I’ve been searching for this Cecil Taylor flyer for the 25 years since I misplaced mine. Then, out of nowhere, saxophonist and composer Ras Moshe posted it on his Facebook page.
Why was I so obsessed?
Well, I love the illustration. To my eyes, rarely do world class illustrators do justice to jazz musicians, especially of the free jazz variety.
Frank Olinsky, a great friend* of mine, was the artist. I introduced Frank to Cecil’s manager at the time, David Laura, to design the vinyl LP labels for “Spring of Two Blue-J’s,” and then this flyer.
My formative years in recording happened at Columbia University’s WKCR-FM, the co-sponsor of this concert; it was where David Laura came looking for someone to record Cecil’s Town Hall concert. I was out of the station by then, but one always has a special feeling for home.
When I was putting together the Oblivion release of “The Return Concert” I asked Frank about the flyer. He didn’t have it either, but did some new work to recreate a version that I eventually used on some posters.
I’ve never met Ras, but I owe him a big “thank you!”
* Frank and I grew up together, went to college in New York City in the same era, and did some spectacular work together over the years, most famously with his co-design of the MTV logo with his partners.
This latest series of limited edition postcards celebrates our great creators and showrunners. In this case, the phenomenon of Bravest Warriors. While the original short was created by Pendleton Ward during Random! Cartoons, he was busy with Adventure Time (very busy!) and he suggested his friend Breehn Burns to run the show when we brought it to Cartoon Hangover. Breehn gave us his fantastic pitch, and we couldn’t say no.
While Pen’s short was merely a sketch of what could eventually happen, it was up to Breehn to flesh things out to make it series worthy. And he did not disappoint in the least.
And then, of course, Breehn’s crowning creation… it’s Catbug!
PS: our great friends at Ludoko Studios created a wonderful Catbug iphone game. It’s where this illustration is from.
…..
From the postcard back:
You are one of 125 people
to receive this limited edition FredFilms postcard!
I’ve loved posters since I was a teenager and got 98¢ black light, psychedelic rock posters that were popular in the late 60s. I’ve made plenty over the years, first for various clients and parties at my branding agency, then for my cartoon productions over the years. Together, those were the beginnings of my personal collection.
When it came to Oblivion, we barely had enough cash to make the records and our promotion was usually some raggedy flyers we could print on the cheap. So, no posters.
Several years ago I developed some Photoshop skills, and in recognition of our “Complete Oblivion” digital collection I put something together.
With our recent Cecil Taylor release, I really got going, and over the past year I designed a poster or two (mostly verticals, but an occasional horizontal) for our entire catalog.
Long story short, they’re all available for full resolution download and printing here (including an upcoming release that I couldn’t resist getting done now). There are dozens of quality resources for printing, just ask Dr. Google.
Happy New Year! I hope it will be a great one for you.
Our (sort of) annual New Year’s poster was designed and illustrated by the uniquely talented Argentinian (based in Berlin) Juan Molinet. The beautiful printing is done by Dan Padavic’s Vahalla Studios in Kansas City (they’ve already done an amazing job on eight of our past releases).
For
the last 18 of the last 20 years I’ve released a limited edition New
Years poster that’s sent out to an ever morphing mailing list. The
inspiration was my stumbling on the annual picnic posters of Herman
Miller in their showrooms. Ours are designed by someone that’s struck my
fancy at the time, some known and some a bit more obscure, all friends
or friends to be. Hopefully, all the posters are enjoyed. Well, at least
I know that I like them all.
Happy New Year! I hope it will be a great one for you.
Our (sort of) annual New Year’s poster was designed and illustrated by the uniquely talented Argentinian (based in Berlin) Juan Molinet. The beautiful printing is done by Dan Padavic’s Vahalla Studios in Kansas City (they’ve already done an amazing job on eight of our past releases).
For
the last 18 of the last 20 years I’ve released a limited edition New
Years poster that’s sent out to an ever morphing mailing list. The
inspiration was my stumbling on the annual picnic posters of Herman
Miller in their showrooms. Ours are designed by someone that’s struck my
fancy at the time, some known and some a bit more obscure, all friends
or friends to be. Hopefully, all the posters are enjoyed. Well, at least
I know that I like them all.
My day job is producing cartoons, the longest of the “five lives” in
my official biography. But the pandemic gave me a kind of freedom to
revisit some of my past passions. In particular, my life in producing
jazz recordings. No commuting to or from work, no breakfasts, lunches or
drinks. At least four extra hours a day. Enough time to get into a
little trouble. Some would say a side hustle, some would call it a
hobby.
50 years ago, two friends of mine and I decided to start a record
label –Oblivion Records– in the back of a hippie record store one of
them owned. We suspended operations four years later, realizing our
enthusiasm was no substitute for knowing how to run the business, and it
wasn’t until the digital music revolution of the 21st Century that I
got our six records back into the marketplace where they’ve performed
better than I could have imagined.
Some –many?!– would ask “why?” Why release a 50 year old musical
performance? Why release an album of an artists barely anyone has heard
of? Why digital only, you make no money?
All good questions, I suppose, and my answers won’t be entirely satisfying.
It’s rare in one’s life that you could be involved in history. At
least, that’s true for me. I’ve had some amazing, groundbreaking
experiences in television, animation and streaming video; only time will
tell how they fit into culture. But, time has already given a thumbs up
judgement on Cecil and I was beyond lucky to have some tiny involvement
in it. Over the past half century he went from being barely able to
fill a small jazz club to a concert star of the highest caliber. He was a
true artist who incorporated modern dance (yes, he also danced at many
of his performances), fashion, and a completely unique approach to his
instrument, his compositions and his band leading. He appeared across
the globe to rapturous audiences –which, due to his steadfast vision,
often included grumbling walk outs– and was in demand until he passed
away in 2018. Remembrances and reassessments of his life’s work followed
from all over.
