Hi David:
This is great info, I'm certianly not going to berate you.
I can't understand what "last of its kind" machine Omega was claiming to use. I had heard they used 3-track tapes played back on an Ampex 3200 transport with MR-70 heads and electronics. If their "last of its kind" was indeed playing films, it was not near last of its kind. 3-track mag-film machines are still in use all over the place. In NY, one need only go to Astoria to see masses of mag-film machines in daily use.
Whatever those guys out in CA told you is probably closer to the truth than my 3rd-hand info.
Hey, if someone on this list has a viable reissue label, let's talk about Command Classics. I think Universal wants a pretty hefty units commitment, so it's gotta be someone with some marketing and distribution abilities. A 500 or 1000 unit release won't cut it with those guys.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message ----- From: "David Lewis" <davlew@xxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 2:38 PM Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Vanguard Classics reappears in 2 cd sets
Then what did DCC use to make thier reissues,a few years back?
Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: This is the key fact about Everest, from the Vanguard Classics website:
------------------------------------ WHAT ABOUT EVEREST?
That's the most asked question from consumers who visit our site. When Artemis Records purchased Vanguard Classics from the Omega Records Group in 2003, we declined to purchase the license to the Everest label held by Omega. We know that many of you are looking for the catalog of recordings available from Everest, but Vanguard Classics no longer distributes the Everest label.
------------------------------------ (Tom continues...) As I understand it, and I might be wrong ...
Everest is now owned by Universal, and Omega no longer exists as a working entity so they no longer have a license to release any Everest recordings. Universal also owns the libraries of the only two other labels to extensively use 35mm mag-film, Mercury (which Universal acquired as part of Polygram) and Command (which was owned by former MCA group that morphed into Universal, acquired by MCA as part of ABC Records).
As I understand it, and again I might be wrong, Omega made their 3ch SACD's from the backup 3-track tapes (or the original sessions were done on tape, not film), not from Everest's magnetic films, which I've been told are in terrible condition and many are not around anymore. ****
I remember speaking with Duane Martuge, who was working as a rep for Omega/Everest/Vanguard Classics when they first rolled out the Everest product line in about 1996 or so. I met him at the Allegro Conference. Duane said that they **did** work from the Everest films and utilized a machine at Sony that "was the last of its kind" to play back the films. Apparently, this machine was mothballed just as the Everest project reached completion. At one point Omega/Everest was including a little insert with photos within the Everest CD releases to show how they did it technically. But do note that the re-issue program was very limited - perhaps only 8-16 short CDs ever resulted from it. So Tom's assertion that "they are in terrible condition and may not be around anymore" might well be correct. The Northridge earthquake also damaged a great many of the Everest masters - a pity - many reels were bent in half.
Tom: Some of the Everest jazz stuff has turned up on a small label the name of which escapes me (Woody Herman, Tito Puente and some others). If I recall correctly, they noted that the material was licensed from Universal, which backs up my belief that Everest is now owned by Universal.
The DCC reissues of Everest Jazz material were supplied by Bernie Solomon, who was part of Everest initially and also had a share in DCC. These would have been taken from tapes, and I wish that there had been more of them done than the couple that appeared. At the time at which I met Bernie, in the late 1990s, he still owned a large part of the Everest catalogue, and had issued some of the classical items on a terrible, but persistent, label called Bescol (i.e. "Bernie E. Solomon Company Limited" or something like that) and had leased these and still more to LaserLight. Bernie hasn't been dead a very long time, and if Artemis/Vanguard decided to pass on the Everest classical catalogue, perhaps it has reverted to his, or someone else's, estate. Remember that Bernie Solomon (Everest) and Seymour Solomon (Vanguard) were brothers, so this might complicate matters of legacy considerably. If Universal purchased Everest, I have yet to hear of it, but they don't crow very loudly when they make such acquisitions.
Tom:
I wish there was enough interest in the Command orchestral stuff to license and reissue some of it. The Pittsburgh/Steinberg stuff was really good.
*** I am SO with you there, brother! I remember for my ninth Christmas I told my parents I wanted Stravinsky conducting his three big ballets. I got the Le Sacre and Firebird LPs but there was no Petrushka, so Mom and Dad persuaded me to settle for the $1.99 Pittsburgh/Steinberg performance on Westminister Gold. I grew to love it so much I never went back to look for a Petrushka with Stravinsky conducting. The Schubert symphony disc in that Command series was also just astounding.
Finally, I just wanted to say that I have discussed these topics before only to be berated on this list for repeating what guys like Martuge, Steve Hoffmann and Bernie Solomon said to me. Bear in mind that the office for DCC was not far from where I worked (as the classical guy at the Tower Records in Woodland Hills.) PLEASE - do not come on here and tell me I'm a bleeping liar and how could I stand to circulate such myths. I have no idea why these guys would say such things, but I was a good account for them and perhaps they put a little gloss on it. They did seem surprised that I seemed to know so much about their back catalogue and may have been a bit guarded about it. But I used to see Bernie in the store two and three times a week, and I made a point of remembering whatever he told me.
David N. Lewis Assistant Classical Editor, All Music Guide
My life is the clearest proof that if you have talent, determination and luck, you will make it in the end: Never Give Up. - Sir Georg Solti