Andy Zax | |
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| Occupation(s) | Music producer, music historian |
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Andy Zax is an American music historian and a producer of music reissues.
Andy Zax | |
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| | |
| Occupation(s) | Music producer, music historian |
| Spouse | |
Andy Zax is an American music historian and a producer of music reissues.
A Los Angeles native, Zax received a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and a Master of Fine Arts degree from USC Film School. After a year as a motion picture development executive, Zax entered the music business as a copywriter, penning advertising and liner notes for various major labels, collaborating with figures as diverse as Quincy Jones [1] and 4AD founder Ivo Watts-Russell [2] on detailed histories of their work, producing promotional radio specials, and writing the questions for Rhino Records' long-running annual music trivia contest the Rhino Musical Aptitude Test. [3]
As a producer of boxed sets and archival music reissues, Zax has been responsible for restoring and remastering the catalogues of Talking Heads, Rod Stewart, Echo & The Bunnymen, Television, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, The Sisters Of Mercy, David Axelrod and Lee Hazlewood, among others. His reissues of once-obscure cult favorites such as Television's Marquee Moon, John Cale's Paris 1919, Judee Sill and Heart Food by Judee Sill have successfully brought those albums to larger audiences that had eluded them upon their initial release, while his exploration of record company tape vaults has yielded discoveries such as the lost masters of Johnny Mathis's 1981 Chic-produced I Love My Lady . [4] Describing his approach to musical history, Zax has said:
"I like lost causes and I like underdogs and I like people that I feel haven't gotten their due...You know, some records just weren’t of their moment. Judee Sill’s records, maybe they weren't built for 1971, '72. They do feel like they were built for 2007, 2008. That's when I noticed people were starting to really respond to them and now she feels canonical. And that thrills me. I often feel like the best moments are when you're sitting in the studio, you put the multi-track tape on, and you don't know what you’re gonna hear. You kind of feel like you've broken into the tomb and suddenly here are the answers to all of these questions. You hear it, and then have a karmic obligation to present it to the public, properly and correctly. To me, you get the reward then. All of the work that comes after is just the price you pay for getting that upfront." [5]
As a result of his experiences working with unique master recordings, Zax has become a passionate advocate on behalf of their preservation and restoration in the wake of archival disasters such as the 2008 Universal Studios fire. “You don’t have to be Walter Benjamin to understand that there’s a big difference between a painting and a photograph of that painting," he has said. "It’s exactly the same with sound recordings…The future of all of the recorded music that we have ever heard—and, for that matter, all of the recorded music that we haven’t heard yet—depends on our ability to maintain these artifacts.” [6]
In late 2005, Zax visited a Warner Brothers tape storage space in Los Angeles and encountered dozens of boxes of one-inch eight-track recordings from the Woodstock Festival. "From the moment I saw those tapes", he said, "I was like, 'Oh my God, there's so much more than I'd ever thought'", he said. "It was clear to me that no one was exploring this stuff and dealing with it in totality. Here was this vast trove of material not treated correctly." [7]
In 2009, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, Zax produced the boxed set Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur's Farm , [8] for which he was nominated for a Grammy for Best Historical Album. [9] Zax and engineer Brian Kehew reconstructed all three days of the Woodstock audio from the original multi-track tapes; "The way we approached all of the material was as if it was a cinéma verité documentary–the raw record of the event", Zax said. [10] Zax was able to establish a definitive setlist for the festival, ending decades of speculation about what order the festival's artists had played in and what material they played. Stereophile concluded in September 2009 that "as the man who spent four years, from initial pitch to finished product, not to mention hours of wading through the personal [and] political muck that surrounds anything with 'Woodstock' in its title, Andy Zax has, semi-reluctantly, become the new 'Mr. Woodstock.'" [11]
For the 50th anniversary of the festival in 2019, Zax achieved his 14-year goal of restoring the Woodstock audio in near-totality--"to reclaim an event that had not necessarily been treated well by history" [5] —producing Woodstock – Back to the Garden: The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive , a Grammy-winning [12] 38-disc, 36 hour boxed set containing a near complete reconstruction of Woodstock, with every artist performance from the festival included in chronological order, [13] (except two songs that the Jimi Hendrix Estate decided were not up to the standards for release). [14] "The Woodstock tapes give us a singular opportunity for a kind of sonic time travel, and my intention is to transport people back to 1969. There aren’t many other concerts you could make this argument about." [7]
In 2010, Zax created the anonymously-written Twitter account "@Discographies". [15] Each @Discographies tweet contained a "definitive guide to an artist's body of work (studio albums only) in 140 characters". The @Discographies account quickly attracted widespread media attention and acclaim (Michael Azerrad: "@Discographies is at once rock criticism's glittering acme and the final nail in its coffin. Bravo." [16] ) and was named "Music Critic Of The Year" [17] by the Village Voice.
