Roy Ayers
Everybody Loves The Sunshine

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Before being half of the duo Kon & Amir, label manager of Wax Poetics and boss of 180 Proof Records, DJ Amir is first and foremost an accurate record collector and music lover. That’s why, on the occasion of the reissues of Strata pioneering spiritual jazz LP’s at BBE, we asked him to go back, on his story as a digger, but also on the history of the mythical Detroit label.

When did you start digging records?
I started digging seriously for records probably around 81’ or 82’ but I started collecting records way earlyer than that.

What LP’s did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them?
The LP’s that I started buying when I began my journey into collecting records were Stevie Wonder ‘Innervisions’, Grover Washington Jr. ‘Mister Magic’ and ‘Inner City Blues’, and any James Brown records I could get.
I still listen to all of these records. It’s funny a lot of people think that record collecting is all bout finding and listening to just the rarest records on the planet. This is so not what I am about. I love music (cue in The O’Jays) common and rare!

Do you have a particular style or favourite period?
I guess my favorite period of music is definitely the 60’s and 70’s of music ; everything from jazz to soul to funk to disco. For example, I love not only hard bop jazz but also jazz fusion. Whatever the music genre it has to have some complexity that still keeps the essence of funk from the soul.

Are you still digging, buying vinyl, visiting record shops?
I am definitely still digging and collecting vinyl. Although, not as much as I used to because as I have gotten older life and relationships start to become more important then digging all day everyday. However, when I can I am going to record shops more than online. I find that shopping online doesn’t give me the same exciting feeling as actually going to a record shop.

What was your first release on 180 Proof Records?
My first release on 180 Proof Records was the previously unreleased Kenny Cox ‘Clap Clap ! The Joyful Noise.’ This was released at the end of 2012. By the way, Kenny Cox was the owner and founder of Strata Records, Inc.

Kenny Cox
Clap Clap A Joyful Noise

Why did you choose this name: 180 Proof Records?
I chose the name 180 Proof Records because it is kinda of a play on 180 Gram vinyl. I wanted my records to be at the highest sound quality imaginable and the packaging to be impeccable.

What could be your editorial/esthetic line?
My editorial or esthetic line is something I borrowed from Strata which is «All Musics For All Peoples». Basically, the sound that I am trying to bring to the world is for everyone that has a heartbeat.

What could be the label’s leitmotiv?
The leitmotiv that best fits what Strata was all about is their moniker «The Sound of Detroit». They tried to represent the sound of Detroit in the best way possible.

You talk about mission about the rediscovery of Strata Inc.. A heritage mission? Memory? Inheritance?
My mission to rediscover Strata began when I was running Wax Poetics Records. I had contacted Lyman Woodard to reissue his Saturday Night Special album and he lad me to Barbara Cox the owner of Strata. Also I was commissioned around the same time to create an online exhibition for the Scion iQ museum that centered around lost youth culture. I decided to submit something on Strata and I was accepted.
My mission is to bring the history and legacy of Strata to not only the world but also to the Black American community in America that may not know about the legacy of labels/movements like a Strata Records. For example, how Strata was not only a record label but also an artist collective based on the idea of an artist run and controlled label. They also founded the first jazz music program at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio in 1970 and started community food based drives in Detroit.
Strata came out of the insurrections as most Detroiters call the riots of 1967 and 1968. This lead to a revolution in art, culture and politics. I definitely feel it is my inheritance and duty to tell the story of Strata !

About Strata Inc label, you had evocated a catalog which includes 30 unreleased masters in addition to the label’s 6 official commercial releases. Will you publish that?
The catalog of Strata I will definitely be publishing once I have gone through all of the masters. It is very expensive to transfer and remaster original reel to reel masters. In addition, it is also has been very difficult researching certain masters and artists because there has been little to no information on the original master tape.

Remember the day you listened to Strata’s first album? What a feeling?
I certainly remember listening to my first Strata record which was the Lyman Woodard Organization ‘Saturday Night Special’ album. At the time I knew about Strata Records but had not heard any of the records. It just so happens that I had a friend who wanted a rare hip hop promo 12” of Common Sense aka Common ‘The Bitch in You.” I traded my Common 12” for a mint copy of the Lyman album. When I first heard the album was blown away by the soulful and funky grittiness of the album. The grooves were so infectious that it instantly became one of my favorite albums.

The Lyman Woodard Corporation
Creative Musicians

Strata is emblematic of a 70’s jazz scene. What were its characteristics? And what differences with nowadays?
While Strata is very emblematic of the 70’s jazz scene there are definitely some differences. For example, not many jazz labels whether independent or commerical were community based artists collectives that focused on the revolutionary nature of art and culture. Not many labels were able to approach colleges and universities to propose starting a jazz music program or open their creative space so that local artists could come to rehearse or perform.
Morever, Strata was dedicated to the upliftment of the Black community of Detroit. As I mentioned before, Detroit suffered through two riots which devasted the city.The first riot is 1967 was caused by the constant harassment and killing of Black people by the Detroit police. This lead to a severe crack down by the National Guard in which several people were killed. Then in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated and like many inner city Black communities Detroit erupted. The assassination of Dr. King also birthed the creation of the Black Panthers as well as other political and social movements like Strata.
Nowadays, jazz has become marginalized by mainstream America and has lost a bit of its edge and ability to speak to the youth. There are some examples of those who are trying to ‘push the envelope’ in jazz like Kamasi Washington, Gregory Porter, or Thunder Cat. However, for the most part, jazz does not hold the weight cultural and artistical that it used.

Strata East is best known, and yet Strata was created before. Charles Tolliver even says that this was the exemple which served them. How do you explain this lack of recognition in the official jazz sphere?
I think the lack of recognition of Strata in the official jazz sphere stems from the lack of releases. Unfortunately, they were only able to release 6 albums. Strata East I believe has over 50 releases or more. I know some of the biggest jazz record collectors that either not heard of Strata or do not know the difference between Strata East and Strata.
Furthermore, Strata East was able to do records with the likes of Gil Scott-Heron, the Heath Brothers, and Shirley Scott to name a few. Being able to have such jazz heavyweights record with Strata East definitely helped to cement their legacy as one of the great jazz labels.
Lastly, just being based in New York City also helped Strata East gain access to more funding as well as the artistic talent.

Kenny Cox was at the creation of the label. What were his motives at the time?
As the creator of Strata Records, inc., Kenny Cox was motived to create an artist collective based on self-reliance and pushing forward the art and culture of jazz. I don’t think Kenny saw Strata becoming something with a cult status. Most artist and labels never envision this. They just create from the heart and soul.

Larry Nozero
Impressions Of My Lady

Was there a vision, an objective, a political one?
Again, the vision and objective of Strata was to create a movement based on artist collective based on self-reliance and pushing forward the art and culture of jazz. In addition, I firmly believe Kenny was trying to elevate the Black community of Detroit and America as a whole.

