WBFOis iMeet The Authori series concluded their season Monday evening with guest author Ashley Kahnis (left) third trip to Buffalo. He was here to discuss his latest book, of The House That Trane Built n The Story of Impulse Records. Moderator Bert Gambini, one of Buffalois most competent and interesting interviewers, led the hour-long live broadcast at the Music Fare Theater on the campus of Daemen College. Guests were treated to a pre-broadcast jazz performance by bassist Joe Giarrano and Doug Morgano on guitar. They swung their way through an easy and swinging program that set the mood for a great evening.
Buffalo jazz aficionado Steve Siegel was present and offers this insightful review of the evening:
The House That Trane Built-The Story of Impulse Records | Author: Ashley Kahn | Norton | iMr. Kahn, through his two previous books, iKind of Blue n The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiecei and iA Love Supreme n The Story of John Coltraneis Signature Albumi, created a new form of jazz journalism where he devoted entire projects to recounting the making of those two classic jazz albums. Through research, interviews with those who were directly involved with the making of the albums, as well as those, who today can offer a retrospective view of the impact of the album from both a musical and aesthetic perspective, Mr. Kahn was able to weave two fascinating stories of how both good planning and pure serendipity led to two wonderful works of art.
In his latest work, Kahn expands his unique concept and tells the story of a record label, Impulse, which in the words of Kahn, existed in ithe belly of the beast,i that being its parent company, the rather staid and musically mainstream ABC- Paramount. But unlike other ijazz divisionsi embedded within large entertainment conglomerates, Impulse had a few things going for it which allowed it to function in a way unlike any other wholly owned jazz subsidiary, and over a 15 year period, created an incredibly eclectic and enduring body of music.
Through his responses to a series of well prepared questions from Mr. Gambini, Kahn read excerpts from his book as well as related anecdotes gleaned from his research, articulating how essentially, three men n two being record producers, the other soon to become perhaps jazzis greatest icon n were able to wed their artistic vision and produce an astonishing series of jazz albums covering an equally astonishing range of jazz styles and instrumental combinations. As Mr. Kahn pointed out, this was not commercially driven music n it was oftentimes provocative and emotionally disturbing music (Coltraneis iAscensioni and everything on the label by Albert Ayler, being prime examples). Yet producers Creed Taylor and then his successor, Bob Thiele, were able to keep the iwolves at bay;i those being the corporate suits at ABC-Paramount. They accomplished this through first signing Coltrane away from Atlantic Records – just as he was approaching the height of his creative powers n and allowing him the freedom to create a series of good to great albums for the label.
The creative freedom that the label afforded Coltrane, eventually attracted other talented artists (primarily saxophonists) who were able to produce some of their best work for the label. Furthermore, they packaged the music in glossy, igatefoldi album covers which allowed the use of extensive liner notes and many photographs of the featured artists. The quality of the music and itis packaging, along with the distribution channels of ABC-Paramount, led to sales figures which allowed the label to exist for such a long period of time, recording artists such as Gabor Szabo, Keith Jarrett, Pharaoh Sanders, Charles Mingus and Archie Shepp (who spent time as an iArtist-in-Residence at SUNY at Buffalo around 1970).”
The evening concluded with a reception for Mr. Kahn and a book signing sponsored by Talking Leaves.
Check out the companion 4 CD set The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records.
Talking Leaves Books
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http://www.tleavesbooks.com/
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www.NewWorldRecord.com