From the vault, a trove of jazz greats

BY ANDREY HENKIN

With jazz clutching to an ever-diminishing market share of albums sold, it has been largely up to major record companies — those that have some money to begin with — to find ways to keep the industry solvent. Vocalists were tried as were all-star sessions; Latin jazz was promoted, followed by fusions with world and hip-hop; new artists were selling, but not like those legends long passed. So the answer was the “posthumous release,” “archival recording,” or “unearthed gem,” for a style of music that unlike its more popular brethren, values history.

Recording sessions, live and studio, languish in vaults for decades, later to be resuscitated and released to a public clamoring for more Coltrane or Ellington. Some of these sessions have been immensely valuable and others ultimately underwhelming. The question of whether record companies will continue to promote new artists when guaranteed sellers wait in the wings — like the 2005 release of the 1957 recording, ITAL Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall END — is often discussed these days from both sides.

But issues of fairness aside, few will bemoan the opportunity to add such discs to their collections. And so, some space should be cleared on shelves for a slate of recent releases from the newly minted Monterey Jazz Festival Records (MJF). A collaboration with Concord Records, known most recently for cementing its status as the largest jazz record label with its acquisition of the Fantasy Jazz catalogue, MJF has just released a cornucopia of discs from 50 years’ worth of historic festival appearances.

When Blue Note released the above Carnegie Hall show, or more recently a “found” concert of Charles Mingus from 1964, the ante was certainly raised. MJF has seen Blue Note’s bet with its five initial releases: festival sets of Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, and Sarah Vaughan, ranging from the inaugural Monterey Jazz Festival in 1958 to 1971, all previously unissued and remastered. It is not hyperbole to say that any new material by artists of this caliber is significant to both the casual listener and the jazz scholar.

The Monterey Jazz Festival was created as a response to the East Coast Newport Jazz Festival, which still has mythical status. Monterey quickly established its reputation through a mix of good weather, excellent booking and hip crowds. For three days every September, producer Jimmy Lyons presented an impressive slate of jazz stars, often with new bands and compositions written and premiered specifically for festival appearances.

This new series can seemingly sustain itself for quite some time with the pool of recordings available. Within the first volley alone, there are some precious moments: Dizzy Gillespie in an improvised comedy routine with members of his band; Miles Davis presenting his new modern quintet to the California crowd with a hyper version of “So What”; Thelonious Monk’s idiosyncratic music scored for the Monterey Jazz Festival Workshop by saxophonist Buddy Collette; Louis Armstrong as the consummate entertainer; Sarah Vaughan’s passionate vocals with Jazz at Philharmonic Allstars on “A Monterey Jam.”

MJF has also established itself as a label to watch with its attention to the details. The sound is generally very good — no small accomplishment with the technology of the era matched against the difficulties of outdoor recording. The packaging is spare and attractive with inclusion of period festival posters and archival photography. But perhaps the best feature, apart from the music of course, are some of the liner notes, particularly Bill Minor’s anecdotal rendering of bassist Steve Swallow’s appearance with Monk or Bob Belden’s insightful comments on Miles’ new direction. These texts also put the sets in context of the larger festival and provide some important historical commentary on what the Monterey Jazz Festival has accomplished in its storied history.