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| News from Fantasy Records The first new reissue-series release since the Concord / Fantasy sale / merger late last year will debut on October 25 with 10 specially-priced CDs and 10 bonus disc samplers, all drawing on the deep resources of the Prestige catalog. Generously programmed discs by Miles Davis, Red Garland, Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, Eric Dolphy, Jackie McLean, Kenny Burrell, John Coltrane, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, and - from Prestige's Bluesville imprint - Lightnin' Hopkins offer highlights from each artist's Prestige discography. In addition, each package has an accompanying sampler disc providing an average of 48 minutes more music, with Prestige tracks by artists such as Art Farmer, Thelonious Monk, Benny Golson, Mose Allison, and Gil Evans, among many others. “Our intention with this series was to make it easy and affordable [$11.98] for the casual jazz listener to make some exciting new discoveries, ” says Nick Phillips, Concord Music Group's Vice President / Artist and Catalog Development, who produced the samplers, “while also presenting artists and performances that would make for some compelling rediscoveries for even the most seasoned jazz aficionado.” The 10 Profiles CDs were originally released by Fantasy, Inc. as single “Best Of” discs in late 2004, during the period that sale negotiations between Fantasy and Concord were coming to a close. Because of the timing, which involved not only a change of ownership but of distribution, these excellent compilations largely fell through the cracks on the retail front and were deemed prime candidates for repackaging and remarketing. In fact, a major marketing campaign will kick off upon the release of the series next week, with print ads in The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New Yorker, ICE magazine, DownBeat, Jazz Times, Jazziz, and other publications; a national cable TV ad campaign running between Thanksgiving and Christmas on outlets including Discovery, B.E.T., BBC America, CNN, and Fox News; NPR underwriting on Weekend Edition and Fresh Air in the same holiday time slot; a direct mail campaign in the L.A. and New York markets; and substantial retail point-of-purchase promotion, including full-size posters. Bob Weinstock, barely out of his teens when he founded Prestige in 1949, retired to South Florida upon selling his label to Fantasy, Inc. in 1972. (Prestige has been part of the Concord Music Group since 2004.) He finds it gratifying but not entirely surprising that the music he helped produce endures. “It was a labor of love, ” he stresses today. “Most of the people involved in the business at the time - Orrin Keepnews [Riverside], Les Koenig [Contemporary], Alfred Lion [Blue Note] - were collectors and fans. We loved the music. For the musicians, too, it was no joke; they were very serious about what they were doing. It was a pleasure to work with them. Our shared goal was to make good music - which we did.” Among the very greatest sides in the Prestige catalog are those made by Miles Davis DAVIS and his quintet with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. Their 1955-56 recordings - originally released as The New Miles Davis Quintet, Cookin', Relaxin', Workin', and Steamin' - have been collected in a 3-CD box as The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions, due for release in spring 2006. These 32 selections, the alpha and omega of small-group jazz, have been sequenced in the order recorded - and remastered in 24-bit - for the new box. Two-thousand-six, not incidentally, is the 80th-birthday year of both Miles (5/26) and Trane (9/23). The quintet material and the rest of Miles's redoubtable Prestige oeuvre are available in the 8-CD box The Complete Prestige Recordings. At the time of the package's original release in 1980 (as a 12-LP set), it had the distinction of being the very first jazz box. write your comments about the article :: © 2005 Jazz News :: home page |