AAJ Review: Jaco Pastorius, Truth, Liberty & Soul Live In New York: The Complete NPR

[jkelman]

My review of the unearthed archival find, Jaco Pastorius' Truth, Liberty & Soul Live In New York: The Complete NPR Recording, today at All About Jazz.

These days, there's a plethora of recordings, originally made for radio or television broadcast, being released by labels ranging from thoroughly legit to highly suspect. In some instances, these are real archival finds; true gold, mined from hours of hours of recordings, lovingly restored and packaged. In other cases they're clearly nothing but money grabs. Capitalizing on old contracts with holes in them the size of a Mack truck, these cheaply packaged, sonically acceptable but far from stellar releases muddy the waters for labels that look to do it right: gain all the proper permissions; ensure that a percentage of the proceeds go to the artist (or estate, in the case of those no longer alive); do everything possible to bring the sound (and, where applicable, video) as close to 21st century standards as possible; and artfully package them, with booklets containing informative liner notes, photos and other memorabilia.

Amongst some of the better independent labels handling archival finds the right way are ECM, Cuneiform, MoonJune, Panegyric...and Resonance Records, the non-profit American label whose small but important discography of unearthed finds by legendary jazz artists ranging from Bill Evans and Wes Montgomery to Larry Young and Sarah Vaughan has been nothing short of exemplary, demonstrating how it should be done and setting a suitably high bar for others to follow, especially in the jazz world. With the release of Truth, Liberty & Soul Live in New York: The Complete NPR Jazz Alive! Recording, the label has truly outdone itself: not only bringing a stellar live performance of electric fretless bass phenom Jaco Pastorius' out-of-the-park June 27, 1982 performance at Avery Fisher Hall, with his 22-piece Word of Mouth Big Band-- first aired on the American public radio network's Jazz Alive! program--into long-overdue commercial release, it does so in what has become the characteristically thorough and signature Resonance Records way.

Not only does this deluxe package include a 100-page booklet containing articles, interviews and testimonials from various people, ranging from Word of Mouth band musicians including drummer Peter Erskine, trumpeter Randy Brecker, reed multi-instrumentalist Bob Mintzer and steel pans master Othello Molineaux, to fellow bassists, NPR folks involved in the original broadcast (including original recording/mixing engineer Paul Blakemore, who also remixed the original multi-tracks for this release), Jaco biographer Bill Milkowski, childhood friend Bob Bobbing and many more, along with photos and relevant historic memorabilia; it also includes a full forty minutes of music making its very first appearance here, having apparently managed to escape the hands of bootleggers over the decades.

Continue reading here...

[profusion]

Wow, I need to grab this one.

[GuitarGeek]

Is this the thing someone was telling me about a couple yeras ago, when I was told to avoid the Live In NY series of releases? I remember someone telling me that there was a something really good being prepped for release, but I don't remember if it was this or some other big release/reissue.

[jkelman]

Is this the thing someone was telling me about a couple yeras ago, when I was told to avoid the Live In NY series of releases? I remember someone telling me that there was a something really good being prepped for release, but I don't remember if it was this or some other big release/reissue.

No. That would be referring to a series of Live in NYC albums recorded during Jaco's last couple years or life, in largely quickly thrown-together groups (most often, trios and never the WoMBig Band or Sextet)...released, AFAIK, on highly suspect labels, and compensating neither Jaco nor his estate.

Yes, this is the one being prepped that you'd been hearing about. This is a properly mixed, mastered and, most importantly, significantly expanded WoM Big Band live album (the only complete concert commercially available, AFAIK), recorded for NPR's popular Jazz Alive! program. Complete with a 100-page book and remixed by the engineer who recorded and mixed the original 90-minute broadcast (this is 130 mins, with the additional 40 never, apparently, out in any form before), it sounds as fantastic - also in high res (24/96 & 24/192), but do buy at ProStudioMasters.com if interested, rather than HDTracks.com; the former provides a PDF of the booklet; the latter, curiously, does not! - as this music truly deserves to sound.

So, those final years NYC live trio recordings are largely to be avoided (well, IMO, to be completely avoided since neither Jaco nor his estate made any $$, whereas they do here); this one, if you're a Jaco fan, is a must-have, as it truly captures him at his absolute peak, before the bipolar disorder that was beginning to surface in a more aggressive fashion began scuttling his career (earlier, his manic periods often resulted in bursts of creativity, but later began to manifest in aberrant behaviour).

So this is absolutely one to have. Hope this helps.

[Hobo Chang Ba]

Yeah, I'll probably be getting this.

[mozo-pg]

I enjoyed the review John. I'd definitely consider picking this up.

[mozo-pg]

Okay, I had a long time to reflect (1 minute) and pre-ordered it from Amazon.ca.

[FrippWire]

I bought the vinyl set on Record Store Day and will be picking this up on CD later today or tomorrow. Jaco is one of my "main guys". Autobuy.

[jkelman]

I enjoyed the review John. I'd definitely consider picking this up.

Thanks again, as always. You should think about it. If you like WoM Big Band, this is frankly the one to have,

[jkelman]

Okay, I had a long time to reflect (1 minute) and pre-ordered it from Amazon.ca.

I am so surprised....

[wideopenears]

The best live Jaco document ever, IMO, and absolutely essential.


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