Former freelance publicist and co-label manager of the French avant-jazz imprint Chief Inspector during the 2000s, Olivier then worked at producing musical shows for Radio France, where he’s now part of the 3D Sound R&D team. He is besides part-time writing over music, member of the vinyl collective Los Tapas Discos and curator of the brand new label WEWANTSOUNDS. Here he picks up his Top 5 “basics” tracks!

 
 
 

Mal Waldron
Right On

“He may be my jazzman. I hesitated with Moanin’ by Charles Mingus. But Waldron also played with Mingus in his early years! I love his minimalism. I remember one night at Le Duc des Lombards in Paris, before it’d been rebuilt. I used to sit on the stairs just above the piano. There was a window pane through which I could see his black hair with his typical white strand, his cigarette always stuck on his lips and his long hands turning around hypnotic patterns. This record was released by the great French producer Gerard Terronès on his label Futura, and I think that another great French producer gave it to me, Jean-Jacques Pussiau of OWL Records.”
 

Bill Withers
The Same Love That Made Me Laugh

“He may be my preferred musician! His writing has the perfect simplicity, his voice is the uttermost sincere I’ve ever heard and I love how he can make you dance on tragic lyrics, just as disco will soon do later on.”
 

Big Audio Dynamite
I Don’t Know

“As a teen, The Clash rapidly opened my mind on possible mixes of white & black music. I then followed Mick Jones with B.A.D and bought the CD when it came out in 1991. I’ve been looking for the vinyl since then and randomly found it on a flee market in Düsseldorf last month. It came without its cover but the vinyl is mint and at least there’s the inner sleeve. I’m close to finishing the puzzle!”
 

Group Home feat. Brainsick Mob
East NY Theory

“I just can’t make a Top 5 without hip hop and Group Home is one of my favorite bands, epitomizing the NY’s east coast indie flavor I always loved. I cherish this 12” because even if it’s not that expensive, this track is quite difficult to find and was released almost like a white label, which was not that frequent in the 90s hip hop scene.”
 

Matthias Reiling
Warm Down

“I bought this one last December at Smallville Records’ shop in Hamburg, where I’ve been visiting Golden Pudel just before it sadly burnt. Giegling had a residency there. I love this label. Guys like Matthias Reiling, Konstantin, Ateq or Traumprinz seem to weave between what’s left of minimal house and hip hop fluffy instrumentals, piling up layers of samples you can discover endlessly. It’s a very subtle craftsmanship, quite dreamy, like their beautiful cover arts. I kind of buy everything they release! House and techno actually works exactly like jazz used to: you can totally rely on labels aesthetics, artists swing from one to another, there’s something very collective in the way they collaborate. To quote only a few, just check the productions of Hivern, Kill the DJ, Correspondant, Comeme or Permanent Vacation.”

« I met Mal Waldron at an Archie Shepp concert South of France in january 1981.The organizers had asked me to pick him up at the Saint-Charles train station in Marseille. We eventually made it to the venue, just in time. Mal Waldron and bass player Santi Debriano were already there, barely noticing the late arrival of their leader, and pursuing their game of chess, while a full audience was making their impatience heard.
Back in Marseille, we extended the evening with Mal Waldron who, during that night, treated us to a rendition of Monk on the excellent grand piano of an Armenian restaurant. As a trainee journalist back then, I would never have imagined the forthcoming rich times I would get to spend with Mal Waldron who I only knew through his numerous recordings.
The rest of my story with Mal Waldron would be marked by the presence of committed producers such as Jean-Paul Rodrigue (Free Lance), Jean-Jacques Pussiau (Owl) and Philippe Ghielmetti (Sketch). Gérard Terronès would never be too far : without him Mal Waldron would never have appeared on French stages so often, sometimes in rather underground places such as the Trou Noir, the Lycée Autogéré or his own “festival des musiques mutantes”. »

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To accompany your visit, you can listen this track by Mal Waldron, ‘Warm Canto’ on New Jazz
 

 
 
