However, am I the only one who's annoyed by the current owners of the catalogs' inability or unwillingness to distinguish amongst the various labels?
They consistently refer to anything released on a label that Fania ever distributed or bought up as a Fania release, when several of those labels actually have distinct identities.
I think maybe two of Bobbito's supposed top ten Fania releases are actual Fania releases.
It may seem like nitpicking but it makes it hard for me to be optimistic about much real history coming to light through their stewardship of the catalog.
You are not the only one, its really annoying, and it diminishes the importance of the other labels. They are doing it as a brand building marketing thing, but its utter bullshit. I mean, why can't we hear the story of Inca records?
Also, I have to sign up for the email to get the free download?
Then, this from the masterworks article:
"For example, staff discovered rehearsal tapes between Ray Barretto and the new band he auditioned after his former players left to form T??pica ???73. Those rehearsal recordings would eventually evolve into Barretto???s groundbreaking, ???comeback??? album, Indestuctible and the Masterworks release of that album will include these early experiments, revealing the hidden processes of creation and refinement. Says project producer Dean Rudland, ???the listener can see how the band was building up to what they were doing.???"
While this maybe sounds good, does is strike anybody else of Beatles outtakes wankery? I don't want to hear Ray talking to the band, like McCartney and Lennon talking about chord changes. I don't really care for demos and outtakes unless they sound completely different. I want to hear unreleased material.
I know this isn't on you Odub, and congrats on the gig, just venting and giving some feedback on the endeavour.
Garcia:
1) The extras on the Barretto album are basically, earlier rehearsal tapings of songs that eventually evolved into final material on "Indestructible." I don't believe it's actual studio chatter or anything along those lines. That may simply be a failure in my writing to accurately describe what's on there without confusing the reader.
And from what I understand, the Masterworks series is ALL ABOUT bonus music, though the kind of bonus material depends on the album and what was found on the master tapes. I know for the Masterworks release of "Acid," they didn't find extra songs that were left off but they are going to include TV tracks from that session for those who prefer their boogaloo joints sans singing.
2) And yes, you have to sign up for the email to get the free download. Ain't nothing for free, son! (And look, it helps me if the newsletter gets more people signed up for it. You can always spam filter it later if you want, ha).
3) As for you and Faux's concern: I hear what you're saying. At best, I think what you're likely to see are basically both things happening. In other words, there may very well be sub-label speciality anthologies on one hand, but Emusica is still going to treat the Fania's entire holdings as open game for the Fania brand, even if that means a Fania album features music from Alegre, Tico, Inca, Vaya, etc. It's a privilege of ownership and I don't know very many major labels that have NOT done the same thing with their subsidiary labels, esp. in an era of CD anthologies (i.e. Atlantic, Blue Note and others do this all the time).
In all seriousness though, if you really want to see a label-specific project and you can make a case for its market-viability, gimme a holler and I'll pass it down the line. My sense - and I'm only speaking for me here - is that it'd be hard to sell something like an Inca-only album, to the greater public
at this point. I can't say this definitively but something like the upcoming Cheo Feliciano Masterworks release of "Cheo" won't really matter to most consumers if it appears on Fania vs. Vaya.
I don't really know though - I have zero head for business decisions like this and thankfully, my job isn't to figure that shit out. It could be in an era of supposed long-tail specialization and consumer habits, it actually does make sense to be more specialized.
All I know is that I'm really hoping someone puts out a Speed anthology!
