There once was a time when the big bands accounted for a surge in jazz music’s popularity, the likes of which we will never see again. The economical landscape of the ’30, ‘40s and ‘50s was quite different from the current era of high inflation and diminishing returns. It is only on rare occasions then that today’s jazz musician finds himself (or herself, in the case of Maria Schneider) able to wield large ensembles and when it does occur it’s usually in the form of a special one-shot offering o …

It’s been several years now since Blue Note’s Japanese counterpart Toshiba-EMI enlisted the services of master recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder in order to reissue classic items from the catalog in new 24-bit remasters handled by the man himself. Albeit with more modest aspirations in terms of mere quantity, it wasn’t long before the folks at Blue Note here in the United States decided to launch their own series of Van Gelder mastered reissues. At summer’s end, we saw another half dozen titles …

To put things candidly, the music industry has suffered through a year of conservatism and slim pickings at best, yet another victim of the post 9/11 state of affairs that has hampered business and the health of the economy in general. While the past few years have seen a decrease in the number of reissues to hit the market, the real surprise this year came in the modest amount of new releases and even among these it was a hit and miss affair in terms of real quality. Gone are the days when one …

For many avid jazz followers, producer Jordi Pujol’s Fresh Sound label served as a bastion for reissues of some of the most obscure catalog items. The independent Spanish company leased a number of classic sides from such labels as Jubilee, Hi-Fi Jazz, Roulette, Regina, and many others. A few years ago though, Pujol decided to get into the business of recording new music and now Fresh Sound New Talent can count itself among such other distinguished Indies as Criss Cross Jazz, SteepleChase, and R …

Since the ‘70s, producer Nils Winther has documented European and American jazz artists in a no-frills manner and released a plethora of albums on his own grass roots SteepleChase imprimatur. With an active release schedule, it seems that more albums get released over the course of a year that any one reviewer can possibly make time for and so with this in mind, this is the first of a two-part piece that will discuss in brief some of the label’s most recent activity. A mainstay of the label f …