TIM PRICE....Bloggin' For Rico Reeds- Always in Trouble An Oral History of ESP-Disk’, The Most Outrageous Record Label in America
Bernard Stollman's ESP-Disk', which issued 125 LPs between 1964 and 1974, might have been the most independent record label of all time. Celebrated in a valuable new book, Jason Weiss's Always In Trouble: An Oral History of ESP-Disk', The Most Outrageous Record Label in America is a fantastic but incomplete adjunct to Broven's massive work, providing a bridge into indie's more recent mutations. Comprising some 40 interviews with Stollman and his cast of spiritual jazzmen and anarcho-surrealist folkies, Always In Trouble is the story of ESP's improbable existence and its real-life consequences.My first ESP record...I bought in a drug store at age 15. It was a "Woolworths"...in the main street of my hometown. What it did was not only inspire me to find more...But I was transfixed by presentation,deeply felt message, poetic to a fault,music that urges us all to be much better than we are.The U.S. is blessed for jazz labels like this. People who were the greatest artisans; respectful, knowing craft, that just might prod us toward creating better sounds ourselves.I applaud this man. He's an important asset to this life.
In 1964, Bernard Stollman launched the independent record label ESP-Disk' in New York City to document the free jazz movement there. A bare-bones enterprise, ESP was in the right place at the right time, producing albums by artists like Albert Ayler, Pharoah Sanders, and Sun Ra, as well as folk-rock bands like the Fugs and Pearls Before Swine. But the label quickly ran into difficulties and, due to the politically subversive nature of some productions and sloppy business practices, it folded in 1974. Always in Trouble tells the story of ESP-Disk' through a multitude of voices--first Stollman's, as he recounts the improbable life of the label, and then the voices of many of the artists involved.
With offices at various midtown Manhattan locations on the fringes of the City's power centers (including one at 156 5th Avenue, almost exactly halfway between Jukebox Row and Greenwich Village) ESP-Disk' was structurally little different than any other small business behind a stone New York facade. They had a skeleton staff that shipped records to the same system of regional distributors that had been established over the nearly two decades of peacetime to get records thousands of miles from coast to coast (a sea-to-shining-sea coverage challenge never faced by British labels that would colonize "indie" a few decades later in a much smaller territory.) Like many of the other enterprises attempting to spread essentially regional music across the vast continent, ESP's financial treatment of artists often left much to be desired; ditto their marketing. But in the grand scheme of the universe, none of these negative traits mattered much to the ESP story, precisely because the label was also completely independent in a few very literal ways. ESP's discs were as idiosyncratic as mass-produced objects could be: labels, covers and even the color of the vinyl itself changing at the whims of Stollman's available resources and manufacturers.
"You Never Heard Such Sounds in Your Life" was one of the company's slogans. Few outside Manhattan had. ESP-Disk' — “ESP" short for "Esperanto," "Disk'" an abbreviation of Esperanto's word for record, "disko" — became arguably avant-garde music’s first committed champion in the broader culture, delivering the music of Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, the Fugs, the Holy Modal Rounders, and countless others to college campuses everywhere via one of the underground's first pipelines to the world outside. The catalogue's Folkways-on-acid selection of far-out recordings included Timothy Leary, Charles Manson, anti-folk forefathers the Godz, a disc of Esperanto instruction (the inspiration for ESP-1001, in fact), gay cabaret folkie Ed Askew, and others. But mostly there was jazz; deep, uncompromising free jazz from a small, committed scene of downtown musicians who chased new harmonies and ways of improvising. While there were lots of indie labels, few represented as many artists so dedicated to making music truly at odds with the rock, pop, and schmaltz that dominated the charts at ESP's founding. In this respect ESP had no true peers.
Weiss's oral history is a proper academic one, sorting his subjects into separate interviews, including 77 pages with label founder Stollman and anywhere between one-and ten-page transcripts with a few dozen ESP artists. This particular arrangement underscores the hardline independence of the operation and its artists, each character isolated in their own time-tracks. The book thus remains a collection of individual stories without much broader context, and the label's enormous narrative is refracted into small scenes. Unlike the Jukebox Row labels who banded together in a physical neighborhood on the literal fringes of Tin Pan Alley (not to mention jukeboxes everywhere), or '80s/'90s giants like Sub Pop and Matador who were connected by networks of fanzines and college radio, ESP had no such infrastructures. They were alone.
"I knew from the inception that it might be a generation before this music would be accepted," says Stollman. "I couldn't give them the promotion that a major label could. I didn't have the staffing, the resources, or the expertise to do a proper job. I knew I could issue and distribute their records. What happened beyond that was beyond my control." The latter part, at least, might not be entirely true if some of Always In Trouble's subjects are to be believed. Stollman, a trained lawyer who put out ESP-1001 because he'd been hired as a publicist for the Esperanto League of North America and grew passionate about the language, was hardly an aficionado of the avant-garde. Nonetheless, he found himself with the extraordinary ability to identify fellow independent spirits. And document them. Throughout Always In Trouble, the artists get a chance to settle scores or make peace. Each shared grievance illuminates another tiny strand of Stollman's complicated persona, which — owing in part to the book's structure — remains a cipher throughout.
