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A SERIES FROM WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS
Edited by Daniel Cavicchi
Always in Trouble: An Oral History of ESP-Disk’,the Most Outrageous Record Label in America by Jason Weiss
Forthcoming titles in the series include books by Michael Veal on Wayne Shorter and Harriet Alonso on Yip Harburg. For updates and more information on the series please visit our website www.wesleyan.edu/wespress.
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown CT 06459
www.wesleyan.edu/wespress © 2012 Jason Weiss All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Designed by Katerine B. Kimball Typeset in Minion by Integrated Publishing Solutions
Wesleyan University Press is a member of the Green Press
Initiative. The paper used in this book meets their minimum
requirement for recycled paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Weiss, Jason, 1955–
Always in trouble : an oral history of ESP-Disk’, the most outrageous record label in America / by
Jason Weiss.
p. cm. — (Music/interview)
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-8195-7158-8 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8195-7159-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-8195-7160-1 (ebook)
1. ESP-Disk’ (Firm) 2. Jazz musicians—United States—Interviews. I. Title.
ML405.W45 2011
781.65092’273—dc23 2011046333
5 4 3 2 1
Contents
I What Got into His Head: Bernard Stollman Founder of the Label
1. Who, Where, When: Beginnings and Departures
2. Music and Law: Into the Deep End Fast
THE RISE AND FALL AND PERSISTENT RESURRECTION OF A CURIOUS RECORD COMPANY
7. About Some Records
8. A Word or Two on Recording Engineers
9. Close Encounters in the Music Business
10. A Short History of Licensing
11. In the Wilderness
12. Revival
II ESP-Disk’ as Lived and Witnessed
Ishmael Reed
Gunter Hampel
John Tchicai
Paul Thornton
James Zitro
Sonny Simmons
Gary Peacock
Milford Graves
Alan Sondheim
Tom Rapp
Warren Smith
Roscoe Mitchell
Michael Snow
Marion Brown
Richard Alderson
Roswell Rudd
Montego Joe
Evan Parker
Alan Silva
Giuseppi Logan
Peter Stampfel
Burton Greene
The Coach with the Six Insides: Jean Erdman and Van Dexter
Leo Feigin
Erica Pomerance
Joe Morris
William Parker
Ken Vandermark
Gato Barbieri
Amiri Baraka
Michael D. Anderson
Sal Salgado
