Monterey Jazz Festival Records

Here starts the first installment of our “Gimme 5″ series: five questions answered monthly by key figures of Monterey Jazz Festival Records.

GIMME 5: Five Questions About Monterey Jazz Festival Records
ISSUE 1, AUGUST 07

With Tim Jackson, General Manager of the Monterey Jazz Festival
and Jason Olaine, General Manager of Monterey Jazz Festival Records

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Question 1: How did the idea come about for initiating a MJF label imprint?

Tim Jackson: About three years ago we started looking for ways to maximize and leverage our 50th (Anniversary) to our best advantage and look for ways to create new projects that would carry on past the 50th and create new synergies for the festival. With 50 years and 1600 tapes in our archives, and with money raised to preserve and digitize the archives we felt we were ready to find a partner who could help us launch a comprehensive project like this. Jason Olaine had always advocated for the festival to undertake a project like this and after a meeting with Glen Barros (who was a JAI colleague and fellow board member) we were able to fashion a proposal to our board of directors for approval. In short, I had the original idea, Jason provided creative stimulation, encouragement and, now, staff leadership, and Glen offered us the opportunity of a quality collaboration and the expertise and influence of a high powered label.

Question 2: Is this the first time an active festival has taken on this kind of project?

Jason Olaine: While Universal Canada has had a commercial relationship with the Montreal Jazz Festival and Montreux has been selling DVDs and CDs of their Festival for years, to my knowledge, this is the first comprehensive undertaking of its kind. The Festival has hung out their own shingle — MJF Records — and is incorporated as a not-for-profit entity, with its stated mission to re-invest its profits back into its year-round jazz education programs. So, I think it’s pretty unique.

Question 3: What kind of condition are the tapes in and are you using any kind of special technology to best capture the essence of those experiences?

Tim Jackson: The entire archive was “on life support” as the old magnetic tape was slowly disintegrating. Orrin Keepnews and I discovered this problem when we produced the 40th anniversary 3-CD box set. About three years ago I initiated, with Janice Mantell our Development Director, a joint project with our partners at Stanford University to raise grant funds to preserve and digitize the archive. We were able to raise over $350,000 from a variety of sources including the Grammy Foundation. This allowed us to embark on a year long project with Fantasy Studios and the preservation department at Stanford to complete the project.

Jason Olaine: And while many tapes turned out to be straight transfers, per se, some of the older acetate and polyester tapes did require ‘baking’, which is a process whereby the original tape is placed in a convection oven so as to re-activate the binding agent thereby rendering the tape playable or transferable without decomposing. We were fortunate to have had master engineer George Horn and the top-notch crew at Fantasy on the case. Since these were primarily direct to two-track recordings there wasn’t any traditional mixing to be done — what was on the tape was there to stay. However, through the mastering process, we were able to clean up some of the tape noise and use other tricks to hide some e.q. issues in order to bring out the best possible audio quality.

Question 4: It must be hard coming up with the final choices. What determines those selections and the decisions on who you are going to record for future festivals?

Tim Jackson: Jason Olaine, as GM of the label, is making the recommendations for these creative decisions and he is successfully showcasing our legacy (Armstrong, Miles, Monk, Sarah, Dizzy, etc) while making sure we are moving forward with new artists (Holland, Rubalcaba, Potter, Harland Quartet and the MJF 50th Anniversary Band). Jason has been able to balance the needs of both MJF and CMG and still keep his creative vision alive.

Jason Olaine: At this point, I have 11 hard drives filled with over 2000 hours of never-before-released material, which is a lot of music. Since we’re launching the label to coincide with the Festival’s 50th Anniversary, it seemed best to lead with some of the best and most historic recordings, and that included the Miles and Louis and Monk, etc. In addition to consistently presenting the masters of the artform, the Festival has a rich history of presenting new ensembles, eclectic collaborations, and commissioning new pieces, while making forays into blues, latin jazz, contemporary jazz, and world music. I think it’s important for the label to reflect this diversity, while documenting the ‘now’ and the ‘future’ of this music by assembling special event concerts and recording them to multi-track for future releases.

Question 5: I am sure many people want to know if the famous Cannonball Adderley set that was shown in the Clint Eastwood movie “Play Misty For Me” will be released?

Tim Jackson: I am re-confirming this with Clint [who is on the Board of Directors] but I remember him telling me that Warner Bros. destroyed the extra footage he had taken of Cannonball. If true, it is most unfortunate

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CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT ‘GIMME 5′ Issue #2 with Simone ‘4MuLA’ Giuliani