Detroit is a big city on the map of Great Black Music. How do the different scenes that compose it dialogue together? And do you think Strata Inc. is a good example of their eco-system?
The different music scenes in Detroit worked somewhat well together. For instance, many of the artists that recorded with Strata were musicians that played on a lot of Motown records. For example, Larry Nozero actually played the horn on the Marvin Gaye song ‘What’s Going On.’ Also Lyman Woodard was the musical director for Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.
Additionally, there was a lot of collaboration between labels like Tribe Records and Strata in Detroit. Both shared the same goal of self-reliance, community uplift and artistic freedom. Labels like Strata are a perfect exemple of the eco-system of the Detroit music scene. Hence, why Strata’s moniker was ‘The Sound of Detroit.’

The young DJs of Detroit still remember these rich hours?
There are some young dj’s in Detroit who remember the legacy of Strata but it is really the older dj’s like Theo Parrish, Moodymann, Juan Aktins, Carl Craig and others that remember Strata legacy the most. Mainly, because people like Moodymann have worked with some of the Strata artists like Norma Jean Bell. I remember when I first met Theo Parrish almost ten years ago and he was surprised that I was the one that reissued the Lyman Woodard ‘Saturday Night Special’ album through Wax Poetics Records. He was excited to talk about how he grew up listening and following Strata as a child.

Why and when did Strata Inc. stop?
Unfortunately, Strata closed its doors in 1976 due to lack of money to continue to run the label. Like most independent labels, when your distributor doesn’t pay you on time or at all it is very hard to keep things running.

Bert Myrick
Scorpio’s Child

Do you have other ideas for reissues, other than Strata Inc.?
I definitely have other ideas of labels that I want to reissue but for now I am keeping that a secret !

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 do think the reissue market is beginning to reach a bit of saturation but labels like myself that continue to not only release great music but also educate and evelate music will always survive.

Have you received many negative answers on some of the LPs, artists, unreleased tapes, you were trying to reissue?
The only negative feedback that I have received from some of my releases is that I have made some of them double vinyl. There have been some people complaining that they have to get up to turn over the vinyl too quick and that the high quality that I present my releases is really for the bourgeoisie not the masses. You cannot please everyone!

What is the LP you dream of reissuing?
The LP if it ever does exist would the project that Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, and Tony Williams supposedly recorded. It is also rumored that Jimi had asked Paul McCartney to join them on bass. That would be the ultimate release for me!

Maulawi
Street Rap

Click here to check for Strata Catalog

For the next Record Store Day, two small labels with very large ears (Sam Records and Saga) have teamed up to publish an unreleased Monk’s music studio session, the soundtrack of the movie Les Liaisons Dangereuses, in a beautiful box-set (2 Lps). More than dangerous, simply fabulous… In preview, the two deep diggers, Fred Thomas and François Lê Xuân, talk about this story.

photos: Courtesy of Arnaud Boubet / Private collection

How can someone possibly unearth an unreleased Monk studio session in 2017? Chance? Magic? Luck?
Luck and dedication! The most beautiful findings are often made by accident. Early in 2014 we got in touch with Laurent Guenoun, the custodian of Marcel Romano’s archives. In the Fifties, Marcel was the manager of saxophonist Barney Wilen, and we were looking for Wilen’s recordings that had never been released. No Barney, but Laurent announced that he did have some tapes that simply bore the words “Thelonious Monk.” We made an appointment to listen to these tapes shortly afterwards, imagining they might be copies of existing recordings or, at best, a concert, maybe the one Monk had given at Pleyel in 1954. A quick examination of boxes with titles of tunes by Monk or various scenes in Roger Vadim’s film allowed a glimmer of hope… could this be the actual recording session for “Les Liaisons Dangereuses”? Putting the first of those seven reels on the tape-machine was an emotional moment: some noise in the studio, and then we recognized the voice of Marcel. And then Monk! Monk moved on to the introduction for “Crepuscule with Nellie…” It was all there! The warm-ups, the discussions, the takes, moments of silence… We exchanged hardly a word while we listened to the tapes; we had a jubilant, almost unsettling feeling that we were in the same room as the session that had taken place fifty-five years earlier at Nola Studios in New York.

You are releasing it on the year of Monk’s hundredth anniversary…… Pure coincidence?
We won’t deny that Monk’s centennial celebration is a great opportunity to release such a project. But from the moment we found these tapes back in 2014 until now, we didn’t spare with our effort in the making of this project and all this time was necessary to create this record set.

This music was previously intended for the movie “Les Liaisons Dangereuses”. How did the pianist come to this session?
In the summer of 1958, Marcel Romano had convinced Roger Vadim to use Monk’s music for his new full-length movie, a modern rendition of Laclos’ book, “Les Liaisons dangereuses”. Romano was a serious Monk fan. They had met in Paris when Monk came for the first time on the Old Continent to feature at the third Salon du Jazz (Salle Pleyel, June 1954). In autumn 1958, he tried to have Monk to tour in Europe, and to record the soundtrack for Les Liaisons. in Paris. But Monk was facing difficult times in the US, including the loss of his NYC cabaret card, and could not come to Paris. Romano then flew to New York in June 1959 to record the soundtrack at Nola Penthouse Sound Studios.

He finally ended up not composing anything exclusive, original themes, for this soundtrack. How did he decide on the choice of the pieces he recorded?
That’s right. Monk was unable to compose for the movie merely due to a lack of time. When he came to NY, Romano had brought with him a detailed script containing precise timings for each scene that required music; he gave this to Monk who… asked to see the film. A screening of a working copy of the film — with sound that Vadim and Romano had added from records that were available — was organized for July 23.
He chose the repertoire based on his understanding of the story, and played around with the tempos in order to capture the character’s emotional state or circumstance, but he wrote no new music. On July 27, he simply recorded his usual repertoire: “Rhythm-a-Ning”, “Light Blue”, “Crepuscule with Nellie”, “Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are”, “Well, You Needn’t”, and three versions of “Pannonica” (solo piano and ensemble). A piano solo blues improvisation and a gospel (“We’ll Understand It Better By and By”) were also recorded; they are both great interpretations that can be heard on the album.

Marcel Romano, as for other sessions that have become historical (“Ascenseur pour l’échafaud”), played an essential part in this story. Can you tell us more about this shadow character?
A lot more than these few lines would be necessary to pay fitting tribute to the work accomplished by Marcel Romano [1928-2007], to whom we owe the pleasure of being able to listen to this film music. After his first encounter with Monk in Paris in 1954, he would become an inescapable figure on the jazz scene in France: a concert producer and manager, a columnist for Jazz Hot, in charge of programming for the Club Saint-Germain… All his activities had only one aim: to share his passion for jazz and his love of musicians. From the end of 1957, when he played a part in setting up the recordings for the film Ascenseur pour l’échafaud, Marcel Romano had the privilege of being consulted by many filmmakers who loved jazz: following the example of Miles Davis and his recordings for Louis Malle, Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers — booked to play a series of concerts at the Club Saint-Germain and the Olympia — would record the soundtrack for a film by director Edouard Molinaro. In the early 1960’s, Marcel took a leave of absence from the jazz world, but reappeared in the early 1970’s as a seller at the famous Champs-Elysées record store, Lido Musique.

