Re: [ARSCLIST] TO DAVID LEWIS: Re: Tradition/Everest/Vanguard Classics/Bernie Solomon

[David Lewis <davlew@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John Ross wrote:

> I don't think Bernie Solomon was ever involved with Vanguard. The 
(other) Solomons sold the label to the Lawrence Welk organization 
(Welk Music Group) in 1985, and some time later sold the Classical 
label back to Seymour Solomon. 

This is correct. Welk Music Group had the pop Vanguard Catalogue until
Artemis Records bought it in 1999. Artemis also bought the classical
Vanguard catalogue at the same time, but passed on Everest.

I have conflicting reports on the fate of Artemis. Wikipedia states that
Artemis stopped trading in January 2004, but they were around later than
that. Some Vanguard Classics reissues were shipped out THIS year - I
submitted a review for the reissue of the Leonhardt Bach Art of the Fugue to
the ARSC Journal in, I think, January. Although Danny Goldberg is no longer
with Artemis, on his website (which is itself outdated and with pages that
are not really functional) he lists himself continuing as a consultant with
Artemis.  

So I cannot bring you to the bier in terms of what is up with Artemis or
what happened - I really don't know, and would like to (am trying to, in
fact) find out. 

> The Welk folks are actually doing a pretty good job of reissues and
keeping much of the old folk stuff in print.

Yep, they did do that, when they had it. Tradition would be an excellent
candidate for inclusion in the Smithsonian/Folkways family of labels, n'est
ce pas?  


David N. Lewis
Assistant Classical Editor, All Music Guide

Maybe music was not intended to satisfy the curious definiteness of man.
Maybe it is better to hope that music may always be transcendental language
in the most extravagant sense. ~ Charles Ives


-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John Ross
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 3:07 PM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] TO DAVID LEWIS: Re: Tradition/Everest/Vanguard
Classics/Bernie Solomon

At  12/12/2007 11:00 AM, Tom Fine wrote:
>I believe the Vanguard folk catalog was retained by Bernie Solomon 
>and so its fate may be in limbo too.


As for Tradition, the catalogue has moved through many hands. It was 
founded by Dianne Hamilton (heir to part of the Guggenheim fortune) 
and the Clancy Brothers. There might have been an intermediate owner, 
but it was acquired by Everest some time in the early Sixties. By the 
mid-Nineties, Tradition was part of the Rykodisc catalogue, and 
Bernie Solomon's Legacy/Bescol was also making reissues of the same 
material. Some of the original Tradition material is still in print, 
but I don't know who controls the label or owns the masters today.

Can anybody point to a complete discography of the original 
Hamilton/Clancy catalogue? Or offer a better chronology?

John Ross