Always in Trouble: An Oral History of ESP-Disk', the Most Outrageous Record Label in America

335 Pages·2012·3.07 MB·English

by  Jason Weiss

Always in Trouble
a s er ies fr om wesle yan univers it y pr ess
Edited by Daniel Cavicchi
Always in Trouble: An Oral History of ESP-Disk’,
the Most Outrageous Record Label in America
by Jason Weiss
Forthcoming titles in the series include books by Michael Veal on
Wayne Shorter and Harriet Alonso on Yip Harburg. For updates
and more information on the series please visit our website www.
wesleyan.edu/wespress.
Always in
Trouble
ESP-Disk’,
An Oral History of
the Most Outrageous Record Label
in America
Jason Weiss
wes le yan univers it y pr ess
Middletown, Connecticut
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown CT 06459
www.wesleyan.edu/wespress
© 2012 Jason Weiss
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Designed by Katerine B. Kimball
Typeset in Minion by Integrated Publishing Solutions
Wesleyan University Press is a member of the Green Press
Initiative. Th e paper used in this book meets their minimum
requirement for recycled paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Weiss, Jason, 1955–
Always in trouble : an oral history of ESP-Disk’, the most outrageous record label in America / by
Jason Weiss.
p. cm. — (Music/interview)
Includes index.
isbn 978-0-8195-7158-8 (cloth : alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-8195-7159-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) —
isbn 978-0-8195-7160-1 (ebook)
1. ESP-Disk’ (Firm) 2. Jazz musicians—United States—Interviews. I. Title.
ml405.w45 2011
781.65092(cid:2)273—dc23 20110 46333
5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
A Note on the Photographers ix
Introduction xiii
I What Got into His Head: Bernard Stollman, 1
Founder of the Label
in the great before
1. Who, Where, When: Beginnings and Departures 3
2. Music and Law: Into the Deep End Fast 13
the rise and fall and persistent resurrection
of a curious record company
3. Th e Initial Years 20
4. While It Worked 29
5. Decline and Fall 38
6. On Individual Artists 45
7. About Some Records 57
8. A Word or Two on Recording Engineers 61
9. Close Encounters in the Music Business 63
10. A Short History of Licensing 69
11. In the Wilderness 72
12. Revival 75
II ESP-Disk’ as Lived and Witnessed 79
Ishmael Reed 85
Gunter Hampel 87
John Tchicai 91
Paul Th ornton 94
James Zitro 98
Sonny Simmons 103
Gary Peacock 109
Milford Graves 110
Alan Sondheim 119
Tom Rapp 126
Warren Smith 134
Roscoe Mitchell 140
Michael Snow 141
Marion Brown 145
Richard Alderson 150
Roswell Rudd 160
Montego Joe 166
Evan Parker 171
Alan Silva 172
Giuseppi Logan 180
Peter Stampfel 185
Burton Greene 192
Th e Coach with the Six Insides: Jean Erdman and Van Dexter 199
Leo Feigin 204
Erica Pomerance 205
Joe Morris 210
William Parker 217
Ken Vandermark 220
Gato Barbieri 224
Amiri Baraka 228
Michael D. Anderson 232
Sal Salgado 240
Lindha Kallerdahl 247
Sirone 248
Sunny Murray 254
Marc Albert-Levin 260
Jacques Coursil 265
Steve Weber 273
Steve Stollman 279
Index 285
Photographs follow pages 77 and 184.
vi Contents
Acknowledgments
Th is work began its own circuitous life in mid-July 2008, when Bernard Stoll-
man called me up one day, out of the blue, and asked if I would like to write a
book with him about the ESP label. Although I eventually came to understand
that I was the one writing the book, he made himself readily available from the
start and provided whatever support he could. So, I must fi rst of all thank him
for his good humor and patience, as well as his generosity of spirit.
In my frequent visits to the ESP oἀ ce, I inevitably found any number of
small details, favors, and questions to ask of the incredibly devoted staff , who
have each in turn since moved on to new challenges: general manager Tom
Abbs, director of promotions Adam Downey and his predecessor Fumi Tomita,
and chief fi nancial oἀ cer Douglas McGregor (their duties stretched well be-
yond what the titles indicate). I extend my sincere appreciation to them for
their constant cooperation.
Of course, there would be no book without the candor and willingness of
everyone I interviewed, so I am indeed grateful to them all. Th eir names you will
know by turning the pages. Th e photographers as well proved remarkably kind in
allowing me to use their work, and I hope that even within the present limits I
have done them some measure of justice.
I would also like to thank Alan Sondheim for his ongoing advice and refl ec-
tions in the development of this book; Gérard Terronès, for the time and music
he so freely off ered me at his home in Paris, which reconfi rmed for me his lifelong
dedication to the music and musicians’ rights; Ken Wissoker, editorial director at
another press, for his e arly enthusiasm, which helped propel the project fur-
ther; and for assorted gestures of assistance and answering of questions: Pierre
Crépon, Philippe Carles, Pete Gershon, Marshall Reese, Ali Alizadeh, D avid
Stoelting, Franck Médioni, Matt Lavelle, Steven Joerg, Byron Coley, Filippo Sal-
vadori, Christian Gauff re, Antoine Prum, Richard Meltzer, Kurt Gottschalk,
Bruno Guermonprez, Guy Klucevsek, Fumiko Wellington, and Suzannah B. Troy.
Finally, but not least, I must thank my editor at Wesleyan, Parker Smathers,
as well as the Music/Interview series editor, Daniel Cavicchi, and my fi ne-eyed
copyeditor, Susan Silver, for their helpful guidance along the way.
vii

A Note on the Photographers
While doing a bit of research on ESP at the Institute of Jazz Studies in Newark,
I came across an interview that had appeared in Jazz Hot during the label’s hey-
day (“Qui êtes-vous, Bernard Stollman?” Jazz Hot 33, no. 230 [1967]). Among
the more informative pieces on ESP from that time, it was written by Daniel
Berger, a young Frenchman who also included half a dozen photos that he him-
self had shot in New York. I was lucky enough to fi nd him, via the phonebook,
still alive and well and thriving in Paris. We maintained an intermittent e-mail
correspondence over the next ten months about the possibility of using some of
his photos for my book. At last, in July 2009, we met while I was visiting Paris.
He suggested I count on at least a few hours to go through his various boxes of
negatives and prints from forty-three years earlier. How much could there be, I
wondered. In the end, we spent over fi ve hours together, and in his great gener-
osity he not only gave me whatever prints I chose but also lent me the negatives
for other shots I wanted to have printed.
As it happened, Daniel never became a professional photographer. Th rough
the 1960s and ’70s, he worked as a journalist and in the music industry and as a
producer for French television, before becoming a business consultant, most
recently to the wine industry; he recently directed a documentary on wine and
Europe for European television. But from February to May 1966, in his mid-
twenties, he had gone off to New York with his friend Alain Corneau, the future
fi lm director (who recounted these eff orts in his 200 7 memoir Projection
privée), to do initial research for a documentary on free jazz. Th ough subse-
quently abandoned, it was to have been produced by Claude Lelouch, who won
the grand prize at Cannes that May for A Man and a Woman and thus went on
to bigger projects. Diligent in their task, every day for three months the two
visitors went out to meet the new musicians at their homes, at clubs, wherever
they could, while getting acquainted with the Lower East Side and other neigh-
borhoods. Daniel took well over a thousand photos along the way. As the reader
can see by my selection, I appreciated especially the casual moments captured
with the musicians. Some of these photos have never been published; others
have appeared over the years in books, museum exhibits, and fi lms.
ix