the rights to release. Both issues can be found with Dave Brubeck: The Quartet.

[felser]

There have been a lot of shoddy CD reissues on those labels, with discs that pull a few cuts from this album, a few cuts from that album, with no particular rhyme or reason, often duplicating cuts that had been on previous shoddy reissues from the labels.  It becomes a chore to figure out if one of them is worth buying or if it is just a differently-collated repeat of what you already have.  Agreed that some of the music is very good, and when presented respectfully, it's good to have.  Lester had a production deal with Blue Note ca. 1970, which has caused even more reissue confusion.

[JSngry]

Sonny Lester did Solid State, so track backwards to that, at least. I think he was with UA before that, not really doing jazz.

Lester has always had a trail of erratic productions. Some good, some just silly. The music is usually good though, especially on the earlier releases.

LRC has to be some kind of shadygrady operation. 

[Rabshakeh]

A lot of the earlier records sound pretty @Teasing the Korean approximate: After Hours: Middle East and How To Strip For Your Husband: Music To Make Marriage Merrier are two examples.

3 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

he has an entry dedicated to him on a site named "spaceagepop". 😉 So maybe this (also) explains that (in terms of immediate Soul jazz credentials with the harder-core jazz fraternity)??

I like that website a lot. 

Edited Tuesday at 04:38 PM by Rabshakeh

[JSngry]

Their packaging deteriorated over time. The double sleeves gave way to singles that more or less looked the same for every record.

But the Buddy Rich record with Illinois Jacquet is a stone classic in every regard!

Mainstream...maybe scarcity has created an outsized reputation? Plenty of good records, but plenty average ones too 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

Their packaging deteriorated over time. The double sleeves gave way to singles that more or less looked the same for every record.

But the Buddy Rich record with Illinois Jacquet is a stone classic in every regard!

Mainstream...maybe scarcity has created an outsized reputation? Plenty of good records, but plenty average ones too 

The Zoot Sims record with Buddy Rich is also a stone cold classic, going under the name of "Nirvana", "Featuring Buddy Rich", "Somebody Loves Me", "Send In The Clowns" (so appropriate), "A Summer Thing" & "Europa Jazz". I have it with this cover:

[JSngry]

Buddy did good work on Groove Merchant!

As did Lionel Hampton!

[JSngry]

Maybe THE Dakota Staton record?