Ashley Morgan made a lot of recordings over the years and today Steve and I finished archiving them all, up until today’s date, on a number of formats including tape and mini-disc. Ashley Morgan had a habit of recording everything he ever did on mini-disc so this was a long process!

Most of the recordings were intact so the process was pretty easy once we had figured out how to get all of the necessary pieces of equipment to talk to each other.

Some of these recordings are going to be remastered for vinyl distribution but the majority have been catalogued and archived purely for personal reasons. While this process will almost certainly be part of Ashley’s move to analogue it’s also an interesting study in how to archive audio in a number of formats and a valuable lesson for any studio engineer, old or new.

Ashley, you owe us a big drink!

Continue reading Ashley Morgan recordings archive

Ashley Morgan, jazz musician, jazz trumpet player and record label owner is now the proud owner of what we in the old school music business (I’m showing my age there, sorry about that readers) call a catalogue.

Ashley Morgan has spent months in the studio (with help from yours truly, studio engineer to the stars) getting everything ready before sending it off to the vinyl monkeys who handle the kind of stuff that mere studio engineers can’t do.

To order any of Ashley Morgan’s jazz records click here and get in touch with him.

p.s I almost forgot, please don’t keep sending us email about other Ashley Morgans. There are plenty of Ashley Morgans on the web, including that blasted Lady Gaga tribute act.

Continue reading Ashley Morgan jazz records now available in all good record shops through Ashley Morgan’s independent record label

I just realised that I made a pun in my last post but didn’t make the most of it.

I said that Big Arena Records (the label that I set up with Ashley Morgan and Paul Varga all those years ago) following the lead of Ashley Morgan’s other record labels and going analogue. I then went on to say that Audrey was being employed as chief stamp licker.

Audrey is a dog.

Following the lead.

Get it?

I’ll get my coat and return with other record label and dog inspired puns.

Continue reading Taking the record label lead and other puns that make me laugh

Big Arena Records, the independent record label started by yours truly along with Ashley Morgan and Paul Varga has just recruited its latest member.

Audrey.

Big Arena Records has followed the lead of Ashley Morgan’s other record labels and gone analogue, leading us back into a world that we are much more familiar and comfortable with.

Audrey’s role is chief stamp licker, a job that she relishes and one that is very important in this new analogue age we are going back to.

Continue reading All record labels need a dog don’t you think?

British jazz musician Ashley Morgan today launched 3 UK record labels all of which offer no digital downloads and no mp3s. E&R Records, 447 Records and Level 9 Records are all entirely analogue, distributing music on vinyl and cassette.

Yes, that’s right. Analogue only. E&R Records, 447 Records and Level 9 Records. All recordings are analogue and all recordings stay analogue.

Form an orderly queue at your local independent record shop.

Continue reading British jazz musician Ashley Morgan launches UK record labels E&R Records 447 Records and Level 9 Records

Ashley Morgan, jazz musician and Enormous trumpet player, has told me and the rest of the band, including a very confused looking Audrey, that he plans to go fully analogue in the next 12 months.

Quite what he means I really can’t imagine.

He says he’s going to only record his own music using analogue equipment, keeping the path from recording to release completely analogue. That means recording on tape, mixing and mastering on tape, and releasing on vinyl.

I suppose that jazz is a good candidate for analogue but I honestly can’t say that I think the pros outweigh the cons on this one. We shall have to wait and see. The end product will be interesting and, according to Ashley Morgan, have more humanity than anything digital every could (and I agree with him on that point, salient as it is), but the costs will be huge.

Time to go shopping for a new tape machine.

Continue reading Jazz musician Ashley Morgan goes analogue