Everybody’s got a mission these days. From the apt: Religious groups, humanitarian organizations, nature conservancies, to the questionably apt: mega- corporations, carpet steam-cleaners, and scrap metal -gatherers. Everyone who wants your money seems to be mission-driven.
I’m not here to judge, it just seems the domain between noble purpose and marketing is becoming more ambiguous. This is not the case with Resonance Records. Their mission is clear: Evangelize good Jazz.
Over the years, theirs has been an interesting progression of artist-driven commerce and its cash-starved outcome to more historically focused releases. They are also a bona-fide non-profit. How’s that for mission?
Lately Resonance has been beautifully and craftily repackaging obscure live and studio dates from an impressive array of Jazz greats: Sarah Vaughan, Shirley Horn, Bill Evans, Larry Young and Stan Getz. This is particularly laudable in an era where those who formerly made it a business practice to reissue classic roots music from their own vaults have all but opted out of it. Resonance seeks out the sublime, unearths it and releases it with very little fanfare.
All the above artists are in their roster for the spring. And there’s no indication that will let up soon. More are planned.
Rather than review them individually here’s a link: http://www.resonancerecords.org/ Audio samples, ordering information and plenty of media. These have been big features of late on “The Afternoon Cruise,” KBEM.
