Jan & Dean, audio restoration and Michael Graves

Backstory: In 1965 Jan & Dean made a comedy/live album for their record label.  It was wacky, groundbreaking, and an all around fun listen.  Unfortunately the label didn't see it this way and the album never saw the light of day.  50 years later, the only surviving copy is Dean Torrence's personal acetate.  When Omnivore Recordings decided the world needed to hear this record, I was fortunate enough to be sent Dean's well used acetate as my source for the new master.  It was not without challenges.

Read more about Filet Of Soul Redux: The Rejected Master Recordings here.

Uncovering Swinging Mogadishu

In 2016, the Ostinato Records team traveled across the Horn of Africa to compile an album of Somali music from the 1970’s & ’80’s. The result was the critically-acclaimed “Sweet As Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes from the Horn of Africa,” released worldwide on August 25, 2017 on double vinyl, CD, and digital. Under the guidance of Osiris Studio, Ostinato digitized a large portion of a 10,000 cassette tape archive of songs from before the war, when Mogadishu and Somalia were a music mecca, filled with some of the funkiest bands and the most incredible singers. Songs ultimately selected for the album were restored and mastered by Michael Graves.  This project took the Ostinato team to Hargeisa, Djibouti, and Mogadishu, and across the Somali diaspora scattered in all corners of the world.

" 'These recordings carry the trauma of Somalia. They have been remastered without abandoning the sweetness in their brokenness'. The result is near miraculous in its quality." - The Wall Street Journal

Members of Somali band, Waaberi, take to the stage in 1970s Mogadishu

"This extraordinary set, compiled largely from cassettes that had been hidden away for decades, is a reminder of “swinging Somalia” in the 1970s and 80s, before the country was torn apart by civil war." - The Guardian

"This music comes to us thanks to the bravery, defiance and years of work from many dedicated people. It also sounds divine." - Stamp the Wax UK

"An absolute gem of archival diligence. Grade A." - The Vinyl District

"Perhaps the most beautiful music in the world, finally rediscovered." - Radio Nova Paris

"A mega mixtape of Somali classics" - BBC

"Somalia has an almost endless abundance of funky music for you." - THUMP Germany

More Allen Ginsberg!

Ginsberg's, The Complete Songs Of Innocence And Experience is being released today for the first time on CD & Digital.  In the June 11th 1970 issue of Rolling Stone, Lester Bangs reviewed the LP:

"The distinctive sinuousness of Allen's reedy voice is one of the set's most compelling qualities. Nothing here sounds strained or pretentious, which should make it the last word in concept albums. It sounds, rather, like a labor of love, a salute from a young visionary to an ancient sage, executed with delicacy and charm in a vocal style reminiscent of an Anglo-American muezzin."

The fine folks at Omnivore Recordings have also included a bunch of rare and previously unissued material in the set.  Ommmmm.

Rosebud released on Omnivore Recordings

The iconic 1971 release – expanded with 10 bonus tracks!

Congratulations Bobby Rush and Omnivore!

William Bell presents Bobby Rush with the Blues Award for Historical Album.

The great Bobby Rush just walked away with two Blues Music Awards last night from the BMAs in Memphis, TN.  Omnivore Records' boxed set, Chicken Heads: A 50-Year History of Bobby Rush, won Historical Album and his most recent release, Porcupine Meat, won Album of The Year.  For Chicken Heads,  74 tracks from various sources were gathered together, restored and remastered by Michael Graves here at Osiris Studio.  It was super funky.  Bobby Rush was on hand to accept the award along with producers Cheryl Pawelski, Cary Baker, and Jeff DeLia.  Congrats to all!

59th GRAMMY Awards Best Historical Album

The 59th annual GRAMMYs are history now.  Big congratulations go to Steve Berkowitz & Jeff Rosen (compilation producers) and Mark Wilder (mastering engineer) for their beautiful Bob Dylan box set, The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series, Vol.12 (Collector's Edition).  Even though the Music of Morocco team didn't take home a GRAMMY, it was a fun ride all the same.  We kept good company to be sure; unreleased recordings from Vladimir Horowitz, an Ork Records retrospective from Numero Group (the first punk rock collection to ever be nominated for Best Historical), and a breathtaking collection of the earliest known wax cylinder recordings from Archeophone Records. 