There is also Barney Wilen in this session. Who had the idea to invite him into this quintet ?
French saxophonist Barney Wilen was Marcel Romano’s protégé since his first appearance in the Paris jazz scene in 1954. Since then he had been playing on numerous records including two soundtracks supervised by Romano (“Ascenseur pour l’échafaud” and “Un témoin dans la ville”). Barney was already in the US at the time as he had just made his American debut at Newport Jazz Festival. At Art Blakey’s request, Barney was to replace Hank Mobley when it was time for the Messengers to record the score of Liaisons Dangereuses. Marcel Romano proposed to include Barney as special guest in addition to Monk’s quartet, and it was a brilliant idea considering his performance during the recording session.

The official soundtrack for the movie was signed by Art Blakey on Fontana. What is finally the role of Monk’s music in this movie?
Monk’s music is predominant in the soundtrack of the movie; it is used as background music during the whole film. Blakey’s contributions were only used for what film people call “source music” (in this case, a party sequence and a nightclub sequence). These newly discovered tracks display the pianist at the height of his powers, but to conceive of this music as a film score may not be readily apparent. The tunes were nearly all part of Monk’s regular repertoire and together could have been released as another commercial LP.

You add alternate takes, including a “Light Blue” making of: do you think this long piece helps understand the spirit of Monk?
Yes, we believe that this sequence is a really fascinating moment of the recording session. It starts with Art Taylor, randomly playing a pattern, of the kind that percussionists play when checking the tuning of their drums. Monk hearing this drum figure immediately starts to play the intro of “Light Blue” on it. It takes a while for Art Taylor to get into the groove of the tune, but Monk doesn’t give up on him, even though he calls him names from time to time. This sequence demonstrates Monk’s creative genius, his patience and determination. It also allows the listener to feel the atmosphere of this recording session.
To date, this is the only known studio recording of this Monk composition.

You chose to release a limited edition on LP with many documents to describe the session and put it into perspective. How did you get access to all these pictures, including the magnificent portrait that serves as a cover for the box set?
Both Sam Records and Saga are labels that are trying to release records that appeal to the eye, and we’re putting a lot of effort in selecting and adjusting the documents reproduced in our releases. We managed to find people who had known Marcel Romano well. Among these people, some had kept photos and other documents. Arnaud Boubet from Paris Jazz Corner gathered a lot of photos including a number of color slides. It is thanks to him that this boxed-set is so well illustrated. We also would like to acknowledge the great job that Jérôme Witz, our graphic designer, has done with all these wonderful documents.

Can we expect more from you in the future?
Yes, indeed! But unfortunately nothing we can share at the moment.

Each month, we are focusing on a record label founded by an active digger. We are stopping with Darrel Sheinman, the owner of Gearbox Records, founded in 2009. He uses the British Library Sound Archive to unearth unknown and unreleased jazz music, but he also makes possible special projects, amazing box sets, and rare records thought by outstanding artists as Kate Tempest.Time to go back to the complete story…

When did you start digging records?
When I was young… in fact, very young. My father was a musician and always played great music around the house. Dave Brubeck’s “Time Out” and Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue” are among my earliest musical memories and are major parts of the soundtrack to my childhood.

What Lps did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them?
As a teenager I started playing drums and learnt to play by drumming along to records like The Police’s “Outlandos d’Amour”. I was heavily into The Sex Pistols, Television, The Clash, Joy Division and the hardcore scene, especially The Dead Kennedys. But I eventually found my way back into jazz and the first original Blue Note that I bought was Johnny Griffin’s “A Blowin’ Session”, a record that for me typifies that hardbop feel more than anything else.

Do you have a particular style or favorite period?
It has to be Hard Bop from the 1950’s and 1960’s when records were as beautiful to look at and listen to as well as being beautifully recorded and produced.

Are you still digging’, buying vinyl, visiting record shops?
Of course, once vinyl gets in your blood you’re hooked for life. The endless search goes on for the mint copy of records like The Jazz Workshop’s “Mezare Israel Yekabtzenu” or Chivo Borraro’s incredible “El Nuevo Sonido del Chivo Borraro”. I recently found some Tubby Hayes acetates which are probably his earliest recordings and find it hard to walk past a shop or charity store just in case there’s something waiting to be found. At Gearbox we have built a close relationship with many of the stores around the world that sell our records, and whenever I can I get out to meet them and find out what’s really happening.

Take Your Partners For The Blues

What was your first release on Gearbox?
It was The Tubby Hayes Band “Jazz For Moderns”, an incredible 1962 Maida Vale Studios session for the BBC radio show Jazz for Moderns that had never been released before on any format. It’s won a number of awards and together with the second Gearbox release – another Jazz For Moderns set, this one from 1962 with Joe Harriott – proved that the label could be a successful enterprise and not just a part-time hobby.

Why did you choose this name: Gearbox?
That’s very simple, I’m a petrolhead and a turntable is after all just a simple gearbox.

What could be your editorial/esthetic line?
Great music with a jazz-rooted soul, recorded live in the studio or in concert and straight to tape. We want Gearbox to stand for the best in vinyl from creation to playback, with our records sounding the best they possibly can. Having our own vinyl mastering and cutting facility with the best analogue equipment makes this possible. As for playback, we’ve designed and are building our own turntable with some unique features which will be launched in 2017.

What is the Gearbox Record you are most proud of?
There’s more than one – Binker and Moses “Dem Ones” because it’s a wonderful sounding direct to stereo tape recording that has not only captured the imagination of a younger audience but also given this saxophone and drums duo a major boost in their professional career. And there’s Applewood Road, again recorded direct to stereo tape and just included in the Sunday Times Best Albums of 2016. I’m proud of it because it proves that a simple approach to recording without resorting to over produced techniques makes the emotional connection between artist and listener so much stronger.

Did you have any references labels?
Blue Note set the standards, and we use the same Scully lathe and Westrex amps and cutting heads that Rudy van Gelder used.

The Ronnie Scott has seen many great musicians. Some sessions recorded in this club have been in the jazz history. You have found some yourself, as recently a performance of Yusef Lateef … What are the next references in terms of live?
We have just completed a project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, making available a number of rare and never-heard-before recordings from London jazz clubs during the 1960’s. 20 vinyl copies of these 15 recordings are being given to various archives and educational establishments, but are free for everyone to listen to at http://www.londonjazzarchive.org. Our next release live from Ronnie’s will be a new recording by Nittin Sawhney following on from last year’s James Taylor Quartet album. We’re just as interested in new music as previously unreleased archive cuts.

Other lives also on the catalog, like this amazing gig in Montreux with Nucleus and Leon Thomas. How did you get access to these tapes?
These were the original 1/4” masters and the performance was licensed in the normal way. We are aware of a CD bootleg of a radio broadcast that was made many years ago, but it was certainly not from these masters.

