.It’s not a full-fledged explosion, and its effects on American pop culture remain to be seen and heard.
Yet there’s no question that there’s a burst of activity in the jazz recording business, with new labels turning up, old labels going strong and classical labels learning how to swing.
Consider recent events:
– Motown, the fabled soul-pop label, three months ago launched MoJazz, an organization dedicated to discovering, recording and nurturing young jazz artists.
– Telarc, the audiophile classical label, has put significant resources into jazz, recording such blue-chip names as Oscar Peterson, Andre Previn and the late Dizzy Gillespie (whose last recordings were on Telarc).
– Denon, a mostly-classical label, has launched an extensive reissue series of 300 Savoy Jazz albums, all to be released with original album art and liner notes.
– Rhino, the eclectic West Coast label, has acquired the Atlantic Jazz catalogue and later this year will begin releasing dozens of recordings.
– And in Chicago, Southport Records has been recording such local legends as tenor saxophonist Von Freeman and be-bop percussionist Wilbur Campbell; meanwhile, venerable Delmark Records is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a slew of new releases and reissues.
Though each company has particular reasons for turning to jazz, together they suggest that today’s jazz renaissance is making its mark on the record industry.
“There are a lot of reasons we wanted to start the jazz label,” says MoJazz creator Steve McKeever, Motown’s general manager. “For one, I’ve always thought that Motown should represent all forms of African-American music, and that, of course, means jazz.
“But we also thought that Motown can do for jazz what it did for R&B and soul in the past-we can help let it be known throughout the world.
“That’s precisely because Motown is not a jazz label, so we can reach listeners who wouldn’t necessarily buy jazz records. We can make this music accessible to a much younger audience than a jazz artist might otherwise reach.”
One way to do that, of course, is to record young, up-and-coming artists such as guitarist Norman Brown, whose pop-tinged “Just Between Us” CD is MoJazz’s first. Coming later this year will be a recording by Eric Reed, whom McKeever calls “a very straight-ahead young player who has worked with Wynton Marsalis,” plus an outing by longtime Miles Davis bandmate Foley. “He’s recorded an album very deeply rooted in jazz and blues,” adds McKeever, “but one that also gets into funk and hip-hop, so it’s not pure jazz.”
how successfully MoJazz walks the tightrope between jazz and pop will be interesting to observe, but there’s no doubt that McKeever hopes to explore “a lot of different facets of jazz. We’ll have the pure jazz from people like Eric Reed, but we’ll have newer sounds, too.
“In fact, that’s one of the reasons we called it `MoJazz.’ The label is going to be jazz, and something more.”
It’s not difficult to see why Motown, with its rich history in African-American musical tradition, would want to reach into jazz and related areas. But how does a classical label such as Telarc wind up making jazz records by the likes of Peterson and Gillespie?
“Actually, we’ve been interested in jazz for a long time,” says Telarc’s Jack Renner.
“When we first recorded Andre Previn (as a symphony conductor) in 1985, we suggested that if he ever wanted to go back to recording some jazz, he should do it with us.
“That, of course, is exactly what he did (with his elegant 1989 album, `After Hours’). Because (jazz bassist) Ray Brown was on that album, he helped us make a connection with Oscar Peterson,” adds Renner, proudly noting the Grammys won by “The Legendary Oscar Peterson Trio Live at the Blue Note” and “Saturday Night at the Blue Note With Oscar Peterson.”
Fueled by the critical accolades and commercial success of the Previn and Peterson discs, Telarc pushed ahead with other cleverly conceived, first-class products. Its “Lionel Hampton and the Golden Men of Jazz” CD brought together “Sweets” Edison,” Buddy Tate, Clark Terry and other giants; its two Gillespie discs, “To Diz With Love” and “To Bird With Love,” document the great musician’s final creative burst, when he performed with a variety of jazz stars nightly at the Blue Note in New York, early in 1992.
Next month, Telarc will release pianist Ahmad Jamal’s “Chicago Revisited: Live at the Jazz Showcase.” In addition, a reunion of Joe Williams and the Count Basie Orchestra (recorded live last year in Detroit’s Orchestra Hall) and a CD of the current Ray Brown Trio are on the books, with hopes for an Oscar Peterson solo record.
To Renner, there’s no mystery as to why Telarc has been able to succeed in jazz.
“For one thing, I think the jazz artists have appreciated being recorded by a genuine audiophile label, where the quality of sound is important,” says Renner. “Or at least that’s what they tell me. They like the chance to record music just as a classical artist would, without overdubbing, multi-tracking or any of that stuff.”
“But we always figured we could be successful commercially, too, because our classical listeners were asking us to record jazz.
“In many ways, really, the classical listener and the jazz listener are alike. They tend to be upscale and well-educated, they want to hear music with real substance and sophistication.”
The reason that Denon has plunged into jazz with its Savoy reissues says a lot for the international breadth of the jazz audience today.
Denon, after all, is a Japanese label, and “the audience for jazz in Japan is very big and very intense,” says Denon executive Melanne Sacco.
“When the Savoy catalogue came on sale some time ago, Denon was happy to buy it.”
To date, Denon’s Savoy reissues have included CDs by Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley, Stan Getz, Art Blakey and the Modern Jazz Quartet.
By bringing these long-neglected recordings back to the commercial arena, Denon is re-establishing major chapters in the history of be-bop.
In addition, though, Denon recently recorded a sequel to the Curtis Fuller Quintet’s famous Savoy recording of 1959, “Bluesette,” with all the group’s surviving members taking part.
As Denon’s Savoy director, Atsushi Hashizume, has said, “Savoy Jazz will no longer be just a historical label. We want to showcase today’s musicians who are maintaining a strong be-bop tradition.”
And even Rhino Records, an offbeat West Coast label with a taste for eccentric pop and rock, has jumped into the mix, having recently acquired the Atlantic Jazz catalogue.
As of April, Rhino will begin reissuing vintage recordings by John Coltrane, Ray Charles, Charlie Mingus, Or nette Coleman, Yusef Lateef, Max Roach and other pioneers.
“Of course, Rhino was aware of the jazz resurgence going on now,” says executive John Hagelston, “and it turns out that jazz fits in quite well with the tastes of Rhino listeners, who tend to be a little older, more upscale and more sophisticated musically.”
Locally, the intrepid Bradley Parker-Sparrow has been performing an important service in recording superb Chicago musicians.
“The only thing that amazes me,” says Sparrow, “is that in a city with millions of people there aren’t more jazz labels. We need more.
“Even so, I think things are getting better for jazz recordings. Our new Bobby Lewis CD (`Inside This Song’), for instance, is now available in several states, thanks to Rose Records, which is selling it everywhere.”
Of course, it will take time to determine if all this increased activity can endure. Regardless, though, the rebirth of vintage jazz recordings and the increasing recording of new ones seems to augur well for the art.
“In a way, we think we can’t really lose,” says MoJazz’s McKeever. “No matter what happens in musical tastes, there’s always going to be an audience for real musicians, for real talent, for real music.”
