Jacob Teichroew: How many hours of raw tape from Monterey Jazz Festival recordings are there? What percentage of the performances over the past 50 years has been recorded?
Jason Olaine: As of 2006 there were over 1,600 tapes and 2,500 hours of music in the archive, which have been and continue to be stored at Stanford University. Thanks to the MJF board's initiatives and the various grants the festival was able to procure, these tapes have been digitally transferred to preserve the archive and, in so doing, we're able to access this music without degrading the tapes.
Under the direction of the festival's founder, Jimmy Lyons, the festival had the foresight to begin recording the festival for posterity, beginning with the opening night of the festival in 1958. Thankfully, now we're able to enjoy a night of music that took place on a chilly September night that featured Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, and many others. Hopefully we'll be able to find a way for jazz enthusiasts to listen to the entire evening and feel like they were there at the beginning.
Not every show or even every year was recorded, for one reason or another, so there are holes in the archive. For instance, John Coltrane's various performances at Monterey were never captured. When I asked Ravi Coltrane about these shows, he also hasn't seen or heard of these tapes existing. It so happens my dad was in the audience for a Coltrane performance back in the 60s when Wes Montgomery was in the band. He told me they took an unforgettable 30-minute workout of “My Favorite Things.” That's just one story of a few of the shows we don't have – yet. We're hoping that somewhere, someone may have some of these missing classic performances and if they do, please come forward. But the good thing is that we do have most of the shows, of which there are many, many standout performances.
The tapes were largely inaccessible until recently. How did that change, and what inspired you to begin mining the archives for potential releases?
Tim Jackson is the GM of the festival and had the idea and the questions that sparked the formation of MJF records. He wondered if there was a way for these remarkable performances that were sitting gathering dust in a basement library to gain new life, to be shared with the public, for jazz's sake. He also wondered if there was any money to be made. If so, that income would go right into the festival's ongoing jazz education programs. A happy by-product of finding the right partner to release these records would be that the Monterey Jazz Festival's brand name would increase, which would only help the festival do what it does best, and that's to put on a great festival year after year and to raise money to further jazz education.
It wasn't until Tim and Concord Music Group's CEO, Glen Barros, had a meeting of the minds and decided that this could be done. It seemed clear to everyone at Monterey that since Concord not only has a long and successful history of releasing classic catalog repertoire as well as sound business practices, they were the ideal partner. It also made sense, from a hometown feeling, that they're also a northern California company, and that felt right to everyone involved.
When Tim and Glen were looking for someone to oversee the label, I got the call and I more than willingly accepted. The festival is close to my heart, I'm from the region, my roots are deep in this music, and I respected the people I was going to work for and with.
Describe the process of going through hours and hours of tape.
I started going through tapes at the Stanford library, and it was easy to tell it was going to take forever and that it was also going to damage the older tapes. So we backed off and waited until the digitization was underway. We prioritized the tapes for duping by what we felt might be commercially viable releases.
We would have tapes from the 50s all the way through the 90s on various drives. As a batch of 50 or so tapes would arrive in the mail on a hard drive we'd plug them in and start the review process, taking notes as to the quality of the performance and the audio quality. We'd note where there were dropouts or balance issues, etc. We were compiling notes as to what artists might be on what labels at the time of the performance so we could deal with clearance issues, find the artists or estates to contact.
Then there was first-hand knowledge: we talked to people that were there, that had their favorite shows and recommendations, from Tim Jackson, the Monterey Jazz Festival board members, the famed producer Orrin Keepnews, and the illustrious Herb Wong, who hasn't missed one single festival. So this has certainly been a large group effort, from the beginning.
What factors are you considering when choosing the performances that will be released on Monterey Jazz Festival Records? Which recordings don't make the cut?
It's about balance and what's best. We'd ideally like to have the icons of jazz represented, the best concerts regardless of popularity, blues, Latin jazz, vocalists, new artists, and commissioned pieces. We're working towards having the breadth and depth of the festival represented. 50 Years of Dave Brubeck captures Monterey's patron saint from the very beginning up until the present.