Binker and Moses

Black Ave Maria

Another part is the BBC sessions… Can you tell more about this series? How did you dig that «direction»?
The initial idea for starting Gearbox came after seeing a live performance by N.E.R.D. I wanted to put the gig out live on the best medium possible which is vinyl. But I had no track record in music and was unable to get the rights. So I turned my attention to jazz, as the British jazz world had not really been released thoroughly and done properly on vinyl. I managed to get the rights quite easily and those first two releases from Tubby Hayes and Joe Harriott established a strong relationship between Gearbox and the BBC licensing department. In fact, our studio is now one of a handful of official BBC dub houses, trusted to work directly with their master tapes. There have been occasions where we’ve been researching a BBC radio session and found that the only tape in existence is in the British Library, and have been happy to fill in the gaps.

Are there any other references coming from the BBC studios?
There certainly will be, we’re finding out about new radio and TV sessions all the time. But until everything’s cleared and prepared we better keep our powder dry in case we jinx things.

How do you manage to identify previously unreleased from the original radio broadcast tapes? Is it hours and hours of listening?
A lot of listening, certainly. A lot of questions too, and if we don’t know the answers, we’re very lucky in knowing just who to ask.

And in all this research, there was also some disappointments. Some words about this aspect?
Of course, the master tape might be in a too poor condition, the clearances raise an unforeseen issue or there’s a problem with the repertoire. But whatever the problems, one has to keep going – if this work was easy, then everyone would be doing it!

Have you received many negative answers on some of the LP’s, artists, unreleased tapes, you were trying to issue/reissue?
Some, but over the last seven years we’ve built a good reputation for making the best records we can, and doing the artists and their families proud. So in general, people are very happy to work with us.

Your work focuses a great deal on English jazz: what special feature? a particular sound ? Is it the same today as yesterday?
Hard bop is very important to us, if you look closely on every cover you’ll see “still hard boppin’” written on the spine. British jazz has always had something special as well as producing some remarkable musicians who have been more influential internationally than is often realized. Take trumpeter Ian Carr, for example, whose pioneering 60’s electric jazz was certainly an influence on Miles Davis’ decision to work with electric instrumentation.

Sebastian Rochford, Shabaka, Soweto Kinch, Neil Cowley, Yussef Kamaal, Get The Blessing, your own Binker And Moses, etc… How do you explain the new wave of English jazz, more and more people for ten years?
A number of things, great jazz educators, a strong sense of community identity and powerful and charismatic artists who showed the way. This is a very exciting period, and will be recognised as such in the future…

Is there more stylistic diversity than in the past? And what unity behind all this eclecticism?
Yes, the barriers between genres are lower than ever before. It’ s not a question of experimentation as it was in the 60’s and the 70’s, more a natural reflection of the diverse culture of UK which is reflected throughout the arts. These musicians know who they are and what they’re doing, it’s all natural.

Can we link the return of the live and the return of the vinyl? Does it work together, by pair?
Yes, they both show a real appreciation of music as the main course, not just a side dish. Vinyl requires a ritual – take the record out of the inner sleeve, clean it, carefully drop the needle and listen, not just hear. Live shows also require the audience’s full attention sharing the moment with the musicians.

You seem to attach great importance to analog sound, audiophile quality. Some, a common idea at least, believe that live sessions are not the best source to record a disc. What do you say to them?
We like analog simply because we think it sounds better. We like recording live because it’s when the magic happens, and well recorded, it sounds wonderful. But each to his own, I understand people using the studio as an instrument and the art of multitracking and mixing. It’s just not the Gearbox way.

Kate Tempest

Where The Heart Is

You release not only jazz but also poetry. Among these Kate Tempest develops a street poetry, quite singular storytelling. How did you meet her? What has touched you in her words, her way of saying them?
I was introduced to Kate Tempest’s work by legendary Straight No Chaser publisher Paul Bradshaw. I was completely blown away with her presence, artistry and the sheer power of personality and knew I had to have her on Gearbox! We became involved in recording her remarkable Brand New Ancients that had been touring the UK and released the vinyl double LP. She’s a remarkable artist who’s going to be a major force for many years to come.

Kate Tempest is on the Late Junction collaboration sessions («to pair people from different musical backgrounds, which have never been worked together, and put them into the studio for a joint work on new pieces of music»). A good idea, but is this an easy project? What were the good surprises? The unexpected results?
It’s been a straightforward project as well as a great pleasure to make, especially working with Nick Luscombe who compiled the project with me. All the collaborations had already been recorded and broadcast on Late Junction, so it was just a question of choosing those that made the most cohesive and enjoyable album. The sound quality of the recordings was wonderful – that’s BBC Maida Vale Studios again – and we decided to cut at 45rpm to make the most of this.

You have also published in the series Jazz Poetry Bundle: Ballad Of The Nocturnal Commune, Michael Horovitz accompanied by Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon & Paul Weller. One shot?
The “Bankbusted Nuclear Detergent Blues” and 7” single “Ballad Of The Nocturnal Commune” were projects that the poet Michael Horovitz brought to us when we were preparing the first of the Jazz Poetry Superjam projects, the “Blues For The Hitchhiking Dead” box set. We’ve now put all three together in a bundle, but they’re still available separately. Also nice to have the common denominator of Michael with the musicians of the 60’s (Stan Tracey, Bobby Wellins, Jeff Clyne) to the musicians of today (Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Paul Weller).

You prefer objects (45’s boxset, limited edition), special projects. A way to retain the audience? To maintain the attention in front all the others issues?
There is no plan, it’s just to release in the format that matches the project. The Jazz Poetry box set featured two albums and a large format booklet so it needed a box to keep the assets together. We’re stopping limited editions though, that’s become too much of a marketing cliche, so we will repress as long as there’s a market and we have the rights to do so.

Blues For The Orient

Do you think your audience is becoming more faithful over time?
Yes indeed, there’s a growing number of people who buy everything we release, and we have a strong community who let us know what they think about our records and our philosophy.

Nowadays, there are many LP labels who follow this model, I mean more quality even if it’s more expensive… but in same time, there are also another «new» LP market, with major companies come-back and other labels, who prefer to sell cheaper. Is it the (re)creation of two camps for the LP?
Quality costs money. We use the highest quality materials, lined inner sleeves, resealable bags, the best pressing plant (Optimal Media) and were making relatively small runs. We could make records cheaper, but they wouldn’t be as good quality.

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?
Thankfully we don’t do reissues (except for the Nico that was only available on vinyl for a short time in the 80’s), but there are only so many records that can be reissued from original master tapes or high quality files. It’s important that people know what they’re buying, the source for the music, how it was cut and how well manufactured. What will hurt the vinyl market is bad vinyl, and there’s quite enough of that already. This isn’t a marketing exercise, this is about vinyl being the best medium for listening to music.

