Blue Note Jazz Deletes Listings From Catalog

The economy is not the only thing taking a hit these days...so is live and recorded jazz music. Musician friends of mine have been seeing a decline in clubs using live jazz artists...but it seems that if the clubs are turning to recorded jazz they may find a problem in getting it! Here is an article from Mike Jeffer's Chicago Jazz Magazine that contains the complete list of recordings being removed from the BlueNote music label catalog, to wit:

"It's depressing enough that one has always had trouble finding stellar, but non-best-sellers, like Gary Burton's Lofty Fake Anagram or Don Ellis' Electric Bath. But as of January 1, EMI dropped the axe on a long and varied list of jazz CDs, mostly from Blue Note, spanning from modern would-be classics (Joe Lovano's Trio Fascination) to historically interesting anomalies (Stan Kenton's City of Glass) to truly important Blue Note sides, whose absence could affect Blue Note's legacy (a good chunk of Jackie McLean's 1964-1966 output). While many of these will remain available as used items, they will become more and more rare unless steps are taken to preserve the rich history of jazz.Here is the complete list of CDs that have been deleted from EMI's jazz catalog, which includes releases from BlueNote, Pacific Jazz and Capitol Jazz.

Chet Baker - Prince Of Cool (3 CDs)
Art Blakey - At The Jazz Corner Of The World (2 CDs)
Stan Getz - Complete Roost Recordings (3 CDs)
Grant Green - Retrospective (4 CDs)
Joe Lovano - Quartets Live At The Village Vanguard (2 CDs)
Lee Morgan - Live At The Lighthouse (3 CDs)
The Complete Blue Note/Capitol Recordings Of Fats Navarro & Tadd Dameron (2 CDs)
The Complete Blue Note Recordings Of Herbie Nichols (3 CDs)
Wayne Shorter - The Classic Blue Note Recordings (2 CDs)
Horace Silver - Retrospective (4 CDs)
Stanley Turrentine - Up At Minton’s (2 CDs)
Jackie McLean - A Fickle Sonance (RVG Edition)
Jackie McLean - New And Old Gospel (RVG Edition)
Hank Mobley - Dippin’ (RVG Edition)
Lee Morgan - Tom Cat (RVG Edition)
Horace Silver - You Gotta Take A Little Love (RVG Edition)
Jimmy Smith - At The Organ, Volume 3 (RVG Edition)
Lonnie Smith - Turning Point (RVG Edition)
Art Taylor - A.T.’s Delight (RVG Edition)
Blue Note Perfect Takes (CD & DVD)
Lou Blackburn - Complete Imperial Sessions (Connoisseur Series)
Tina Brooks - Back To The Tracks (Connoisseur Series)
Introducing Kenny Cox & The Contemporary Jazz Quintet (Connoisseur Series)
Frank Foster - Manhattan Fever (Connoisseur Series)
Grant Green - First Session (Connoisseur Series)
Elmo Hope - Trio And Quintet (Connoisseur Series)
Freddie Hubbard - Goin’ Up (Connoisseur Series)
Bobby Hutcherson - Components (Connoisseur Series)
Jackie McLean - Vertigo (Connoisseur Series)
Ike Quebec - Complete 45 Sessions (Connoisseur) (2 CDs)
Thad Jones/Mel Lewis - Central Park North
Stan Kenton - The Jazz Compositions Of Dee Barton
Jimmy McGriff - The Big Band: A Tribute To Basie
Jackie Allen - Tangled
Jon Hendricks - A Good Git Together
Sue Raney - All By Myself
The Jazz Crusaders - Chile Con Soul
Chucho Valdes - Briyumba Palo Congo
Cannonball Adderley - Jazz Workshop Revisited
Cannonball Adderley - Money In The Pocket
Cannonball Adderley - Why Am I Treated So Bad
Chet Baker & Art Pepper - Picture Of Heath
Art Blakey -The Best Of The Blue Note Years
Art Blakey - The Freedom Rider
Art Blakey - The Witch Doctor
Kenny Burrell - Artist Selects
Benny Carter - Sax A La Carter
King Curtis - The Best Of The Capitol Years
Lou Donaldson - Everything I Play Is Funky
Lou Donaldson - Artist Selects
Tommy Flanagan - Sunset And The Mockingbird
