From Bossa Nova pioneers to Disco 2.0 newcomers, from Jazz Funk legends to cult soundtracks, they have released in just over a year several releases drawn from the large spectrum of their musical tastes. It’s time for them to explain their choice and go back to their own roots…

When did you start digging records?
Olivier: When I was a kid, they were selling vinyls at my local supermarket in the surburb of Paris, and they had turntables so you could listen to them, so I started buying 7” and 12” EPs and then LPs. It was mainly pop stuff from that time: A-ha, Dire Straits, U2. At around 10-11 year old, I also went deep into metal with Iron Maiden, Metallica, etc. I also bought records by groups from the French alternative scene like Les Bérurier Noir. I also had a lot of tapes, bought or duplicated from the local library – I still have these. My tape desk is still working and I’m even buying new cassette-only music, now that this format is hip again. Then by my mid-teenage years I switched all in one go to jazz (with Art Blakey), hiphop (with De La Soul, Ice Cube & Public Enemy) and soul/funk (with James Brown). I was influenced by the emergence of hiphop in my neighborhood and thanks to my city library and also to Radio Nova which was a key radio for me at the time, I had access to music. I discovered Paris’ indie records shops (Tikaret, LTD, Crocodisc, etc.) and I never really stopped buying records. By the end of the 90s I added electronic music on top and this mix pretty much what I’m still listening to.

Matt: I started buying records around 10-11 years old. I’d buy mostly 7”. One of the earliest one I remember buying was The Buggles’ Radio Killed the Video Star at my local supermarket. That was probably around 1979. Then I bought the early 80s music that was big at the time: Culture Club, Michael Jackson, Wham. I remember having a shock when I first heard “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash. I also remember buying the 7” of Malcolm McLaren, “Buffalo Gals” around that time. But that was it in terms of new releases. I didn’t like the 80s sound so I bought a lot of 60s, 70s music like Earth Wind and Fire, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Pink Floyd. I was constantly digging deeper. Also my best friend was very advanced in his music taste so he guided me a lot. He’d listen to stuff like Steely Dan, Art Blakey and Miles Davis at 13 years old so I got into Jazz at that early age!. We were also Pat Metheny groupies. We had our ECM phase and then with Acid Jazz came in and I went into Rare Grooves and JBs. Another big shock around that time was Gil Scott Heron whom I discovered in 91 thanks to a Super Disco Brake compilation I’d bought. I was lucky to see him live in 92 and that was fantastic.

What LPs did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them?
Olivier: I think it was U2’s “Rattle And Hum” and Dire Straits’ compilation “Money For Nothing”, both in 1988. I discovered the songs “Helter Skelter” and “All Along The Watchtower” on “Rattle And Hum”, and I was very surprised when I discovered the original versions. All the more for “All Along The Watchtower”, because before discovering the Dylan song, I first thought it was actually by Jimi Hendrix! For Dire Straits, it was the beginning of a new addiction that lasted a few years and I bought all of their tapes. I don’t listen to them anymore and by the time my musical tastes evolved, I came to hate them, as one usually does with their teenage tastes! But I still have them. I have some kind of affection for them.

Matt: My father was into Rock’n’roll and Rhythm & Blues so I remember a Chubby Checker album as one of the earliest LP I bought. The first second-hand album I bought was Barry White’s Rhapsody in White album in the mid 80s. That’s when the series Magnum PI was popular and the opening music of the series which was inspired by “Love’s Theme”. My first LPs are at my parents so I don’t get to play them but I’d like to take them back one day

Do you have a particular style or favourite period?
Olivier: I have a strong Black Music basis, ranging from hiphop to jazz, funk and soul, to which you can add a lot of electronic music. Then I like some leftfield stuff revolving around punk, experimental, ambient drone…

Matt: I listen to a lot of different styles but I would say it tends to be mostly Black Music, whether it’s Funk, Soul, Jazz, Hip Hop, Afrobeat. For the last five years I’ve been mainly listening to Jamaican music: Ska, Rock Steady, Dub. and also to a lot of Philly Soul and Disco. I like to think in terms of city and/or era. For instance what were people listen to in 1968 in LA or in 1978 in Berlin or New York without necessary put barriers between genres. I try to recreate the mix of pop, jazz, disco, rock that was going on at the time.

 
Comme ça…

Are you still digging’, buying vinyl, visiting record shops?
Olivier: A lot! In Paris and everywhere I travel to. Certainly too much, budget-wise, space-wise… I’m actually re-organizing my vinyls and the question of ‘where does it all lead’ comes to mind. So I try to focus on my core tastes and be selective and straight to the point. Because it certainly won’t stop. In terms of what I buy, I’ve always bought new releases, I’m not really a digger of vintage music with original pressings. I prefer to buy what will be considered gems in 20 years! That’s what I did for 90s hiphop: I bought all these records when they first came out. Now I do the same with electronic music. And I also fill the gaps in my soul and disco collection.
Matt: I buy records on a weekly basis. I used to buy a lot of LPs in the 90s and 00s, mainly Jazz, Soul and Funk. Now I tend to buy more CDs than LPs so I don’t go for the very obscure expensive stuff. More like high quality reissues or classic albums I don’t have. Unlike Olivier I never buy new music. I always wait five to ten years if not more to see an album will stand the test of time. Many albums don’t survive the initial hype very long.

