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

I think the OJC CDs will eventually get HTF. I think the conclusion during Concord's Summer Sale last year was that they're just getting rid of old stock/albums which they don't plan on pressing again. I may be wrong, though.

A terrible day for all music lovers. No wonder the record labels and the suits don't get any love.

 

I'm holding back the incredible amount of swear words I feel pouring out of me as I read this news. This is just godawful news!

 

Thanks for the response Saatvik. If your right, I better start buying faster!

 

Not good news, for sure, but neither, IMHO, so dire that it justifies the hysteria I sense in some of the posts. I have not heard any reference to a mushroom cloud, but this comes close: As everyone probably knows, Iron Mountain are a storage company. Many companies use it and all records are destroyed after a specific period of time.*

I think this blanket statement of mis-information (although innocently made) may well have helped to generate the alarmist tone that runs through this thread. As for the predicted identification problems, I'm sure there will, indeed, be much confusion, but let's not blame Iron Mountain or expect their people to sort out a received mess.

That said, I have to wonder how, for example, Columbia's Miles sessions will fare--I'm not talking about the issued masters but rather the many, many fragments that Teo had to work with and from which he eventually drew what came to be known as a new Miles album. It was a mess of sound-bites that came together only via the then fresh memories of Teo, Miles, and-presumably--the recording engineer.

*Emphasis in the quote is mine.

 

if I can't find any of the Miles Davis Prestige OJCs, should I go ahead and get the Chronicle Complete box and/or the Quintet box set?

 

Chronicle is nice but I do think you will be able to find Miles OJCs without too much problem. (But then, I didn't have to look as I have 'em all.)

I don't think the Quintet box set will sound any better than the OJCs. Probably, it will sound worse. Besides, you have the expensive option of going with Steve's DCC Gold CDs. These four titles (Cookin', Relaxin', Workin', and Steamin') are as essential as they come if you're into jazz. Pass on the several other possible purchases (even the other Miles CDs that DCC put out) to finance these four, I'd say.

 

It's not so much the sound quality I am after as it is to just have the music in my collection before it is unavailable at all. I figured the boxes would be the simplest way to get them.

 

Then, Chronicle alone will do the job for you. Everything in the Quintet box is in there as well.

But, please tell me. Don't you find yourself not listening to the huge boxed sets as much as you should? While it is convenient to have them all in one package, the format does not lend itself to the perfect listening experience, IMO.

 

I remember (printed only one time) that when "Easy Rider" was being reissued Dennis Hopper wanted to use footage shot (like the bikers running from the FEDs in choppers as an example) but when requested from Iron Mt. the tapes were unusable due to storage deficiencies. He was pissed to say the least.

 

Quality reply. Welcome aboard!

 

Bump! Anyone?

 

Well, I am starting to buy all the Fantasy stuff I can afford.

 

Thanks, Steve!

 

Steve, do you have any specific recommendations that we can add to the list of "Discs recommended by Steve" (http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?p=2215474#post2215474)? If not, can I add "all OJC CDs" to the list? Or are there any exclusions?

Thanks!

 

Who benefits from having these tapes stored there? What cheapskate in charge refuses to put up the money for another tape vault?

 

This is REALLY bad news. One can smell some guy thinking he have made a good choice to cut some cost, but in the long run it will be costing them more! a LOT more

Steve, you maybe could talk with Chad about having Stuart Kremsky on the payroll and making some kind of deal with Concord to have him lurking around in the Fantasy vault?


Guys, it is the Analogue Productions releases I should get, right? AAPJ (20-25$) and AJAZ (45 RMP Steve/Kevin) I should go for?

 

I was about to reply after reading page one, went through the rest of the thread and things started to shift in emphasis.

The close of a respected record label and recording studio means the master tapes will go somewhere else. The original building, one of historical significance, will be closed. A lot of people are out of jobs, I assume people who have held these positions for years.

The worry is, now that these master tapes are going into a storage facility, will they be properly archived in the same fashion as it had before? That seems to be the big worry, that a portion of recorded history is in random room, taking random space, collecting dust. Yet in a way, doesn't that sum up our collections? We all have random rooms, random racks, and we all love taking up that random space.

No, I realize it's much more serious than that, but... it just seems that everyone is packing up as if the circus had exhausted its welcome, and ready to head to, well, nowhere now. Every week there seems to be some kind of recorded music demise. I remember a few years ago when Rick Rubin held a funeral for the "Def American" label, or I should say the "Def" in "Def American", because he felt he wanted to establish himself away from the Def Jam empire and create music and careers on its own terms. The label came out with press releases, and they held a funeral for it, not unlike the funeral shown in the documentary film "Who Killed The Electric Car?" One week the CD is dead, next week another label is closing shop. Record stores are shutting the doors, and it has been a rock rolling down a hill collecting to the point where it seems very overwhelming. For the music fan, it's more about "oh oh, what now, we better buy ASAP", but we are all avid fans, we all know where to get the bargains. The sad thing about that is, last week's bargain may become next week's store closure.

It is very frustrating.

 

This kind of makes one think of the line in the song 'American Pie', "the day the music died".

 

Rather like the warehouse scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Very sad...

 

Here's a small list of JVC jazz XRCDs (the early series):

Kenny Drew - Kenny Drew Trio (originally Riverside)
Red Garland - Groovy (Prestige)
Hampton Hawes - Hampton Hawes Trio, Vol.1 (Contemporary)
Wynton Kelly - Piano (Riverside)
Wynton Kelly - Kelly Blue (Riverside)
Blue Mitchell - Blue's Moods (Riverside)
Thelonious Monk - Thelonious Himself (Riverside)
Gerry Mulligan - Mulligan Meets Monk (Riverside)
Zoot Sims - Quietly There (Pablo)

I've omitted the Bill Evans and Kenny Dorham XRCDs that were listed elsewhere.

 

I guess it's like that big room piled with hundreds CD-Rs you've recorded, but never bothered to label, just sitting somewhere in that big room cluttered full of junk that no one wants enter. You want to find that one obscure track on one of those CD-Rs, but the obsticles...the time...the hassle...