What are your other next releases?
Our major release for the first quarter is a double album from Binker and Moses entitled “Journey to the Mountain of Forever”. The first disc features the duo, the second disc features friends Evan Parker, Byron Wallen, Tori Handsley, Sarathy Korwar and Yussef Dayes. The sessions took place over two days resulting in 10 reels of tape filled with over five hours of music. It’s a major step forward from “Dem Ones” and a labour of love for Gearbox. We will have a previously unreleased Sun Ra solo piano 7” for Record Store Day, another 7” single from Cooper-Moore and Mad King Edmund, a live album recently recorded at Ronnie Scott’s from Nitin Sawhney and a fabulous unreleased Thelonious Monk concert from 1963.

What is the LP you dream of issuing/reissuing?
It would have to be something that no one knew existed until the very moment the tapes were discovered. Or, if it was a reissue, it would be a privilege to cut and release “Kind of Blue” from the original 3 track master tape, especially as we have one of the very few valve 3 tracks 1/2 inch machines in existence to do it the justice it deserves.

http://www.gearboxrecords.com

Each month, we are focusing on a record label founded by an active digger. This month, the Luaka Bop boss, long-time collaborator of Talking Heads David Byrne, is also a passionate record collector (check him in the Dust And Grooves book!) always happy to discover new music. Yale Evelev often stopped by the shop when he’s in Paris, mainly buying african LP’s. He took time to answer our questions about his label and his passion for records!

When did you start digging records?
Hmm, you know when I started there was no ‘digging’, that whole concept is sort of recent, well ‘sort of’ recent in a way. I started ‘collecting records’ at about age 8. I bought singles. Kevin Healy, my best friend, had an RCA 45 player with the fat post. My dad had a Garrard turntable that played 78’s and LPs and a mono tube system where you could select what playback curve you wanted!
My dad had LP’s from Memphis Slim, Big Bill Bronzy, Louis Armstrong, Pete Seeger, and some show tunes and the blue column Colombia Classical albums that were the first LP’s with record covers! He like music a lot but I don’t remember him ever buying a record, so these where ones he had before I was born, or when i was very young. In writing about it now it looks like a pretty nice range of things.

What Lps did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them?
First album I bought was Earth Opera, must of been around junior high school. There was a sale at Sam Goody’s in Phila, where I was from – so Sammy Grunber, Mark Bobrowitz, Mike Magen (rip) and I all went down there with the sale coupons ripped out of the newspaper. Earth Opera had an almost side long song against the Vietnam war, which everyone in my world was protesting about. By high school I was buying enough records that I had to hide the record bags when I came in the house so my parents wouldn’t see them.

Do you have a particular style or favorite period?
Ok here the meat of the issue and why I don’t really consider myself a ‘digger.’
I am an old motherfucker. I go through/have gone through different periods (many!!). In the beginning of high school I mostly listened and went to see acoustic blues. I saw Son House, Mance Lipscomp, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Bukka White, Brownie McGee and Sonny Terry, Furry Lewis, Speckled Red, Buddy Guy with Junior Wells, etc. I also saw rock bands that played blues who played at Phila’s Electric Factory, Canned Heat, John Mayall, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull, etc. And I was also into ‘Oldies’ so I’d go to Oldies shows and see Fats Domino, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and others. There were also local bands I saw often because they played at street fairs in Phila. like The Nazz and Mandrake Memorial, and before them the Soul Survivors.
By the end of high school I was into Hound Dog Taylor and Eddie Harris’ “Listen Here” and John Klemmer “Waterfalls”. And then I got into the European art rock scene bands that were being played on the local radio station WXPN, and sold in Jerry Gordon’s 3rd Street Records; Faust, Can, Gong, Gentle Giant, Henry Cow, Soft Machine, Magma. And my jazz interest started to grow a bit as there was also a Jazz only station in Phila, WRTI, that played Calvin Keyes, Ahmed Jamal, Les McCann and Roy Ayers and that sort of thing, (I felt this stuff was most popular in Phila. because of this radio station).
I was of course buying albums this whole time, mostly from any store that was cheap! There was a store in Phila called Red Dot, that had big red dots on the records they sold which were almost all $2.99 cut outs. And then when 3rd Street opened, they would get a lot of promo stock from the local area record company promotion guys, who instead of getting records out to the radio and press, would bring a car trunk full of promos buy 3rd Street and Jerry would buy them and sell them for less then normal retail. I got all the Can records this way, plus many from the Black Jazz label, CTI things and so many others.
I moved to college in Boston (in the 1970’s!) with my collection of about 400 Blues, Jazz and art rock records. I had a good friend in college who was a jazz drummer, named Adam Nussbaum and I got a education from him on Jazz players like Booker Little, Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver. And I worked at a commercial radio station in, WBCN, so I got into the clubs Paul’s Mall and the Jazz Workshop for free. I saw; Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Charlie Mingus, Miles Davis (in a small club that was not full!), Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Gary Bartz, Pharoah Sanders (my favorite), Sonny Rollins, Hugh Masekela, BB King, Chico Hamilton, Taj Mahal, Mongo Santamaria, Muddy Waters, and Sun Ra! (who was living in Phila. so when I went back home I would buy El Saturn records that the Sun Ra band guys would bring by 3rd Street Records to sell.) Later I also got to go to Sunny’s house in West Phila.

with Pharoah Sanders, as part of the Atomic Bomb shows, this one in Central Park, NYC (photo by Money Mark)

My college had an agreement with The School of Museum of Fine Arts, so I got to go there and take electronic music and video art classes. At art school I was exposed to Phil Glass who had made records on his own label, Chatham Sq., Steve Reich on DG, Terry Riley on Colombia (Poppy Nogood!) and Nonesuch Explorer series releases, like “Music from the Morning of the World.” During my college period I went to Morocco and had my eyes and ears opened by all kinds of music that was happening everywhere I looked. Snake charmer musicians who sounded like Coltrane, blind men in a row of four walking through the medina singing rounds, and lot’s of other things I don’t remember. What I do remember is that it taught me there was an amazing amount of great music in the world not just from Europe and America.
The end of college was the beginning of Punk, so friends formed bands like Human Sexual Response and the Sic Fucks. But I moved to NYC as a jazz person who also liked minimalism. (Luckily for me Phil Glass and Steve Reich played quite a bit with their ensembles in small NYC places with small audiences.) When I moved to NYC it was the end of the Loft Jazz scene. But I did get to see Don Cherry after he made the Brown Rice record at Rachid Ali’s club Ali’s Alley, (which was on the block I lived.) And I also saw the new generation of jazz players at that point; David Murray, James Blood Ulmer, Henry Threadgill, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Butch Morris, etc.