Quartet of Archie Shepp on stage.
Martigues, january 1981

 
Mal Waldron at Kool Jazz Festival which the artistic director was George Wein.
New York City, june 1982

 
Mal Waldron and bass player Santi de Briano playin chess in front of Kenny Clarke et jazz club Hot Brass.
Aix-en-Provence, june 1983

 
Saxophonist Steve Lacy and Mal Waldron, soundcheck before a concert in La Cour des Papes.
Avignon, july 1984

 
Saxophonist Marion Brown and Mal Waldron before to go on stage at Lycée Autogéré (left wing).
Paris, february 1985

 
Mal Waldron and saxophonist Chico Freeman in duet at Théâtre Dejazet during festival of Musiques Mutantes.
Paris, october 1986

 
Marion Brown and Mal Waldron, photo session at home of their french producer Jean-Paul Rodrigue, of Free Lance Records.
Paris, november 1988

 
The singer Jeanne Lee and Mal Waldron at studio Acousti.
Paris, may 1994

 
Jean-Jacques Pussiau, producer of Owl Records, with Jeanne Lee and Mal Waldron at studio Acousti.
Paris, may 1994

 
Jeanne Lee and Mal Waldron, photo shoot at Christian Chamourat’s studio.
Paris, june 1994

 
The singer Judith Niemack and Mal Waldron, photo session for their french producer Jean-Paul Rodrigue, of Free Lance Records at Bec d’Andaine before the concert at Bec de Jazz.
Genêts, july 1994

 
«Around Monk» at Banlieues Bleues festival: Mal Waldron piano, Steve Lacy soprano, Enrico Rava trumpet, Reggie Workman bass, Roswell Rudd trombon et Andrew Cyrille drums.
Drancy, february 2000

 
Steve Lacy and Mal Waldron at jazz club Le Duc des Lombards.
Paris, january 2002

 
Recording sessions for Sketch label of Philippe Ghielmetti et studio de la Buissonne with sound enginer Gérard de Haro.
Pernes-les-Fontaines, january 2002

 
Demonstration of french game, pétanque, with Mal Waldron. Philippe Ghielmetti and Jean-Jacques Avenel laughin.
Saint-Didier, january 2002

 
Susanne Abbuehl and Mal Waldron in backstage of Banlieues Bleues festival. Behind them,chief editor of Jazz Magazine, Philippe Carles.
Drancy, april 2002

 
Photo session for the label Sketch at home of Mal Waldron.
Bruxelles, may 2002

Don Cherry
Words Can Not Explain

« From an improvised concert Live Show at the Modern Art Museum in Stockholm, This tune reminds me a Sun Ra but the whole LP is based on his “Hear & Now” album released on Atlantic. Definitely the most accomplished work of Don Cherry. »

Mal Waldron & Lafayette Afro Rock Band
Bits & Things

« A beautiful deep jazz funk tune by one of my favorite pianist Mal Waldron with Franck Able on Fender Piano and Lafayette Hudson on Bass. This track comes from Candy Girl, his unreleased album with members of Lafayette Afro Rock Band. This LP was pressed in France on Calumet as a promo copy but was never properly commercially released. »

Louis Xavier (Synchro Rythmic Electric Language)
El Gason

« Another incredible tune by the mighty Synchro band that was pressed on Moshe Naïm but never commercially released. Composed by Louis Xavier this uncommon caribbean spiritual jazz is really an amazing gem with a baroque twist given by harpsichord. (Thanks to Louis Xavier and Paulo for hooking me up on this) »

Baligh Hamdi
Gada part.2

« Simply one of the most beautiful record by Egyptian composer Baligh Hamdy. This 7″ EP is an amazing piece of modern oriental music I choose the magical “Gada part2.” for this selection but the whole record is fantastic. »

Walid Gohlmieh
Doolab

« A record I was lucky to find a few years ago at the regretted Mike Vital Shop at les Puces de St Ouen (R.I.P) includes many groovy oriental/belly dances tracks but the best is really “Doolab” a monster oriental groove with amazing arrangement by this great lebanese composer. Who was also the director of “The Lebanese National Higher Conservatory of Music”. He was considered one of the most prominent Middle-Eastern conductors and composers tough his recordings are extremely hard to find. »

Since the late 60’s, the native from Connecticut has played an important role in jazz history. After hosting a radio jazz show and writing for ‘Down Beat’ and other music magazines, he started working for record companies : Atlantic, Motown, ABC, Freedom and finally… Blue Note. Since 1984, Michael Cuscuna has been a special consultant, producer and the reissue director of the mythical label… During the same period, he also managed Mosaic Records, the indie company well known for its reissue boxsets of jazz legends.