What was your first release on WeWantSounds?
Matt: It was a great compilation of French music from the Nouvelle Vague. We’re big film buffs and there is some incredible music made at the time with composers like Michel Legrand or Georges Delerue. That precise moment when French realized there was something more exciting than realist chanson. Same with Brigitte Bardot, France suddenly woke up and realized there was something more sexy than Raimu or Danielle Darrieux.

Why did you choose this name Wewantsounds: is it a statement?
Matt: We wanted something simple, catchy and straight to the point but without any indication of a music genre or specific era. We thought that Wewantsounds was fun and catchy. We imagine all these zombie-like music lovers cropping out after dark all starving and chanting “Wewantsounds”!

What could be your editorial/artistic direction?
Matt: We focus on the music we love trying to add interesting pop culture angles in the mix. We try to bring high quality music in an accessible way. We’re always puzzled to see that many people outside of the hardcore music circles tend to listen to the same thing because they don’t have all the keys to access the more interesting artists. There are a lot of “if you like this, you‘ll love that” out there but it tends to be very commercial.

 
Monika
Secret In The Dark (The Juan MacLean Edit)
 

What could be the label’s leitmotiv?
Matt: Listen to this cool music, you may not have heard about but you will love it

How do you decide on the choice of reissues?
Matt: There are no rules. We get excited by an idea and we just dig. Most of the time it doesn’t lead to anything: Either we discover it’s been done already or the rights are locked away or there is no real potential but sometimes we hit gold. In terms of concept, it varies. Sometimes it can be led by an artist, sometimes we want to chronicles a label, other times an era or style of Music. We tend to make the decisions organically as we go. We listen to a lot of music so we ping pong a lot of ideas back and forth: do you know this artist? Have you heard this track? What about reissuing that album? We should do a compilation around so and so genre etc.

And what about new artists?
Matt: We both ran labels in the past doing artist development. That’s actually how we met working on Palestinian hip hop group DAM ten years ago. Unlike reissues, artist development requires a lot more muscle and efforts as you deal with the artist, the manager, the touring agent etc. It’s a long chain and things can get more complex. Also you need to be able to sign the right artist who’s got enough of a fan base but the bigger they are the bigger the advance will be. Add to that other costs like tour support, marketing and promotion and the bill will be huge before you start marking a profit. It’s a gamble. With reissue, you won’t probably hit gold but it’s safer and the entry ticket is cheaper. Saying that, we’ll probably try, once we’ve grown to a size that allows a bit of risk taking.

Olivier you have made the selection for your DISCO 2.0 set. What is your role in the label? Is it dedicated to the more contemporary sounds?
Olivier: Thanks to my various jobs in the music industry – running a label, free-lancing as a music PR, working at Radio France and now writing as a journalist, I’ve always been deeply immersed in the music scene: getting new releases, checking out bands, going out to concert venues & clubs. So my aim is to be a curator scanning through the richness of these new scenes, French or international and creaming the best. There are so many incredible young bands and new trends that are bubbling under that deserve to reach a wider audience. We want to go beyond reissues and bring music to people purely on the basis of high quality, whatever the era it comes from.

From Bossa Nova, via Nouvelle Vague …. You have released thematic reissues like Bossa Nova or Sunday Mixtape: why this choice? Are there any others to come?
Matt: We’ve been all submerged by tons of music since the rise of Internet. When your work have something to do with music, your friends and family always ask for advice on some fresh or just good music, because everybody is lost in the flow. So we try to address this need: bring some nicely packaged music curated by connoisseurs for special occasions like Sunday morning mix. There is a big hype around playlists at the moment and we try to give it our own twist with a very selective yet accessible touch, for our compilations to be timeless trips. As we get more established, we’ll do more. We have projects in the pipeline and you can expect some soon in all kind of different genres, from modern punk to sextapes!

 
Afrique
House Of The Rising Funk
 

At the end of 2016, you released “Feeling Good”, a compilation from the Mainstream label, focusing on spiritual jazz, funk and soul. A second set is coming out in June focusing more on the jazz sound. How did you get the access to this catalog?
Matt: I love all that jazz-funk sound from the early 70s and was buying albums from CTI, Flying Dutchman, Groove Merchant, Prestige, Muse. One day in the early 90s I bought two Mainstream LPs in a second hand shop and just loved them. I’d never heard of the label but everything was cool about these: the music was amazing: funky and earthy and you had all these great session photos on the sleeve with this cool producer, Bob Shad, surrounded by young dashiki-dressed black musicians making this outstanding music. In the mid 90s when I started working in the music business I managed to get the contact – from Eddie Piller I think – for Shad’s Daughter Tamara who had inherited the catalog (Shad died in 1985) but I quickly heard that Sony had acquired the back catalogue from her, so I never pursued the idea. Then, last year, I found out it was still owned by Bob Shad’s family, who are none other than comedian producer Judd Apatow and his sister Mia and we got along really well.

