Jason Weiss On ESP-Disk, Always in Trouble

Show description for Sunday 10/14/2012 @ 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Our guest this week, on the 5 o'clock hour, Jason Weiss, author of Always In Trouble: An Oral History of ESP-Disk, The Most Outrageous Record Label in America

In 1964, Bernard Stollman launched the independent record label ESP-Disk’ in New York City to document the free jazz movement there. A bare-bones enterprise, ESP was in the right place at the right time, producing albums by artists like Albert Ayler, Pharoah Sanders, and Sun Ra, as well as folk-rock bands like the Fugs and Pearls Before Swine. But the label quickly ran into difficulties and, due to the politically subversive nature of some productions and sloppy business practices, it folded in 1974. Always in Trouble tells the story of ESP-Disk’ through a multitude of voices—first Stollman’s, as he recounts the improbable life of the label, and then the voices of many of the artists involved.

“ESP’s music was startling, and it was unusual to have one company bring out so many styles of music at once under the same logo. This book takes a biographical approach to the label, and presents one of the best accounts I’ve seen of a chaotic, bizarre, and thrilling time.”—John Szwed, author of Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World
“Always in Trouble brims with lively, revealing stories and anecdotes. A multi-sided look at the legendary ESP record label, it is essential reading for anyone interested in the cultural explosions of the 1960s.”——Nathaniel Mackey, author of Bass Cathedral

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	Artist	Song	Album	Label
	Bud Powell	Cleopatra's Dream	The Scene Changes	Blue Note
	Cannonball Adderley	Autumn Leaves	Somethin' Else	Blue Note
	Sarah Vaughn	Words Can't Describe	Swingin' Easy	Mercury
	Sarah Vaughn	Pennies From Heaven	Swingin' Easy	Mercury
	Hampton Hawes	Jordu	All Night Session Vol. 1	Contemporary
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Bobby Troup	Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby	Bobby Troup & His Stars Of Jazz	RCA
	Zoot Sims featuring Mel Lewis	Brushes	Choice	World Pacific
	Ray Charles	But On The Other Hand Baby	Greatest Hits	ABC - Paramount
	Clark Terry featuring Thelonious Monk	In Orbit	In Orbit	Jazzland
	Red Garland	Take Me In Your Arms	Red's Good Groove	Jazzland
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Sun Ra	House Of Beauty	The Heliocentric Worlds Of Sun Ra Vol. 2	ESP-Disk
	Sun Ra	Outer Nothingness	The Heliocentric Worlds Of Sun Ra Vol. 1	ESP-Disk
	Albert Ayler	Angels	Spirits Rejoice	ESP-Disk
	Gunter Hampel	Assemblage (excerpt)	Assemblage	ESP-Disk
	Ishmael Reed	The Freelance Pallbearers (excerpt)	East Village Other	ESP-Disk
	Sonny Simmons	Staying On The Watch (excerpt)	Staying On The Watch	ESP-Disk
	Alan Sondheim	Ritual All 7 70 (excerpt)	Ritual All 7 70	ESP-Disk
	William S. Burroughs	Nova Express (excerpt)	Call Me Burroughs	ESP-Disk
	The Fugs	KIll For Peace (excerpt)	The Fugs	ESP-Disk
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Albert Ayler	Ghosts (First Variation)	Spiritual Unity	ESP-Disk
	John Beecher	Report To The Stockholders	Report To The Stockholders & Other Poems	Folkways
	Charlie Parker	Koko	The Complete Savoy Masters	Savoy
	Coleman Hawkins	Body & Soul	Jive At Five	New World
	Duke Ellington	Ridin' On A Blue Note	Duke Ellington 1938-1940	Smithsonian
	Duke Ellington	Hip Chic	Duke Ellington 1938-1940	Smithsonian
	Duke Ellington	Old King Dooji	Duke Ellington 1938-1940	Smithsonian
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Steve Lacy	The Forest (excerpt)	The Forest & The Zoo	ESP-Disk
	Interview With Jason Weiss By Justin Desmangles	Interview With Jason Weiss By Justin Desmangles	Interview With Jason Weiss By Justin Desmangles	Interview With Jason Weiss By Justin Desmangles
	Tadd Dameron	Look, Stop, Listen	The Magic Touch	Riverside
	Bud Powell	Blue Pearl (AlternateTake)	Blue Pearl	Blue Note Japan