"Jazz Detective" Zev Feldman Searches For Reissue Clues and Finds Muse Records
new time travel recording imprint features reissue series from the legendary Muse Records Catalog
Zev Feldman—record producer and Jazz Detective—launches his next endeavor, the archival label Time Traveler Recordings with the label’s Muse Master Edition Series: a run of masterpiece reissues from the historic Muse Records catalog. Pre-order Muse Master Edition Series.
The series begins with the October 17th release of three albums from the legendary label’s discography: drummer Roy Brooks’ seminal 1972 live album The Free Slave; pianist Kenny Barron’s 1973 work Sunset to Dawn; and Cosmos Nucleus, a rare and much sought-after 1976 recording from Panamanian tenor saxophonist Carlos Garnett (featuring a 20-year-old Kenny Kirkland on keys). Subsequent major releases are planned quarterly from artists such as Woody Shaw, João Donato, Clifford Jordan, Joe Chambers and more.
Muse Master Edition Series Launches October 17 with Deluxe Reissues of Albums by Roy Brooks, Kenny Barron and Carlos Garnett. Packages Feature Notes by Shannon J. Effinger, Ted Panken and Syd Schwartz, New Photos and More
Time Traveler will provide Muse collectors and fans with “The Rolls Royce, ultra-deluxe vinyl experience,” in Feldman’s words. These initial exclusive vinyl sets will only be available as a limited release, issued on 180-gram LPs (pressed at Germany’s Optimal Media), analog mastered directly from the original tapes by the acclaimed engineer Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab in Salina, Kansas. They will be issued in high-gloss tip-on jackets furnished by respected printer, Stoughton Press, with new liner essays by Shannon Effinger, Ted Panken, and Syd Schwartz for the Brooks, Barron, and Garnett reissues, respectively. The packaging will mirror a facsimile of the original productions with upgrades.
“Time Traveler Recordings is a really meaningful undertaking,” says Feldman, who is also an executive for the Resonance, Elemental, and Jazz Detective labels. “It’s a collaboration with Craft Recordings, and Virgin Music Group distributing. We’re starting with jazz, but we’re not limited to it: The idea is to have a whole array of thoughtfully curated archival material for heritage artists from across musical genres.”
Muse Records was founded in 1972 by legendary producer and record executive Joe Fields. Fields was a veteran of another classic jazz label, Prestige Records, and designed Muse as a continuation of the legacy of Prestige and other bebop-era independent labels like Riverside and Milestone. Muse was a haven for the best of both the artists and technicians from those labels. When asked about his feelings regarding the reissues, Joe’s son Barney Fields said, “I'm so happy to see the Muse catalog being reissued, and that it’s being given the proper curation. The world will get to be exposed to this music all over again. I think my father would be honored to see that something like this is happening—and I know, with the Time Traveler folks at the helm, that it’ll be done right.”
“Muse Records is really one of the great untapped record labels when it comes to reissues,” says Feldman. “Its catalog captured where the music was going in the 1970s. These Time Traveler reissues will have the best sound, production quality and packaging possible, with new inserts, new liner notes and new photographs. I’m incredibly excited about these releases. Muse is one of my favorite labels of all time and it’s time to dress up these albums in a big tuxedo.” All the artwork for these releases has been painstakingly recreated piece by piece by respected album cover designer and art restoration specialist John Sellards working from original pressings that were tracked down by the label.
Roy Brooks (1938-2005) was an innovative and endlessly resourceful drummer from Detroit, Michigan, where he developed on the jazz-rich scene with mentors including Barry Harris and Yusef Lateef. From there he moved to New York and worked with the likes of Horace Silver, Shirley Scott, Stanley Turrentine and Chet Baker as well as Lateef. With these musicians, as well as work under his own name, Brooks gained a reputation for his fiery and soulful hard bop chops. The Free Slave captures him at a live date in Baltimore in 1970, recorded by Orville O’Brien, with a fearsome quintet that also featured trumpeter Woody Shaw, tenor saxophonist George Coleman, pianist Hugh Lawson and bassist Cecil McBee. Pre-order The Free Slave.
Pianist, composer and NEA Jazz Master Kenny Barron (b. 1943) is a living legend of jazz. Like Brooks, he came up in a jazz-rich American city (Philadelphia) and began his career as a protégé of Yusef Lateef before joining Dizzy Gillespie’s quintet in the 1960s. Recorded in 1973, Sunset to Dawn was Barron’s debut recording as a leader, plying his unshakable grooves and luminous, fluid piano tones — with vibraphonist Warren Smith, bassist Bob Cranshaw, drummer Freddie Waits and conguero Richard Landrum — on a program of both timeless acoustic jazz and the funky, electric zeitgeist of the 1970s. Pre-order Sunset to Dawn.
Carlos Garnett (1938-2023) was born and raised in the Panama Canal Zone. He taught himself to play tenor saxophone with a gruff but lean sound that served him well when he moved to New York City in 1962 and found work with Freddie Hubbard, Miles Davis and Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers. Garnett recorded six of his nine albums as a leader for Muse, developing in the ‘70s a unique fusion of funk, soul, bebop and spiritual jazz. 1976’s Cosmos Nucleus was the most ambitious of these, Garnett at the helm of a massive 26-piece ensemble that included such luminaries as trumpeters Roy Campbell and Ahmed Abdul Malik, trombonist Clifton Anderson, bassist Cecil McBee, and, on electric piano, a very young Kenny Kirkland making his first ever appearance in a recording studio. Pre-order Cosmos Nucleus.
(We will attempt to get production details analog or digital)