Do you also plan to dig the more rock and psychedelic albums of this same label?
Matt: Yes there is some great music on that side as well, although the Big Brother/Janis Joplin master had been sold to Columbia. There are also some great jazz albums from the sixties in the catalogue as Shad ran Time Records as well. There is a beautiful Sonny Clark album for instance. We’re going to reissue this amazing 1967 album by Mauricio Smith called “Bitter Acid”. The title says it all. It’s a fantastic groovy Latin album mixing jazz and boogaloo produced y Joe Cain, very much in the Cotique/Tico vein. Our good mate London Latin DJ John Armstrong will write some new sleevenotes.

You will reissue two albums from the Mainstream catalog: Buddy Terry and Harold Land. Can you tell us more about these?
Matt: Beside the compilations, we thought it would be great to start reissuing original albums. The great thing with Mainstream is that the archives have been carefully preserved and the label still has most of the tapes and session photos. It’s like a goldmine and you can do a lot more. Buddy Terry is an amazing deep jazz album.I knew of Terry from his playing soprano sax in this amazing Art Blakey track called “Song for a Lonely Woman” which is a personal favourite of mine – it’s from the same sessions that produced “A Chant For Bu” famously sampled by A Tribe Called Quest. Anyway Buddy Terry recorded three albums for Mainstream and “Awareness” is the first one, recorded in 1971. It’s an amazing album that ticks all the boxes especially since Strata East co-founder Stanley Cowell is on there and it has a very funky version of his cult standard “Abscretions”. There is also an incredible line up accompanying them: Buster Williams, Cecil Bridgewater, Mikey Roker. It’s both funky and spiritual and you wonder why Terry didn’t get more exposure after these Mainstream albums as they are all amazing.
The Harold Land album is a personal favourite. We’re huge fans of the Harold Land-Bobby Hutcherson Quintet which made incredible music between 1967 and 1971. Land was older than Hutcherson and he was from the first bop generation that came up in the 40s/50s. He’s on the legendary 1955 Max Roach Clifford Brown quintet album which Bob Shad produced by the way. But in the 60s, following the Coltrane revolution, Land found a second life as this extremely inspired modal saxophonist and the association with Bobby Hutcherson, who was at the forefront of the post-bop scene of the late 60s, was a match made in heaven. The created a unique sound which was influenced by Coltrane but it was something else. This Mainstream album from 1971 featuring the rhythm section from Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi Sextet (Buster Williams and Billy Hart) is their absolute peak. It’s very sophisticated music but very melodic and serene at the same time. We’re going to add a bonus track “Dark Mood” which was briefly released on a Mainstream compilation in 1974 but this is the first time the whole session will be reunited on one CD. And we’ve got some amazing session photos and have even gone back to the original picture to reconstruct the front cover so we’re very excited about it.

 
Alice Clark
Never Did I Stop Loving You
 

Dope classic of the soul, the Alice Clarke album has already been reissued, but rather cheap way. Do you plan to make a beautiful reissue, with why not unreleased tracks?
Matt: It’s a cult classic that should be up there with the Roberta Flack and Aretha Franklin albums. We are thinking about it but as it stands the specific cheap version you are referring to is a bootleg so we’d probably wait before reissuing it.

Nowadays, there are many labels which follow the deluxe model, more quality with lavish packaging at a higher price bracket… At same time, there’s also a more commercial LP market, with majors and mid-price labels releasing their back catalogue. Is it the (re)creation of the old market for the LP?
Matt: Probably but it’s a good sign as it means that the market is expending and diversifying. There is even a third tier for huge boxsets containing books, LPs, Memorabilia. Digital is great but it tends to become like radios especially since streaming is taking over from download. In the future you’ll just tune in to a few playlists to discover stuff and hopefully you’ll go and buy the record if you really like something. There is a cool edge about vinyl, the turntable, the object, the sleeve. It has become a lifestyle accessory. You will soon get turntable buyer’s guide pages in lifestyle mag if not already.

There are more and more reissues of back catalogue LPs, and more and more record labels (major or indie) are now releasing their new artists on LP, or EP. Do you think that the LP reissue market could ever reach saturation point?
Matt: There is a risk and you can never predict what’s going to happen. Trends are fickle. Ten years ago everybody wanted iPods, now it’s turntables. I think it will depend on the younger generation who didn’t grow up with the object. If some of them can be converted to the object then it will keep growing.

