FMP (1990) - Reaction

Public protest:

Francesco Martinelli
FMP CD LP DO RE MI
I want to address a public protest to Free Music Production of Berlin for their choice of making available the music of the Taylor Project only to CD player owners. For me it’s an elitist, trendy choice, not justified by a superior quality – the reverse is true – and it contradicts the very reason of existence of independent labels like FMP: making available to as many people as possible music that is not available through commercial production and distribution.
I don’t want to enter in the controversy, but it is a fact that LP player owners still constitute a vast majority, and why FMP decided to cut us off is a mystery to me. In other music fields, where experimentation and alternative diffusion are still the main objectives. CDs don’t enter: they need the larger possible market, and they usually don’t appeal to an affluent audience. Is contemporary European improvised music catering in a different social section now, with the ageing of its initiators? And is this self-celebration musically justified?
I invite the other people who’d be interested in buying the Taylor in Berlin records in LP form, and who’d rather buy more LPs, than another costly machine for the benefit of the industry, to write to FMP and ask for a change of format or at least for additional LP edition.
from: The Wire # 67, September 1989

Responses:

Ken Tyler
CD: YES PLEASE
I am writing in response to Francesco Martinelli’s letter on the Cecil Taylor FMP CDs.
Paranoia distorts our view of things – sometimes making us mistake minority tastes for elitism. I guess that Cecil Taylor will never have a huge commercial following – does that make me elitist if I listen to his music?
CDs have been around far too long now to be considered “trendy” (and that must be an outmoded adolescent concept anyway), and simply because fewer people buy CDs than LPs doesn’t make CDs, or CD buyers, elitist. No.
But my main point in writing isn’t to argue that CDs are a better format than LPs, but really to defend FMP from the ill-informed attack. The Cecil Taylor in Berlin project was the most important jazz event this decade, and I think that CDs are the right choice for these extended performances. You can listen without interruption.
Hey! Eleven CDs – how many LPs would that be? And even though all those people at FMP must, as Francesco says, be elitist, trendy and aged (sounds like an impossible combination to me…) they still made these CDs available on subscription for less than the price of most LPs – and that includes postage!
FMP need congratulating for what they are doing for jazz. And at last, at long last, Taylor is getting the recognition he so richly deserves. Consumer paranoia just doesn’t jive with an event of this importance – you can’t jive with an event of this importance – you can’t put a price on art – even if it does sound elitist.
from: The Wire # 68, October 1989

Martin Davidson
CD! YAY! RAH!
Three cheers to FMP (and Incus and Matchless and Others) for releasing recordings of improvised music on CD. At last we are able to hear the music without all the pre-echo, post-echo, distortion and surface noise that are inherent in LPs. (In most jazz, much of this pollution is covered up by the drummer, whereas in free improvisation, the music is often very naked.) Also a CD allows one to hear most of the dynamic range often present in free improvisation, unlike an LP on which the sound has to be drastically compressed.
As a sometime record producer, I have always been appalled at the amount of unwanted crap that gets added to the music when one transfers it from tape to LP, so I too am looking forward to being able to publish CDs. Unfortunately, small labels cannot afford to publish recordings on both CDs and LPs, so they have to opt for the better medium. Inevitably, some people will feel hard done by, just as they did when LPs replaced 78s, but I am convinced that the changeover is beneficial to the music and the listeners (as well as to the industry). (I wonder if there is anyone out there who wants Cecil Taylor on 78s!) (Me - Ed.)
Whilst on the subject of the pollution of music, may I plead through your columns for members of audiences not to smoke? My wife (who is allergic to smoke) and myself (who hates it) have been forced to prematurely leave several gigs of excellent music recently, because the air has become insufferable due to the inconsideration of some of the audience. As a result of this, there are several venues that we refuse to go to – regardless of how much we like the music played there – until they introduce a no-smoking policy. Surely it is not too much to ask for smokers to refrain from their filthy toxic habit for an hour or two, so that the rest of us can enjoy the music.
from: The Wire # 68, October 1989