While jazz is mostly a listening experience, it can also be fun to watch. Just ask the folks who put together the Jazz Icons video series.

The idea behind it is brilliant: scour television vaults across Europe looking for vintage and rare video of American jazz masters in their prime. The series' producers are now in the process of preparing their fourth installment for a fall release, tentatively including the Art Farmer Quintet with Jim Hall (1965), Coleman Hawkins with Harry "Sweets" Edison and Jo Jones (1962-1966), Max Roach band with Abbey Lincoln (1964) and five other vintage must-see performances.

So who has the thankless task of viewing all the videos for quality and relevance?

Associate producer Hal Miller knows a few things about vintage jazz videos. He has over 15,000 items in his own library, and travels around the country delivering presentations and lectures.

We exchanged "How've you been?" e-mails last week, and I interviewed him, via e-mail, about his gig for Jazz Icons.

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What has it been like diving into those TV vaults?

While I'm hardly a newcomer to the world of archival jazz video, I have to admit that I have found myself surprised — even astounded — at the treasures that have lain around in studio vaults around the world. Sometimes we have uncovered rare gems in the process of collecting footage on another artist. Suffice it to say that there's plenty of material out there and that Jazz Icons can afford to be very selective as it "cherry picks" from existing material.

Much, much more of the interview, after the jump.

 

So much of the credit for unearthing these jazz treasures must go to David Peck who through the years has developed a rather imposing list of clients and associates in his work with parent company Reelin' In the Years. In many instances, often acting on recommendations from my fellow associate-producer Don Sickler and me, David has been able to send out a heads up to TV companies in, say, Belgium and Denmark, advising them that he has reason to believe that a particular artist was televised at a particular venue in, say, 1967. These TV folks follow up and a week or two later David receives a tape of this performance.

But to return to the original question, I must say that there is simply no limit to the pleasant surprises we have encountered.

What has made the biggest impression on you so far working on this series?

I've been extremely impressed with the business ethics of Jazz Icons. David Peck is determined to pay royalties, flat performance fees, etc to all deserving parties, many of whom are not mandated by law for such payments. To illustrate, a jazz trio touring Germany in the 1950s or 1960s might have been televised locally for a single concert. In most instances the leader of the trio would have been paid a flat fee for this on top of the trio's payment for the actual concert. In virtually every case, the only name on the contract for the television fee would have been that of the leader with no mention of the sideman. Further, there is obviously no mention in the contract of any future payments for commercial videotape or DVD releases since such media had not yet been commercially available or — in the case of DVD — even been invented at the time.

So, fast forward to 2009, some 45 years later, and Jazz Icons — or any other company with a similar enterprise — decides to make a commercial release of this video performance. By law they may not even have to pay the leader or his estate and definitely and clearly have no obligation to pay the sidemen. David Peck has taken the stance that every musician involved gets paid regardless of the contract language or absence of such. David works through the American Federation of Musicians' Union to find the contributing musicians and to pay them.

As someone who's been a member of the musicians' union for some 40+ years, I've gotta tell you that this kind of business practice impresses the hell out of me! And let me tell you that you can probably multiply my feelings by ten when you describe the reaction of a musician who receives a check for some perfomance he did 45 years ago which he probably doesn't even remember.

Something else that has impressed me about the Jazz Icons releases is the fact that the company works with the video masters of these performances and does an incredible job of enhancing and restoring the tapes so that the final product is the excellent usual black & white videos that have elicited so much positive feedback.

Can you describe your title as it relates to the project?

I started out as a consultant and have since been elevated to the title of associate producer. I have considerable input in the process of determining what artist will be included in each release. Often I will have to persuade or dissuade David Peck relative to the inclusion of an artist. To his credit, Peck disclaims any jazz expertise and relies on Don Sickler and me to produce a list of viable candidates.

Because I have the advantage of having my own jazz-video library of more than 15,000 items, I have been able to provide Jazz Icons with a list of known or suspected televised performances for a particular artist.

Sometimes I've been able to simply suggest the probability of a televised performance by means of deduction. For instance, I might advise that I have a video of, say, Art Blakey playing in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1961 with Lee Morgan. Given this, I would advise that it's quite probably that Blakey also played Stockholm, Helsinki, and Oslo since jazz musicians of Blakey's stature tended to play in a number of Scandinavian cities when they toured Europe and these cities routinely televised jazz concerts.

