The Berkeley Item - #276

Source: ALL ABOUT JAZZ
May 10, 2006
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Founded in New York by producer Orrin Keepnews in 1966, two years after the demise of his earlier label Riverside, Milestone Records quickly established itself as a forward-thinking company that attracted major artists such as McCoy Tyner, Sonny Rollins, Lee Konitz, and Gary Bartz. It was acquired by Fantasy, Inc. in 1972 (Keepnews joined Fantasy that same year) and continued to record a wide array of jazz, Latin, and world artists - Flora Purim, Ron Carter, Jerry Gonzalez and the Fort Apache Band, and Hank Crawford, to name just a few.

Single-disc retrospectives of five artists' work for the label will be released next month (6/6) in the MILESTONE PROFILES series, in celebration of the venerable imprint's 40th anniversary. The CDs were compiled by Nick Phillips, Vice President, Artist & Catalog Development for the Concord Music Group, which acquired Milestone in November 2004.

JOE HENDERSON, an early Milestone signing, was a mainstay of its roster for nearly a decade. His new Profiles CD draws from classic albums such as Power to the People (1969), In Japan (1971), and In Pursuit of Blackness (1972), which feature the saxophonist with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Woody Shaw, Jack DeJohnette, and many others.

McCOY TYNER's long and prolific relationship with Milestone and producer Orrin Keepnews began in 1972 with his Grammy-nominated Sahara. Over the next ten years, Tyner recorded in a multitude of settings - from solo to big band, live and in the studio, with working groups and all-star aggregations. His new Profiles CD offers a rich sampling.

The SONNY ROLLINS disc includes material from his very first Milestone release (Next Album's “Skylark," 1972) and his latest (the 2006 Grammy winner “Why Was I Born?," from Without a Song). In between are seven other exceptional tracks, among them the live “Autumn Nocturne" (1978), “Duke of Iron" (1987), and “Biji" (1995).

JIMMY SMITH's Milestone discography is comprised of two studio dates (1989's Prime Time; '93's Sum Serious Blues, arranged by Johnny Pate), and three live albums (two cut in 1990 with Stanley Turrentine and Kenny Burrell; a 1981 Keystone Korner recording with Eddie Harris). Selections from each appear on the Smith Profile.

Balladeer JIMMY SCOTT joined Milestone in 2000 in the midst of a busy comeback. His new set offers 11 highlights from his four Todd Barkan-produced CDs for the label - Mood Indigo, Over the Rainbow, But Beautiful, Moon Glow - with empathic support from a cast including Hank Crawford, George Mraz, and Cyrus Chestnut.

A 45-minute bonus disc - with tracks by Hank Crawford / Jimmy McGriff, Flora Purim, and Jim Hall / Ron Carter as well as the five Profiled artists - is packaged with each set.

Orrin Keepnews, when reminded that his second label had hit the 40-year mark, recalled early Milestone as “a fragile, drastically underfinanced independent jazz label." While Riverside “had flourished during the 1950s Golden Age of jazz," he noted, “Milestone began life at a time when many people were firmly convinced that jazz was dead - or at least badly wounded by the defection of much of its audience in the direction of the Beatles, the Kingston Trio, and / or assorted other upstarts."

After Riverside's shuttering, and almost two years of “freelance scuffling," Keepnews “joined forces with a young pianist / producer named Dick Katz (who was able to supply enough capital to finance a couple of projects) and jumped back into the whirlpool with a new label. Actually, the times were still 'golden' enough for us to assemble a rather formidable roster of future stars and underappreciated veterans. Early New York-based Milestone meant a lot of impressive work by Joe Henderson, Gary Bartz, and Lee Konitz, reunions with such ex-Riverside associates as Wynton Kelly, Bobby Timmons, and Nat Adderley, and - as we picked up the pace entering the '70s - the addition of young McCoy Tyner (then still best-known for his historic association with John Coltrane) and the wonderful, ageless Sonny Rollins (who has remained Milestone's brightest star for more than three decades)."

Nominations for the Jazz Journalists Association's Tenth Annual Jazz Awards, announced last week (5/1), include a number of Concord Music Group artists and the company itself: Concord / Fantasy / Telarc is up for Record Label of the Year.

Marian McPartland was nominated for Lifetime Achievement in Jazz, and Sonny Rollins for Musician of the Year. Among the nominees in the Female Jazz Singer of the Year category are Telarc artist Tierney Sutton and Dianne Reeves, whose Concord recording of the soundtrack for Good Night, and Good Luck won her a Grammy earlier this year. Instrumentalist nominees are Sonny Rollins (Tenor Saxophonist), Joey DeFrancesco (Organ-Keyboardist), and Gary Burton (Mallets). Two Concord Picante releases have been nominated for Latin Jazz Album of the Year - Eddie Palmieri's Listen Here and Poncho Sanchez's Do It! - while Sonny Rollins's Without a Song (The 9/11 Concert) is a contender for Jazz Album of the Year.