Have you received many negative answers from right owners on some of the LPs, artists, unreleased tapes, you were trying to reissue?
Matt: Yes we’ve had all the usual scenarios. The ones who don’t answer at all, those who answer but want a big advance, those who re ok but don’t want to give you the vinyl rights and those who say they are not interested. And you’ve got all the other ones who play the game and give you the tracks without problems. Which are the ones who end up on our releases you could say.

 
Harold Land
In The Back, In The Corner, In The Dark
 

What are your next releases?
Matt: On top of the ones we mentioned above, we are preparing a 70s London compilation with DJ Scratchy Sounds who was DJing with the Clash in the late 70s it will be a thrilling sonic mix of punk, garage, dub and R&B with a unique 70s London feel. We are also thrilled to announce the release of an incredible OST by Dave Grusin from “The Friends Of Eddie Coyle” a very cool gangster film directed by Peter Yates (Bullitt). Dave Grusin also composed the music for “The Three Days of the Condor” which is the more famous one but Eddie Coyle recorded two years before is even better. It never came out at the time so it will make its LP debut 45 years after the film was released! We’ve got the master tapes which sound amazing. It plays like a long hypnotic jazzy funky suite.

What is the LP you dream of reissuing?
Matt: “Nightclubbing” by Grace Jones but it’s already been done! It’s the meeting of so many talents: Chris Blackwell’s flair to reinvent Grace Jones as this ice-cold 80s diva, the unique blend of reggae, disco with a zest of punk played by the Compass Point Studio musicians, Grace Jones personality filtered by Jean-Paul Goude’s groundbreaking visuals. It suddenly grabbed everybody out of the 70s. It’s a 4 dimension masterpiece.

Olivier: There’s a French artist called Sig, who wrote the OST of his own indie movies, Louise (Take 2) and Sansa and worked with virtuoso violinist Ivry Gitlis. He’s a modern day hobo, travelling light all over the world and playing with musicians he meets along the way. In 2002, he came back from a long photo trip to India, where he had played and recorded some music. He finished the music in his Montmartre flat, which was completely empty except for a keyboard, a cello and some African percussions. It features famous Swiss trumpeter Erik Truffaz and his musicians. It’s a beautiful dreamy trip that was only released on CD, without a barcode, because Sig didn’t want one. I was the PR for this record, and although it was a tough one to push, it was a tremendous life experience working with Sig. He called everybody “my brother”. I still listen to it on a regular basis each time I need an escape. It doesn’t age. I’d love to bring this treasure to people’s turntables!

After his memorable Top 5 (that was real rare stuff!), our friend Julien from Digger’s Digest is back to chat with us about his label (Digger’s Digest) and his numerous compilation projects with french labels Born Bad and Heavenly Sweetness! Fresh and not always politically correct, we did not expect less from our fellow digger!

When did you start digging records?
It started with Purple Rain on 7 inch by Prince when I was 8, then I discovered Yo MTV rap and asked my father to offer me the ‘3 Feet High and Rising’ De La Soul cassette when I was 11. I then stole Rap and Grunge CD’s at my local supermarket at 14 and spent a short period in jail ! At 17 I sold my indie pop rock CD’s and Hip-hop K7 collections to buy hip-hop 12 inches and seriously started looking for samples and rarities in every style around, that was in my 20’s.

What LP’s did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them?
I have sold most of my personal records but I constantly tend to buy them back! I would say A Tribe Called Quest ‘Midnight Marauders’ I bought when I was 16. I have discovered many others records thanks to hip-hop music ! Also The Donald Byrd album ‘New Perspective’ on Blue Note, i kept borrowing from my older brother who had good musical taste in the past!

Do you have a particular style or favorite period?
Not really, I’m mainly collecting jazz and music from the West Indies from every period but like many other kids i started discovering black music (soul/funk) through hip-hop samples. I think it gave me a wider taste but I loved many styles so I couldn’t stay stuck in the 70’s. I love post punk, electronic avant garde music, weirdo concept albums, soundtracks, deviant 7 inches! I also try to listen to what’s new, and since there is so much music released today, it would be a shame to be only focused on the past!

Are you still diggin’, buying vinyl, visiting record shops?
Yes but not in the same way as 10 years ago, when I was digging everyday! Now it’s a bit different, the digging game has constantly changed over the last 10 years, prices have exploded but I still try to go everywhere to buy records, for my on-line shop and for my personal collection.

What was your first release on Digger’s Diggest? Why did you decide to start a label?
My first release (in co-production with Frenchattack) was ‘Rupture : Israel Suite’, the ultra rare vocal funky pop jazz album by jazz drummer Sylvain Krief (known as Airto Fogo). This record was first discovered by Gwen Jamois (Iueke) but Gwen kept it secret! Record detective Thomas Pasquet finally found out the name of this killer record that has gained cult status! As far as I remember when I finished school I always wanted to start a label, but after a short brief experience in a major company I decided to do something else! But I’ve always had the idea in mind. Now 20 years later I think that when you are a passionate collector/dealer, reissuing records is the logical next step. See how many private collectors/record stores start a label.

