Keeping the Flame: A Conversation with Archival King Zev Feldman

Far too often, history is perceived through a lens of minimizing the problems of the present. According to George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Or to Edmund Burke, “People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.” But while the lessons learned from eras gone by are essential to continual strives forward, perceiving antiquity solely with an eye to this fleeting moment also cheapens the importance of history. There is a power in what came before wholly separate from how such contextualizes modernity. This can be seen well in the energy and brilliance in archival recordings. Few understand the magic of these works more than producer Zev Feldman.

The lauded “Jazz Detective” has become known for finding music many thought lost to time or to have never existed at all. He then releases these treasures to the public across multiple labels. In an era overly obsessed with digital media, Feldman creates packages replete with essays, interviews, and photographs that cry out for purchase in physical form. It is fitting then that most of his releases come out on the biannual Record Store Days – one in April and the other on Black Friday- where local shops show the continued vitality of the tangible. For Black Friday 2024, Feldman’s projects include guitarist Emily Remler’s first album in over three decades, a special set by Sun Ra at Baltimore’s The Left Bank, a unique live performance by Blues legend B.B. King with his 1970s touring band, a date by Al Jarreau, and a Bill Evans trio recording. A week earlier, Feldman’s work with Blue Note Records will produce a unique time capsule of four icons: Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, Jack DeJohnette, and Henry Grimes.

We sat down with Feldman to discuss these projects, how he earned the moniker “Jazz Detective,” and more. 

PostGenre: What first got you into working on archival recordings? 

Zev Feldman: I have always had an affinity for what we call the catalog side of the record business. You need to know where you’ve been to see where you’re going. Reissues, for instance, have always spoken to me. Starting in high school and going into college, I was collecting Blue Note [Records] and [Original Jazz Classics] records. To me, reissues capture the music of the past and allow you to understand that history. That very much speaks to me. I also have a thing for nostalgia and going back in time to appreciate the music, artwork, and sensibilities that go into these projects. So, I started as a customer, from my own buying of records. 

I started working in the business in 1994 with Polygram, which owned Verve [Records], Antilles [Records], Deutsche Grammophon, and other labels. When I worked for Polygram, we had an incredible catalog. I was there when the new Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter records came out. It is the same thing with records by Christian McBride, Mark Whitfield, Nicholas Payton, and Steven Scott. I was there for the age of the new Young Lions, and I love that music. It speaks to me personally. 

After Polygram, I started working for George Klabin at Resonance [Records]. He was very focused, this was in 2009, at putting out developing artists and important music for the label to embrace and support up-and-coming artists – really, music in general – that he passionately felt needed to be heard.

PG: Like what?

ZF: Well, we started a conversation because he shared with me the recordings he made of Thad Jones and Mel Lewis on the opening night of the Village Vanguard and some of Charles Lloyd. Then he told me about some Bill Evans tapes that he had recorded back in the fall of ‘68 at the Village Gate. He had kept them under his bed for decades because he wanted to be very careful to ensure they didn’t get stolen and bootlegged, like had happened to him with the Thad and Mel recordings. He wanted to put the Bill Evans album out officially. I told him that I knew the rights holders. I could find the Bill Evans estate, but I also knew the people at Universal Music Group because I used to work there. And that became our first project together. 

PG: But it wasn’t your first album released together.

ZF: At some point, I started pestering my mentor and hero, Michael Cuscuna. Michael had worked for Blue Note, Mosaic Records, Atlantic [Records], Impulse! [Records], and a whole host of others. Michael had a relationship with George going back to the mid-1960s because George was the DJ at WKCR FM in New York. He was one of the first guys programming jazz there; Phil Schapp’s predecessor. George was also there for the October Revolution [in Jazz], which was a festival put on by Bill Dixon with Archie Shepp, Giuseppe Logan, and others. George also recorded Albert Ayler in Greenwich Village (Impulse!, 1967).  Anyway, there was a preexisting relationship between George and Michael. 

I used to call Michael and tell him we were looking for certain recordings and he would direct us where to go. One day, this must be around 2009 or 2010, Mike told us there are some recordings of Wes Montgomery. He didn’t know anything about them in terms of when they were from or who was on them. All he knew was that Wes was on them, and it sounded like early Wes. I played the recordings for George, and it became Echoes of Indiana Avenue (Resonance, 2012), the first release we did together. In that same window, we started working on the Bill Evans recordings that became Live At Art D’Lugoff’s Top Of The Gate (Resonance, 2012). I like to tell people that those two projects set us on our path. 

