Jazz for aficionados

Hi guys - first, to answer a question Rok posed:  "If the LP is not released, how does the artist get paid or make money?"  Answer:  the artists are paid for their work in the recording sessions themselves - in fact, this is the biggest single payment they receive, unless the album does incredibly well and they end up making a fair amount of royalties over many years.  Most albums don't sell that much, though, and the royalties do not usually add up to what the original payment for the recording sessions were.  Only the very biggest artists make a significant amount of money in royalties - also the studio musicians who do most of the movies in LA and London.  Also guys that play for TV and radio commercials that end up getting used over and over again for years and years do very well if they are lucky enough to have done one of those (for instance, think of those Motel 6 radio ads that may have the voice-over changed up, but it is that same music that they originally recorded and gets re-used in otherwise new commercials - those guys that did that session still make very good money in re-use payments, but that is unusual nowadays).  For orchestral musicians, the upfront payment we get for the session itself is much bigger than anything we ever get afterwards in the way of royalties, if there even are any.  It also depends, for us, on the type of recording and the agreement it is recorded under.  Many orchestras now self-produce their recordings, and they have a limited, local release, which makes it cheaper for them.  

The Academy of Early Music Berlin is one of the finer early music ensembles going right now, and that is a very nice performance.  The very best early music groups are still in England, though, which is sort of where that whole movement got started.  There are some good ones here in the states, too.  To answer Frogman's question on my opinion of the natural horn playing - I think those guys are pretty good, though there is definitely better around the world, both here and in England.  The best performance of the Water Music on natural horns that I know of is John Eliot Gardiner's group (The English Baroque Soloists) - those guys that play for him are really great.  That is something I have always had an interest in doing but have never pulled the trigger on - I don't own a natural horn.  I really should, as there is a need for it where I am - I could easily get enough work with it to justify the purchase and learning the technique.  Part of it is that I am a low horn player, and much of the solo natural horn work would be high, quite a bit different from what I normally do.  I have always wanted to find a good high horn player to do it with me as a pair, so it would suit me better, but that hasn't happened yet.  

It is rare the artist that retains the rights to unreleased material. It is possible to include a provision in an artist’s contract that stipulates that, should the label fail to release the recording, the artist then retains the copyright to that recording. However, this is rare and the record label usually owns all of the contracted artist’s material for (usually) fifty years or so.

Agree or disagree the record labels reasoning and justification for these practices is their claim that it takes a great deal of upfront investment to record, release and promote a recording. As Rok points out, they are a business and in the business of. making money. Having said that, I think it’s important to remember that if the label doesn’t make money, no artist makes money (from recordings). I don’t believe that a record label sets out to NOT release a recording and then save it until the artist has passed in an effort to make money. They don’t release a particular recording because they don’t feel it is commercially viable AT THAT PARTICULAR TIME. Contrary to popular belief here, some artists DO make and HAVE made inferior recordings. I use this example not to start yet another war here, but as an expression of my viewpoint.

The often discussed great (and he was) Grant Green made recordings late in his career that where, in my opinion, considerably inferior to his classics. The most recently posted clips of his work show an artist going into a (soul-funk-whatever) genre that was populated by some pretty stiff competition like George Benson and Wes Montgomery; players who were receiving a lot of attention and backing. Importantly, for some reason, his backing bands in these later recordings sometimes left a lot to be desired, imo. Case in point, the recently posted "Live At The Lighthouse". Whose idea was it to hire Claude Bartee for that recording? Who knows. But it was not a good choice; he sounds absolutely awful on soprano saxophone. I can see a scenario where label executives would decide to not release a recording like that because there was so much other music in a similar bag being released by them or other labels. I hate posting recordings of what I consider inferior music, but simply to make a point here is a recording that, to my way of thinking, one has to wonder "what where they thinking?"; and almost twenty minutes of it!! Terrible horn arrangements. Sometimes artists make bad choices; sometimes producers make bad choices or decisions. Simple as that.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zKVvBHusoMY

Even the great Michael Brecker's solo sounds a little "dialed in".

The Frogman / Learsfool:

Thanks for the insight into the music business and the review / comments on the Handel piece.  I did not notice the absence of a conductor.  I was so focused on the players.

I also have the John Gardiner CD.  I should branch out, and try more Classical  Composers..  I tend to buy the best performances of the stuff  with which I am familiar.  I have noticed that the names of the Composers being reviewed are starting to be more and more unfamiliar.  Back in the day, all the reviews seemed to be of the usual suspects.

Cheers

Many of Grant's recordings were not released during his lifetime. These include McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones (also part of the Solid group) performing on Matador (also recorded in 1964), and several albums with pianist Sonny Clark. In 1966 Grant left Blue Note and recorded for several other labels, including Verve. From 1967 to 1969 Grant was, for the most part, inactive due to personal problems and the effects of heroin addiction. In 1969 Grant returned with a new funk-influenced band. His recordings from this period include the commercially successful Green is Beautiful and the soundtrack to the film The Final Comedown.



Enjoy the music.

Grant Green:

I have these:

Sunday Mornin'
Solid
Matador
Idle Moments
Feelin' The Spirit

What others do you recommend?

Cheers