Zax's writing, under his own name and the @Discographies pseudonym, has appeared in The New Yorker , [18] [19] Rolling Stone, [20] The Oxford American, [21] iPad newspaper The Daily, [22] [23] Exact Change, and Maggot Brain. In 2014, he received an ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award for his article about the life of composer Tupper Saussy of the Neon Philharmonic, "Scenes From The Chocolate Orchid Piano Bar". [21]
From 2001 to 2003, Zax co-starred on the Comedy Central game show Beat the Geeks as the show's primary "Music Geek," answering difficult questions about all forms of popular music in order to defeat the show's contestants.
From October 2006 until May 2007, Zax hosted a weekly radio program, Archives of Oblivion, described as "a treasure hunt through the scrapheap of mid-20th Century pop-culture ephemera", showcasing his notoriously eccentric record collection. [24] He has made occasional appearances as a DJ on dublab [25] and WFMU. [26]
Zax was a recurring panelist on the live stage revival of What's My Line? in Los Angeles and New York City from 2004 to 2008; Los Angeles deemed his performances "fabulous.". [27]
On January 19, 2008, he married actress Lisa Jane Persky in Beverly Hills. [28]
The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, 40 miles (65 km) southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music" and alternatively referred to as the Woodstock Rock Festival, it attracted more than 460,000 attendees. Thirty-two acts performed outdoors despite overcast and sporadic rain. It was one of the largest music festivals in history and became synonymous with the counterculture of the 1960s.
John Benson Sebastian (born March 17, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter and musician who founded the rock band the Lovin' Spoonful in 1964 with Zal Yanovsky. During his time in the Lovin Spoonful, John would write and sing some of the bands biggest hits such as Do You Believe in Magic, Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind, and Daydream. Sebastian would leave the Spoonful in 1968 after the album Everything Playing. After leaving the Spoonful Sebastian would focus on a solo career releasing his first solo album in 1970 titled John B. Sebastian, Sebastian would continue on recording solo albums.
Iain Matthews is an English musician and singer-songwriter. He was an original member of the British folk rock band Fairport Convention from 1967 to 1969 before leaving to form his own band, Matthews Southern Comfort, which had a UK number one in 1970 with their cover of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock". In 1979, his recording of Terence Boylan's "Shake It" reached No. 13 on the US charts.
Judith Lynne Sill was an American singer-songwriter. She was influenced by Bach, and wrote lyrics drawing on Christian themes of rapture and redemption.
Heart Food is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Judee Sill, released by Asylum in March 1973 to acclaim but minimal sales. Sill wrote, arranged, and produced the album. As with her debut Judee Sill, it was reissued by Rhino Records in 2003, featuring new liner notes and extra demos and unreleased tracks.
Judee Sill is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Judee Sill. Released on September 15, 1971, it was the first album on David Geffen's Asylum label. Backing musicians include John Beck and Jim Pons from the Leaves. While the majority of the album was produced by Henry Lewy, Graham Nash handled the duties for the single "Jesus Was a Cross Maker", with his production designed to aim for radio airplay.
Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More is a live album of selected performances from the 1969 Woodstock counterculture festival officially known as "The Woodstock Music & Art Fair". The album was compiled & produced by Eric Blackstead. Originally released on Atlantic Records' Cotillion label as a triple album on May 11, 1970, it was re-released as a 4 CD box by Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs in 1986 followed by a two-CD set released by Atlantic in 1987. Atlantic re-issued the two-CD set in 1994 correcting a few mastering errors found on their 1987 release. Veteran producer Eddie Kramer along with Lee Osbourne were the sound engineers during the three-day event.
Woodstock Two is the second live album released of the 1969 Woodstock Festival concert. The two-LP set contains more material from many acts featured on the first Woodstock album with additional performances from Mountain and Melanie. The tracks by Mountain were in fact not from their Woodstock performance but rather a show recorded at New York's Fillmore East. Unlike the first Woodstock soundtrack LP, this LP does not contain any ancillary stage announcements. Like the previous album this was also packaged in a triple gatefold sleeve.
