Little did I know it, but I did a search on John Klemmer this morning and noticed that someone is finally reissuing his first album, Involvement, on CD this coming Tuesday, labeled as a Verve/Cadet release. Klemmer recorded his first five albums for the Cadet/Concept label (part of the Chess label), and in many Klemmer fans' opinions, these were his best recordings. I can say that Involvement is one of his finest recordings ever--pretty much straight-ahead jazz in the style popular back in 1967. If you want to hear how Klemmer can really play with serious jazz chops, this is a good one to get. One can hope that the other four Cadet/Concept titles see light of day soon...especially All The Children Cried, when the "spiritual" thing really kicked in with him. Amazon does have sound samples of this one...check 'em out.
One thing that bothered me was the price of this reissue: $11.98. 40 minutes of great music, reissued at last, and it's only $11.98. So where does Univer$al get off charging $18.98 for A&M-related reissues??? I have nothing against Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66, but where does the label get off gouging for Equinox and Look Around, but release Klemmer's at a more sane reissue price? I'm sure we're talking of your typical cheap reissue packaging, so that's not the issue. (I wonder what the price difference is at the wholesale level...)
I see it as greed, plain and simple. What's the point of $7 extra when there's only a half hour of music on a CD in cheap, flimsy packaging. They know we'll fall all over ourselves to get the Mendes titles. The Klemmer won't be as popular (although IMHO this one deserves a lot more recognition compared to his others), so what is this, an inducement to buy it due to the lower price, or are these other $18.98 titles just an attempt to grab more money from us?
And they wonder why "music sharing" is a problem...
One thing that bothered me was the price of this reissue: $11.98. 40 minutes of great music, reissued at last, and it's only $11.98. So where does Univer$al get off charging $18.98 for A&M-related reissues??? I have nothing against Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66, but where does the label get off gouging for Equinox and Look Around, but release Klemmer's at a more sane reissue price? I'm sure we're talking of your typical cheap reissue packaging, so that's not the issue. (I wonder what the price difference is at the wholesale level...)
I see it as greed, plain and simple. What's the point of $7 extra when there's only a half hour of music on a CD in cheap, flimsy packaging. They know we'll fall all over ourselves to get the Mendes titles. The Klemmer won't be as popular (although IMHO this one deserves a lot more recognition compared to his others), so what is this, an inducement to buy it due to the lower price, or are these other $18.98 titles just an attempt to grab more money from us?
And they wonder why "music sharing" is a problem...