Benny Green - Testifyin’: At The Village Vanguard
Grant Green - Live At The Lighthouse
Grant Green - Standards
Chico Hamilton - Original Ellington Suite (with Eric Dolphy)
Stefon Harris - Black Action Figure
Richard Groove Holmes - Groovin’ With Jug (with Gene Ammons)
Bobby Hutcherson - San Francisco
The Jazz Crusaders - At The Lighthouse
The Jazz Crusaders - Live At The Lighthouse ‘66
The Jazz Crusaders - Lighthouse ‘68
The Jazz Crusaders - The Festival Album
Lee Konitz - Alone Together (with Brad Mehldau & Charlie Haden)
Joe Lovano - Trio Fascination - Edition One (with Dave Holland & Elvin Jones)
Joe Lovano Nonet - On This Day At The Vanguard
Joe Lovano - Joyous Encounter (with Hank Jones)
Pat Martino - Live At Yoshi’s
Jack McDuff - Down Home Style
Jackie McLean - New Soil
Charles Mingus - Jazz Portraits (Mingus In Wonderland)
Hank Mobley - A Caddy For Daddy
Jason Moran - Black Stars (with Sam Rivers)
Jason Moran - Same Mother
Lee Morgan - Caramba
Lee Morgan - Charisma
Lee Morgan - Standards
Lee Konitz & Gerry Mulligan - Konitz Meets Mulligan
Gerry Mulligan - At Storyville (with Bob Brookmeyer)
Charlie Parker - At Storyville
Charlie Parker - The Washington Concerts
John Patton - Let ‘Em Roll
John Scofield-Joe Lovano-Dave Holland-Al Foster - Scolohofo Oh!
Wayne Shorter - The Best Of The Blue Note Years
Jimmy Smith - Standards
The Three Sounds - Live At The It Club
The Definitive McCoy Tyner
Blue Break Beats (The original Groove compilation)
Higher Ground (Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert)
Art Blakey - Like Someone In Love
Sonny Clark- Dial S For SonnyJoe Henderson - Our Thing
Clifford Jordan & John Gilmore -Blowing In From Chicago
Jackie McLean - Capuchan Swing
Jackie McLean - Right Now!
Blue Mitchell - Boss Horn
Blue Mitchell - Down With It
Hank Mobley - Hi Voltage
Lee Morgan - The Rumproller
Leo Parker - Let Me Tell You ‘Bout It
Bud Powell - Bud!
The Amazing Bud Powell-Volume 3
Ike Quebec -Heavy Soul
Horace Silver - In Pursuit Of The 27th Man
Horace Silver - The Stylings Of Silver
Jimmy Smith - The Sounds Of Jimmy Smith
Cecil Taylor - Conquistador!
Tina Brooks - Minor Move
Tina Brooks - The Waiting Game
Donald Byrd - The Transition Sessions (w/Doug Watkins) (2 CDs)
Bobby Hutcherson - Now!
Jackie McLean - Jacknife
Sam Rivers - Fuchsia Swing Song
Charlie Rouse - Bossa Nova Bacchanal
Jack Wilson - Easterly Winds
Larry Young - Mother Ship
Cannonball Adderley - Domination (with Oliver Nelson)
Count Basie - Breakfast Dance And Barbecue
Count Basie - Basie Meets Bond
Count Basie - The Count Basie Story (2 CDs)
Don Ellis - Live At Monterey
Don Ellis - Jazz In 3 & 2/3 /4 Time
Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra - Consummation
Stan Kenton - At The Las Vegas Tropicana
Stan Kenton - Back To Balboa
Stan Kenton - City Of Glass
Stan Kenton - Kenton Showcase
Stan Kenton - Standards In Silhouette
Stan Kenton - Viva Kenton!
Buddy Rich - Buddy And Soul
Mose Allison - Jazz Profile
Dr. John - Sippiana Hericane
Billie Holiday - Billie’s Blues
Sheila Jordan - Portrait Of Sheila
Peggy Lee - Basin Street East Presents
Julie London - About The Blues
The Best Of Nellie Lutcher
Bobby McFerrin - Spontaneous Inventions
Dakota Staton & George Shearing - In The Night
Sarah Vaughan - Sarah Sings Soulfully
Sarah Vaughan & Lester Young - Town Hall Concert 1947
Joe Williams - A Swinging Night At Birdland
Joe Williams And Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra
The Best Of Joe Williams
Luarindo Almeida & Bud Shank - Brazilliance-Volume 2
Art Blakey - African Beat
Los Van Van - Dancing Wet
Sabu - Palo Congo