The Basement Tapes is the sixteenth album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and his second with the Band. It was released on June 26, 1975, by Columbia Records. Two-thirds of the album's 24 tracks feature Dylan on lead vocals backed by the Band, and were recorded in 1967, eight years before the album's release, in the lapse between the release of Blonde on Blonde and the subsequent recording and release of John Wesley Harding, during sessions that began at Dylan's house in Woodstock, New York, then moved to the basement of Big Pink. While most of these had appeared on bootleg albums, The Basement Tapes marked their first official release. The remaining eight songs, all previously unavailable, feature the Band without Dylan and were recorded between 1967 and 1975.
At the Woodstock Festival is a live album by Indian classical musician Ravi Shankar that was released in 1970 on World Pacific Records. It was recorded on 15 August 1969, during the first day of the Woodstock Festival in upstate New York. Shankar's set took place during a downpour and he later expressed his dissatisfaction with the event due to the prevalence of drugs among the crowd.
Stanley Martin Szelest was an American musician from Buffalo, New York, known for founding an influential blues band in the 1950s and 1960s, Stan and the Ravens, and later as a keyboardist with Ronnie Hawkins and, briefly, with The Band.
Snarky Puppy is an American jazz fusion band led by bassist Michael League. Founded in 2004, Snarky Puppy combines a variety of jazz idioms, rock, world music, and funk and has won five Grammy Awards. Although the band has worked with vocalists, League described Snarky Puppy as "a pop band that improvises a lot, without vocals".
Woodstock 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur's Farm is a six-CD live box-set album of the 1969 Woodstock Festival in Bethel, New York. Its release marked the 40th Anniversary of the festival.
Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music is a 4-CD live box-set album of the 1969 Woodstock Festival in Bethel, New York. Its release marked the 25th anniversary of the festival. The box set contains tracks from Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More, Woodstock 2, and numerous additional, previously unreleased performances from the festival as well as the stage announcements and crowd noises. Just prior to the box set's release, Atlantic Records released a much shorter 1-CD version entitled The Best of Woodstock. In 2019, Rhino Records issued a 38-CD box set called Woodstock – Back to the Garden: The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive which includes every musical performance as well as stage announcements and other ancillary material.
Cheryl Pawelski is an American record producer and record-company executive. Since 2010, she has been one of the founder/owners of Omnivore Recordings, a Los Angeles-based record label specializing in historical releases, reissues and previously unissued vintage recordings, as well as select releases of new music.
Live at Woodstock is a live album released on August 2, 2019 via Fantasy Records. The set documents swamp rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival's set at the Woodstock music festival on August 17, 1969. The release has received positive reviews and moderate chart success.
Woodstock – Back to the Garden: The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive is a live album by various artists, packaged as a box set of 38 CDs. It contains nearly all of the performances from the Woodstock music festival, which took place on August 15–18, 1969, in Bethel, New York. The CDs also include many stage announcements and miscellaneous audio material. The box set also contains bonus material such as a Blu-ray copy of the director's cut of the Woodstock documentary film, a hardcover book written by concert promoter Michael Lang, and a replica of the original concert program. It was released by Rhino Records on August 2, 2019, in a limited edition of 1,969 copies.
Joni Mitchell Archives – Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963–1967) is a five-disc box set by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, released on October 30, 2020, by Rhino Records. The box set is the first release of the Joni Mitchell Archives, a planned series of releases containing remastered material from the singer's archives. Formatted in chronological order, the first volume of the series includes the archived material that was recorded in the years preceding the release of Mitchell's debut studio album, Song to a Seagull (1968). The album won the Grammy Award for Best Historical Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
Woodstock – Back to the Garden: 50th Anniversary Experience is a live album by various artists, packaged as a box set of ten compact discs. Released by Rhino Records during the summer leading up to the fiftieth anniversary of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, it contains selections from every performance at the music festival, which took place on August 15–18, 1969, in Bethel, New York. The discs also include stage announcements and miscellaneous audio material. The package contains essays by producer Andy Zax and Jesse Jarnow, details about the performers and notable festival figures, and photographs. This box set is a compilation derived from its limited edition parent box set. A smaller three-CD or five-LP sampler was also released.
Woodstock – Back to the Garden: 50th Anniversary Collection is a live album by various artists. It was recorded at the Woodstock music festival, which took place on August 15–18, 1969, in Bethel, New York. It includes 30 songs by 21 different musical artists, in order of performance, along with a number of stage announcements. It was released as a three-disc CD and as a five-disc LP on June 28, 2019.
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