[JPL] At 70, a Legendary Jazz Label Asks, ‘Now What?’

[Dr. Jazz]

February 7, 2009


  At 70, a Legendary Jazz Label Asks, ‘Now What?’

By NATE CHINEN 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/nate_chinen/index.html?inline=nyt-per>

At a recent 70th-anniversary reception for Blue Note Records at Dizzy’s 
Club Coca-Cola, the alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson played his trademark 
hit, “Alligator Boogaloo,” from 1967. Norah Jones 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/j/norah_jones/index.html?inline=nyt-per>, 
who made her multiplatinum debut in 2002, mingled at the bar. And 
presiding over the evening was Bruce Lundvall, who has run the label for 
the last 25 years.

Mr. Donaldson, Ms. Jones and Mr. Lundvall represent points along a 
continuum in the history of the most storied label in jazz. Founded in 
1939 by a German émigré, Alfred Lion, Blue Note has built a catalog that 
includes almost every major figure in the music, from pioneers like 
Sidney Bechet 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/sidney_bechet/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 
to modern masters like Wayne Shorter 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/wayne_shorter/index.html?inline=nyt-per>. 


Now part of a larger corporate entity, facing both a parlous music 
industry and the looming prospect of Mr. Lundvall’s retirement, Blue 
Note has entered a pivotal moment in its history. Branching beyond jazz, 
it has moved into what Mr. Lundvall calls “the adult sophisticated pop 
area.” Its best-selling release last year was by Al Green (“Lay It 
Down,” which has sold more than 175,000 copies). Next in line was a live 
album from Wynton Marsalis 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/wynton_marsalis/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 
and Willie Nelson 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/willie_nelson/index.html?inline=nyt-per>, 
who will reunite for two sold-out shows on Monday and Tuesday at the 
Rose Theater, with Ms. Jones as a featured guest. (Their album has sold 
more than 100,000 copies.)

The quandary for Blue Note is how it can remain the pre-eminent jazz 
label while surviving as a profitable business. “One of the first things 
that Alfred Lion said to me was, ‘What are you going to do to be 
commercial?’ ” Mr. Lundvall, 73, recalled recently in his office. It’s a 
question that resonates even more today.

Blue Note was for many years a shoestring operation run with conviction 
by Mr. Lion and a childhood friend, Francis Wolff. During its postwar 
heyday, the label released a flood of albums that defined the hard-bop 
era and helped document an emerging avant-garde.

“Nowhere else in the pantheon of jazz labels is there one with that much 
majesty or regality in the lineage,” said the alto saxophonist Greg Osby 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/greg_osby/index.html?inline=nyt-per>, 
whose Blue Note tenure lasted 16 years.

Mr. Lundvall took the helm in 1984, after more than two decades at CBS 
Records and a stint as president of Elektra. At that point Blue Note had 
been dormant for several years, following the purchase of its parent 
company by EMI. Under Mr. Lundvall, the label has signed the jazz 
singers Dianne Reeves 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/dianne_reeves/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 
and Cassandra Wilson 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/cassandra_wilson/index.html?inline=nyt-per>, 
along with leading instrumentalists like the tenor saxophonist Joe 
Lovano 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/joe_lovano/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 
and the guitarist Lionel Loueke, who released his debut album last year.

“I think that Bruce Lundvall is like Alfred Lion,” said the pianist Bill 
Charlap, “in the sense that he believes in the musicians and also 
happens to have a great gift for recognizing when someone is ripe.” Mr. 
Charlap, on tour with the Blue Note 7, an anniversary tribute band, 
added, “This is not Blue Note, the small independent record label, 
anymore; this is Blue Note, the subsidiary of EMI.”

Blue Note’s identity shifted with Ms. Jones’s folk-inflected debut, 
which sold five million copies within a year of release. (That figure 
has since doubled.) Suddenly the label was receiving proposals from 
nonjazz artists like Anita Baker, whom Mr. Lundvall deemed too good to 
pass up. Later the label signed folk-rockers like Amos Lee and the Wood 
Brothers, and the retro-pop duo the Bird and the Bee.

“So we’ve extended our reach beyond jazz, but we’ve stayed very true to 
jazz,” Mr. Lundvall said, citing Mr. Loueke and a couple of new signings 
planned for this year. “And it’s going to be that way as long as I’m 
here, that’s for sure.”