 
 

Before directing Blue Note, you worked for various labels such as ESP, Muse, or ABC … Is Blue Note the label you dreamed of working for?
There were two labels that I dreamed about working for – Atlantic and Blue Note. I was a staff producer for Atlantic in 1972-74. I was friendly with a lot of jazz musicians and many of them told me about great Blue Note sessions that they played on that had never been released. I started to keep a notebook with all of their memories and tried to contact Blue Note to get into the vaults to see what might be worth releasing. But George Butler was running Blue Note and his interest was not in jazz. The label had changed and was nothing like the old Blue Note. Finally in 1976 I met Charles Lourie who had just joined Blue Note and he was a great jazz fan. He got me into the vaults and I have been working with this material ever since.

What lays behind the identity of Blue Note? What makes the difference, gives it a different edge compared to other Jazz labels? The Pop dimension?
What gave Blue Note the creative edge and made it better and different than most labels is that Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff were interested in keeping jazz pure, BUT ALSO in helping to create a situation in which to make great jazz, they befriended artists, they had planning meetings and rehearsals and tried to encourage musicians to compose and make new music that they would be proud of. The difference was in the care and hard work they put into everything.

Do you think the history of Blue Note can be split in several periods? If so what are they and why?
The different periods of Blue Note are basically defined by the style of music they recorded at the time. The first period is 1939-46 when they recorded boogie woogie, New Orleans jazz and small group swing. The second period is 1947-54 when they discovered modern jazz and made great first sessions by Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, James Moody, Kenny Drew, Wynton Kelly, Lou Donaldson and Horace Silver. 1954-67 is the period when Blue Note discovered its identity through sound (Rudy Van Gelder), design (Reid Miles), photography (Francis Wolff), production (Alfred Lion) and the style of the music (Horace Silver, Art Blakey with the birth of the Jazz Messengers). In this third period, the music grew and changed but it was basically the same creative team and the growing group of great musicians who recorded with the label, moving from soul jazz to hard bop to modal to avant-garde. Alfred Lion left in 1967 and Francis Wolff and Duke Pearson tried to keep the identity of Blue Note going until Frank’s death in 1971. The fourth period is the 70’s when George Butler ran the label. Some older artists like Horace Silver, Bobby Hutcherson and Elvin Jones stayed for a while, but the label’s sound was mainly controlled by the Mizell Brothers and Larry Rosen & Dave Grusin who were turning out successful, commercial albums by Donald Byrd, Earl Klugh and others. The next phase would be from 1985 when Bruce Lundvall restarted Blue Note to 2010 when he retired. In that era, we recorded a variety of music so it is hard to define what we have done. This is a different time.

To try and study the history of Blue Note, its evolution and singular aesthetic may sometimes sound like trying to understand the history of jazz. Why do you think this is?
Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff were jazz fans and they followed the music as it grew and changed. It is natural that people as smart and talented as them would mirror the evolution of the music in what they did. Sometimes they were followers like when they discovered bebop two years after other labels were recording it and sometimes they were the creators of change like when they signed Jimmy Smith before the organ was a jazz instrument and before the popularity of soul jazz.

Why do you think Blue Note succeeded in bringing together so many different artists, from Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor to Lou Donaldson and Lonnie Smith, without losing its originality and unity?
That is the key behind Blue Note. You could go from Ike Quebec to Jackie McLean to Lonnie Smith to Ornette Coleman and what is common about each artist is that they were making their best records for Blue Note. The sound, the packaging, the planning – it all makes each record special in the sense of Blue Note quality. We tried to do that in the 80’s. 80’s and 00’s. But of course we had different engineers, producers, studios and designers so we did not have the consistency that Alfred and Frank had.

