Hello, ...I seem to remember a story about P. Sanders getting paid for his session, but Bernard Stollman was the source IIRC, so it may not have been true. If ESP would have been entirely reputable, and paid everyone whatever the appropriate % was, I somehow doubt that they would have been able to release as many records as they did. That's quite a double edged sword for me, because while I believe very strongly that artists should be fairly compensated by the businessmen who profit from their music, I also hate to think of Charles Tyler's two records or Frank Lowe's "Black Beings" hypothetically not existing. It's in the Val Wilmer book that Sun Ra makes the statement "Well, he's the only one who records the music". In finding that quote, I read in the following paragraph about how Noah Howard was offered a contract totally inadequate in relation to what should be paid. But he did sign it, possibly because he knew that Impulse! or Prestige weren't exactly hounding him to release his stuff, and also I'm guessing because in the moment, when the artist is dealing with some seriously volatile (and also uncommercial) stuff, the desire to just get the stuff documented (authentication) might be as big a desire as $$$. But I've never had a burning free jazz record come out of me, so I'm just speculating. Still, Lowe's record came out around 1973, and by that time I'd think that ESP's shady policies were well known. Yet, he chose to deal w/ them. Comments? When the ZYX ESP reissues came out in the early '90's I bought close to 30 of the things, and then discovered later that Stollman was quite the opportunist and also that the artists were getting stiffed yet again w/ regards to that reissue program. When faced w/ Simmons situation, that burns inside me a bit. I'm guessing that the Calibre reissues are more above board. But I'm wondering, when Impulse! reissued that run of stuff that included Cecil, Roswell Rudd, Dewey Redmen, Sam Rivers etc., were the musicians paid anything? Indie labels have got nothing on the majors regarding unscrupulous business practices. I remain.... Joseph NP: Pieters/Russell/Stapleton- "Last Glass" CD NR: Alain Robbe-Grillet- "The Erasers" -----Original Message----- From: zorn-list-admin@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:zorn-list-admin@mailman.xmission.com]On Behalf Of Remco Takken Sent: Monday, July 29, 2002 7:51 AM To: Alan Lankin; zorn-list Cc: Alexander Bailey Subject: Re: Tzadik pricing
most indies are non-profits, albeit sans official status... ;)
...or even negative-profit!
I understand this reality, but isn't it also true that some 'indies' might use this reality in order not to pay their artists? ESP Disk is one of the famous examples of an adventurous label that went bankrupt, but re-surfaced four times after it's demise in 1974. Without ever paying anything to the recorded artists.
In the sixties, they got their first chance to record, and ESP functioned well in some cool hippie way. There was absolutely no problem, no one ever got rich here, and some great music was put out anyway. But from the seventies on, the label vanished, but it was still 'ESP' who owned the tapes. And then the re-issues appeared. And re-appeared, and got re-mastered. While saxophonist/ ex-recording artist Sonny Simmons lived on the streets. Remco ps Simmons is currently doing better as far as I know, be it under humble financial conditions. _______________________________________________ zorn-list mailing list zorn-list@mailman.xmission.com To UNSUBSCRIBE or Change Your Subscription Options, go to the webpage below http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/zorn-list