But Mr. Loueke’s album, though widely acclaimed, has sold just 6,000 
copies — and that figure is on the high side for a jazz release. “With 
the serious jazz artists,” Mr. Lundvall said, “you look to break even or 
make a small profit. You keep the budgets in line, do the best marketing 
job that you can, and stay with the artists as they develop.”

The ideal result of that investment is catalog, a cornerstone of the 
Blue Note legacy and business. (Last year the 1957 John Coltrane 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/john_coltrane/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 
album “Blue Train” sold 15,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan; 
Herbie Hancock 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/herbie_hancock/index.html?inline=nyt-per>’s 
1965 “Maiden Voyage” sold 10,000.) But where catalog once accounted for 
about half of Blue Note’s revenue, that share is now closer to a third, 
Mr. Lundvall said, because the albums have been available for so long.

Late last year the label made a round of catalog deletions; any title 
that sold fewer than 350 copies over a 12-month period was vulnerable. 
Jazz fans noted with alarm that a handful of significant titles were on 
the list. Mr. Lundvall said he understood the outcry: “I’m monitoring 
this like a hawk now. Because some things escaped me the last time.”

The deleted albums are still being offered in digital form, he added. 
There are catalog promotions through services like iTunes and Rhapsody. 
In addition, as a 70th-anniversary tie-in, Amazon recently introduced an 
exclusive on-demand CD series, Back From the Vault, with more than 200 
out-of-print titles.

The digital focus reflects the impact of a recent reorganization. Over 
the last year Blue Note’s operations have been more fully absorbed into 
the structure of EMI, which was bought in 2007 by Terra Firma, a private 
equity firm. Though jarring in some ways — “At first I thought I was 
going to fight it,” Mr. Lundvall said — the change has opened up new 
resources for the label.

“We’re focused on providing jazz artists with a full suite of services, 
and that’s one of the advantages of the way that we’re organized right 
now,” said Howard Handler, the executive vice president for marketing at 
EMI. “There are more resources to do tour marketing. We have new 
technology that gives us insight to get catalog to newer generations of 
fans.”

Mr. Handler pointed to the label’s 70th anniversary as a chance to flex 
some of that promotional muscle. Among the related events is a bonanza 
of concerts and club engagements in New York this month and an album and 
50-city tour by the Blue Note 7. The Portland (Ore.) Jazz Festival, 
which begins on Friday, will feature past and present Blue Note artists. 
And as part of the Grammy Salute to Jazz in Los Angeles last week, the 
Record Academy gave the label its President’s Merit Award.

“It’s an opportunity to mark the occasion and also do a little bit of 
reinvention,” said Nick Gatfield, EMI’s president for A&R. “Blue Note as 
a label and a heritage is very important to EMI. There is no question 
that it’s not going to be just a catalog. It needs to flourish and grow.”

To that end, Mr. Lundvall said he still had full autonomy over the Blue 
Note roster. “As long as we’re not seriously in the red — and we have 
never been, as long as I’ve been here, thank God — they’re not going to 
say, ‘Get rid of this one or that one.’ They seem to think we know what 
we’re doing after all these years.”

How much that depends on Mr. Lundvall himself is unclear, but 
increasingly relevant. Onstage at Dizzy’s he noted that this would be 
his 49th year in the record business and said that he hoped to make it 
to an even 50. Whether he serves another year or a few more, there are 
sure to be more changes ahead for the label.

Mr. Osby, the saxophonist, who now runs his own label, was asked to 
picture a post-Lundvall Blue Note. “My answer is I don’t,” he said. 
“He’s the last man standing. He’s Clint Eastwood 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/e/clint_eastwood/index.html?inline=nyt-per>. 
And when he saunters into the sunset, I don’t see it.”

Of course no one at EMI puts it quite that way. Mr. Lundvall said he 
would start a consultancy after his retirement. “I don’t want to sit 
around the house and mow the lawn,” he said. “I don’t want to be a 
crossing guard for the Wyckoff, N.J., school system. I want to keep 
doing this.”

-- 
Dr. Jazz
Dr. Jazz Operations
24270 Eastwood
Oak Park, MI  48237
(248) 542-7888
http://www.drjazz.com
SKYPE:  drjazz99

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