It’s been quite a while since I started a series entitled Trials and Tribulations. In that series, I wrote about things that can drive us collectors up the wall …and down again. At the time I only hinted at it, but right now I’m planning on expanding on one of the issues I mostly left out at the time: The Trials and Tribulations of label policy. It’s a can of worms I didn’t really want to touch then and it’s a can – when opened – that infuriates me time and again, economic sensibility or not. I come at it from a stance uninhibited by economic concerns; one that focuses on keeping music alive as opposed to keeping profits up. Call me delusional, but it’s the way I tick.

To cut to the chase right away, whenever you mention the Concord Music Group on any jazz board, chances are that people will start cussing relatively fast, despite some of the exemplary work they have produced.. The problem was and is that Concord purchased Fantasy Inc. (the owners, for example, of the prestigious Original Jazz Classics reprint series series, Galaxy, Debut Records, Riverside, Milestone, Prestige, Pablo, and just about everything else under the sun that many collectors were/are salivating for) … and proceeded to shut down that company’s Berkley California warehouse where lots of that Fantasy OJC stock was shelved, fired the Fantasy vault workers, shut down their mastering studio and shipped the tapes off to the infamous Iron Mountain storage facility. Continue Reading →