Review: The House That Trane Built by Ashley Kahn
The House That Trane Built
by Ashley Kahn
300pp, Granta, £20
At times I felt quite envious reading this book. Creed Taylor, Bob Thiele, Ed Michel, Sandy Backer and Esmond Edwards - the successive heads of Impulse! Records - were granted the opportunity to run a high-quality jazz label under the protective umbrella of a major entertainment corporation that seldom interfered. The House That Trane Built tells a story that resembles a "fantasy jazz label" game: "Here's half a million dollars, it's 1961, most important jazz artists are contractually available and parent-label artist Ray Charles would love to make a jazz record to kick things off, so hire any graphic artist you like to design the jackets, use the finest studios, arrangers and sidemen and see if you can establish a leading jazz label." Doesn't that sound fun!
Impulse!'s indie competitors are mentioned in passing: Verve, Blue Note, Prestige, Riverside, Atlantic, World Pacific, ESP-disc and ECM. With the remarkable exception of ECM, all eventually disappeared or were enfolded in a corporate embrace. It feels as if Impulse!, as it charged into the 60s signing Albert Ayler, Pharoah Saunders, Sonny Rollins, Archie Shepp, Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner, Charlie Mingus and Oliver Nelson with full backing from corporate HQ, was somehow cheating. Their trademark orange and black spines tend to be grouped together on serious collectors' shelves - a sure sign of respect. For reasons I now recognise as ludicrous (but telling on the subject of consumer irrationality), my jazz collection has only a few: as a youth I disliked the colours of my local Princeton University "Tigers" football team. (This may also explain the pleasure I take in the Sisyphean tribulations of Wolverhampton Wanderers.)
The first to play with this remarkable toy, Taylor, was a cool, ambitious operator, hardly a musical revolutionary. (Years later he started CTI records, cradle of that spawn of Satan, "smooth jazz".) He produced some good recordings in the label's first year, but two brilliant strokes stand out: discovering that his first choice, Pulse, was already taken, he added "Im" and "!"; and he signed John Coltrane. The saxophonist, coming off the career-changing success of My Favourite Things, let it be known he was open to offers. His agent also represented Ray Charles, who had just left Coltrane's Atlantic Records home for Impulse!'s parent ABC-Paramount, lured by what was then an extraordinarily favourable deal for a black artist.
Taylor soon left to run Verve Records for its new owners, MGM. Enter Thiele, the co-lead in the story. Thiele died before Kahn could interview him, but he left behind an autobiography and almost entirely positive memories among the musicians he recorded. Thiele had been a precocious rich kid who, aged 19, recorded Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young for his own short-lived label before hustling his way into the mainstream (where he had the wit to sign Buddy Holly and the Crickets). But, a jazz man at heart, he jumped at the chance to succeed Taylor. His first task was to supervise a live Coltrane session at the Village Vanguard.
Thiele had spent the late 50s looking for Top 40 hits, not keeping up with how the new wave of jazz players - led by Coltrane - were leaving the melodic conventions of bebop far behind. What he heard that night completely bewildered him, but he decided that the rapt listeners in the club and the serene, serious man on stage must know something he didn't. Over the next few months he brought himself up to speed by exploring the farthest-out regions of the New York jazz scene. Coltrane for his part would patiently explain how jazz had changed since Hawkins ruled the roost. The two became friends and their partnership made the Impulse! catalogue one of the most valuable in jazz. Coltrane's peers saw the strong packaging, promotion and distribution his records received, heard about Thiele's laissez-faire approach and flocked to the label.
By the late 60s, Coltrane was dead and black America was angry. Almost alone of the jazz labels, Impulse! successfully managed to market the furious musical expression of those years. ABC's pop label, Dunhill, was doing so well no one cared if the jazz department was making subversive records so long as they made money and, thanks to the consistent sales of the Coltrane back-list, Impulse! seems to have always been profitable.
A four-disc collection has been released in tandem with the book. The high-quality and varied music is unified by a rich, atmospheric sound that owes much to another of Taylor's wise decisions. The label's early recordings were made in Rudy Van Gelder's New Jersey studio and Thiele saw no reason to change. An old-school producer like me is left misty-eyed by a description of the first major row between label and artist: JJ Johnson demanding baffles to soften Van Gelder's hard redwood walls. Few artists today worry about nuances in the sound of a room; most modern studios are small and dead - atmosphere is dialled up on a digital console.
Avid collectors will appreciate Kahn's detailed accounts of recording sessions and the stories behind individual albums. Casual fans may find their attention wandering, dismayed by stodgy prose and endless lists of sidemen. If you're a newcomer to Impulse! and on a limited budget, buy the box-set first: Kahn has written a nice set of liner notes and the booklet is full of beautifully printed colour.
· Joe Boyd's White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s is published by Serpent's Tail