Elektra/Musician ads

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Tom Scott feat. Richard Page - Sure Enough (1982)

Sure Enough
Tom Scott feat. Richard Page

Written by: Richard Page, Steve George, John Lang & Tom Scott Produced by: Jeffrey Weber Album: Desire (Elektra/Musician, 1982)

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Not sure if this qualifies as a "deep album cut" as it was apparently released as a single, but I can't find that it charted anywhere.

Tom Scott is a prolific jazz fusion recording artist, TV show theme composer (Starsky and Hutch, Family Ties) and was a first call session musician for pop musicians back when pop songs had saxophone solos (that's him on McCartney's "Listen to What the Man Said" for example).  I started enjoying his work with his 1981 live album Apple Juice and bought the Desire album when it was released in 1982.  As if he didn't have enough to do, I think Scott was the opening act/backing band for Olivia Newton-John while also in the Blues Brothers band at the time.

While most of Scott's music is instrumental, track two of Desire, "Sure Enough," includes vocals from Richard Page of the band Pages. In fact, it's written by three members of Pages (plus Scott) and Steve George sings backup. Let's just admit it: this is essentially a lost Pages track and as such, it's smooth AOR/West Coast goodness with an average verse but a chorus that's catchy as all get-out.

The track gets more impressive when you consider it was recorded in one take: no overdubs, no editing between takes, etc.:

Would this have been better with some Jay Graydon prodcution? Sure, but then Graydon would have fought Scott over who got the solo. This is just fine the way it is and Scott scorches his solo, so I won't pick at nits here.

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Various Artists - The Young Lions (1983)

The Young Lions

Released: 1983 (Elektra/Musician) Produced by: Michael Gibbs Peak on Billboard charts: Did not chart Peak on Cash Box Jazz Chart: #18

Side One	Side Two
B 'N' W Mariel Thank You	Maiden Dance What Ever Happened to the Dream Deferred

Side Three	Side Four
Breakin' Nigerian Sunset	FMW Pleasant Memories Endless Flight

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click photos to enlarge

 

Note: track notes included in videos below

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Billboard, June 11, 1983, p. 99

The New York Times 
Amazon
RateYourMusic.com

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A group of up and coming jazz artists get together to create and record. And it sounds just like you'd expect: pieces written and performed by young artists still trying to find their own voice and signature style. The inexperience shines throughout the double disc set, but there are enough good ventures to make those songs worth a listen. Another problem is that the artists all come from different sub-genres (avant-garde, fusion, neo-bop) and don't really know all the musical vocabularies so some attempts fall flat. Like many 2 LP sets, this would have made a great single LP.

How'd the careers of these 17 Young Lions work out? Click on the name for more info:
John Blake (violin)
Hamiet Bluiett (baritone sax)
Ronnie Burrage (drums)
Anthony Davis (piano)
Paquito D'Rivera (alto sax)
Kevin Eubanks (guitar)
Chico Freeman (reeds)
Craig Harris (trombone)
Jay Hoggard (mallets)
Fred Hopkins (bass)
Wynton Marsalis (trumpet)
Bobby McFerrin (vocals)
James Newton (flute)
Daniel Ponce (percussion)
John Purcell (reeds & double reeds)
Avery Sharpe (bass)
Abdul Wadud (cello)

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Allmusic
Discogs

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Mariel Breakin' FMW Pleasant Memories B 'N' W What Ever Happened to the Dream Deferred Maiden Dance Endless Flight Nigerian Sunset Thank You

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Home Taping is Killing Music

Remember that unpopular battle cry from the early '80s? Turns out that home taping didn't kill music after all. A better slogan might have been, "Home Taping is Killing Record Label Executives' Christmas Bonuses" but I digress. In 1983, the Musician subsidiary of Elektra Records went on the offensive with an open letter from its artists. Here's some background press followed by the open letter itself. Offered up here for historical information only, the words of the CashBox editorial and letter are solely those of the respective authors and do not reflect the opinions of MFD (because I might have worn out my tape machines dubbing LPs back then, but I admit to nothing).

