Achievement in Reissues 2005

So last year, when I had planned to write a year-end review piece, I included a section called "Achievement in Reissues," spotlighting a relatively new record label that had already been resurrecting a bunch of classic albums. It was pretty much created for Hip-O Select, because come on, Super Ape, Richie Havens, the Jam, and every Motown single (and hey, I had no idea Too Much Too Soon was out of print).

This year, the honor goes to ESP-DISK'.

For those who don't know about ESP-DISK', it was one of the great independent labels of the 1960s. Its first release was a record of folk songs in Esperanto (hence the name), but its second release was Albert Ayler's classic Spiritual Unity. They wound up recording some of jazz's greatest innovators, like Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, and even a young Bob James before he went on to fill rap DJs' milk crates. They also put out some archival records of concert recordings and radio broadcasts by the likes of Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, and Ornette Coleman (whose Town Hall Concert 1962 was his last release for three years). Oh, and it wasn't all jazz, it was also hippies (the Fugs, Pearls Before Swine, the Godz).

ESP didn't make its artists sign long-term contracts, so they were free to move to the major leagues if such an opportunity presented itself (and they often did; Impulse, for instance, nabbed Ayler, Sanders, and Sun Ra). The label didn't do as well as its artists, however; after being ruined by bootlegging, the label drastically reduced operations in 1968 and finally shut down in 1974.

So what became of this priceless back catalogue? Well, beginning in 1992, three different European labels licensed ESP's records for CD reissues (German ZYX, Dutch Calibre, and Italian Abraxas). However, at the beginning of this year, ESP itself began domestically pressing CDs (after apparently producing CD-Rs for a couple years).

ESP's current output began modestly with two straight reissues (Spiritual Unity, The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra 1 and 2), a version of Pharoah's First with added interviews, and two new products (a live Albert Ayler set and unreleased Sun Ra recordings, titled Heliocentric Worlds Vol. 3), but since then... well, three examples:

• Pearls Before Swine: The Complete ESP-DISK' Recordings, remastered from the best sources available (which, apparently, included original vinyl pressings, due to missing masters) and sounding spectacular.
• Sun Ra's Nothing Is..., restored to the original running order and including some bonus tracks.
• Ed Askew's first album (a/k/a Ask the Unicorn), with three bonus tracks, one of which is a brand new recording from 2005.

Sadly, some things never change; according to the main page, ESP still has to deal with bootlegs (good thing they pointed it out; I saw that complete Albert Ayler set on Amazon), but I believe their commitment to superior product will put them ahead of the competition this time around.

I was going to post "Ghosts" from Spiritual Unity, but then I figured that might not be a good idea, seeing as though Bernard Stollman, the man who founded ESP, was a lawyer (and besides, haven't they had enough problems with piracy?). However, on the official website, you can find audio clips from every single ESP release (except for a few to which they no longer own the rights, like the first two Fugs records). I'd recommend going there to learn more.