What could be your editorial/aesthetic line?
It is definitely around jazz but has to be a record with a singular aesthetic, jazz tinged with a particular sound like modern Gwo Ka and Fusion for Edmony Krater, Vocal Funky Jazz for ‘Israel Suite’ or African / Arabic / Mediterranean influences on Cossi Anatz, our next release. I release records i particularly love, that have something different. It’s not only the music, the story of the men behind the records is also very important to me. I could not reissue a record if the musician behind is a complete asshole! It’s all about human relationships.

What could be the label’s leitmotif?
I try to release music that I love, that is still unknown to the general public, and deserves a bigger audience or simply an audience!

What is the Digger’s Diggest LP you are prouder?
I don’t know … maybe the Edmony Krater album, as I discovered the record by myself in my local flea market, 11 years ago, I particularly like it, and when I met Edmony we really got along, we had the same vision of music! Also because Edmony is now touring again with a band playing live his ‘Tijan Pou Vélo’ for a younger generation. He is still really active, composing and recording new music for 2017!
I’m also happy with Israel Suite ‘Rupture’ release as it became the anthem for every Gilles Peterson DJ set in 2015: «Amis à bientôt, ici la vie est bonnnnnnneeee … shalom!»

Did you have any reference labels?
Of course I’m a fan of numerous labels like all the big american labels ! I love the identity they gave to music business in the 50’s/60’s/70’s. I would say Atlantic, Motown, Stax, Strata East and El Saturn. In France I love the catalogues and identity of Barclay / Riviera / Odeon / Ducretet Thomson or Emi/Pathé ! Also Debs, Aux Ondes, 3A Production and Hit Parade for the French caribbean music !

You work mainly with two other labels. Why this choice?
It is more a matter of encounters than a choice, I met JB & Franck around 11 years ago at the same time while looking for records. I was surprised they knew about my website !
We talked about the projects we had. JB borrowed some records from me for some of his projects. The collaboration between Born Bad Rec and DD really started with the discovery of the famous ‘Mariage Collectif’ unreleased album, which I had no idea how to release it. JB came and told me he really wanted to do it and offered me a super fair deal !

And how do you divide your collaborations between Born Bad Records and Heavenly Sweetness?
I would say with Franck (HS) it is more about Deep Jazz, Caribbean Jazz, Rare grooves and now Boogie, Zouk and Electronic. My expertise with Born Bad is more around late 60’s / 70’s french sounds (Marriage Collectif and Mobilisation Générale).

You released Digital Zandoli on K7. Just for fun or is there a real business for this kind of support?
Both! I did it because I didn’t want it to be a simple mix lost in the soundcloud and mix cloudcharts! I wanted my friends that still have a tape player in their cars to listen to it ! It is also a tribute to the hip-hop mixtape culture I was into in the mid 90’s (Tony Touch / Cut Killer / Stretch Armstrong / DJ Revolution…). It was also a real promo tool for the official project we released on Heavenly Sweetness. Not a real business because we made only 50 copies of the first mix and 75 copies of the 2nd. Sold out quickly!

There’s a second volume on K7. Will you do it on LP soon?
On both mixtapes, Volume 1 and 2, the track-listings are completely different from the LP & CD released on Heavenly Sweetness. There are almost 30 tracks on each tape from very obscure records. I put the 1st side of each tape on soundcloud for free streaming. If you want the tracklist and the B side you need to buy the cassette! Plus it is a real mixtape with edited parts, scratches, sequenced tracks. By releasing this mixtape it was more a way to prepare the audience to Zouk and Caribbean Electronic Music, a genre they might not know!

You issue original LPs, but also compilations. Are these two different approaches? Do you feel you are touching the same audience?
For my projects I’m only doing 500 copies which are distributed in selected stores across Europe. So of course the audience is smaller ! For the compilations, the labels I’m working with release them on LP/CD and digital/streaming so of course it now touches a worldwide audience ! Also for the compilations we try to tell a story to the listener. It is very important that a compilation is not just a sum of good tracks pressed on a record but, for example, a showcase of how a musical style is created…

You attach big importance to liner notes, information. Is this what makes the difference between the many compilations on the market today?
A compilation without liners notes is pretty useless! For the same reasons as before. Anyway when you ask for the rights for some tracks, you can always find some information.

When we know the cost of advances on royalties, is it increasingly difficult to make compilations?
Ask my producers! But yes you have to spend a nice amount of money to get some licences. Sometimes it is very easy because the artist is really happy that his project gets a new life. But yes it is more expensive to release compilations with severals labels and artists than doing a simple fac simile reissue or label compilation.