What was the essence behind the fascinating Blue Note artwork? What kind of directions were given to the graphics designer to achieve such a harmonious and unique series of design?
This is very interesting. The early Blue Note designers like Paul Bacon and John Hermansader were modern designers and jazz fans. But by the time of the 12” (30 cm) LP, they settled on Reid Miles as their designer. Reid only liked classical music so he never listened to any of the hundreds of Blue Note albums that he designed covers for. And yet, he captured each album perfectly. The reason is that Alfred, who was a very enthusiastic and talkative man, would describe to Reid the spirit and intent of each album and Reid created the ideal design for each one. He also had that rare gift that every album cover looked different from the rest, but together they all looked like Blue Note covers.

There are some musicians that were all about Blue Note in their style but never got a release on the label like Mal Waldron or Charles Tolliver. What criteria did you mainly use to select your artists?
Well, Mal Waldron never recorded for Blue Note in any session, but I understand your question. Charles Tolliver and Woody Shaw were promised contracts with Blue Note but when Alfred sold the label to Liberty Records and didn’t like the way they were doing business, he told Charles and Woody that he didn’t want to sign new artists because he wanted to leave the label himself. Others like James Spaulding are a mystery. I asked James once why he never made a Blue Note album as a leader. He said, « They never asked me. » Well, James is a shy guy and probably he never asked them either! There is no logic to all of this.

Blue Note is by far the most collected and famous jazz label. Are you familiar with all the pressing details (the ear, the R, the deep groove, the flat edge etc …) that make it such a fascinating record series to collect and what is your opinion about it? And how did so many pressing variances occur?
I don’t know all the ins and outs of the collector details for Blue Note. Fred Cohen who runs the Jazz Record Center in New York City published a whole book about it. I am amazed at how collectable original Blue Note pressings and all the attention paid to little details like the label address on the pressings etc. By the way, the ear in the wax that collectors talk about is actually a P for Plastylite, the pressing plant that pressed all the Blue Notes in the 50’s and 60’s.

During the 90’s, Blue Note Japan reissued a number of previously unreleased sessions on LP including material by Jackie McLean, Andrew Hill, Bobby Hutcherson, Dexter Gordon, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter… Most of these recordings are awesome. Why weren’t they released at the time? Do you plan to release new issues of those recordings for the rest of the world?
Actually, in 1976 I started going into the Blue Note vaults for unissued material. I was amazed at the quality of a lot of it. Some artists like Lee Morgan and Grant Green recorded so frequently (probably because they wanted to earn more money) that the label could never put out everything, but much of what they did not release was every bit as good as what they did release. Both Lee and Grant were very successful so Alfred and Frank probably leaned towards their more commercial sessions to release at the time. Others are a great mystery like Wayne Shorter’s ‘Et Cetera’ or Bobby Hutcherson’s ‘Oblique’. Brilliant sessions. I asked Alfred once about all the unissued material and he didn’t really remember leaving so much good material in the vault. So I started putting these sessions out in the late ‘70s in the US. But the record business was in bad shape at the time and the label lost interest in issuing them. So I talked to King Records in Japan who were distributing Blue Note at the time. They put a lot of them out. Then when Toshiba EMI took over Blue Note we put more out and then started converting everything to CD. I have gotten just about everything out that deserves to be released at least in Japan if not everywhere. In the past few years, Japan has begun to reissue of lot of these and classic Blue Notes on hi-res CDs.

Our favorite recordings on the label belong to what we call the « Dark Jazz » genre, like Duke Pearson’s ‘The Phantom’, Andrew Hill’s ‘Lift With Every Voice’, Bobby Hutcherson’s ‘Oblique’ or Jack Wilson’s ‘Easterly Winds’! These are still largely underrated. Any idea why?
Well, most of the albums that you name are from the late 60’s and early 70’s. This was a bad time for jazz in USA. Underground FM Rock like Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead were attracting the young white audience and the avant-garde was driving away the middle-aged black audience and jazz was left with very little support. These albums were created and issued during that time and were overlooked. I think that is why history has forgotten them.

