Future Of Columbia Jazz Questioned
Industry sources have painted a confused picture of the future for the Columbia Jazz label, with some artist managers and New York musicians expecting the label to restructure by the end of the year or to replace vice president of jazz Jeff Levenson.
The label is keeping its lips sealed, denying the rumors but refusing to announce its future plans, except for year 2000 releases. Gabrielle Armand, senior director of jazz marketing at Columbia, would only state that the rumors about shutting down were untrue. Label publicist Helene Greece said that "Everything is status quo."
Asked whether the label would be folded into Sony/Columbia's jazz re-issue label Legacy, or if Levenson would leave, Greece said, "Nothing has been announced. It's premature to say anything else."
A publicist for Legacy, which releases albums by artists such as Miles Davis and Duke Ellington, had no comment.
Levenson could not be reached by phone, and he did not respond to an email asking about his career intentions or plans for the label.
Rumors about Columbia Jazz's future have been circulating for months among some Columbia jazz musicians and their managers, but most did not want to speak on the record for fear of jeopardizing their relationships with the company. Some sources contacted by SoundSpike accused Columbia of failing to promote their albums adequately, while others were concerned whether Levenson, a former Billboard journalist, had the experience to guide the label.
But smooth jazz guitarist Peter White spoke favorably of Levenson, calling him "a very able businessman."
White, who is under contract to record five more albums for Columbia, said that his current album "Perfect Moment" was getting just as much airplay as 1996's "Caravan of Dreams," but wasn't selling as well. He noted that his sales went down after VP of jazz promotion and marketing Kevin Gore left the label in 1997. However, he said he could not blame the label for the decline.
A manager of a famous former Columbia artist had a different point of view. "Columbia is terrible when it comes to promotion," the manager said. "They prefer spending money on [young artists that] they throw up against the wall and hope something sticks, or they throw all their money at acts like Barbra Streisand and don't know anything about artist development."
Countering charges that Columbia was decreasing its releases for 2000, Greece said new albums were scheduled for White, keyboardist Frank McComb, pianist Joey Calderazzo, Native-American vocal trio Ulali and saxophonist David Sanchez. Other signings were in the works, she said. She also stated that some of the new releases weren't finished, indicating that the 2000 catalog wouldn't just be a collection of already-completed projects.
Branford Marsalis, who Greece says is still creative consultant at the label, helped sign McComb and Calderazzo. Marsalis was given the A&R job in 1997 to help the label expand into new jazz and world styles.
Greece said that the label is "doing well financially," but refused to release any album sales figures.
"We really don't want to participate in [an] article about Columbia Jazz, and we have no further comment on any other issue," she said.
Columbia Jazz held the number one position on Billboard's list of top jazz labels for 1998. Vocalist Harry Connick Jr., who is technically in the label's pop division, was the number one jazz artist, and Wynton Marsalis was number five.
A non-Columbia jazz artist, who says he's known Wynton Marsalis for twenty years, speculated that while "Marsalis' records lose tons of money...Columbia would never drop him.''
"To the public, he is jazz. And Branford was 'The Tonight Show' leader, plus he's Wynton's brother...Columbia has a powerful position. Why would they waste that?"
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