The latest Keynote session I can find is from May 1947, and these turn out
to be records I well know, via their Mercury 78 album set issue "Lennie
Tristano"
Lennie Tristano Trio
Lennie Tristano (p), Billy Bauer (g), Bob Leininger (b)
New York, May 23, 1947
KH200 BLUE BOY (2:52)
KH201 ATONEMENT (2:33)
KH202-1 COOLIN’ OFF WITH ULANOV (2:51)
KH202-2 COOLIN’ OFF WITH ULANOV (2:32) (*)
Dave Lewis
On Thu, Oct 22, 2015 at 1:39 PM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dave, Hammond did a bunch of Keynote sessions at Majestic Studio, he talks
> about it in his autobiography. He worked there up until the studio closed.
> Keynote was bought by Mercury right about the time Majestic closed up, and
> some of the Keynote titles were quickly reissued as Mercury records. The
> reason so much Mercury work was done at Reeves in the late 78 era/early LP
> era/dawn of tape as a master media in the US timeframe was the connection
> of Reeves hiring my father and John Hammond taking the Mercury work there.
> Mitch Miller was hired by Hammond, as was David Hall. In addition to all of
> Mercury's early self-produced classical content, Reeves was the recording
> site for Norman Granz produced sessions with Charlie Parker ("With
> Strings," which was arranged and conducted by Mitch Miller) and Machito,
> parts of "The Jazz Scene," among others. Granz started working with my
> father at Reeves, and they continued to work together into the 50s. Granz
> started doing more of his recording on the west coast and at smaller NYC
> studios later on, but he still did occasional sessions with my father up to
> the time he sold Verve to MGM. My father always singled out Hammond and
> Granz as two people who taught him a lot about music and how sound and
> music work together. For those interested in the history of recorded jazz,
> and how the jazz business works within the record business, it's very
> worthwhile to read John Hammond's autobiography "On The Record" and the
> recent book about Normal Granz by Tad Hershorn. Hammond and Granz were
> probably the original "frienemies," highly inter-connected, respectful of
> each other's accomplishments but rarely able to be friendly to each other
> because of rivalries and jealousies.
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Lewis" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2015 1:22 PM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Nice Sonora Article
>
>
>
> Tom,
>>
>> "Just as" they were failing is about right, as Majestic filed for
>> bankruptcy in February 1948. Hammond was fired by Majestic in January
>> 1947,
>> but I'm sure by this time
>> no one cared who was in there. I wish I knew which session this was;
>> Hammond, of course, was subsequently hired by Mercury and maybe that's
>> where this session
>> ended up as well.
>>
>> My ARSC Journal article about Majestic is in AMP, but it is currently
>> mis-linked.
>>
>> best,
>>
>> Dave
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 22, 2015 at 7:09 AM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Majestic's NYC studio was still operating in 1948. I know this because my
>>> father was chief engineer there and he made recordings with John Hammond
>>> there in 1948, shortly before moving to Reeves Sound Studios. The story I
>>> always heard was that he was hired by Reeves just as Majestic was
>>> failing.
>>> Mercury ended up buying Majestic's catalog, along with Keynote, Swan and
>>> some other small NYC labels.
>>>
>>> -- Tom Fine
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Lewis" <[log in to unmask]>
>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2015 11:22 PM
>>> Subject: [ARSCLIST] Nice Sonora Article
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> One post-war label definitely on my radar is Sonora, "Clear as a Bell"
>>>
>>>> (not.) I haven't seen this before; Robert L. Campbell's study,
>>>> published in June. Our own David Diehl helped out with it.
>>>>
>>>> http://myweb.clemson.edu/~campber/sonora.html
>>>>
>>>> One thing: The Majestic label did fold at the end of 1947, not in early
>>>> 1949. By February 1948 they were already being dissolved in the courts.
>>>> However, they did do the same thing Sonora did; stripped the record
>>>> label
>>>> out of the Radio and Television interest and saved the latter.
>>>>
>>>> Dave Lewis
>>>> Hamilton, OH
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>>
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