So, what was your job at this period?
I got a job in my local record store, the Soho Music Gallery. It was owned by the Boston mob who wanted to bootleg cutout records. As a cover story they distributed ethnographic recording labels, Ocora, Bärenreiter and Tikva (an Israeli Folk dance label). The basement was full of these albums that had been returned to the store, I got so many great records this way. The store was such an education. I was the buyer for all my interests; Jazz, World, Contemporary Classical, pretty much everything but rock. I was able to listen to every record in the store and learned about so much music that I was barely familiar with. I remember when the first while label I had ever seen came in the store, written on the cover in pencil was just the words “Dub Plate”. What the fuck? We listened to it and it sound like half the recording session was missing. We sold the three copies we had pretty much right away. We also had BYG albums by the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Chatham Sq records by Phil Glass, Richard Landry, Jon Gibson and Michael Snow. We had the Pyramids Records, we had a record of Gurdjieff playing Gurdjieff that his followers would stream in and buy, all the Jorge Ben albums on Philips, Strata East, Mbari, Black Artists Group, AkBa and all those small label jazz and new classical things people look for today were just new records easy to find in a bin. And I would spend a portion of my salary on records every week.
The store was a place that all kinds of people went to as it was quite large and had a very good selection. It was an in an arty neighborhood so lots of interesting people would come by like David Byrne, Brian Eno, Loren Mazzacane (who would just give us his records to give away as absolutely no one cared about him at the time), and artists like Mati Klarwein, Tony Conrad, Bryce Mardin and we hired musicians to work there like John Zorn, Anthony Coleman and even the actress Karen Jane Allen, (damn I was in love with her), before she was in many (or any?) movies.

Shuggie Otis
Strawberry Letter 23

After work, Zorn had a little club under an aquatic pet store in the West Village that bands would use for rehearsals and small gigs, called Studio Henry. Zorn and Eugene Chadbourne, Wayne Horvitz, Christian Marclay, the Golden Palominos, and of course much more. There were also shows at a place called Soundscape where I saw Peter Brotzman and Han Bennick, Derick Baily, Marion Brown etc. And the Tin Palace where I saw a trio with Ronald Shannon Jackson, David Murray and Blood Ulmer, a sort of downtown jazz super group, put together to make big bucks on the European festival circuit. I was so excited to see this and so disappointed on how hollow it felt that I walked out and went half a block down the street to CBGB’s where the Ramones were playing and that had all the honesty and true emotion I was looking for.
After three years at the record store I left on a three months trip to South East Asia; Indonesia, India, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia… When I came back I got a job at the New Music Distribution Service, replacing Kip Hanrahan who was leaving to travel. New Music Distribution was started by Carla Bley and Michael Mantler to distribute a series of large ensemble jazz albums they had gotten funding for, on a label they created called J.C.O.A. They had convinced some New York musicians to play in each others ensembles so they could work with bigger bands. Along with Mike and Carla’s records there were releases by Don Cherry, Clifford Thornton, Roswell Rudd, Grachan Moncur and Leroy Jenkins. And in the JCOA Orchestra included Cecil Taylor, Pharoah Sanders, Gato Barbieri and many others. By the time I got to NMDS in 1980, JCOA was pretty dormant but we had an amazing catalog of every private press Jazz, contemporary classical and other non describable record you could ever think of – because that was the only thing we distributed, literally 2,000 artist produced records. All those ones that are so valuable now was because no one wanted them then. Of course this is where Soho Music Gallery got all those cool records as well. There might be one store in each major U.S. town that would buy from us.

What did you sale?
We sold records by the Residents, (and I met Homer and Hardy), Negativeland, (whose record covers were individually made of cut up Life Magazine pictures), Opus One label, (whose covers were printed in day glow inks), Beaver Harris’ 360 Degree Musical Experience, India Navigation (run by a lawyer for Western Union who let him build a studio in their building), Parachute (which had Zorn’s first records), Nels Cline & Vinny Golia had a label called 9Winds, Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company, the U.S. Steel Cello Ensemble, and the Nihilist Spasm Band; labels; Titanic, Mission, Armageddon, Cold Blue, Wizard, Beep, Land Mammals, all the Bruce Haack albums and much more.
Some of my favorites were Harry Partch on CRI, Gary Wilson “You Think You Really Know Me”, Arthur Russell “Tower of Meaning,” Allan Bryant “Space Guitars”, Jon Gibson, John Bender “I Don’t Remember Now,” Michel Redolfi “Sonic Waters” I could go on and on. One day someone came in wanting to know if we knew anyone who would release a soundtrack to a movie that he had commissioned by Ornette Coleman. Hell yes, I would! So I started a record label of my own, ICON Records. Ornette came by work the next month. I thought he wanted to talk to me about the soundtrack, (the movie was called “Box Office”), but no – he wanted NMDS to release his unreleased tapes and pay him $50,000 a year. We didn’t have that kind of money and since he wasn’t happy with what I was paying the filmmaker for his soundtrack, that was the end of that. (As far as I know this album never came out.) But I had registered the label name, opened a bank account and for all intents and purposes started a record label.

So you could release other productions…
My first release was something I had heard in Indonesia in 1979, a small gamelan ensemble called Group Gapura. This did pretty well, I sold 8000 copies and it funded my label at the one release a year level that I was doing. My next album was by Daniel Lentz. And then I produced a record of John Zorn playing the music of Ennio Morricone called The Big Gundown. While working in the store with Zorn I had suggested we do this Morricone album and in 1985 he told me ok, let’s do it. The last album I produced never came out, it was Big John Patton, David Murray, Steve Nelson, Anthony Carillo and Bill Frisell arranged by Butch Morris. The record had issues because Patton had a drug problem and I had a drummer problem. First I hired drummer Lloyd Knibbs (from the Skatalites), but that wasn’t working out. Then I did another session with Ignacio Berroa on drums and George Freeman on guitar but that wasn’t working out either, and then Patton’s dealer slashed his right arm ending the whole project, (and the label, as all the money I had to make records came as each one supported the next one).
I had about 10,000 records by this point, with different periods of my life lending themselves to different focus. While at the record store some guy would come in and buy African ethnographic records. He was always talking about how James Brown was directly related to the African music we liked and said there was a Sam Goody remainder store in the westside who had all the James Brown King records, new, sealed, cheap. Bam! I also went with Zorn up to 125th street where stores had zillions of copies of Maceo Parker records as well as JB records on People, because no one wanted them. I went to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and saw Bobby Blue Bland which got me totally into that style of soul music. I got into dub records, Chutneys (from Trinidad), surf music, Derrick May and the Detroit electro thing, Googie Rene, Frankie Stein, John Cage (who I got to meet), tons and tons of Latin Music as NYC was a center for that. And of course more and more and more. Each part of my life represented by a new music interest and exploration.
I was At NMDS for eight years and it was always a struggle for us. When our fund raiser Taylor Storer got cancer in his 20’s and died over a three year period, Michael Mantler and I hired a South African guy named John Baskind to replace him, everything quickly started to go south. Of course this was the beginning of the end of the first LP era, so all the stores started returning LPs instead of paying for them. I fought a lot with Baskind and saw the writing on the wall format wise and left.
At this point my wife, who was an architect, had her cousin build us a wall shelving unit for the books and records which had been in crates stacked on the floor. She asked if I wanted anything to hold CD’s and I said no I hate CD’s!, I’ll never buy those. I was wrong and that was near the end of me buying vinyl for the most part.