I review every concert tape providing information on the identity of the musicians and the titles of the songs. While identifying the musicians is usually not that difficult since I'm quite familiar with the primary artist, I've often had to get help in identifying the song titles. Sometimes Sickler or I have had to contact one of the participating artists to see if they remember the titles. (Often they've forgotten the titles of originals.) I also determine beginning and endings via time code for every song and make recommendations about the quality of the music as well as the quality of the video and audio.

There have been times when I've also had to advise that a particular artist and/or his/her estate is very difficult to work with. Sometimes this knowledge has been the determining factor in choosing between two possible artists.

Can you describe a typical assignment and how you carry that out? What is your 'day in the office' like?

Much of what I do has been described in the previous response. Sometimes, however, I have to make a number of calls to musician friends to ascertain song titles. And sometimes, even the participating musicians cannot be relied up simply because we're asking them to recall details of one particular concert that happened almost a half century ago. I recall tracking down Danish drummer Alex Riel to ascertain the pianist on a concert Alex played with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and he gave me the wrong name, thinking it was a pianist he worked with in Kirk's group the next year. So this video sleuthing work can be time-consuming and tedious BUT I enjoy it.

Sometimes I'll be Fedex-ed five concert videos of, say, Cannonball Adderley in Europe in 1961 and start the review-with-notes-process that day and not complete the assignment for a couple of days simply because there's a lot of repetitive work involved. There's no complaint in any of this, quite frankly, because having to get very familiar with Cannonball Adderley in five separate concerts in a jazz fan's dream and I am, if nothing else, a jazz fan even after decades as a player and writer.

Is there a holy grail video you been you've heard about and have been looking for, that you hope to stumble across?

I probably vacillate about this but I'm pretty comfortable stating that I desperately want to find video of saxophonist Hank Mobley. I have extensive contacts from around the world so when I tell you that I know of no one who's seen any video of Hank Mobley that is saying a lot. I've been looking for Mobley video for at least 25-30 years and I'm still looking and I'm still hopeful. Mobley spent a couple of years in Paris hanging and playing with Philly Joe Jones and also Art Taylor and I truly believe that some French TV station has footage of these jazz giants playing together. It's just a matter of time and it'll probably happen by accident when we at Jazz Icons are reviewing some archival footage of, say, Bud Powell in Paris and all of a sudden we notice there's a saxophonist in the band. IT'S HANK MOBLEY!!!

Actually years ago I had a similar real experience in reviewing some Bud Powell footage and determined that the saxophonist of one song was Lucky Thompson. Similarly, I had some footage of Lucky Thompson playing in France with a female pianist who I realized was Alice McLeod, later to be known as Alice Coltrane. So, Felix, these miraculous discoveries do happen.

I have quite a bit of John Coltrane on video including his 1965 performance of "A Love Supreme." It won't surprise me if something else of Coltrane materializes, probably, I suspect, from a U.S. college tour. (Colleges are notorious for not knowing what they have, largely because so many of their jazz concerts were handled by students who have long left the institutions and who had no idea of the significance of the artists at the time of the performance.)

Do you have a favorite from the videos that have been released?

Picking a favorite is no easy task given the quality of some of these videos. For me, my favorites come from the group of videos that I-myself had no prior experience with or knowledge of. I'd have to single out the Art Blakey in Belgium 1958, largely because it includes trumpeter Lee Morgan, a personal favorite of mine beginning with my high school days when I began to see him with Art Blakey.

Although I had had a poor-quality copy of the Ellington in Amsterdam 1958 concert in my collection for many years, the Jazz Icons release of this is still a favorite in large part because the video quality of the Jazz Icons release is a pristine black & white.

Is this or is this not one of the coolest projects you have ever worked on?

Yes, Felix, for me it probably can't get any better than this. Imagine signing for a Fedex package contain concert videos of Bill EVans, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Sonny Rollins and realizing that for the next few days all you'll be doing is watching and enjoying this material, making copious notes and doing related research in the process. And as you do this, you are also aware that someone is going to pay you for this "work". Yeah, this is fun.

Perhaps a close second for this is contacting certain musicians who either played with the primary artist or who are clearly major fans of the artist and asking them if they'd be willing to contribute to the notes for the release. An example of this was my contacting Carlos Santana about contributing to the Wes Montgomery notes. He took, maybe, two seconds to say, "Yes!"

