WB Goes All -Out on Jazzman Best Selling Lps

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46 Billboard SPECIAL SURVEY For Week Ending 5/27/78 Jazz (Published Twice A Month) RECOGNITION OF ALTO SAXIST'S LEGEND Billboard WB Goes All -Out On Jazzman Best Selling LPs

d Parker; Movie And a 6 -LP Set 14 TITLE eg S Artist, Label & Number (Distributing Label) By DAVE DEXTER ,1R. ;

LOS ANGELES -Warner Bros. tains several old photos. The text has 1 1 16 WEEKEND IN L.A. George Benson, Warner Bros. 2Wb -3139 Records this week is issuing a poshy, been published before, much of it deluxe box of six LPs featuring the culled from Russell's "Bird Lives" 2 2 32 FEELS SO GOOD alto sax wizardry of the late Charlie and earlier "Jazz Style In Kansas Chuck Mangione, A &M SP 4658 "Bird" Parker. It will retail at $34.95. City And The Southwest" books. 3 3 16 RAINBOW SEEKER We know it will lose money with The Russell annotation is only ade- Joe Sample. ABC AA 1050 every copy sold." says Bob Krasnow, quate, but to compound the medi- 4 4 23 LIVE AT THE BIJOU vice president talent at WB's Bur - of ocrity a large photo of Parker on a Grover Washington Jr., Kudu KUX 3637 (Motown) hank headquarters. "But everyone Los Angeles session with singer Earl 5 5 8 in the company is eager to get the Coleman, Russell and bassist SAY IT WITH SILENCE Hubert Laws. Columbia 1C -35022 package out on the market and the George "Red" Callender has Cal - big bosses, including Mo Austin, lender identified as "Shifty Henry." 6 14 3 MODERN MAN have encouraged us with the proj- The two -LP Parker album retails Stanley Clarke, Nemperor 12 35303 (CBS) ect." at $9.95, Krasnow reports. And un- 1 12 3 CASINO Krasnow is a co- producer of the like the larger package it has a sub- Al DiMeola, Columbia IC 35277 set with Stewart Levine and Ray- stantial profit margin. Production 8 10 3 LOVELAND mond Lofaro. will not be restricted, either. Lonnie Liston Smith, Columbia JC 35332 The Parker box ties in with a com- Krasnow augments the unusual Charlie Parker: Bird flies again on 9 6 10 WEST SIDE HIGHWAY ing heavily budgeted motion picture aspects of the Parker 6 -LP box by WB. Stanley Turrentine, Fantasy F -9548 based on the dissolute Kansas City disclosing that no promotion sets are musician's life and his spotty but only issuing all the original Dial being shipped to radio and print 10 9 8 LOVE ISLAND Deodato, Warner Bros. BSK memorable career in jazz. The film, masters by Bird but all the alternate media. 3132 targeted for 1979 completion. will be takes as well. Nothing like that has "We're not looking for a publicity 11 1 16 THE PATH produced by Krasnow, Levine and ever been done before." bonanza on the deluxe package," he Ralph MacDonald, Marlin 2210 (TK) Lofaro. Krasnow says he personally spent says. "We know we can sell 4.000 12 8 16 HOLD ON "Richard Pryor has been con- $40.000 for a series of oil paintings units here and in Europe. It is simply Noel Pointer, United Artists UALA 848-11 tracted to play the role of Parker," by various to provide front a artists prestige item, one that should in- 13 16 16 HERB ALPERT & HUGH MASEKELA Krasnow says, "and Richard Wesley cover art for the six boxed albums. crease in value quickly as the 4.000 Horizon SP 728 (A &M) is writing the screenplay." "All told," he reports. "1 have put sets disappear from stores." 14 20 3 JUST FAMILY Production already has begun un- about $50,000 of my own money Assisting Krasnow, Levine and Dee Dee Bridgewater, Elektra 6E -119 der the tentative title, "Bird Lives," into this album project. Lofaro in the production of the two the title of the book written about "We are manufacturing only packages were Michael Doud, art 15 13 6 BURCHFIELD NINE Michael Franks, Warner Bros. BSK 3167 the Yardbird in the early 1970s by 4,000 sets," he adds. "Exactly 1,200 director; John Cabalka and John Ross Russell, a one -time record pro- will be marketed in the 50 states. The Kehe. Krasnow will be devoting 16 11 11 THE MAD HATTER p ducer whose Dial Records masters remaining 2,800 will be sold in Eu- much of his time the remainder of Chick Corea, Polydor PD 1 -6130 provide material for the new Warner rope. There won't be any additional this year putting together the "Bird 17 19 3 SPINOZZA pBros. deluxe set. pressings. Lives" movie. David Spinozza, A &M SP 4677 CO Parker March 12. 1955, a "on a died in "But," Krasnow declares, All the Dial masters now on WB 18 - J debilit- 17 14 FUNK IN A MASON JAR New York City hospital of less limited basis we also are market- were recorded in New York and Los Harvey Mason, Arista AB 4157 m ating effects induced by long over - ing a two -LP album comprising the Angeles in 1946 -47 when Parker was 19 22 3 PEG LEG cc indulgence in alcohol and narcotics. best cuts from all the Dial sessions in still in his 20s. Along with the Yard - Ron Carter. Milestone M9082 (Fantasy) rn He was 34 years old and ranked with Los Angeles and New York in the bird's alto sax, men like Miles Davis. Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, late 1940s. Russell has been excep- Duke Jordan, Max Roach. Erroll 20 18 29 HEADS i Lester Young and Fletcher Hender- tionally cooperative. And he has Garner. Wardell Gray, Barney Kes- Bob James. Columbia JC 34896 >- son as a distinguished jazz innova- written a booklet which is being in- sell, Howard McGhee. Red Callen- 21 15 6 LET'S DO IT tor. cluded in both the two -LP and the der, Dodo Marmorosa, Don La- Roy Ayers, Polydor PD1 -6126