A facet of Bernard Stollman's (and ESP's) persona was borne of another kind of independence. Stollman’s parents had founded a successful chain of clothing stores in upstate New York after WWII. Their wealth and generosity gave him the chance to pursue his dream, to channel his own particular creativity. That support included their help at the office and they even gamely manned the door when ESP rented the Village Theater for a year-long Fugs residency. The Fugs' Ed Sanders, who declined to be interviewed by Weiss, owing to the publication of his own memoir, Fug You! last year, wrote that "the oi is still oi-ing in the Oi over [the Fugs'] ESP contract terms" and went on to confide that "a close relative of the label's owner told me the family viewed the owner as unstable and helped bankroll in lieu of therapy or confinement." The author, Jason Weiss, has written about jazz musician Steve Lacy previously to this book. There's 21 pages of b&w photographs-mostly ESP-DISK artists, and several album covers. There's also a photo of the seemingly illusive Bernard Stollman, creator of the label. By the way, the label name comes from Esperanto Disko (the Esperanto word for records), and was shortened to ESP-DISK.
This book is about as close as we'll get to an inside look at this esoteric label, which is mainly an outlet for free jazz/outside jazz/avant garde jazz, or whatever you want to label this music. The book is aimed more towards fans who are familiar with the label's artists and their music. However, someone new to this music will come away with a bit more insight into both the label and the music. Label owner Bernard Stollman not only recorded free jazz, but groups like PEARLS BEFORE SWINE, THE GODZ, THE FUGS, and released albums by artists like William Burroughs, Yma Sumac (not Amy Camus), and Charles Manson, among others.One of the more interesting releases was the album "The East Village Other". Artists include Steve Weber (HOLY MODAL ROUNDERS), Tuli Kupferberg (THE FUGS), THE VELVET UNDERGROUND ( their first recorded appearance with a song titled "Noise"), Marion Brown (with two others playing "Jazz Improv"), Allan Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky ("Mantras") Andy Warhol, and a few others. This is truly a period piece that speaks to those times-especially Side Two of the original album, which was taken up with "Engraved side with a lot of saxophones". The label also recorded speeches and songs during the civil rights era in America.
The first portion of the book is a long (about 75 pages) interview with Stollman, beginning with his boyhood and family. Among the subjects he talks about are becoming a lawyer and early on, winning a case for three bass players (including Art Davis and Reggie Workman) whose instruments were damaged, and helping Mary Lou Williams with publishing problems. Volunteering to do legal work for Moe Asch (Folkways Records), he also went to hear Albert Ayler during this period, and wound up recording Ayler's first album, "Spiritual Unity". This was the turning point for Stollman, who decided to start up a record label. He talks about financing the label by asking his parents for his inheritance-which they gave him.From here Stollamn talks about a number of the artists he recorded for his label. Stollman also relates how he met Jimi Hendrix, and wanted to record him, but Hendrix said he had a plane ticket to London, but would like to discuss it when he returned. And we know how that turned out. Stollman also met Janis Joplin at the Village Theater, who had written her sister, "I'm going to New York to record for ESP-DISK." But her new manager signed her to Columbia Records instead. He also talks about the record business and his own troubles trying to keep ESP-DISK afloat, and how he revived the label beginning in 2003.
ESP stands as a still-breathing example of independence — not in the American marketplace or even the new global one, but the very real world, a sequence of business and practical decisions made by Stollman and Stollman alone. Stollamn talks about a number of the artists he recorded for his label. Stollman also relates how he met Jimi Hendrix, and wanted to record him, but Hendrix said he had a plane ticket to London, but would like to discuss it when he returned. And we know how that turned out. Stollman also met Janis Joplin at the Village Theater, who had written her sister, "I'm going to New York to record for ESP-DISK." But her new manager signed her to Columbia Records instead. He also talks about the record business and his own troubles trying to keep ESP-DISK afloat, and how he revived the label beginning in 2003.The rest of the book is taken up with interviews of many (over three dozen) of the label's artists. Some are bitter at their lack of royalty payments, and others are grateful for having the chance to record their music, and some are a bit of both. Fans of the label's artists will find this portion of the book interesting, informative, and sometimes enlightening. Reading what the artists have to say about the label, the music, and that whole period is like a look back in time. In a way, these interviews "humanize" the artists-there not mysterious people we only hear playing music.Some of the artists interviewed include Gunter Hampel, John Tchcai, James Zitro, Sonny Simmons, Gary Peacock, Milford Graves, Tom Rapp, Roswell Rudd, Guiseppi Logan, William Parker, Ken Vandermark, Gato Barbieri, Sirone, Sonny Murray, and many others. Weiss also interviewed Richard Alderson, who was the engineer on a number of the label's recording dates.Together they paint a picture of the label, the music, and that particular period of time, with first hand insights and observations.
Though some artists arguably lost money by signing their ESP contracts, they surely received (or reaffirmed) something via the arrangement: the knowledge that independence isn't just a personal mission, its life. The artist alone decides but, really, so does everybody.
"YOU NEVER HEARD SUCH SOUNDS IN YOUR LIFE"
~ Have a great Thanksgiving everyone....stay inspired- TIM PRICE
