Atlantic Records' fire?
Joe Castleman
I asked about this a week or two ago, but I wnet out-of-town before I
could check for an answer:
What is this big fire that destroyed the tape archives at Atlantic
Records? I hear about it occasionally, mainly in this newsgroup. When
was the fire, and what did it consume? How has Atlantic been able to
re-issue the fire-damaged tapes, or have they?
Thanx a lot...
--
Joe Castleman Gyrofrog Communications
(Remove "ANTISPAM" to reply) (http://www.eden.com/~jcastle)
Austin, Texas U.S.A.
JJ&DJ
In short, Atlantic foolishly stored all of their masters in a building
that had no vault and it caught fire, burning the only existing tapes
for artists like Coltrane, Ornette and many others. It's unknown really
how much great unheard jazz was lost that day but this situation is
often cited by jazz fans as the reason labels need to do a better job of
archiving, storing and backing up master tapes that they own. Often, the
master tapes are stored in a dusty warehouse and to revive them, they
have to bake them, transfer them, and hope for the best-not an ideal way
to preserve history.
Mostly, it's the Trane fans that are peeved with the fire because
there was a ton of alternate and unreleased takes from his greatest era
stored that burned up.
Jim
eric...@americancentury.com
jazz...@bellsouth.net wrote:
> Joe:
> In short, Atlantic foolishly stored all of their masters in a building
> that had no vault and it caught fire, burning the only existing tapes
> for artists like Coltrane, Ornette and many others. It's unknown really
> how much great unheard jazz was lost that day but this situation is
> often cited by jazz fans as the reason labels need to do a better job of
> archiving, storing and backing up master tapes that they own. Often, the
> master tapes are stored in a dusty warehouse and to revive them, they
> have to bake them, transfer them, and hope for the best-not an ideal way
> to preserve history.
> Mostly, it's the Trane fans that are peeved with the fire because
> there was a ton of alternate and unreleased takes from his greatest era
> stored that burned up.
>
Having heard this story several times, I've always wondered the source of the
tapes used for the Coltrane box set, particularly since there *were* a number
of unissued takes issued. For that matter, what is the source of the
Atlantic material that Koch is planning to re-issue later this month?
Eric
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Chuck Nessa
facility. The raw session tapes are what burned. Around the time of the
fire Atlantic had been issuing albums of "leftovers" by some of their
artists, so not everything was in the warehouse.
CN
Michel Forest
>
> In article <368DA8...@bellsouth.net>,
> jazz...@bellsouth.net wrote:
> > Joe:
> > In short, Atlantic foolishly stored all of their masters in a building
> > that had no vault and it caught fire, burning the only existing tapes
> > for artists like Coltrane, Ornette and many others. It's unknown really
> > how much great unheard jazz was lost that day but this situation is
> > often cited by jazz fans as the reason labels need to do a better job of
> > archiving, storing and backing up master tapes that they own. Often, the
> > master tapes are stored in a dusty warehouse and to revive them, they
> > have to bake them, transfer them, and hope for the best-not an ideal way
> > to preserve history.
> > Mostly, it's the Trane fans that are peeved with the fire because
> > there was a ton of alternate and unreleased takes from his greatest era
> > stored that burned up.
> >
>
> tapes used for the Coltrane box set, particularly since there *were* a number
> of unissued takes issued. For that matter, what is the source of the
> Atlantic material that Koch is planning to re-issue later this month?
It may be copies of the masters. I remember Robert Fripp explaining how
record companies would send copies of the master tapes to their
affiliates in other countries to press lp's at local pressing plants.
Maybe this is the source for the reissues.
Michel Forest
>
> Greetings:
>
> I asked about this a week or two ago, but I wnet out-of-town before I
> could check for an answer:
>
> What is this big fire that destroyed the tape archives at Atlantic
> Records? I hear about it occasionally, mainly in this newsgroup. When
> was the fire, and what did it consume? How has Atlantic been able to
> re-issue the fire-damaged tapes, or have they?
I remember posting an answer to this question a few weeks ago... but I'm
glad to repost it! Anyway, in 1976, a department store burned down in
New Jersey. The 4th floor of the store was, strangely enough, the place
where Atlantic stored its master tapes from every session recorded
before 1969. The building burned down to the ground and all was lost. In
the Coltrane boxset, it says that the released material was safe, having
been released on lp's. But the unreleased material was lost forever. As
for the source of the unreleased material on the Coltrane box, it seems
a small amount of session tapes were found in another storage room.
Maybe these were copies of the master tapes, it's not very clear in the
booklet.
Michael Fitzgerald
wrote:
>eric...@americancentury.com wrote:
>> Having heard this story several times, I've always wondered the source of the
>> tapes used for the Coltrane box set, particularly since there *were* a number
>> of unissued takes issued. For that matter, what is the source of the
>> Atlantic material that Koch is planning to re-issue later this month?
>
>It may be copies of the masters. I remember Robert Fripp explaining how
>record companies would send copies of the master tapes to their
>affiliates in other countries to press lp's at local pressing plants.
>Maybe this is the source for the reissues.
Indeed yes. Recently Bob Porter mentioned that one of his jobs while
at Atlantic was to find copies of the stuff that was destroyed. He
knows best what exists now.
Mike
Chris Metzler
Everyone notes how much wonderful jazz was probably lost in this fire
-- which makes sense, because it's a jazz newsgroup. It's worth
noting also, however, that Atlantic was the premier R&B/soul label of
the 60's, through their own material and through music they
distributed from smaller companies. Not all of the music they
distributed for other labels did they have the masters for; but in
mid-1968, Atlantic took possession of the entire catalog of Stax
Records up to that point, due to some fine print in a distribution
contract that Jerry Wexler claims his lawyers snuck in there without
asking him. So, lost along with Coltrane, Mingus, Coleman, etc. were
Ray Charles, Don Covay, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave,
LaVern Baker, Booker T. & the MGs, Wilson Pickett, the Drifters,
Carla Thomas, etc. etc.
-c
--
Chris Metzler Work Address: Loomis Laboratory of Physics
217-333-1065 (office) University of Illinois
met...@snip-me.uiuc.edu 1110 W. Green Street
(remove "snip-me." to email, of course) Champaign, IL 61801-3080 USA
"As a child I understood how to give; I have forgotten this grace since I
have become civilized." - Chief Luther Standing Bear