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It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes.

Re: What exactly didn't sit well w/you re:Jacknife?

You're probably right, especially in the historical aspect, although my sense is that on the whole many sessions these days are far better thought out-in some instances too much so-but not always better. Because of the overall economics of the industry, record labels are far less inclined to just let a bunch of guys run into the studio to knock off a few half-assed takes for a few bucks.

Which raises another issue: There is a dark side to this subject that is frequently swept under the rug to avoid tarnishing the music's (jazz) image. Many dates in the '50's & '60's happened because the musicians pushed/begged/wheedled/conned the owners/producers of these small independent labels (Remember that Blue Note, Prestige, Riverside, Pacific Jazz, Contemporary, Verve/Clef?Norgran, etc., were not then owned by huge conglomerates.) into sessions for which they would get an advance to carry their drug habits for a time. The people running those labels usually did so as a labor of love rather than as businessmen (except for Norman Granz) and furthermore had developed strong personal relationships and empathy with many of those musicians. The potential upside came from the fact that the revenues largely went to those owners, so if a release caught on (e.g., something like Lee Morgan's "Sidewinder"), they enjoyed a windfall. (That is also, I think, why they recorded so many sessions: If you throw enough up on the wall, part of it may stick.) None of this is to say that the musicians were necessarily getting royally screwed-although the session guys virtually always got only a flat fee-and/or that the label owners were bad people (although some of them were, but not necessarily the ones I've mentioned), but those were the realities of the economics that existed.

By the way please do not assume that anything I've said above represents specific knowledge about the "Jacknife" sessions. My comments are strictly general in nature to try to provide some background to the conditions of the times.


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