When can we expect the next series?

The next series is tentatively scheduled for an early fall release — i.e. September. If past experience is an indicator, I'd say that if anything this release for Series 4 might be pushed back to, say, mid-October.

Who can we expect in series #4?

The Series #4 roster is shaping up as follows: Art Farmer Quartet w/ Jim Hall - 1965; Coleman Hawkins Quartet & Quintet w/ Harry "Sweets" Edison & Jo Jones - 1962-1966; Jimmy Smith Band w/ Billy Hart - 1965; Anita O'Day - 1963 & 1970; Woody Herman Big Band w/ Sal Nistico - 1965; Max Roach Band w/ Abbey Lincoln 1964 & Max Roach Band w/ Charles Tolliver 1968; Art Blakey's New Jazz Men in Paris 1965 w/ Freddie Hubbard & Jaki Byard; and, possibly, Weather Report 1972 w/ Wayne Shorter & Joe Zawinul + Eric Gravatt & Miroslav Vitous artists + guests. As always, the featured artists list is contingent on successful negotiations with these artists and/or their estates.

How many more series can we expect?

Felix, I've never discussed this with Reelin' In The Years president David Peck — Jazz Icons is a subsidiary of parent company Reelin' In The Years; however, my sense is that David will continue the venture as long as it continues to be successful and as long as he is confident that the artists presented are truly deserving of the Jazz Icons treatment.

When we are in the process of formulating the roster for a Jazz Icons release, it is not at all unusual for David to play devil's advocate and ask me whether a particular artist is/was significant enough to be viewed as an icon and as a worthy companion to the subjects of earlier releases — e.g. Coltrane, Ellington, Basie, Gillespie, Bill Evans, Monk, et al.

In my opinion, there are a good number of artists who qualify for future Jazz Icons inclusion, musicians such as Erroll Garner, Benny Goodman, Lennie Tristano, Horace Silver, Ahmad Jamal, J.J. Johnson, Mary Lou Williams and others as well. Since we have established an arbitrary cutoff date of approximately 1970 for the material we present, we've found that in a number of cases finding early video footage of certain artists has been all but impossible.

While jazz fans have sometimes questioned why we don't present this or that artist, assuming that our decision is based solely on an artist's historical standing and significance, often the decision has revolved around the availability of footage and nothing else. There are a number of potentially deserving artists whose early careers were spent as sidemen/-women with the result that the bulk of available video of them as leaders comes from the 1980s and onward. Jazz Icons prefers to omit such relatively recent material because the chances are that many fans have already seen this footage — especially in Europe — and because in many cases the more recent material does not necessarily present the artists during a "classic" period of their career. (For example: We could have used all kinds of concert footage of Oscar Peterson from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s for Series 4 but we deliberately chose to present Oscar with the classic Oscar Peterson Trio of Ed Thigpen & Ray Brown from the 1960s. The same applies to artists such as Dave Brubeck, Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, et al.)

Is there a story you can share about finding one of the videos already released that you think would fascinate others?

David Peck called me and advised that he was so frustrated because we'd received no response from Sonny Rollins after having sent a package of the videos we wanted to use as well as a financial proposal (quite lucrative, I should add). This stuff was sent to Sonny's lawyer who assured us that he'd passed everything along to Sonny. Weeks later we'd heard nothing and we knew that a) Sonny had received the material and b) that he was home in upstate New York and not on tour.

I told David that given what I knew of Sonny Rollins (I sometimes run into him on the Amtrak run from Albany to NYC. Sonny gets on the second stop of Hudson) I doubt that Sonny has looked at the vintage video because he simply hates dealing with past concert recordings. Knowing that Sonny and his nephew Clifton Anderson, also the trombonist in Sonny's band, are quite close, I advised that I'd contact Sonny via Clifton about this. I spoke with Clifton and argued that Sonny absolutely had to be included in the Jazz Icons series along with John Coltrane and Stan Getz if only for historical perspective and asked that he look at the Rollins footage we wanted to use. Clifton got back to me a few days later all enthused about this classic 1965 Sonny Rollins Trio video and told me that he'd gotten Uncle Sonny to look at it and Sonny loved it. (!) The result was that Sonny even cooperated with liner note writer Ashley Kahn and we at Jazz Icons were able to present some of the best video we've ever released.