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CashBox, April 23, 1983

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(click photos to enlarge)

The Elektra/Musician Label 1982-84

The Elektra/Musician label was started in 1982 by record exec Bruce Lundvall. Here's some press clippings about the label's beginnings: (click images to enlarge):

Musician magazine, No. 42, April, 1982, p. 19

Record World, April 4, 1982, pp. 8, 10

Billboard, Feb 20, 1982, p. 12 & 46

DownBeat, March 1982, p. 13

Despite a great roster of artists, the label was short-lived. Just 18 months in, Lundvall announced some changes:

Billboard, October 29, 1983, p. 35

Reading between the lines, one could see the inevitable end of the label approaching. In 1984, Lundvall left Elektra for EMI to start the Manhattan label as well as revive the Blue Note label.

Billboard, June 16, 1984, p. 42

Elektra/Musician was Lundvall's baby and without his guidance and vision, the E/M label all but folded. Elektra unsuccessfully attempted to revive the Elektra/Musician label in the late '80s.

Currently, the Elektra/Musician page on Wikipedia is a hot mess, so I've listed the label's releases below. For more on the label and its releases, check out Dr. Smooth's Jazz LPs website.

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1982

Artist	Album	Billboard Jazz Chart	CashBox Jazz Chart
Charlie Parker	One Night In Washington*	28
Red Rodney & Ira Sullivan	Spirit Within
Eric Gale	Blue Horizon	20	22
Lee Ritenour	Rio	11	8
Various Artists	Griffith Park Collection	35	26
Freddie Hubbard	Ride Like the Wind	24	18
John McLaughlin	My Goals Beyond	34
Material	Memory Serves	32
Various Artists	The Musicians Guide, Vol 1	41
Bobby McFerrin	Bobby McFerrin	41
Clifford Brown & Max Roach	Pure Genius, Vol 1*
Bud Powell	Inner Fires*
Billy Cobham's Glass Menagerie	Observations &	23	11
Mose Allison	Middle Class White Boy
Dexter Gordon	American Classic	19	17
David Sancious	The Bridge	36
Woody Shaw	Master of the Art	42
Various Artists	The Musicians Guide, Vol 2
Joe Albany	Portrait Of An Artist
Tom Scott	Desire		7
Chico Freeman	Tradition In Transition	31	15
Sphere	Four In One	41
Various Artists	Echoes Of An Era 2: The Concert*	29	15
Jimmy Smith	Off The Top	5	6

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1983

Artist	Album	Billboard Jazz Chart	CashBox Jazz Chart
Bill Evans	The Paris Concert: Edition One*	19	15
Chick Corea	Again and Again	15
John Klemmer	Finesse	10	4
Kevin Eubanks	Guitarist	32
Ron Carter	Etudes	42
Charles Lloyd Quartet	Montreux 82*
Bill Laswell	Baselines
Steps Ahead	Steps Ahead	24	12
David Amram and Friends	Latin-Jazz Celebration
Various Artists	The Young Lions*†		18
Billy Cobham's Glass Menagerie	Smokin′*	41	15
Mose Allison	Lessons In Living*
Eric Gale	Island Breeze	35	14
Red Rodney & Ira Sullivan	Sprint*
Various Artists	Griffith Park In Concert*†		29
Lennie Tristano	New York Improvisations
Sadao Watanabe	Fill Up The Night	19	7
Woody Shaw	Night Music*
Dizzy Gillespie	One Night in Washington*
Jimmy Smith	Keep On Comin′*	35
Lee Ritenour	On The Line	12	3
Sphere	Flight Path

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1984

Artist	Album	Billboard Jazz Chart	CashBox Jazz Chart
Bill Evans	The Paris Concert: Edition Two*	37
Various Artists	In Performance at the Playboy Jazz Festival*†	35	20
Bill Evans	Living in the Crest of a Wave	42	19
McCoy Tyner	Dimensions	43	18
Steps Ahead	Modern Times	11	9
Chico Freeman	Tangents
Bobby McFerrin	The Voice*	24	19
Steve Morse Band	The Introduction	15	6
Stan Getz & Albert Dailey	Poetry

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* indicates live recording
^† indicates 2 LP set