My friend Tad Hendrickson has a piece in the May 2006 Jazz Times about major jazz labels signing more and more non-jazz acts. He quotes Ron Goldstein of the Verve Music Group as follows:
It’s not that we want to be out of the jazz business. It’s just that there is nothing that is coming along that is exciting. There was a blip with Joshua Redman, Nicholas Payton, Christian McBride 10 years ago, but it seemed to dry up very quickly.
We could give Goldstein the benefit of the doubt and assume he means commercially exciting. But clarity would be useful here. Jazz artists aren’t getting signed to Verve because they won’t sell records, not because they’re not exciting. Maybe Goldstein no longer sees the difference.
I have no particular problem with Verve and Blue Note signing non-jazz acts, and I can respect concerns about the financial bottom line. But the majors shouldn’t blame jazz artists for the current malaise. That’s self-justifying nonsense.
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