Bad news for music lovers: Fantasy Studios, building closed. Get your OJC CD's now!!

I think it's where they've got Walt Disney, JFK, Jimmy Hoffa and Ted Williams.

Oh, and Elvis, too.

 

What a shameful act; no respect for the great heritage that's been entrusted to them. I'd prefer they'd just sell the tapes off (hey, we could put on a show!).

Is there an OJC discography out there? I'd like to pick up what I can while I can.

 

The Iron Mountain storage facility is a high-security storage facility in an abandoned limestone mine located about an hour north of me near Butler, Pennsylvania.

It is huge and there are many different things stored there From film and music company's to data storage. Take a look.

 

I don't know much about this, but shouldn't people who care contact Concord to express dismay?

Or does Edgar Bronfman own Concord?

 

Looks like some kind of a CIA operation.

Sterile is the first word that came to mind.

 

It's stunning news but I guess it's not at all surprising. This blows big time.

Who would've guessed that Concord, supposedly a nice little indie label, would turn out to be just as boneheaded as the suits at Warner or EMI. Total disgrace. I could never be a 'good business man' I guess. I have a heart.

dan c

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20041127085616/http://www.fantasyjazz.com/html/ojcmain.html


http://web.archive.org/web/20041209075345/www.fantasyjazz.com/html/catalog_main.html

 

Its beginning to feel like "Fahrenheit 451". In the near future all original masters will be destroyed, only digital files will remain. A small band of zealots protect and share the best recordings they could find...

Wait, that's now.

 

Unbelievable. Hasn't any music label learned anything? Their master recordings are their only physical asset yet this is another perfect example of complete stupidity. If you owned a bank, would you ship off all your money/assets to some third-party facility who couldn't differentiate between cash, checks and mortgages?

And I also feel bad for Stuart, the Fantasy Recording and Mastering Studio engineers, technicians and all related personal... no dount a very talented group whose talents I can only hope are recognized by prospective employers.

 

A great place to pick up OJC CDs is through Newbury Comics on Amazon Marketplace. I've bought many factory-sealed ones for as low as $3.99. They have many, many sealed ones for as low as $7 or $8. The only problem is that, as far as I can tell, you can't search by OJC. So you have to do some legwork. And you can't combine shipping. But their prices are so low, it's still worth it.

Below are a few of my faves that Newbury has in stock:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...7934800?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1181342180&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...7934800?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1181342268&sr=1-4

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...934800?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1181342370&sr=1-10

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...7934800?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1181342448&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...7934800?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1181342481&sr=1-4

 

Thank,you, Dreamcatcher!

 

If correct, this obviously is a very bad development, especially if by laying off the respective archivists, they also got rid of all the knowledge and institutional intelligence, so that it will be much harder to access the respective masters in the future, because they are not marked as such.

I have a question for the insiders: Why would Concord do this? Suppose that they do not hate music, that they are not evil and that they are not interested in destorying the musical heritage that is contained in the Fantasy archives. It is a bit hard to picture Concord as the agents of evil capitalism, who are only interested in profit. Is it possible that they are in serious financial trouble? Still, even if this was true, there would be decent ways to do it. Why did they choose not to?

I have another question. Why didn't Fantasy organize their archive in a way that it could - even possibly - survive such an event. Even if the archive had stayed the same, the loss of one person could have - if what you have been saying is correct - seriously derailed the whole structure. Should it not be in the interests of everyone involved to not allow something like this to happen?

(I am trying to do some cold-hearted analysis here and I am especially trying to get away from the hysterical reactions by some people.)

 

I'll cast another vote for Newbury. Their shipping is lightning fast, as well.

 

Don't forget Concord's own site as a source for OJCs (http://concordmusicgroup.com/). You may not feel good about giving them your business now, but I was able to recently pick up a sealed copy of Yusef Lateef's hard-to-find Eastern Sounds for $11.98 from them.

 

Yeah, they're very quick. Newbury's my favorite online music retailer.

 

Agreed. They still appear to have two of my favorite jazz CDs for $11.98 which are nearly impossible to find anywhere else at that price: Shelly Manne & His Friends, Vol. 1 and Andre Previn's Like Previn!

 

I had the same questions. The full story has not been revealed so we'll have to wait for answers. No matter how you slice it though, this approach is short-sighted and self-defeating. How can you profit from an investment if you cannot properly exploit your resources?

 

What about Concord's own "Keepnews Collection" reissue program? These are basically many of the OJC titles, touted as being remastered in 24-bit from "the original master tapes." Did they cherry-pick the tapes for the titles they plan on issuing before trashing the rest, or...? I'm sure there's no way for any of us to know.

 

You'd hope that somebody who has deep pockets would step up to the plate and rescue this archive or even help finance the proper documentation of the tapes being sent there. I guess the only saving grace in this is that (for now) the tapes are still in existence. Didn't Microsoft's Paul Allen do something similar for Cinerama up in Oregon? This almost begs the case for some sort of "heritage grant" so that this poor guy who lost his job could be hired again to properly archive this national treasure. I have visions of the last images in "Indiana Jones" as a crate of artifacts is simply shoved into a big, anonymous warehouse.

 

Thanks for the recommendations! I never know what to buy when it comes to Jazz. I had a $25 gift certificate, so I decided to pick up the first 3 you listed.

 

The current reissue spurt may well be over, as someone suggested, but there will be another when a new technology replaces CDs/DVDs or when sufficient time has passed. The dearth we seem to be facing will eventually create a need for another reissue push. Remember, these masters are not going to decrease in value with time and the people who make the decisions will never take their eyes off the bottom line.

Almost all my original sessions are affected, since they were made for Riverside and Prestige, so I am not taking this news lightly, but I seriously doubt that we have seen the last of these recordings. I do not for a minute believe that deliberate destruction of these tapes will take place.

Remember, too, that master-quality copies of lost or damaged masters have sometimes turned up in the vaults of authorized overseas affiliates or branches.

BTW, I never had a problem retrieving masters from Iron Mountain when I was producing for Columbia--that, of course, was many years ago. Has that operation deteriorated?

 

Glad to help! Some nice piano-trio stuff is headed your way...

 

Not to rub salt in the wound, but I've always wondered why OJC CDs weren't discussed more extensively on this site than they appeared to be.

Flat transfers, authentic reproduction of liner notes as they appeared on the original LP sleeve (i.e., same typeface), bonus tracks where available, deep catalog (i.e., not just an artist's most popular titles, but everything he/she did for Riverside, Prestige, et al), vibrant color reproduction of original LP cover (as if they had access to the original artwork negatives), priced well below Verve and other jazz CD labels....Their likes shall not pass this way again, I fear.

 

I just went out and bought like 4 titles. I was just getting into jazz myself. My first purchase from them was a Stan Getz CD and I thought it sounded great. What a shame.