PG: What role did Michael Cuscuna have in Echoes of Indiana Avenue? Was it solely introducing you to the recording?

ZF: No question about it, Michael Cuscuna was a driving force for us. He was someone I used to call and meet with. I admired him so much, like many of us do. He was a guru to me and somebody that helped George and me immensely. We put out these two releases, and I remember the Wes Montgomery album was covered in the Wall Street Journal and NPR Weekend Edition. It was the first complete Wes Montgomery album in over forty or fifty years. And, at that same time, we also put out the Bill Evans recordings we miraculously got the rights to. And Resonance started there for us as a label and just kept growing. 

PG: How did you get from there to co-founding Elemental Music?

ZF: That first year of working at Resonance, I was at a museum conference in the South of France and made a presentation to our distributor for Spain and Portugal. The owner of the distributing company said, “You know Zev, I’ve been doing this for a long time. These two projects right here, Mark my words, they are going to be the biggest albums of the year in the jazz world.” And sure enough, he was right. The morning after that presentation to the distributor, I got a phone call from [future label co-founder] Jordi Soley and his associate, David Wong. Jordi asked if I was exclusive with Mr. Klabin because he felt he could use some help releasing some archival recordings. I told him I was not exclusive but work only on whatever spoke to me. I search for important things, and if it doesn’t hit the meter for me, then I’m not doing it. And we went from there. 

I’m always trying to get tapes and do things. I’ve been very lucky. I spent the first fourteen years of my career working in record distribution, putting out albums and representing labels like Verve, Antilles, and eventually ECM [Records] and GRP [Records]. It’s been an incredible journey, an incredible time of growth. I love working in this area of music. George Klabin gave me the opportunity of a lifetime, and it’s turned into a living dream where I get up every day and thank my lucky stars. My days fly by. I have a chance to curate art, and that’s been incredibly enjoyable in my life.  I never thought it would be possible to do this work, especially now that the landscape of the music business has become so incredibly difficult. Let’s not kid ourselves, this isn’t the 1980s. We’re not shipping stuff out on skids like we used to. We must be curating, and I’m just trying to keep on the path. This year I’m producing seventeen projects between Resonance, Blue Note, Elemental, and some other folks, including my own record labels – Deep Digs and Jazz Detective. It’s been a dream, and I’m incredibly grateful to folks like yourself and the community that embrace these projects. I think we all connect on them, and they are something that we all share.

PG: You briefly touched upon the business side of music. For this Black Friday’s Record Store Day, you are releasing Cookin’ at the Queens Live in Las Vegas 1984 & 1988 (Resonance, 2024), Emily Remler’s first album in thirty-three years. She was an incredible artist. Perhaps because she died so young – she was only thirty-two – or maybe due to sexism but she often does not seem to receive the recognition due to her. Does that underrecognition make releasing an album like this one more difficult than one by a more widely known artist?

ZF: No. Actually, it makes a project like this one even more important and meaningful. I have been on a mission for decades of talking about her and celebrating her with my friends who listen to jazz or are into guitar. And she hasn’t had a new album in thirty-three years. She was so young when she died and when she did, she left a lot of questions about what she would have done musically if she had continued. But she matters. She’s important. 

This project also speaks to the strength of the alignment between George Klabin and myself because we both realized how Emily’s legacy matters. It’s almost like time brushed it under the rug. And what we’re trying to do is raise her flag. I want people to say her name. I want them to listen to her music. I want them to celebrate her. You’re right in terms of audience scope, she’s not Wes Montgomery or Pat Metheny. But there is a story to tell. She was an artist, a human being who was here. And man, she made six studio albums for this one label. In her very limited time on the planet, she had accomplished quite a lot. And she greatly inspires me. 

It’s projects like this one where you realize just how important the work that we’re doing is. It also speaks to the mission at Resonance Records, which is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit foundation. Our motivation is celebrate the artist in this music and that vision gave this release a path to reality. It took a lot of people to believe in it. Maybe it wouldn’t work for larger labels, but for us, it was an important mission to do this work. I’m incredibly happy about this opportunity. 

