[78-L] Commodore was Remastering re-writ

[David Lennick]

GRP was a label somehow connected with Dave Grusin and used for reissues from 
Decca and related labels. Verve has been part of Universal for decades (got 
absorbed into Polydor along with MGM). My Billie Holiday Master Takes (which as 
I say *isn't*, I compared several tracks with issued 78s and they differed) is 
on GRP, not Verve.

dl

Thomas Stern wrote:
> I believe there was a Jelly-Roll Morton complete Commodore (General)
> recordings on GRP.
> Is GRP part of MCA/Universal?  How good/bad is the mastering on the GRP
> series?
> Was the GRP arrangement made after Milt Gablers death?
> Also, looking at currently available Billie Holiday CD's, there is a VERVE
> Commodore
> Master Takes, and the GRP complete set listed.
> Don't see the JRM, nor the Commodore Story....
> Is Jazz of this era (commercially) dead?
> Best wishes, Thomas.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
> [mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com]On Behalf Of Jeff Sultanof
> Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 11:40 AM
> To: 78-L Mail List
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Remastering re-writ
> 
> 
> I was at an International Association of Jazz Educators convention when the
> Commodore catalog was announced as acquired by MCA with great ballyhoo. The
> only issues I remember (I wasn't clear either) was a "Best of Commodore," a
> Billie Holiday 'complete' and a Holiday 'Best of.'
> 
> Jeff Sultanof
> 
> On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 11:38 PM, David Lennick
> <dlennick at sympatico.ca>wrote:
> 
>> LET'S TRY THIS ONE AGAIN..a bit garbled the previous time.
>>
>> I haven't encountered too many Commodore releases, although I picked up a
>> "Billie Holiday Commodore Masters" disc from 2000..which had a few tracks
>> that
>> were definitely not the ones issued on 78. GRP, through Universal.
>> Randy referred to an Andrews Sisters messup, and that's one I recall along
>> with
>> an Al Jolson (maybe) and the Jascha Heifetz Decca Years (definitely).
>> Philips
>> had even worse results with a series of historical recordings which
> sounded
>> like bad short wave radio.
>>
>> dl
>>
>> Jeff Sultanof wrote:
>>> Dan Morgenstern still tells the story of a gathering of press and and
>> jazz
>>> historians at RCA to listen to No Noise 'clean-ups' at a pre-release
>> party
>>> for the three-CD set of early BG and his orchestra. While the engineers
>> did
>>> remove a lot of noise, they also took out bass lines and drum parts. Dan
>>> said that some tracks were so bad they sounded like they were played
>>> underwater. This disastrous reception sent engineers back to the drawing
>>> board for that set, which still had many tracks where actual music was
>>> removed.
>>>
>>> I will also never forget (and perhaps David, these are the CDs you mean)
>>> when MCA acquired the Commodore catalog and issued Billie Holiday and
>> 'Best
>>> of Commodore' CDs. The sound was distorted and disgusting.
> Interestingly,
>>> Commodore is a catalog which is still MIA on CD.
>>>
>>> That was also when I found out that the people at MCA didn't realize
> that
>>> they owned a catalog named ABC-Paramount. One of their employees asked
> me
>> to
>>> 'suggest' some reissues to him, of course not offering to pay me a red
>> cent.
>>> I developed a bad memory quickly.
>>>
>>> Jeff Sultanof
>>>
>>>> I still remember "NoNoise" and still shudder at the disasters it
>> wreaked.
>>>> Or to
>>>> be more accurate, the disasters wreaked by the engineers who turned it
>> on
>>>> full
>>>> blast and left it running overnight and issued the results on
>> unlistenable
>>>> MCA
>>>> and Philips CDs in the mid 80s.
>>>>
>>>> dl
>>>>