Following up on that ORG Music - Black Lion reissue series

Announcement this past week about the ORG Music Black Lion reissue series that I wrote about last fall, and it confirms everything that I said previously about it. It's a total sham.

First, it is now clear that Hoffman's involvement is simply to plaster his name on it so it can be promoted to the hapless lemmings on his forum. Hoffman is listed as an "EQ consultant", which in truth is all Hoffman has ever been - he can't actually remaster anything, becuase he has neither the mastering engineer skill set or the mastering studio to do so. All he ever does is dwiddle the EQ while someone else - lately Steve Marsh, or previously Kevin Gray, does the actual remastering and/or cutting.

In some cases, Hoffman does nothing at all, but charges a fee (I understand $500 a title) to lease his name to the credits - a bald practice to sell product to his forum lemmings, another Stockholm Syndrome practice. I'll bet that is the case with the ORG Black Lion series.

I have previously expressed my opinion that the Black Lion catalog is for the most part hardly a candidate for an expensive reissue project. It consists of less than prime material by artists recording with pickup European musicians of less than stellar calibre, in ok sound, during a period typically past the prime of the artists in question.

Now, with the announcement of the titles, that is all confirmed.

First, there is a title claimed to be by Miles Davis, "Boppin The Blues". This title is not a Miles Davis recording at all, it features a young Miles as part of a backup band behing two vocalists, in less than inspiring 1940's performances. It's not a Miles session at all. It would be tough to sell more than a handful of budget price CD's of this material, let alone a preium vinyl reissue. On musical grounds, it's pretty bad. Yet here it is, and to add to the manipulativeness of the whole thing, the new cover art shows a late 1950's era Miles rather than a photo appropriate to the vintage of the material.

The same is true of the cover art for most others. The Thelonious Monk material has a picture of Monk in his 1950's prime, yet the late career material on the ORG/Black Lion was recorded by the goateed Monk with  a butt hanging out of his mouth. Obviously, this material is being aimed straight at the Hoffmanites who for the most part can't get out of 1950's bop. The Ben Webster title shows a late 40's image of Ben, yet the material is from the end of his career, mid 60's.

All very manipulative, even dishonest.

The Duke Ellington title might be worthwhile, although in truth this is material not of the same calibre as his major label stuff from the same era. Ditto for the Dexter Gordon, which is not bad stuff even though there is far better Dexter screaming for reissue.

It's LIMITED! It's on 45RPM! It's NUMBERED! There's a DELUXE edition! There's even a DIECUT EXCLUSIVE BOX to house them in!

Very exciting. I say take a pass and demand integrity and musical relevance from companies like ORG Music.