[78-L] New 78 rpm re-issues - is there anything else but opera?

[Kristjan Saag]

Milan P Milovanovic wrote:
> I always wonder if anything besides opera ever saw the light of the day,
> recently, in vinyl - pressed directly from original metal parts?
> I mean jazz, pop music, classical symphony pieces or solo works etc. It
> will be real pleasure to listen i.e. Goodman, Ellington, Basie on newly
> processed 78 rpm record in quiet (virgin) vinyl. Or 16" transcriptions, 
> also.
--
I wrote:
> This would have been a good idea about ten-fifteen years ago. But with
> virtually everything issued today being converted into audio files, 
> without
> loss of sound quality, and with the improvements of sound restoration
> techniques, I'd doubt that there'd be enough collectors to make such a
> project profitable. Even with previously unissued Beiderbecke or Basie
> masters as raw material.

David Lennick wrote:
> The market for reissues, even the best ones, is very small, and virtually
> everything that is put out gets swiped and put online for free.

Milan P Milovanovic wrote:
> Oh, but isn't it the same way with opera (excluding Nellie Melba recently
> discovered session)?

David Lennick wrote:
> Of course! My Gershwin Memorial Concert turned up on an opera list a
> couple of  years ago, being claimed as PD. I did quite a bit of screaming 
> about > my editing and Graham Newton's restoration and got it removed..I'm 
> sure it's
> back out there again. Once I unload my last discs I'll put it online 
> myself. If ya > can't beat 'em..
--
What's important here is that the Historic Masters series started when there 
was no mp3 traffic around. An original unissued EMI operatic master on 78 
rpm was an unique object in the beginning of the 1990's, and if copied, 
copied on tape, which always was the "second best" alternative.
Today it's the gramophone record and compact disc which is the obsolete, 
third best, alternative. Historic Masters survive because they have true 
customers from another era. In a few years time it wont be possible. And a 
"Historic Jazz Masters", if introduced today, would probably be a hobby 
project for an enthusiast who runs out of money in a year or two.
Kristjan