For the average consumer, the results are horrific. The Blue Note Retrospective boxes were brilliant overviews of artists who had large Blue Note catalogs. The Chet Baker Prince of Cool box was the perfect primer for the beginning jazz listener, especially because Baker, along with Miles Davis and a handful of others, are exactly the artists that transform the new jazz fan into the seasoned jazz lover.The truly frightening deletions from the EMI catalog, thankfully, have been kept to a minimum. There are the aforementioned Jackie McLean CDs, but also some other disturbing entries on that list. Sam Rivers' Fuscia Swing Song not only gave jazz fans a glimpse of the very important relationship between Rivers and drummer Tony Williams, but it also is the disc on which Rivers recorded his seminal ballad, "Beatrice" (mercifully, that song, stays in circulation on a couple of Blue Note samplers). There is also Cecil Taylor's Conquistador, a fantastic avant garde jazz session on Blue Note from the mid sixties.

Among the saddest deletions from the catalog, however, is a disc that was never meant to be released in the first place: Chico Hamilton's Ellington Suite, featuring Eric Dolphy. A demo pressing found by accident in a record store, Pacific Jazz had rejected it because of Dolphy's playing, and Hamilton eventually recut it with Paul Horn. However, once the good folks at Blue Note were made aware of the historic find, they put it into circulation. Sadly, now it's back out of print. Every jazz fan will find a disc or two in this list for which they'll shake their fist in the air, whether it be the George Shearing and Dakota Stanton disc, or Thad Jones' and Mel Lewis' Consummation. Certainly, Count Basie's Breakfast Dance and Barbecue is a big loss as well, not only for the great playing of the band, but also for the seminal renditions of some Basie vocal hits with Basie's Number One Son, Joe Williams.Strangely, just as a massive chunk of Blue Note's catalog is going out of print, another huge portion of it has come back into print. Kind of. Amazon.com is offering a whole bunch of rare to really rare Blue Note albums on CD-Rs through a joint venture with a company called CreateSpace. While you're getting a "burned" CD, you are getting the original artwork, and considering how much the Blue Note catalog is shrinking, this might not be the worst way to get your fix of some amazing CDs from Big John Patton, Horace Parlan and even a ridiculously hard to find CD from James Newton.

Luckily, some of the other major labels are keeping physical product in print, or utilizing the Internet quite a bit. Concord's family of labels (Concord, Telarc, Heads Up, Fantasy, Prestige, Riverside and Contemporary) has made vast amounts of their catalog available on EMusic, as have some smaller, but impressive labels like Sunnyside, Ropeadope and Fresh Sound. Sony seems to have kept some out of print material available in MP3 format on ITunes and Rhapsody. Finally, Verve and Rhino are proving themselves to be nothing short of amazing in the Internet age. Verve has made some real rare gems available, including discs from Chicagoans Johnny Frigo and Frank D'Rone. Rhino has made virtually the entire Atlantic Jazz catalog available for purchase on-line, meaning that Von Freeman's Doin' It Right Now and even Clarence Wheeler's Doin' What We Wanna are both available with a couple of mouse clicks.Now might be the time for jazz fans with Internet connections and decent computer speakers to look into one of the subscription music services. The two best known are Rhapsody and Napster, and while those Blue Note CDs cannot be bought through those sites, they can be streamed, meaning that at the very least, these titles can be heard. One hopes that EMI will get on board, along with Sony/BMG, WEA and Universal and make more of their back catalog available on-line. The costs are minimal for CDs that have already been produced, and the return on investment is enormous, especially on re-issues. Artists ranging from Albert Ammons to Bill Stewart have made amazing discs for Blue Note, and it is a shame to think that they're languishing in vaults when they could be heard, and more importantly for EMI's bottom line, bought.The silver lining is that while it might take a little bit of investigative work, even in these days where jazz is appreciated less and less by the music audience at large, it is still out there, and there's more of it out there than ever before. Hopefully, sooner than later, that list will be repopulated with classics from the EMI catalog.--CJM Staff"
(source: chicagojazz.com)