Posted on 11/13/2014 7:23:03 AM PST by a fool in paradise
...These labels come out of an old impulse and a newer set of circumstances. Jazz musicians have been making albums in clubs for as long as it’s been feasible... For historical and acoustical reasons... Vanguard leads in this field — a page on its website shows thumbnail images for 123 albums created in the club — but there have also been fine recent dispatches from Jazz Standard, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola and elsewhere.
Still, those are albums released on separate record labels. The perpetual challenge of running a successful jazz club, and the equally daunting proposition of starting a record label, have long conspired to keep the two businesses separate, notwithstanding the odd, fleeting exception. But in the current record industry climate, a lane has opened for small but serious labels with low overhead, ready-made recording space and built-in artist rosters and potential audiences. It’s a wonder this didn’t happen a decade ago.
In the case of Half Note, it did — in a quiet, creeping fashion. Established in 1998... Its output since has been prolific, if a little unfocused...
SmallsLive entered the picture four years ago with an initial batch of 11 “Live at Smalls” releases... the label has a soulful and scruffy identity, though its production values are mostly beyond reproach...
...The last handful of Smoke Sessions albums has been extraordinarily good, suggesting that the label has hit full stride. “The Original Mob,” a reunion of the master drummer Jimmy Cobb with several former protégés (Mr. Bernstein, Mr. Webber and the pianist Brad Mehldau), is not only Mr. Cobb’s best album in recent memory, but also a hard-bop case study, a cogent argument against obsolescence.
...These albums don’t sound like tossed-off byproducts of live performance; each has an arc, a sense of gravity and a suggestion of higher purpose...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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