You are about to reissue a record by trumpet player Michel Marre : Cossi Anatz. Why such a choice? And can you think of any similar projects for the future?
Yes! My friend mister Flash showed me this record 15 years ago and I always loved the music, the cover and the whole concept of Jazz mixed with Occitan southern culture, afro and arabic sounds, and I felt that it would be logic to release this record after Edmony Krater as it is a kind of jazz that people don’t really listen to because they simply don’t have access to it. Cossi Anatz drummer René Nan played with Marius Cultier in the early 70’s, Michel Marre played in the Tusques’ Intercommunal Free Dance Orchestra. So it was logic to me that this record would fit in the catalog I’m trying to build. The OG copies are now ultra expensive (300 € and more) so it is a good thing to make it available again. And yes, I have the Georges Edouard Nouel ‘Chodo’ LP that we have just signed.

Most of Digger’s Digest releases are jazz or french west-indies LP’s. Any particular reasons?
Yes I really want to defend our legacy! The leitmotiv would be more music from anywhere but produced in France. I mean the question of France or not is not relevant to me since the music we have reissued has influences from everywhere Middle East, North Africa, Africa, West Indies, the US. I have an easier access to obscure french records than any others countries. And to say the truth I think we are pretty lucky in France considering the vast production… Jazz, it is simply because this is the basis of everything I’m listening to today!

Nowadays, there are many LP labels who follow this model, I mean more quality even if it’s more expensive… but at same time, there is also another «new» LP market, with major companies coming back and other labels, who prefer to sell cheaper. Is it the (re)creation of two camps for the LP?
Majors companies were late in this reissue fever, they have now understood they could exploit their vast catalog trying desperately to relaunch vinyl as a mass market thing but I think it’s an economic bubble. You see the same big selling pop rock records in the past reissued at huge quantities. Result is the pressing delivery schedule are very long for most of the small labels. Also on the small labels everything is reissued, there are the good ones and the unrelevant ones in my opinion. Once a record is hyped by the right person, you can be sure it will be reissued within a few months.

Digger’s Digest reissue LP’s are limited editions, is it due to the market size or a real policy to keep them rare?
I would say for both reasons. For ‘Israel Suite’, my 1st release, i would never have thought it would be so looked after. I.S was the 1st release I produced so I wanted to limit the risks by pressing only 500. Also this record was only known by an handful of collectors and only heard as limited audience since we have compiled it on ‘Freedom Jazz France’. I also think it’s useless to release in one run 1000 copies of a record that is look after by just 10 people.

There are more and more reissues of old LP’s, and more and more record labels (major or indie) now release their new artists on LP, or EP. Do you think that the LP reissue market could ever reach saturation point?
I think we’ve already reached this point! For example see what a so-called official label like PMG is doing on the market, cheap mastering, pressing and covers, no infos, a batch of 20 records in one shot on the market. They might make some money now but I bet it won’t last. I don’t even want to talk about the bootleggers… Meanwhile it always exists. Buyers and collectors are overwhelmed by new reissue labels, and also fed up with cheap quality. My goal when I do a reissue is to go further, try to tell the story of the record, with its context, maybe more photographic material, bring testimony from the past. I don’t reissue a record because it’s worth a 3 digit numbers.

What are your other next releases?
Reissues of Cossi Anatz / José Manclière / Georges Edouard Nouel on Digger’s Digest.
‘Disk La Rayé’ a West Indies Boogaloo Compilation with Born Bad
‘Digital Zandoli Part 2’, with Nico Skliris, and ‘Kouté Jazz Part 2’ with Heavenly Sweetness.
I’m also launching a brand new project/label outside of DD with a friend but this will be a big surprise soon hopefully!

What is the LP you dream of issuing/reissuing?
I don’t know I think It would be more producing than issuing, maybe a crazy hybrid record that gathers all the sound influences I like ! Jazz, Afro, West Indies, Brazil, Latin, Electronic Synthetic music and a bit of Soul and Funk ! If you have any suggestion, please send me your demo!

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Bob Shad with Reggie Moore, 1972

Bob Shad was one of the key jazz producers of the 20th Century alongside Creed Taylor, Orrin Keepnews, Bob Thiele and Nesuhi Ertegun. He left an unforgettable mark on music across many genres, producing more than 800 albums over a 40 years career and recording many Giants in the process. “He was not just commercial, he recorded mainly what he believed in.”, said critic Leonard Feather. Born in New York on February 12th, 1920, Bob Shad got in the music business in 1946 working first for National Records and then for Savoy Records as they bought National. It was the beginning of a long and fruitful journey which saw him work with Charlie Parker on the legendary Savoy Sessions, set up EmArcy Records in the 50s and produce a 7” single in 1958 by The Jades featuring a 15 year old guitarist named Lou Reed. Oh and he recorded Janis Joplin’s first LP in 1966 with Big Brother & The Holding Co.

