Always in Trouble: An Oral History of ESP-Disk', the Most Outrageous Record Label in America

Product Description


In 1964, Bernard Stollman launched the independent record label ESP-Disk' (short for "Esperanto Disko") in New York City to document the free jazz movement there, beginning with iconic saxophonist Albert Ayler. A bare-bones enterprise, ESP was in the right place at the right time, producing albums by artists like Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra, Giuseppi Logan, and Patty Waters. Soon the label broadened its catalog, including recordings by folk-rock bands like The Fugs and Pearls Before Swine, as well as Timothy Leary, William Burroughs, and Charles Manson. 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. The story of ESP-Disk' is told through a multitude of voices--first by Stollman, as he recounts the improbable life of the label, and then by many of the artists involved. The result is a fascinating account of the music and the times. Includes interviews with Amiri Baraka, Gato Barbieri, Milford Graves, Roswell Rudd, Sirone, Sonny Simmons, James Zitro, Tom Rapp, Sunny Murray, and many more.


Review


Library Journal"

Record Collector"

Open Letters Monthly"

JazzTimes"

Weiss wonderfully describes the role of ESP in the birth of the free jazz movement and points to the necessity of record label owners (such as Stollman) who translate their passion for music into new musical forms. An absorbing account that will interest any music fan. Dave Szatmary,
Library Journal"

Bernard Stollman captured the 60s zeitgeist before it d even hit. His now-legendary label, ESP-Disk, provided the means for a wealth of free jazz firewalkers (Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, Frank Wright, Giuseppi Logan) and polemical folk provocateurs (The Fugs and The Holy Modal Rounders) to get their far-out sounds to a wider audience. But this tale has a less savoury side, borne out in this book s series of interviews with Stollman and some of those artists with a connection to the imprint. Spencer Grady,
Record Collector"

It s an important book, not just in documenting a unique cultural moment and a unique achievement, but in exploring the contradictions inherent in any creative enterprise, and whether these forces can ever be reconciled. Steve Danziger,
Open Letters Monthly"

The mother lode for devotees of the jazz avant-garde and outre music in general, Jason Weiss Always in Trouble is a collection of incisive Q&As with the principals and players behind the game-changing company founded by Bernard Stollman in 1964. (the) best material comes from Stollman himself Like the music he purveyed, Stollman s stories are full of strangeness as well as lyricism. Evan Haga,
JazzTimes"

oral history Always In Trouble focuses on the label s mission to provide a voice to outsiders who were having a hard time getting heard. Larry Jaffe,
Rock s Back Pages"

This is a book that needed to be written. Robert Iannapollo,
ARSC Journal"

Weiss provides an entertaining oral history of the highly eclectic record label from the 1960s, ESP-Disk.
Rain Taxi"

As today a resuscitated ESP-Disk repackages its past while trying to rectify its spotted history, Weiss volume captures its initial impact on the nascent experimental scheme in its participants own words. Ken Waxman,
New York Jazz Record"

"It's an important book, not just in documenting a unique cultural moment and a unique achievement, but in exploring the contradictions inherent in any creative enterprise, and whether these forces can ever be reconciled."--Steve Danziger,
Open Letters Monthly

"The mother lode for devotees of the jazz avant-garde and outre music in general, Jason Weiss' Always in Trouble is a collection of incisive Q&As with the principals and players behind the game-changing company founded by Bernard Stollman in 1964. ...(the) best material comes from Stollman himself... Like the music he purveyed, Stollman's stories are full of strangeness as well as lyricism."--Evan Haga,
JazzTimes

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