Jorge Ben
Ponta de Lanca Africano Umbabarauma

What’s hapenning?
In 1989 I got a job at The Brooklyn Academy of Music where I programmed; Cachao, David Lynch’s Industrial Symphony, The Butthole Surfers, Negativeland, Pete Cosey, The World Saxophone Quartet and 500 others including Moondog!! (in his first concert back in NYC since he had left for Germany). All this happened in one 10 day period in NYC for a festival called New Music America. When that was over I left BAM and David Byrne hired me to run Luaka Bop.
I guess I don’t think I’m a digger, because I didn’t have to dig. I bought much of this shit new!

Are you still buying vinyl, visiting record shops?
In a word, no! But as I just spent $700 in your store perhaps I shouldn’t be believed when I say that. I try never to buy records in NYC where I live. Only when I travel, I don’t want more records! But If I am in another country I feel – I’ll never see this record again I better buy it now.

What was the first release on Luaka Bop?
“Beleza Tropical”, which came out in 1989.

Why did you choose this name: Luaka Bop?
David choose it, probably because he liked the sound of it. It was a Sri Lankan tea he found in the UK.

What could be the label’s leitmotif?
Perhaps someone else would better at this question then me. Someone once said we were wonderfully impure. I guess we always want to be surprising, not do the same types of music, not exist in any genre or be part of any scene. In fact we don’t expect as a label to have any fans. It’s not that people don’t like what we do, but they should feel they might not understand the record that comes out after the one they loved.

What is the role of David Byrne in the label? Does he still suggest compilations ideas? Doest he still dig LPs?
He doesn’t, in 2003 he decided that he had enough of having a record label so I have run it without him ever since.

How do you decide on the choice of reissues?
No idea, there isn’t really a set way to answer this. Anything that fits within what we like as a label, I guess. That’s not really an answer I don’t feel.

Luaka Bop is well known for his ability to rediscover forgotten artists : from Tom Ze to William Onyeabor, from Tim Maia to Silvio Rodriguez, what is the reissue your are prouder?
Hmmm, certainly the Onyeabor was such a surprise in terms as how well it did, and the fact that we got to work with his entire recorded output is amazing. Tom Ze is super important to me because we were able to rescue him from oblivion in Brazil. And he is so worthy as a musician and a person who has now gone on to become an important part of the Brazilian music scene.

With the great Tom Ze

Tom Ze
Mae Mae Solteira

What about your serie titled World Psychedelic Classics ? Any new for the future ?
We started that with Os Mutantes. The whole idea that there were Psych bands from places other the the U.S. and the U.K. was not something most people had ever considered. We wanted to challenge peoples preconceptions. At that time it surprised a lot of people in a way that is almost inconceivable today. No idea what the future holds for this series.

While Luaka Bop was more established for compilations in the 90’s and 00’s (from Black Peru to New sounds from NorthEast Brazil), since few years, there were less compilations. Is it an artistic decision? or is it a realistic choice because this part of the market is now really « over » covered?
Both, David started the label doing compilations, and though I did a few, “African Psych: Funky Fuzzy Sounds of West Africa”, “Telling Stories to the Sea” (the Portuguese African one), and for the most part the Black Peru one, the compilations were really his thing. Nowadays I’m just not as interested in doing them; the hellish negotiations that take forever, and competing with the internet, which is a societal compilation.

These days you seems like buying a lot of african records. Is it a new thing or have you always been into african music?
Yes I have always been into African music and at the same time it’s a new thing. Because when I was into African music before I could only buy the records I found in NYC, or somewhere in the U.S., or in a store in London or Paris, which were not so many compared to now. When you guys are bringing in so many records and collectors are buying up everything that moves, there are so many great records available now, it’s blowing me away.
When I worked at the record store, John Zorn and I used to go to the African Record Center in Brooklyn on Nostrand and buy records they would import for the store, they also had their own label too, Makossa Records, (were those all legally released?). My small collection of African Funk stuff I mostly got from them and I used that to make our Funky Fuzzy compilation. Since I bought every album of this type of thing I could find I had no idea that years later so many bands playing this sort of music existed! As much as you think you know about something it’s so great to realize you don’t know shit! The beauty of being into music and records is that there is always something new to learn about, to be moved by. Much as my record collection is a personal history, it’s not static, or frozen in time. Of course these days I have no more shelf space!

Ofo & The Black Company
Allah Wakbarr

Long time ago, you released a fabulous record of Waldemar Bastos… Any news of the great voice from Angola ?
We did one record with Waldemar, David asked Arto Lindsay to produce it. He recorded with his band of lead guitar, bass, percussion and drums. When he came back to NYC to pay a week of shows in one venue, he had a different guitar player from Guinea Bissau who was incredible. The shows were amazing, each night building from the last and so fulfilling to have experienced. At the end of the week I said to Waldemar, we really have to do your next record centered around the new guitar player. He fired him the next day. We never did another Waldemar record (not because of that). I have tried to figure out who that guitar player was to this day. I bought so many Guinea Bissau records from you last time I was there, always thinking that a guitar player on one of them must be that guy!

Another part of your catalog is dedicated to new talents, as Kings Of Forth, Javelin or +2 project (Kassin, Moreno, Domenico)… How do you find brand new talents? On the internet? On stage? Through friends?
The last way, almost always through friends.

And who is the next?
Floating Points & Doug Hream Blunt…

What is the best deal/business: to make reissues or to produce/coproduce new records?
Hard to answer this. I will say when you release something that is already recorded, you are getting to pick something you know you really like. New recordings are so much riskier because they often as not, don’t turn out as perfectly as a reissue chosen from someone’s complete recorded history. So if you make a new album that isn’t what it should or could be you have to continue to spend money to make it better, unlike a compilation with fixed costs.

What do you think about the brand new fashion of vinyle ? Only fashion or a real and long term tendency ?
I thought it would fade, but it hasn’t. So what can I say?! And now that Apple has taken the cd drives out of all their computers, and streaming is catching on with more and more people perhaps the LP will be the only hard format, perhaps. Maybe CD’s will come back too? I never thought the LP would come back and the fact I have a wall of them is because I realized its in a way an audio journal for me and my collection serves as a piece, if you will. I didn’t make the records but I spent my life assembling them. The LP seems to lend itself to that sort of viewpoint, not sure the same can be said for a file.

Have you received many negative answers on some of the LPs, artists, unreleased tapes, you were trying to reissue?
Hmm, there was a Japanese album I was trying to do that just seemed too difficult and three times I have tried to do a Jorge Ben album but each time it started and then, stopped.

What are your next releases ?
There are two albums we know about right now and the artists are about as different from each other as could be: the first is by Doug Hream Blunt: “My Name is: Featuring the Hit Gentle Persuasion”. Doug learned to play music at the age of 35, by taking an adult education class in the late 1980s. The class was organized by a high school music teacher and his wife, and held in their small garage in the Golden Gate Park neighborhood of San Francisco. The other students of the class became Doug’s band members and they recorded a record of Doug’s music, with the teacher on drums and vibes, and the teachers wife on bass. To promote his music, Doug would play acoustic, solo shows for patients and elderly people at a hospital where he worked as a nurse’s aid. On a few occasions, he also brought the other students together to play on the City Visions Public Access television show in San Francisco.
The second is from Sam Shepherd under his artist name Floating Points with an album called “Elaenia”. As unknown as Doug is Sam is somewhat known, as unschooled as Doug is Sam is very schooled in classical and jazz (with a doctorate in neuro science). “Elaenia” is a dazzling score which puts Sam Shepherd in the spotlight as a composer who has produced an album that bridges the gap between his rapturous dance music and formative classical roots that draws upon everything Sam has done to date. He has made it over the last five years and recorded it in his own studio with an ensemble of 11 people.
There is actually a third album we know about as well, some time next year we will release our second album by Sierra Leonian musician Janka Nabay.