PG: The album is a great presentation of her work.

ZF:  I was on a mission to build perhaps one of the greatest packages that’s ever been done. There’s over an hour of never-before-released material. In addition to music that we used from a radio broadcast, we found additional material. Bill Milkowski helped me vet it. He was more than just a liner note writer for the album. He was also my co-producer. He was a guiding force in this production, and the record would not have happened without him. He knew Emily, and he knew this music. He’s also somebody that I look up to. For this package, we interviewed twenty-seven different artists and added never-before-seen photographs. There has never been a book on Emily, and we harnessed this opportunity as a way for us to put together not just great music but also the words of individuals who knew her people and those who were inspired by her. Her legacy rings deep because she has influenced future generations of musicians. This project is a love letter and tribute to her. I will be pleased if people go back and talk about her, listen to her music, and recognize how special she was.

I also have to tell you that her family made this project possible. I befriended Emily’s sister, Jane about six years ago because I was looking for stuff to put out. George Klabin and I started thinking about artists by whom we would love to release recordings. First, it was Eric Dolphy, which became Musical Prophet [: The Expanded 1963 New York Studio Sessions] (Resonance, 2019). Then it was Art Tatum [Jewels in the Treasure Box: The 1953 Chicago Blue Note Jazz Club Recordings (Resonance, 2024)]. Emily Remler was on that list as well. But understand something: no one’s looking to cash in here. It’s all about who deeply motivates us. Who inspires us. I think we accomplished that on this project. And, as George says, these projects will live on past our lifetimes. It’s very important for that purpose alone. 

PG: One of the great things about your projects, which you briefly touched on are the booklets that come with each album. When so much music today is digital and streaming, the extensive pictures, interviews, and historical information make the physical versions very special. They give a lot of context to the music.

ZF: Yeah, thank you for saying that. We go out of our way to try to do these sorts of efforts because, as George says, we’re building books that go with records. 

PG: How much of your work is involved with the notes and physical presentation compared to working with the music itself? 

ZF: The music is always first and foremost. I take the packaging as being just as important, but it’s always about music first. No mistake about it. But I think if we have an opportunity. How often am I going to get a chance to come back and do something like the projects I’ve done? So, we try to raise the bar as high as we can to make it be of great quality. We do have budgets, but our team goes out of its way to be storytellers in great detail through these photographs and words. We have an editor, John Koenig, the former President of Contemporary Records and son of Lester Koenig, who produced Sonny Rollins’ Way Out West (Contemporary, 1957), among other things. We’ve got a great team with the designers. I work with a gentleman named Zak Shelby-Szyszko, who joined Resonance about ten years ago, and since he did, we took off as a label. He also works with me at Blue Note and Elemental. I also have another product manager that I work with sometimes as well, James Batsford, who also runs the New Land label. There’s also another very nice young woman, Lindsey Fitzgerald, who’s been working with us too. It’s all about the team. 

PG: Of course, you also need the underlying recording. In general, how do you find the recordings you use?

ZF: They come from a variety of different sources. There’s a lot of self-motivation and reaching out to people who could be family members of musicians or the musicians themselves. I also get phone calls and emails all the time from people who have something they think we can use or should try to hunt down. Sometimes the attorney for a musician or their estate reaches out to me as well. 

Chance and fate also come into play in finding these recordings. I know a gentleman named Stephen Reich, who I had worked with another time for Resonance. He knew that I was working at Blue Note and thought I should meet with Jack DeJohnette because Jack had some interesting recordings. I went to Jack’s home and, lo and behold, that’s where the McCoy Tyner and Joe Henderson album, Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs (Blue Note, 2024), came from. I co-produced it with Jack and Lydia DeJohnette, and Don Was is the Executive Producer. 

PG: It is a fascinating recording. Do you know how Jack obtained a copy of it?

ZF: The quartet –  McCoy, Joe, Henry Grimes, and Jack DeJohnette – recorded it in 1966 at Slugs, one of the great rooms. If you look at the posters – Hank Mobley, Sun Ra, Art Blakey, Tony Williams Lifetime, Lee Morgan – all the greats played there. And I’m an enormous fan. Orville O’Brien recorded their performance. Orville was an African American recording engineer at a time when only a few African Americans played that role. There was Ray Hall, who ran RCA Victor, and my good friend Bernard Drayton. But it wasn’t common. Orville gave Jack a copy of the tape back in 1966, and I was stunned to discover that Jack had it tucked away for all these years. 