Music of Morocco producer, Philip Schuyler summed up the whole experience nicely on his Facebook page:  

"For those who don’t know the back story, Paul Bowles conceived of an anthology of Moroccan music around 85 years ago, in the early 1930s. In 1959, he realized his dream in an intense, 4½ month recording expedition. He deposited 60 hours of tape in the Archive of Folk Song at Library of Congress, and in 1972, the Archive published a 2-LP set of excerpts from the collection. Sometime in the mid-1990s, Bill Nowlin, of Rounder Records, had the idea of reissuing the original album on CD and, at Paul’s suggestion, asked me to edit it. Time passes while I collect my thoughts. More time passes. Stlll more. By the time I finished the notes, about 15 years later, Rounder had been sold and the new owners were not interested in obscure recordings of Moroccan music. Bill Nowlin never gave up, however, and he continued to look for a home for the project until he found Dust-to-Digital, where Lance and April Ledbetter had a vision of how important this could be. Michael Graves and Rick Fisher made the music sound as good as new. Barb Bersche put it all in a magnificent treasure chest as beautiful and clever as any I’ve ever seen.

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Philip Schuyler and Michael Graves

After collaborating remotely with the team for years, it was wonderful to meet Lance, April, Mike, and Barb for the first time at the Grammys. We missed all the others who couldn’t be there: Bill Nowlin himself, whom I still hope to meet someday; Irene Herrmann, Paul’s musical executor, who has been unfailingly supportive of the project; and the many people at the Library of Congress who have kept the original tapes safe through six decades, including Judith Gray, Jennifer Cutting, and the late Alan Jabbour, who oversaw the first publication at LOC, and who approved the re-edition. I think that Paul would have been satisfied with the results, and I hope that Moroccan scholars and musicians will be, too. The moral of the story is not, as you might think, “Procrastination Pays,” but rather, “We get by with a lot of help from our friends.”

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Michael Graves, April Ledbetter and Lance Ledbetter

Our category at the Grammys included unreleased live recordings by Vladimir Horowitz, the first wax cylinders of Gospel music from 125 years ago, and bootleg tapes of Bob Dylan in the mid-1960s. Dylan is Dylan, so it was no surprise when they won. Still, there’s no shame in losing to a Nobel Laureate, and it turns out that the cliché is true: it really was an honor just to be in the company of our fellow nominees. I like to imagine going to dinner with Bowles, Horowitz, Dylan, and the pioneers of Gospel, but it was just as much fun to hang out at the events with my son, Karim."

Bobby Darin & Johnny Mercer!

The classic 1961 album, Two Of A Kind, with seven previously unissued bonus tracks. Available March 24, 2017 from Omnivore Recordings.  Shake, drink, repeat.

Michael Graves in Mix Magazine

Photo: Bradford Rogers/TheMultimediaNinja.com

Mix Magazine chats with Michael Graves about Osiris Studio and some recent projects he's been working on in their Southeast Studio roundup.

"Mastering engineer Michael Graves operates out of his home studio, Osiris Studio, where he’s developed a reputation for the careful restoration of decades-old recordings, as well as mastering new recordings for regional artists."

ASTRO-ATLANTIC HYPNOTICA FROM THE CAPE VERDE ISLANDS

Exciting news from Ostinato Records this morning with the announcement of their newest compilation: Synthesize the Soul: Astr-tlantic Hypnotica from the Cape Verde Islands 197-988.  All tracks were restored and re-mastered here at Osiris Studio.  Not familiar with the Cape Verde Islands or it's music?  See the excellent trailer below.

Oxford American's 18th music issue

The new issue in the wild at our local Whole Foods.

Oxford American Magazine's 18th annual music issue, Visions of the Blues is on stands now.  With this issue, Oxford American is celebrating one of the South’s greatest cultural exports: blues music.  For the second year in a row, the music for the accompanying CD was mastered (along with some restoration for some of the old 78 sources) here at Osiris Studio.  

The 23-song CD features classic blues (Charley Patton, Allen Toussaint, Big Mama Thornton) alongside contemporary artists reinterpreting the genre (Alabama Shakes, Bassekou Kouyaté, Regina Carter), plus rare recordings (including a never-before-released vintage CeDell Davis track). The magazine contains new work by some of the best music writers of our time (Greil Marcus, Daphne A. Brooks, Elijah Wald, John Jeremiah Sullivan) and essays by first-time Oxford American contributors (Jeffery Renard Allen, Rashod Ollison, Sarah Bryan, Zandria F. Robinson), as well as stories from OA regulars (Amanda Petrusich, Jewly Hight, Cynthia Shearer, David Ramsey).

The issue comes in multiple covers, showcasing three generations of blues artists: John Lee Hooker, Bonnie Raitt, and Adia Victoria.