The list of luminaries Shad recorded or discovered is endless: Lightnin’ Hopkins and Art Blakey, Max Roach and John Cage, Cannonball Adderley and The Platters, Sarah Vaughan and Quincy Jones. An entrepreneur at heart, he founded a new label, Mainstream Records in 1964 producing jazz, psychedelia and soundtracks. In 1971, he started the cult Mainstream MRL 300 series featuring the radical sound of the early 70s recorded by a new wave of young robe-dressed jazzmen, influenced by both the modal sound of the New Thing and the funk of Sly Stone. Shad didn’t restrict his productions to one particular genre and also recorded young soul divas such as Ellerine Harding, Maxine Weldon and above all Alice Clark, whose eponymous album mixing soul with Ernie Wilkins’ funky big band arrangements has become an absolute classic.

Just out on WEWANTSOUNDS, is “Feeling Good”, a 2-LP selection from the rich Mainstream catalogue, filled with mouth-watering, Fender Rhodes-drenched deep jazz, soul and funk. And we’ve heard there is a second opus already in the pipeline. More than thirty years after his death, it is essential to rediscover the legendary Bob Shad, a maverick jazz producer and passionate music man from the glorious days when vinyl was king. We talked about the great man and his legacy to his grandson, who is none other than comedian, producer and filmmaker Judd Apatow. Cult.

You were born in 1967 just a few years after Mainstream Records was launched and the year your grandfather released the Big Brother/Janis Joplin album. Was the music he produced part of your childhood’s “soundtrack”?
Absolutely, at home when I was a kid, we listened to Jazz and to the music Bobby produced. I don’t think I fully understood what it was about until I was in high school when I started deejaying at my high school radio station and had a jazz show. At which point, I decided to visit my grandfather in Los Angeles and my hope was that, for the first time, I would be able to talk about all the work he had done because I was old enough to understand. But sadly he died of a heart attack just before I made that trip so I was never able to have that conversation with him.

What relationship did you have with him when you were growing up? What sort of grandfather was he and what was he representing in your family?
As a kid I saw my grandfather all the time. My father actually worked at Mainstream Records for my grandfather so I would visit them a lot at the label. Bobby was a legend in the family for all he had accomplished. He was a really funny guy and had a great sense of humour. He loved to give you a “hard time” and he was so passionate about music and what he’d done.

Bob Shad was a cult producer and we could say the same about you in a way. How did he inspire you?
He was such an inspiration because he was a self-made man. He was some poor kid in New York who cobbled together enough money to hire some jazz musicians and record them. Then he had records made and went to sell them to record stores himself and that was in the 40s. Then he opened a record store and started his own label. What’s amazing is some of the people he recorded when he was very young turned out to be Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. It all happened just because he loved the music so much. He had no ‘way in’ in the business. He didn’t know anyone and just did it. For me that was a great inspiration because I thought ‘oh you can do what you want to do in comedy, you just have to do it’ so I started interviewing comedians when I was a very young and I was writing jokes for them. I also did stand-up comedy in high school and that was all because I knew my grandfather had done the same as a young man. For instance, he went down south with his tape recorder and recorded all these blues artists on their front stoops. He was a real innovator.

You’ve namechecked him in your film “Walk Hard – Dewey Cox Story” by naming one group in the film “Bobby Shad & The Bad Men”, a nod to the album he released on Mainstream Records. Also you have used several tracks from Mainstream Records in your soundtracks along the years. Do you have any favourite track or album from the catalogue?
I get a kick out that album, Bobby Shad & The Bad Men where he would cover rock songs with a 65 pieces orchestra, it’s such a fun album. I grew up listening to the first Big Brother & The Holding Company record featuring Janis Joplin because the family talked about it all the time. My family would say: “Janis Joplin is the best singer ever and your grandfather found her before anybody else in 1966”. I have the letter of intent hanging in my office dated Sept 7 1966 saying she was going to sign with him. So people talk about Columbia boss Clive Davis discovering Janis Joplin but my parents always said: “Well actually not, your grandfather did. She did her first album for Mainstream Records”.
There is also a legend in the family that Bobby tried to sign Elvis Presley. Apparently he was down South and he called Mercury, the label he worked for at the time, to tell them to sign Elvis but it took a very long time to get approval and match the sum Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis’ Manager, was asking for. So by the time Mercury gave the greenlight, Elvis had already been signed by RCA for 40.000$. I always enjoyed hearing the stories about who Bobby didn’t sign. People he had seen when they were really young and didn’t pick, like the Grateful Dead. Another one was Bob Seeger. Bobby would say: “Ah yes I didn’t sign him!”

Hadley Caliman, Alice Clark, Harold Land

There is one album, The Alice Clark one from 1972, whose reputation has been growing exponentially over the last years as one of the best soul albums of all times. It’s beautiful and got a very cinematic feel. Do you have any plans to use more tracks from the Mainstream vaults in future productions?
I regularly use tracks from the Mainstream catalogue in all of my films. I always have jazz in there, also rock and blues tracks, I’ve used Ted Nugent’s group The Amboy Dukes, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee. It’s a fun nod to my grandfather and his work.

