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Re: [ARSCLIST] One more discography question
Thanks. This is all interesting. Newman did make a bunch of sides, I assume recorded out in
Hollywood. Here's a listing of Majestic records that was posted a while back:
http://settlet.fateback.com/Majestic.htm
I know some or all of the Mildred Bailey sides were done in NY and overseen by John Hammond. I think
some or most of the jazzier stuff like Jimmie Lunceford, Louis Prima and the like were done in NY
too. According to Hammond's autobiography, the NY studio started doing sessions for other labels
when Majestic's recording schedule slowed due to financial difficulties.
I'm assuming this 1940's version of Majestic Records is different from the early one:
http://majesticrecord.com/history.htm
but I might be wrong.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Lennick" <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, April 04, 2008 8:15 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] One more discography question
The answer re Majestic may be a bit more detailed than this one I'm providing, but its assets were
divided between Mercury and Eli Oberstein..or Mercury had first refusal, taking artists like Eddy
Howard, Alfred Newman (who eventually owned all his masters) and some spoken word and kiddie
records. Obie may have owned the material he put out on Majestic (via Hit, via Varsity and Royale
before that) to begin with, and it began to appear immediately on the resuscitated Varsity label.
As to who owns it now..who owns the various Obie labels, which eventually became part of Pickwick?
What went to Mercury should now belong to Universal.
dl
Tom Fine wrote:
Some of the earliest records done by Norman Granz for Mercury, not the live transcriptions of
Jazz at the Philharmonic, but actual studio recordings, were done around 1947 in NY. Such records
as begin the 8900 "Be Bop Series" on Mercury 78's. All the recording info I can find on the NY
records just say they were recording in NY. I'm wondering if anyone knows for sure if they were
done at Majestic Studios. I think at least some of them, such as sides by Flip Phillips and
Willie Smith (the sax player, not the Lion), were done at Majestic because they were in my
father's record-album books that he amassed while chief engineer at Majestic in its late years. I
would assume if Mercury sides were in album books with Majestic and Keynote sides, they were all
recorded at the studio, probably by him, but I can't find any reliable discography info beyond
"recorded in NY." John Hammond specifically talks about working at Majestic for Keynote sides in
his autobiography. This was before Keynote and Mercury got together.
There were later records done for both Granz and Hammond by my father at Reeves, but in 1947 I am
pretty sure he was still at Majestic, before that company went out of business.
A related question is, who owns what was Majestic nowadays?
-- Tom Fine