The recording is music of the highest order. It is a major discovery, something that changes the world, so to speak. We’re all familiar with the discographies of these great artists and have listened to those records so many times. But to find something not only new but which serves as a time capsule document that reminds us of the greatness of these musicians is incredible. The caliber, energy, and driving force they had inside this music is extraordinary. There is an energy level and intensity, and the recording is a force of nature. I’m very proud. I’ve had a chance to do numerous archival projects now, but this might be one of the most important that I’ve ever been involved with. You don’t find these sorts of recordings every day, and they’re recordings that people are going to study for years. They matter. Boy, that one is a big deal. It’s a game-changer. It’s a welcome new addition to the discographies of these artists and it reminds us of how important all four of them are. 

Again though, a recording has to speak to me. I’m not looking to chase down just any tape. It’s gotta hit a nerve. Just because I get to be a kid in a candy store doesn’t mean all that candy gets eaten or shown to the public. We must be guardians. We have to be the keepers of the flame. We need to look out for the best for these artists and their legacies. Especially when they’re not here to defend themselves. The project has to do something to complement their legacy, or we’re not going to put it out. 

PG: So, do you have any white whale recordings? Something you would love to release, but which have not yet worked out for you.

ZF: Well, I think it’s funny that people talk about certain recordings like that of [John] Coltrane and Wes Montgomery at [the] Monterey [Jazz Festival] Or Coltrane with Larry Young. But with something like that, what would I be able to do with it anyway? Same with certain Buddy Bolden cylinders. Ultimately, there’s all sorts of stuff out there that people talk about when they discuss lost music.

PG: But, even so, you are releasing interesting recordings. For one, in 2024, you released two Sun Ra albums. The first, Sun Ra at the Showcase: Live in Chicago (Jazz Detective, 2024) was the Arkestra in 1976 and 1977. The other, Lights on a Satellite: Live at the Left Bank (Resonance, 2024), captured the band in 1978. Do you feel you approached both albums similarly given they are from the same band at around the same time? 

ZF: No. It was coincidental that it worked out that way. I’m very lucky to have a relationship with the Sun Ra Estate. I’ve been working with Irwin Chusid, who is the lawyer for the estate. I’ve also been working with Michael Anderson, who is one of the chief Sun Ra archivists. He was also in the band. But Sun Ra recorded lots of music. He had engineers who traveled with the band. Multiple folks would run tapes over the years, and that’s how this archive was made. It’s incredible. The Jazz Showcase stood out to me because I liked that period. It’s got the guys in the band I love and admire, and those are great recordings. But these recordings on Lights on a Satellite struck a nerve. 

I’m from Maryland originally and also have a link to the famous ballroom in the Left Bank Jazz Society in Baltimore. I’ve been made the de facto co-custodian of the tapes from there with the charter member of the organization, John Fowler. We put out a release by Etta Jones with Cedar Walton [Soulful Sunday: Live at the Left Bank (Reel to Reel, 2019)]. Then a Roy Brooks album [Understanding (Reel to Reel, 2021)], followed by a Sonny Stitt recording [Boppin’ in Baltimore: Live at the Left Bank (Jazz Detective. 2023) with Kenny Baron, Louis Hayes, and Sam Jones. We also did albums by Walter Bishop [Bish at the Bank: Live in Baltimore (Reel to Reel, 2023)] and Shirley Scott [Queen Talk: Live at the Left Bank (Reel to Reel, 2023)]. The Left Bank is a very important venue. The night of music there by Sun Ra was equally important. The music is at such a great level. It’s exciting. I thought, well, it sounds very cool. I also think it’s historically very important. And I went for it. When we listen to these recordings, it became very clear they are important. There is also the connection to the great Robert Mugge film, Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise (self-release, 1980), which shows the band’s second set from that evening come to life.

PG: Do you feel you approached the recording differently because of A Joyful Noise? Most recordings you release do not have a connection to a film. 