Pete La Roca’s ‘Basra’ is one of our favorite LPs on the label. Why did Pete release only one LP for Blue Note?
I don’t know. A lot of guys only made one or two albums for a label during that time. And guys like Pete (in demand drummers and bassists) got a lot more work by playing with different groups than trying to lead their own group. Of course, Pete did make another album for Blue Note 30 years later !!!

75 years is quite an achievement! How do you explain the longevity of the label?
I think the longevity of the label is owed to the great music of the classic Blue Note period (1954-67) that Alfred and Frank recorded and that remains vital and alive today and the fact that Bruce Lundvall, myself and Don Was who followed since the 80’s have never tried to duplicate what they did, but we respect it and try to live up to their legacies in our own way.

The Blue Note identity (the artwork, the quality of recordings, …) is part of the label’s mythology. Do you have any type of strategy to keep the myth alive?
Well, we’ve always kept that legacy alive by issuing the classic Blue Note albums in the best possible sound with original packaging and liner notes to keep the spirit of the original Blue Note alive. That identity does not exist for new Blue Note recordings since 1985 because we have so many different producers, engineers, photographers and designers. We have always tried to keep the quality high, but it doesn’t have an identity like the original Blue Note did.

What could eventually endanger the Blue Note brand?
What would endanger Blue Note would be if the kind of person who only cared about music as a commercial commodity instead of an art were to take over the label. Then bizarre projects like Rod Stewart sings Gershwin or Barry Manilow duets with dead people would destroy the integrity of the label and lose the trust of the fan.

Do you think a label like Blue Note could see the light today? If so, which other label could potentially look like Blue Note today?
Yes, I do. But it would have to be an independent label, not part of large corporation. I think in the 70’s ECM in its own musical style created an independent label with a very strong identity. I think Criss Cross in the 80’s till today is doing very much what Blue Note of the 50’s and 60’s did. And newer labels like Palmetto and ACT are recording pure jazz and forging their own identities.

Are you interested in the current jazz scene?
Yes, I don’t have the time to follow it as much as I would like but there are an amazing amount of talent artists on every instrument. I think the fact that people like Herbie Hancock and Terence Blanchard give their time to jazz education has really helped too.

Current Blue Note artists like Gregory Porter or Robert Glasper are very promising. Do you think they will be part of the Blue Note legend one day?
Yes I do. We have been very lucky over the past 30 years to record people like Dianne Reeves, Cassandra Wilson, John Scofield, Greg Osby, Tim Hagans, Joe Lovano, Jason Moran, Ambrose Akinmusire, Robert Glasper and Gregory Porter. They are all original and they are here to stay.

Are you enthusiastic about the return of vinyl records? How do you see the future in that respect?
I don’t think the return of vinyl affects the style or quality of music, but it does make us more conscious of upholding great sound quality when producing a record.

We owe you the re-discovery of the Monk quartet with Coltrane. Do you have many more unreleased tapes? Where do you find them?
Well, they come from different places. That one came from Larry Appelbaum at the Library of Congress. Author Lewis Porter found an ad for that concert in a New York newspaper and kept asking Larry to look for it in the Voice Of America radio tapes. A couple of years later, Larry found it by accident !!!! They called me and we made a deal. This was a major find. I doubt we will ever see anything that significant again. I believe most of the next discoveries will come from INA, the BBC, RAI and other European radio and television companies that taped the great American artists in the 60’s.

What would be the Blue Note release of your dreams?
I don’t know how to answer that. Since 1976, I’ve gotten all the great unissued music released. Since 1985, I’ve gotten all of the classic catalog issued on CD in good sound with bonus tracks. I’ve also been able to produce a lot of wonderful artists like Andrew Hill, McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Don Pullen-George Adams, Joe Lovano, Terence Blanchard and more. I think my dreams have come true.