What is the LP you dream of reissuing?
We still want to do more with Tim Maia. The situation though is quite difficult.

http://luakabop.com/

Tim Maia
Quer Queira Quer Na 0 Queira

Andy Warhol
Giant Size $1.57
(Published by Billy Klüver, 1963. Limited edition of 75 copies signed by Andy Warhol and numbered. LP jacket is an original hand silkscreen over a spray painted background)

« Before becoming an art piece, this lp is an exhibition catalogue.The lp is made of interviews for the group show “The Popular Image” at the Washington Museum of Modern Art from the April, 18th to June 2nd. On side One are interviews by Jim Dine, George Brecht, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, John Wesley and Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, Robert Rauschenberg on side Two.
Originally the record came in a sleeve and an exhibition catalogue. During and/or after the show (there is no record about the exact release) Küver asked the two artist Andy Warhol and Jim Dine to produce record covers for the remaining vinyls from the show. The lp cover happen to be among the very first Pop art pieces by Warhol. »
 

Jean Dubuffet
La Fleur de Barbe
(Published by Galleria del Cavallino, Venise, 1961. Limited edition of 20 copies signed and numbered with an original little spiral drawing by Dubuffet. The cover is an original lithograph by Dubuffet)

« Jean Dubuffet had no knowledge about music. No knowledge about what was dodecaphonic, electronic, serial nor concrete music. With self made tools and instruments, Dubuffet was looking for the roots of rudimentary and elementary music. This peace of “Musique Brut” is also part as an Lp included in the box set published the same year. »
 

Miles Davis
Copenhagen Live, part of ‘Mati & The Music’
(This Miles Davis album has been released for the first time with the book “Mati & The Music”, published in 2012 by Editions 213/Paris, in an edition of only 500 copies)

« The band (Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette and of course Miles Davis) were touring Europe and practicing new tracks for the up coming album ‘Bitches Brew’ which was going change the history music.
Mati Klarwein and Miles Davis knew each other well back in late 60’s and Miles asked Mati a painting for the cover of the new album he was going to release. Mati Klarwein was a music lover and did many famous record covers all published in the book. »
 

Albrecht/d & Joseph Beuys
Performance at the ICA London 1. Nov. 1974
(Samadhi Records, 1976. Limited edition of 99 signed and numbered)

« Live performance by the Artist. This is the famous limited edition. Silkscreen cardboard including an original photograph tipped on cardboard. Both artist signed. »
 

Rodarte
The Thing Quarterly / Issue 24
(Self published, 2015. Limited edition of 1500 copies)

« Rodarte designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy participated to the issue n°24 of “The Thing Quartely”. The sleeve and record features imagery taken from a short film “Aantemi” released by Mulleavys in 2010. Music is scored by the experimental punk group No Age on both side. »

What did Miles Davis, Salvador Dali, Jackie Kennedy, Leonard Bernstein, Andy Warhol, Timothy Leary and Brigitte Bardot have in common? Mati Klarwein, the painter who realized the mythical LP sleeves for ‘Bitches Brew’ and ‘Live Evil’ (Miles), ‘Abraxas’ (Santana) and so many others like Jimi Hendrix, Earth Wind and Fire, the Lats Poets, Jackie McLean, George Duke, Hermeto Pascoal, Eric Dolphy, Jon Hassell, Muddy Waters and Jerry Garcia… His colorful paintings have been used for numerous LPs, across all types of musical genres. They are a testimony of his totally special link to music, as underlined it the splendid book published in 2012 by Antoine de Beaupre : Mati and The music, a sort of “catalogue raisonné” about an unreasonable artist!

Mati Klarwein was born on April 9th, 1932, in Hamburg. He was from a family of artists : his father was an architect of the Bauhaus and his mother, an opera singer. But when the Nazis took power, the family had flee to Israel. During the post-war years, the young man settled in Paris, where he crossed path with Fernand Léger, Salvador Dali and Ernst Fuchs. They would become three pillars for his future works. At that time, he even tried jazz with Boris Vian, a writer and trumpet player, before crossing the Atlantic. In New York, Mati Klarwein added Abdul to his name, in support of the Palestinians. In the Mecca of jazz, he became known for being at the heart of the “flowery revolution”. He became an icon of the hippy generation by illustrating some of the most famous records of their most emblematic period. “I take nothing when I paint. When I am on drugs, I become really hot and I prefer to leave for nightclubs. On the other hand, I find most of my ideas when I am broken up well! Speaking about drugs can be as interesting as speaking about sex. Everything depends on who is expressing themselves. William Burroughs or Nancy Reagan.” Explicit lyrics.

The fact remains that the eminently sensory paintings of Mati Klarwein, between hallucinated surrealism and psychedelic naturalism, make spring kaleidoscopic colors, mythological characters and incredible landscapes, a vision of the world fed by the nature which he appreciated through his numerous trips the world over. During one of his journeys, he discovered Deia, a village nested in the nature of the Balearic Islands where, after several stays, he chose to settle down while the world was turning itself to other trends : yuppie, the Wall Street trader. That is where he decided to live, out of this world, without ever stopping painting, accompanied by his ghetto blaster, organizing hallucinated parties, where percussions became an invitation to shaman trances. He died there on March 7th, 2002.

A song for your trip…

Bob Marley & Peter Tosh

Concrete jungle

“I just first today saw the film/documentary about Bob Marley, the one that came out a year or so ago. It just reminded me again about how amazing that band was. Those backup up vocals by Peter tosh and Bunny, seriously amazing, inspiring and beautiful.”

Keith Richards & Bobby Keys

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

“I love bootlegs ! I just got this track on a vinyl bootleg by Keith Richards. I knew this recording but to listen to it on vinyl. Such a cool take, and Bobby Keys, he is one of the reasons I started playing sax.”

Miles Davis

Intégrale

“It’s simply impossible to choose one song from the man. It’s just everything he did is historic. So daring so creative. Crazy beautiful music.”

Serge Gainsbourg

Ballade de Melody Nelson

“I just love this album. I can listen to it forever. Jane Birkin is my guest on one song, and that record is totally inspired by this. I love Serge’s music in general but this album just kills me. And I love that box set they released 3 years or so ago. Amazing collector stuff.”

Rolling Stones

100 Years Ago

“I dont know why but I just love this song. It makes me feel New York city somehow. I guess it has to do with my teenage years… I love how they in that time period mixed really good songwriting with great jams. I love that kind of song forms.”