In 1966, attorney Bernard Stollman founded the ESP-Disk label in New York City. Less than three years later, with orders dried up from established record labels bootlegging their better-selling records, the label was driven out of business.
This is a familiar story followed in some variation by thousands of start-up record labels over many years, but ESP-Disk has a special place in the history of avant garde music. During the first eighteen months of its existence, a staggering 45 records were recorded and released, virtually all of them recordings of some of the most controversial music in one of the most tumultuous times of American history.
The artists signed up to the label were ones not passed over by the "Bigs" because they lacked talent, but rather, they lacked commercial viability (although some records did beat the odds and charted). By willingly signing these progressively minded musicians, ESP eagerly took gambles that no other American record company dared to take.
This micro-label was the launching pad for many prestigious careers; the debut albums of Pharoah Sanders, Gato Barbieri, Sonny Simmons, Giuseppi Logan, Milford Graves and Henry Grimes had the ESP-Disk logos on them. Some more recognizable names such as Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, Roswell Rudd, Sunny Murray and even Bob James have also recorded for ESP during those active, first few years. Most significantly, Albert Ayler recorded his most essential, groundbreaking records under ESP.
ESP welcomed underground acts from other genres, too. The Fugs, Pearls Before Swine and that quintessential whack-folk group, The Holy Modal Rounders, all found a home at Stollman's enterprise.
After the then-legal bootlegging gutted the small company's source of income, Stollman turned to licensing the catalog to European outfits for several decades. But now, ESP-Disk has returned. In 2005, a revived ESP-Disk began to reissue its own catalog. Today, the label is all the way back with brand new releases, too, including Totem>'s exciting Solar Forge CD.
It's the maiden releases by Grimes, Logan and Graves that are of special interest here because just last month, ESP-Disk issued digitally remastered versions of these obscure but notable free jazz records on CD. Here's a rundown of each of these almost-forgotten documents of mid-sixties avant garde:
Giuseppi Logan Quartet Giuseppi Logan Quartet
Logan's approach to whack jazz mirrored Ayler's; most of his songs actually have discernible, almost child-like melodies that often appear to be launching pads for free-form improvision. Logan's saxophone tone and technique is almost child-like as well, to the point that at the time he had been accused of not being able to play the instrument. Sometimes it does sound like a kid picking up the instrument for the first time and tooling around with it. Other times, though, he gives away the secret he seems to be trying to keep, that he really does have technique (albeit, not a whole lot of it).
Article comments
1 - Glen Boyd
Wow, two Quickies inside of a week...not bad Pico. Nice work too. Although these "Quickies" of yours seem to be getting a bit...how do I say this?...not quite as "quick" as they used to be? Yeah, thats it. Very informative as always though.
-Glen
2 - Pico
Yeah, I've noticed that, too. I can't tell you how many full-fledged reviews started life as a "Quickies" and grew too big because I couldn't STFU about the record!
Thanks for the props :&)
3 - Margaret Davis Grimes
Hello, "Pico." It's more than three years since you posted the above, but it's the first time we've seen it.
Henry Grimes doesn't play the cello, and I think it's a shame that you insult two great musicians such as Henry and William Parker by calling them "whack" bassists. Please eliminate your need to litter praise with insults, and I really hope you won't do it any more.
I'd like to add that there's a lot more to Henry Grimes's story than releasing "a few more" recordings since his comeback and playing with Rashied Ali. In fact, he has played more than 47O concerts (including many festivals), touring in 27 countries throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia, playing and recording with many of this era's music heroes, such as, yes, Rashied Ali, and also Marshall Allen, Fred Anderson, Marilyn Crispell (another concert coming up next month, this one a duo), Andrew Cyrille, Bill Dixon, Dave Douglas, Edward "Kidd" Jordan, Roscoe Mitchell, David Murray, Zim Ngqawana, William Parker, yes, Marc Ribot (many concerts), Wadada Leo Smith, and Cecil Taylor.
Henry made his professional debut on a second instrument (the violin) at the age of 7O, has seen the publication of the first volume of his poetry, "Signs Along the Road" (introduction by Marc Ribot), and creates illustrations to accompany his new recordings and publications.
Henry has received many honors in recent years, including four Meet the Composer grants and a grant from the Acadia Foundation. He has also held a number of recent residencies and offered workshops and master classes on major campuses, including Berklee College of Music, Buffalo Academy, CalArts, Hamilton College of Performing Arts, Humber College, Mills College, New England Conservatory, the Royal Conservatory at Ghent (Belgium), the University of Gloucestershire at Cheltenham, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and several more.
Henry can be heard on 85 recordings, including a dozen recent ones, on various labels (Atlantic, Ayler Records, Blue Note, Columbia, ESP-Disk, ILK Music, Impulse!, JazzNewYork Productions, Pi Recordings, Porter Records, Prestige, Riverside, Verve, etc.).
He has been a permanent resident of New York City since 2OO3. And his Web site is Henry Grimes. Please feel free to contact us with any questions. Thank you.