Ethel Merman Disco reissue

[jimac51]

Michael Paoletta's Beat Box dance music column in a recent Billboard mentions that Fynsworth Alley/Varese,a Universal label,will reissue the infamous Ethel Merman Disco Album,A&M 4775,sometime this fall. Besides remastering,it is supposed to feature new remixes. Remember,it takes them two years between Brasil '66 reissues,the Baja Marimba Band material is only available through license,a great Gerry Mulligan album like "Age of Steam" is unavailable and countless A&M goodies we would all love to see out for sale are locked up but Ethel Merman's scary warbling a la Bee Gees will soon see the light of day. Go figure....Mac

 

[JMK]

I strongly urge any and all to NOT purchase the Merman album, at least not directly from Fynsworth Alley. Fynsworth was founded by my friend Bruce Kimmel, who was then summarily booted out by his investors about a year ago for completely bogus reasons. The new powers that be have systematically destroyed the label that Bruce founded and built entirely on his personal reputation. This story is already a legend in theater music circles, it's just a fluke that it's spilling over into A&M land, but you will of course remember that Bruce was the guiding force behind the Wechter Tribute. Honor the REAL legacy of A&M by refusing to purchase from those with no morals or integrity.

 

[jimac51]

JMK-I may have some info wrong about the label-Is this an off shoot of Varese Sarabande as I originally thought or is this an independent company? I saw Bruce's name on a bunch of Varese's theater releases and thought that Fynsworth Alley was owned and operated by Varese and,in turn,by UMVD. Enlighten (and rant if you want 'cause if they're no good, I wanna know)Thanks,Mac

 

[JMK]

Bruce is the common thread between Varese Sarabande and Fynsworth Alley. Bruce was in charge of Varese's theater and film music division for many, many years, until THOSE powers that be (at Varese, that is) decided they didn't want to do theater music anymore (though Bruce's division had been profitable, not hugely so, but profitable for every year he had worked there). So Bruce found some investors and founded Fynsworth Alley (based on his ubiquitous screenname found in abundance on various Usenet groups), which was an internet only source for theater music, all produced by Bruce. There's pending litigation, so I can't really get into details, other than to say simply drop by the Fynsworth Alley website and just take a gander at the truly incredible grammatical and spelling errors littering the "splash" page alone. It's unbelievable. I have a strong inkling that Bruce will be making news in the very near future with another label dedicated to theater music. In answer to part two of your question, Varese co-distributed some of Fynsworth's releases, along with Fynsworth's major distributor, Universal, hence the double (and even triple) imprints on some of Fynsworth's releases. Though this whole sordid tale is on a much less grand scale than Herb/Jerry/Vivendi (et al), it's really the same old tale--take someone with integrity, vision and guts, and then basically ruin their legacy.

 

[jimac51]

JMK-Thanks for the informative and speedy(12 minutes between posts-WOW!). And Universal's dirty hands involved again! They helped screw this up. They screwed up A&M. They screwed up Verve/GRP/Impulse. Here's hoping Bruce bounces back. Mac

 

[JMK]

Sad as it may seem , we can't actually blame Universal for the trials at Fynsworth--it's a battle between Bruce and his investors. Universal was simply the distributor and had no control whatsoever over product. That was completely Bruce's (and the quality of Bruce vs. post-Bruce Fynsworth is another sad story). And, believe me, happy to post on this subject--it's very near to my heart. I value Bruce's friendship very much. Plus, I'm home alone with the kids (wife's night out), so any excuse to escape to the computer room is a gift!

 

[jimac51]

As my youngest takes a job in Manhattan and embarks on a new life as a newly graduated fabric designer-kids grow up real fast and I can be a bit envious of a Dad taking care of the kids. Yeah,I know it can get it can get nutsy but its the summer and they remember this stuff forever. Tonight would have been a great night for a cherry water ice on the stoop and catch a few lightning bugs in a jar and then release them in the bedroom-something my kids tried a few times. Mac