Bob Shad seemed ahead of his time as he championed African American artists (jazz, blues, doowop…) producing them back in the 40s at a time when it wasn’t common. Has he passed on to you his passion for jazz, funk and blues or made you appreciate these genres more, in today’s context?
I’m a big fan of jazz, funk and blues. I’m certainly not as knowledgeable as he was but he made me appreciate the music and made me more open in having eclectic tastes in all arts. The best thing about Bobby is he had no boundaries with the label: he produced rock ‘n’ roll, blues, jazz, avant-garde with a John Cage album! He just loved music. Also Mainstream was a vital label in the 70s when jazz was not as popular as it had been. Mainstream was one of the few labels who were still making original jazz. And he put out some comedy albums as well which I really loved as a kid, like these Dickie Goodman records where he would be a reporter asking questions and the answers were little snippets of famous songs. There were really funny albums.

Your grandfather fought hard to impose photos of black musicians on album covers…
Yes way back then, Record labels didn’t want to carry records if they had pictures of Black artists on the cover and Bobby would refuse this. In his own way he broke down a lot of barriers by loving this music and by pushing the world to hear it. He felt that these great Black art forms deserved much more respect.

Bob Shad at Record Plant Studio with Reggie Moore and Carmine Rubino

Your films “Knocked Up” and “This is 40” films with Paul Rudd as a Label owner feel very authentic. You were too young to work at Mainstream but have you had any record label experience in the past?
I know the music business from my family running Mainstream Records. They’ve been putting out music through the years as the formats changed: from vinyl to CDs and now streaming and digital downloads. So I do understand the work and the struggle to keep a label going. Also My high-school friend Josh Rosenthal who was deejaying with me at the high school radio went on to work at Sony Music for many years before starting his own label, Tompkins Square Records, a great specialty label, so I’ve seen his journey over the decades and some of that have inspired me as well.
My love for music and artists who are not necessarily the most commercial ones has always been there. Loudon Wainwright III is one of my favourite artists so I had him score Knocked Up. Graham Parker who stars in the film was very keen to satirise the struggle of ageing rockstars. Also we made the movie ‘Pop Star’, a mockumentary with Andy Samberg and his comedy trio ‘The Lonely Island’. And of course ‘Walk Hard The Dewey Cox story’ about a fictional rock’n’roll star; so I always go back to music.

Thanks to the new compilation “Feeling Good – The Supreme Sound of Producer Bob Shad” a new generation hooked on jazz, funk and hip hop are going to discover the great productions of your grandfather who was a fiercely independent music guy. Do you think independence remains the key for cultural creativity and diversity?
I’ve always admired people who go their own way. Some people are very good at making Top 40 music but I’ve always been a big fan of artists who express themselves and don’t think too much about what’s popular in the moment. I just participated in a tribute concert to Warren Zevon. Jackson Browne put the event together and everybody sang songs by Warren. I’m really interested in artists who make music from their heart and don’t worry too much about the economics, Bod Dylan, Loudon, Jazz artists…

Mtume for Buddy Terry sessions

Mainstream Records tracks have been sampled many times by the likes of NWA’s Easy E or A Tribe Called Quest. Recently, Chance the Rapper has used a sample of the track “Red Clay” by Jack Wilkins in his track “Nana”. His lyrics are pretty “green” as we say in France. Did you meet with him? How did it go?
We didn’t talk about that specific sample when I met him but I’m a fan of his work and I feel like he’s evolving quickly into one of the greatest rap artists in the world. Obviously some of his earlier work is edgier (laughs) but his current work is very spiritual and inspiring so I thought it’s great that he’s used a sample from the Mainstream catalogue.

Late in his career, Bob Shad decided to move to Los Angeles and go into Film production. You’ve followed a similar path in a way with comedy as a launching pad instead of music. Are there any cool film projects he was involved in during that later Hollywood period or any anecdote?
Bobby was working with director Frankenheimer for a few years and I know there was a moment when they were trying to get the movie “Being There” made. My grandmother told me they had the rights of the book for a while. They didn’t manage to get it made, Amoeba Records ended up directing it, but at least I know they had good taste!

Last question, do you collect records and LPs in particular? Do you have any favourite shop in Los Angeles?
I hadn’t been buying vinyl for a long time but in the last year I bought a whole new sound system with a turntable and have just started the vinyl journey again. I hadn’t listened to vinyl for so long and I put a Led Zeppelin album on, it felt like they were in the room. I thought “My god what have I done with my crappy sound system for the last twenty years!” It’s fun to go in record shops and search things out. There’s Amoeba Records in LA of course. There is also a great shop in Santa Monica, The Record Surplus, we shot a scene in Knocked Up there actually.

This interview was originally published by Liberation, in a shorter french version