Avenue Boosts Bethlehem Catalog: Borders Will Hold Jazz Brunches With New Talent To Celebrate

NEW YORK-In order to raise the profile of its recently acquired Bethlehem Records jazz catalog, Avenue Jazz has teamed with the Borders chain in sponsoring a series of weekend "jazz brunches," featuring local unsigned jazz talent, at selected stores.
The series, which began March 18 and runs through April 22, has targeted approximately 20 outlets, mostly in major jazz markets like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, which are most likely to have a sizable community of jazz musicians.
Via tape submissions, Borders is choosing the artists who perform at the brunches, which also tie in with local jazz radio stations. At the conclusion of the promotion, Borders and Bethlehem will determine the best artists, who will be included in a compilation CD that also features classic Bethlehem artist tracks.
"What better way to bring attention to our past music than by luring musicians of the present?" says Glenn Stone, senior VP of Avenue Music Group, whose jazz label acquired the 240-title Bethlehem catalog last year. "We're paying for coffee and bagels and will pick the five best unsigned talent tracks submitted and put them in a compilation with some of the great Bethlehem artists-people like Charlie Mingus and Johnny Hartman."
The promotion, notes Stone, "gives something back to a key account that supports the label, while raising the profile of Bethlehem."
Bicoastally based in New York and Los Angeles, Bethlehem Records was an active jazz label from 1954 to 1960, when it went bankrupt. While some catalog titles have been reissued over the years, Avenue Jazz plans to reissue the entire catalog over the next five years at the rate of two titles per month.
Some two dozen titles have already been released, notes Stone, including the ambitious jazz version of "Porgy And Bess" starring Mel Torme and Francis Faye.
"It was an incredible undertaking which employed the talents of everybody on the label, which never recovered from the economic strain," he adds.
So there's "amazing stuff that hasn't seen the light of day for a long time," Stone says, most notably product by Torme, "who was at the peak of his talent." The catalog also includes, in addition to Hartman and Mingus titles, albums by Carmen McRae, Art Blakey, Herbie Mann, Dexter Gordon, Duke Ellington, and John Coltrane.
"Even for hardcore jazz fans, these [Bethlehem] records are hard to find," continues Stone. "But there's also incredible music by quality artists whose careers didn't flourish after Bethlehem, like Red Mitchell, Howard McGhee, Charlie Shavers-who if they'd been on a mainstay label would have had their profiles maintained.
"Like Duke Ellington made two records for Bethlehem with the same ensemble which resurrected his career at the Newport Jazz Festival, so his profile always remained high," Stone says. "But when artists like Shavers disappeared from the public eye without a label to continue his musical legacy, it becomes difficult from a commercial standpoint [to reissue product]. So we have to try and reintroduce these artists to jazz fans."
All Bethlehem product, then, is sale-priced at Borders this month and given high visibility in the store areas where the brunches are staged. The label hopes to have the compilation/label sampler available exclusively at Borders this summer, "aggressively priced" at $2.99 or $3.99, says Stone, who notes, though, that pricing depends on Borders. The disc will also contain a discount coupon good on any other Bethlehem title.
According to Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Borders national music events specialist Sean Lavalle, the participating stores' community relations coordinators have been contacting local colleges that have jazz programs to publicize the events. They have also gotten the word out through normal channels like the monthly event calenders sent out to the customer base and handed out in stores.
Bethlehem/Avenue Jazz and Avenue distributor WEA are also doing print advertising in support of the brunches, and some of the radio station participants are simulcasting from the stores.
"We usually do in-store appearances and concerts bringing in an average of 90 people per event," says Lavalle, "but so far the brunches are bringing about 120 people-so it's turning out to be a very good promotion."