Cecil Taylor fit neatly into the Oblivion ethos. In the infinite
wisdom of youth and the idealism of the early 1970s, Tom Pomposello,
Dick Pennington and I thought the major companies were ignoring talented
artists –including Tom– we thought we were worthy. Maybe we could show
the world what they were missing. An ad in the back of a local Long
Island music rag pointed us in the direction of a record pressing plant a
few miles away, we bought a book that described how to design a cover,
and edited a live recording of country blues legend Mississippi Fred
McDowell to be our first release. More blues, traditional jazz and
electronic (soon to be maligned as “fusion”), and Tom’s American roots
album followed in the next few years. We sold enough McDowells to keep
it in print, borrowed money from ourselves and friends for the others,
and even had a hit that basically put us down on the mat.
All along the way I recorded other jazz artists at my college radio
station and one day I was asked if I could find some equipment to record
Cecil’s hometown “return” to New York City after years as Midwest
university professor. You bet! It didn’t matter that this was a no-pay
gig. Honestly, I had to borrow the cash from my
roommate/benefactor/recording assistant Nick Moy
for the cab ride downtown, but the chance to work with a world class,
world famous artist was more than A-OK for a 23 year old fan. Not for
nothing, Cecil had a worldwide rep but this period was only the
beginning of his actually becoming a global star.
So we’re clear, Cecil’s music was never for the faint of heart. An
explosive, exacting style, once described by UK writer Val Wilmer as
“eighty-eight tuned drums,” his seeming random din was already shredding
any semblance of “swing” that traditionalists were looking for in their
jazz heroes.
Cecil released the second half of the concert, which fit neatly on
two vinyl sides, on Unit Core, his own label (no other record company
would have him at the time) as “Spring of Two Blue-J’s.” He had little
interest in running a company, letting the album go out of print even
after Gary Giddins of the Village Voice (one of its few reviewers)
praised it as his favorite album of 1974. The first half of the
recording sat neglected on my shelf for half a century. It was 90
minutes of sweet and sour cacophony that wouldn’t fit neatly on the
mediums of the time, and besides I lacked the proper equipment to even
listen to it.
The digital age and the pandemic changed everything. Now, I could go
to YouTube and learn to use the recording studio built into my Apple
computer in 10 minutes. The music could be mastered in the extra hours
lock down had gifted me. And since streaming audio has no time
limitations I could drop the release -the unreleased first set of the
concert, and the original LP performances, more than two hours of music–
in its entirety without any annoying fade outs along the way. (By the
way, the nothing annoyed Cecil’s aging fans and collectors more. Most of
them hadn’t bothered to figure out how to get their phones to play on
their grand music systems.)
After I figured that stuff out –I was pretty nervous mixing my first
music performances in decades– the rest fell into place pretty quickly.
Tunecore, a streaming music distribution service, sent the files across
the globe and Bandcamp allowed collectors to buy digital files.
Most importantly, my longtime creative colleague Alan Goodman
agreed to write the digital liner notes (along with the music, they’re
available at the Oblivion Records website) and jazz promoter and
publicist extraordinaire Lydia Liebman accepted the release for her agency.
Alan’s extraordinary writing and Lydia’s phenomenal efforts spread
the story of the Cecil discovery worldwide. While the original LP was
virtually ignored in its time, 50 years of global touring and the
cultural expansion of an understanding public had its effect. The music
was reviewed in dozens of publications around the world, not only in the
music press, but in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR
and all sorts of general interest media.
So back to the "why.” Cecil Taylor was a important artist, if not a
top-of-the-pops one. My partners and I wanted Oblivion to release
artists who were significant, if not particularly popular. I had a chance
to make my side hustle, my hobby, mean something. Is there anything
more satisfying? Not to me.
Long before his time on Gravity Falls, Samurai Jack or The Powerpuff Girls, Rob Renzetti and I worked together on a numberofprojects at Hanna-Barbera and he was one of my first choices to join us at Oh Yeah! Cartoons in the late 90s. There’s no one I’d rather work with, a super nice man with originality, creativity and integrity. I was so confident of Rob’s creative and directing chops that he was offered a six short deal, with no advance look at any of his ideas (well, one exception. I asked him to bring over the great characters from his H&B short, Mina & the Count; he ended up doing six more for Oh Yeah!).
Then, on his sixth short, Rob scored! One of the most beloved cartoons of the 2000′s. With a quick name change, “My Neighbor was a Teenage Robot,” dropped on August 1, 2003 and left behind 40 comedy filled, sci-fi tinged, truly one of the Best Original cartoon series.
…..
From the postcard back:
You are one of 125 people
to receive this limited edition FredFilms postcard!
Every year I get a little better at planning for my annual New Year’s poster. Next year’s took even a little more forethought because I really wanted to work with the fabulous Juan Molinet, who’s based in Berlin.
2018 was important, but I feel like this year’s mid-terms are deeply consequential. No matter what side of the ever higher fence you’re on, it’s our obligation to make our voices heard. Given the turmoil we’ve all been living through, I don’t want to pound you about it, but we gotta get out there.
It might not surprise you that I’m on the left side. But, it doesn’t matter. My sisters and I are first generation Americans, and I’ve got a deep and abiding belief in the United States and the way we go about governing ourselves. No matter the loud rhetoric we hear constantly, no matter where someone was born, they can come to America and become Americans. It’s not true anywhere else. (Don’t believe it? Name another.)
Please vote this year, it’s critical. (And check your local regulations. There are many places in the country where early voting starts in a week or two.
…..
From the postcard back:
You are one of 125 people
to receive this limited edition FredFilms postcard!