"We made a lease deal with Rus- six -LP sets." mond, Doc West, J. J. Johnson and 22 23 49 LOOK TO THE RAINBOW -AL JARREAU LIVE sell," says Krasnow. "We are not The booklet, about 16 pages, con- Tommy Potter are spotted. IN EUROPE Warner Bros. 2BZ 3052

23 21 10 LOVE WILL FIND A WAY New Music & Direction For Flora Purim Pharoah Sanders, Arista AB 4161 24 C1=0 BALTIMORE By JEAN WILLIAMS Nina Simone, CTI CTI 7084 LOS ANGELES -When Flora According to Purim, she and Airto paning Purim on "Everyday Every- 25 Ca* BOP -BE Purim decides to make a have change, the decided to go in different direc- night" are George Duke, Harvey Keith Jarrett, ABC IA 9334 lady does not half-step. She hits the tions professionally. "We found af- Mason, the Brecker Brothers, Herbie 26 28 6 THAT'S WHAT road Friday (26) sporting not only a ter so many years that we were pull- Hancock, Airto, Lee Ritenour, Lani SHE SAID Flora Purim, Milestone 9081 (Fantasy) new look but a new musical direc- ing our audiences apart. Musicans Hall, Raul de Souza, Jaco Pastorius. tion. felt Airto should be featured more Pattie Santos, Alphonso Johnson. 27 1::E:* INNER CONFLICTS For openers, Flora has shed much and pop audiences wanted to hear Jon Faddis and David Sanborn. Billy Cobham, Atlantic SD 19174 of her electronic in me sing without so much 28 27 16 EASY LIVING accompaniment longer im- "With this LP I'm using very few an effort to better focus on her vocal provisation by the musicians. Sonny Rollins, Milestone M 9080 (Fantasy) electronic devices. Electronic instru- ability. She couples that with a new "We feel the best way to solve that ments have always been my main at- 29 III=11 ROTATIONS wardrobe, shedding her jeans for de- is to try to give both audiences what traction. My voice is now these in- Tim Weisberg Band. United Artists UALA 857 signer garb. And for the first time in they want, so Airto will travel with struments." 30 24 32 JEAN -LUC PONTY 15 years she will be performing as a his group and 1 will travel with Enigmatic Ocean, Atlantic SD 19110 solo act -minus her percussionist/ mine." She explains that this LP has I I cuts. more than any of her other LPs. 31 MOONSCAPES husband Airto. Flora will also be touring in sup- =MO Because the musicians' improvi- Bennie Maupin, Mercury SRM1 3717 port of her second Warner Bros. LP. of sation on previous LPs. the max- "Everybody Everynight." making 32 31 8 ROSEWOOD imum number cuts was the rounds of summer jazz festivals, of eight. Woody Shaw. Columbia JC 35309 "This time we wanted to do a great nightclubs and colleges. 33 26 55 FRIENDS 8 STRANGERS She says her new LP is also a de- (Continued on page 71) Ronnie Laws. Blue Note BN LA730 -H (United Artists) 14:6112$40. parture from her previous efforts, RECORDS 34 37 3 UNFINISHED BUSINESS noting that for the first time her al- Jimmy Smith, Mercury SRM -1 -3716 bum is structured. "1 never wanted 35 BRAZIL -ONCE AGAIN to structure anything because 1 felt [Jazz Beat] Herbie Mann, Atlantic SD 19169 the strength of jazz was improvisa- tion. LOS ANGELES -Dizzy Gillespie, the Thad 36 34 59 HEAVY WEATHER PRESENTS Jones Mel Lewis big band, Ted Carson and B.B. Weather Report, Columbia PC 34418 "We wrote most of the music on 7002 LOVE FOR SALE King are booked for the Pori Jazz Fest in Finland the new album. This is also different 37 33 51 FREE AS THE WIND DEREK SMITH in mid July. Some 50,000 Europeans will attend Crusaders, ABC /Blue BT Gawp Daffier, Doiir Dnapieen for me. I normally like to perform Thumb 6029 the event, which has 14 7008 TRAVELING scheduled concerts and songs that people in the group write 38 SPYRO GYRA CHUCK WAYNE 11 jam sessions. beca Ise they are stimulated and I Spyro Gyra, Amherst AMH 1014 Jay Units. Onde OMIwt, verra Wiesen New York's St. Regis Hotel has been present- am a so in a position to a 7003 FIGURE AND SPIRIT give them ing pianist John Bunch of Famous Door Records 39 32 3 THE ADVENTURES OF ASTRAL PIRATES LEE KONITZ OUINTET break " in its new King Cole jazz room, replacing the old Lenny White, Elektra 6E -121 Tel Orwa, Abed Deasy. Dei, Jos Much of the LP was written by Maisonette. Bunch leads a solid mainstream btu cii.bsre 40 25 23 TEQUILA MOCKINGBIRD 7004 ARIGATO Flora. Airto and Michael Colom- foursome.... Stan and Terry made Getz Clark Ramsey Lewis. Columbia JC 35018 HANK JONES TRIO bier, who also arranged the strings sellout appearances at Lodz and Warsaw last Dicha i Dais. Deems ONhrd month. Working with the Getz group are Bob Order from your favorite distributor or and horns by the London Sym- © Copyrigh 1978, Billboard Publications. Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced. direct from Progressive Records, Route 4 phony Orchestra. Brookmeyer, Andy Laverne, Mike Richmond, Jeff stored in a etrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, (912) recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Tifton, Georgia 31794 382-8192 Some of the musicians accom- (Continued on page 83) photocopying,