ZF: His film captured the second set of music from that night, and our recordings are from the first set. A lot of people are familiar with that movie, and it was a way to bring things to life. But the film didn’t change how I approached the music. It was great, however, to have that connection because Robert Mugge was so nice to give us screen grabs from the print that he had made of the film. Those gave us visuals to help illuminate the packaging. Robert also gave us a couple of bonus tracks from his film. And I feel, overall, it all comes together very well. The film allowed listeners to hear half of the evening, and now our recording lets them hear the other half; the part with which they’re not familiar. 

Where Sun Ra went musically with his band is extraordinary. He is a lot of different things musically. He was a pioneer and someone we celebrate all these decades after he’s been gone. He’s even in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture as part of a segment on Afrofuturism. He left a mark on this world, and I’m incredibly excited to play a small part in getting his music out. 

PG: In addition to Lights on a Satellite, for Record Store Day, you will also be releasing B.B. King in France: Live at the 1977 Nancy Jazz Pulsations Festival (Deep Digs, 2024). You will also release the Al Jarreau recording, Wow!: Live at the Childe Harold (Resonance, 2024). King was a Blues musician, and Jarreau straddled pop and jazz. In the past, you have also released a record [Live in France: The 1966 Concert in Limoges (Deep Digs, 2024)] by Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Do you find that when approaching a project that isn’t as identifiably “jazz” you approach the project differently than a more straight-ahead jazz album?

ZF: No. It’s all about being a storyteller, getting inside, and making a great presentation. First, you have to start with the best music possible. If the music isn’t great, I can’t start the car. The ignition won’t run. It needs to begin with the highest quality music. That’s true regardless of an idea like genre. 

The B.B. King recording comes from the INA in Paris, which is the division of the cultural affairs of France; the part of the French government that oversees the radio and television archives, including the legendary ORTF and Radio France archives. The recordings on the album come from the 1977 Nancy Jazz Festival in France. It is the only known document in existence, or at least that I’m aware of, that’s been officially released of B.B. King’s touring band in the 1970s. B.B. made a lot of studio records, but if you were fortunate to see him live in concert, that was the band that you saw. This live album raises a new chapter in terms of the music. I think it’s very important for those reasons alone. And B.B. is in incredible form on it. The album provides the live experience to listeners, decades later.

I worked with a wonderful recording engineer, Matthew Lutthans, on that project. Matthew was also my engineer at Blue Note on Forces of Nature. He’s an amazing guy. He works at The Mastering Lab in Salina, Kansas, which is owned by Chad Kessen. He also works for the great Kevin Gray at Cohearant [Audio], who’s doing all the Tone Poets and Craft [Recordings] releases. I greatly admire this guy, and we’ve been doing a lot of work together. People are going to hear his name more and more. 

PG: Last question: do you feel working on so many older recordings at all changes how you perceive newer music?

ZF: Oh man. I guess I live in the archival world, to be honest. But if I go out, I do check out new music. Two weeks ago, I went to see Bill Charlap’s trio, which I’ve seen a bunch of times. It’s all about what speaks to me. I love living artists like Bill, Joe Lovano, or Emmet Cohen. There are too many for me to list, but I don’t know if my experience with archival music affects me too much. But most of the time I listen to archival recordings. I also listen to a lot of classic rock, R&B, the Blues, and even classical. I listen to everything. People know me for the jazz detective persona, which is wonderful. I’m so grateful for that. But I’ve got a lot of love to give, including not only to that music. I listen to everything. I’m even working with the Patsy Cline estate right now on a project of unissued recordings that will come out next year on my Deep Digs label. There’s a lot in the works, so I’ve got a lot of diversity, including in my own tastes in music. I’m kind of a chameleon. But hey, if it speaks to me. I’m all about it.

‘Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs’ with Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, Jack DeJohnette and Henry Grimes will be released on Blue Note Records on November 22, 2024. On Resonance Records: Emily Remler’s ‘Cookin’ at the Queens: Live in Las Vegas (1984 & 1988)’, Sun Ra’s ‘Lights on a Satellite: Live at the Left Bank’, and Al Jarreau’s ‘Wow! Live in Performance at the Childe Harold’ will be available on vinyl on November 29, 2024 and CD on December 6, 2024. On Deep Digs: B.B. King’s ‘In France: Live at the 1977 Nancy Jazz Pulsations Festival’ will be released on November 29, 2024. On Elemental Music: ‘Bill Evans in Norway: The Kongsberg Concert’ will be released on November 29, 2024.