The Indie’s Turn

Adventurous Repertoire: A Spotlight On Nonesuch Records
By Adam D. Miller

\None"such`\, n. A person or thing of a sort that there is no other such; something extraordinary; a thing that has not its equal.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

The modern music scene is a strange monster that largely depends on a few massive conglomerates, which control 99.9% of the music most people hear on a daily basis.  When the dust settles and the year-end “Best Of” lists are created by respected music critics, many of the albums that ultimately end up being profiled are released outside of this corporate unit.  Independent record labels are extremely important to the survival of good quality music.  Without them, thousands of talented artists would be forced to either sacrifice their musical credibility or simply record and release their albums entirely on their own.  And let’s face it, most musicians are not exactly prepared to do this.

Nonesuch is truly something extraordinary.  It is a label that rewards the music fan for his or her patience and frustration by offering an eclectic variety of veteran and new talent in a variety of genres, churning out some of the best music currently being made worldwide.  At the same time, it is a label with an interesting history, one that began forty years ago.

Nonesuch Records was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman, the same man who had founded Elektra Records thirteen years earlier.  The label was originally created, largely as a side project for Holzman, in order to further explore the same terrain that Elektra explored in the 1950s, before moving into more of a pop and contemporary folk arena.  Holzman wanted to market the eclectic sorts of music that one would hear on college campuses.  Much of his motivation came out of frustration.  Holzman recalled that during his university days, many of the classical LPs that he wanted were imported and very expensive.  His interest in European classical LPs continued through his tenure at Elektra, and the idea that bred Nonesuch came to him: marketing fine records at a cheap price.  In their early days, the label sought to sell fine records at the cost of a trade paperback.  “Adventurous repertoire for music lovers with more taste than money”, as Holzman  writes in his autobiography, Follow The Music. 

And so, Holzman began licensing obscure European classical music.  Nonesuch soon began to explore aspects of traditional and world music, and continued into other genres; never retracting from their pledge to cater to a cult following that appreciates good, intelligent music. 

Even today, Nonesuch prides itself on caring more about musical merit and credibility than commercial potential.  It is rare that an album released by Nonesuch will crack the Billboard charts, as the label refuses to point themselves in that direction.  The label continues to be a truly international phenomenon, releasing recordings by artists form North and South America, Europe, and Africa.  Their catalogue continues to be adventurous and tasteful.  In recent years, Nonesuch’s roster has expanded to include such artists as Laurie Anderson, Buena Vista Social Club, and The Magnetic Fields, as well as artists like David Byrne, Emmylou Harris, Joni Mitchell, and Randy Newman; veteran artists that were formerly recording for major labels but have recently grown frustrated with the way corporate music operates.  While the price of music has certainly gone up, Nonesuch continues to give their listeners a sense of value, even if all it means is that they know the music that Nonesuch releases will be good quality music that refuses to make any compromises.  And when it comes down to it, that in itself is priceless.

If you would like to learn more about Nonesuch Records, read the story of Jac Holzman, the man who started the label.  Follow the Music: The Life and High Times of Elektra Records in the Great Years of American Pop Culture by Jac Holzman and Gavan Daws, is available in paperback on FirstMedia Books

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Make sure you visit Nonesuch’s official website at www.nonesuch.com!

 

FIVE ESSENTIAL NONESUCH RECORDINGS (1997-2004)

1. Buena Vista Social Club, Buena Vista Social Club (1997)

Buena Vista Social Club is undoubtedly the most popular recording Nonesuch Records has released to date.  The album offers a wonderful mix of Cuban traditional music, performed by veterans of the Cuban music scene.  Since the album’s release, the group, as well as individual members Compay Segundo, Ruben Gonzalez, and Ibrahim Ferrer, have gone on to find immense success and exposure worldwide.

The story goes that Ry Cooder, an American singer/songwriter and session man who had played with everyone from The Rolling Stones to Randy Newman, traveled to Havana in 1996 to assemble some of the country’s forgotten musical legends like Company Segundo and Ibrahim Ferrer, whose careers had been presumed dead for many years.  What resulted was Buena Vista Social Club, an album that showcased these mostly elderly musicians (Compay Segundo was 89 at the time of recording) doing what they had once done professionally.  Several sold-out performances and follow up solo albums were released after the success of Buena Vista Social Club, but this album, released on Nonesuch in 1997 remains the essential recording that sparked this renewed interest in the Cuban music that was not Gloria Estefan.  An excellent companion piece to the album is the Academy Award nominated Wim Wenders film of the same name, which chronicled the recordings and performances of the artists.

2. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)

After largely abandoning their alt. country roots on 1999’s Summerteeth, Wilco headed into the studio in early 2001 to record their follow-up album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.  Little did the band realize that the album would not receive a proper release for over a year.  The band continued to move into more of an experimental arena, in part due to their involvement with Jim O’Rourke, an avant-garde artist in his own right.  This new direction not only caused conflict within the band itself, resulting in the departure of Jay Bennett, one of its key members, but also with Reprise, Wilco’s label at the time. 

Unwilling to compromise with Reprise’s requests that they change the album, Wilco purchased the tapes and attempted to find a new home.  Nonesuch saw the brilliance in Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and signed Wilco to a recording contract.  The irony is that both Reprise and Nonesuch are subsidiaries of Warner Music Group.  Yet the relationship with Nonesuch has been fruitful, with Wilco continuing to create the music they wish to create, also evident on their latest release, A Ghost Is Born.

3. Kronos Quartet – Nuevo (2002)

Who knew classical music could be so fun?  Continuing in Nonesuch’s tradition of exposing an audience to more experimental classical composers like Philip Glass, the Kronos Quartet’s Nuevo is a release that is both challenging and entertaining at the same time.  Showcasing Mexican compositions that span almost one hundred years, the Kronos Quartet incorporates electronic and vocal influences into these timeless compositions.  The pieces came from a wild array of sources.  “Chavosuite” draws from three popular Mexican television theme songs.

4. Sam Phillips – Fan Dance (2001)

No, I don’t mean the Sam Phillips that formed Sun Records in the early 1950s.  Sam Phillips, wife of T-Bone Burnett, is one of the most original singer-songwriters of the past ten years.  Originally modeled on a very Beatlesque school of songwriting and performing, Fan Dance, Phillips’ first album on Nonesuch, reintroduced her as a bare minimalist.  The songs are short and simple, with sparse accompaniment (“Is That Your Zebra?” is simply humming overtop of a simple arrangement, and yet, is an album highlight).  The album is less than thirty minutes in length and contains guest appearances from Van Dyke Parks (who offers an excellent string arrangement on “Wasting My Time”), Marc Ribot, and Jim Keltner.  

5. Brian Wilson – Smile (2004)

Brian Wilson recently became the latest veteran to find a place on Nonesuch’s respectable roster.  In September 2004, thirty-six years after The Beach Boys follow-up to Pet Sounds was originally intended for release, and ultimately scrapped, the album is finally seeing the light of day in a new studio recording by Brian Wilson and his touring band.  Smile is considered by most music scholars to be the quintessential “lost” album.  After years of fragments being heard on other Beach Boys recordings and bootlegs, Brian Wilson finally built up the courage in February 2004 to unveil the album in its proper sequence, completed.  He re-connected with Van Dyke Parks, his collaborator on the original Smile tracks to complete songs left unfinished thirty-six years ago.  If the live performances in Europe are any indication, Smile will be one of the year’s best albums.