The Growing College Market for the "New Music" in the 1970s

IMP-1972 University Series of Fine Recordings

In 1969 Bob Thiele left Impulse to be replaced by Ed Michel. At this point Impulse could have dramatically changed, but sensibly, Ed continued in the same vein as Bob. He continued to promote John Coltrane's legacy, continued to record the existing 'New Music' artists and signed some new artists. When Steve Backer joined Impulse in 1972 as Head of Promotions he brought his Pop and Rock promotional experience to bear, and recognised that Impulse artists were popular on college campuses. He decided to build on this including the creation of an Impulse artists package tour in April 1972. It kicked off at the Fenway Theatre in Boston, followed by six college dates :
University of Rhode Island, Kingston (8th), Clark University, Worcester Mass (9), University of Mass (10), Brown University, Providence (14), Thornton Academy, Sacco Maine (15) and Yale University, New Haven (16).
Pharaoh Sanders, Alice Coltrane and Michael White featured in the Fenway Theatre date. Pharoah then departed due to other commitments. In fact, April 15th was amazingly a High School gig.
It proved very successful with a follow-on two week tour arranged for mid-May going from Vancouver BC to Southern California. Other artists joining that tour included Archie Shepp and John Klemmer.
Since Impulse had set ticket prices low, they had to carry much of the promotional costs. However, some of the artists saw a four-fold increase in record sales, and it proved to be financially successful.
In 1973 a follow-on Fall National Tour was kicked off at Carnegie Hall in NYC with Gato Barbieri, Keith Jarrett and Alice Coltrane. College dates in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Boston and Washington DC followed with Barbieri at all concerts, Jarrett all East Coast, and Coltrane all West Coast. In all, eight Impulse artists were involved.

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John Coltrane's Only British Tour in 1961

Britain’s Musicians' Union found the 1950s difficult, with the rise of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the growth of outside musicians coming to play in Britain. By the early 60s an agreement had been reached with the US that an equivalent number of touring American and British musicians could play in each country. Most headline US Jazz artists up to that point had used local musicians, and the live exposure to ‘modern’ Jazz artists was limited. Through the 60s and beyond, Britain was still problematic for outside artists due to the (then) power of the MU. Having said that, the MU was sometimes a force for good. For example, in 1961 the MU boycotted the entire Mecca Circuit for the Bradford Mecca Locarno’s policy of refusing admission to single black males. Norman Granz had been running JATP European tours since 1952, featuring top US jazz artists. Earlier in 1960 Miles Davis had visited Britain, so it missed out on Miles' famous JATP tour of Europe with Trane later in 1960. Granz organised

Flying Dutchman Records

Bob Thiele was already an industry veteran when he joined Am-Par/Impulse in 1961. He was mainly an A&R man, but had also been a small record label owner and a jazz magazine publisher. Later on in his Impulse career, towards the end of the 1960s he saw major labels like his own ABC Paramount fundamentally change. Due to the growth of performers who wrote their own music and used independent producers, traditional A&R men like Bob Thiele were becoming obsolete. Oliver Nelson, Bob Thiele, Ron Carter and Thad Jones at an FD Recording Session (Photo: Chuck Stewart) Whilst at Impulse Thiele had created his own production company called Flying Dutchman, producing Impulse records such as 'Karma' by Pharoah Sanders. When a dispute surfaced with label boss Larry Newton during a recording session with Louis Armstrong, Thiele realised he would have to resign before being pushed from Impulse. He subsequently resigned and created Flying Dutchman Records, developing distribution arra

Pharoah Sanders' Philosophical Conversation - July 1967

In the July 1967 issue of Canada's Coda Magazine, Pharaoh Sanders held a long conversation with Elisabeth van der Mei. The feature starts out with the comment "You play so good you made me forget about Trane", and ends with Pharoah saying Coltrane wouldn't have got to where he is now without listening to others. The feature talks about playing in Trane's group and the dynamics between the musicians, how he (and Trane) had dropped playing over chord changes and the concept of time was now radically different. He preferred playing with just Rashied Ali for this very reason. Making 8 or 9 notes out of 2 by putting them through the horn in different ways; And to achieve what he could, you needed ability, control and emotion. Poignant given the issue date, the same month of Trane's death, this is a really insightful interview with Pharoah just as he was ending one phase in his career, before taking his deeply felt spirituality into a new phase. pharoah sanders

The New Jazz Musings

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