FANTASY CD-4's: The Forgotten Five

[steelydave]

There's actually one more (well, two more) Milestone CD-4 title that was released in Japan only - McCoy Tyner 'Enlightenment', a concert recorded at the 1973 Montreux Jazz Festival. The stereo version was a double-LP gatefold, but the quad version was released in two parts, Vol. 1 (CD4W-7070) and Vol. 2 (CD4W-7071). It's probably not in nearly as high demand as some of the other Japanese CD-4 titles, but I found it exceedingly difficult to find - it took me more than two years, and sellers on two different continents to get the two volumes. I thought I'd share a couple of pictures, for those interested:

The Fantasy CD-4s always intrigued me, because it seems like a really random sampling of the label's artists, and aside from CCR and The Blackbyrds (which had a hit single) the others are kind of eclectic, Flora Purim and Woody Herman for example. Tyner's Song of the New World also seemed like a slightly odd choice, simply because it was an album from 1973, why re-release it in quad in 1975 when he'd done at least two albums since then? Was it mixed for quad in '73 and just in the can since then?

I did find this slightly intriguing article in a Billboard article from 1971 where Fantasy boss Saul Zaentz says they're going to mix some CCR albums for quad for Q8 release later in the year. It makes you wonder if the mixes on CCR Gold are culled from quad mixes of individual albums that never came out. And if Fantasy had its own quad-equipped studio from 1971 onward, what else were they mixing in quad, if anything? It seems like a lot of investment just to do the 6 released in the US plus Enlightenment in Japan.

I also found this article from 1974 that talks about a mobile recording studio set up by CCR drummer Doug Clifford and bassist Stu Cook along with CCR engineer Russ Gary that did QS mixing of live concerts for radio broadcast. I believe Mr. Gary is a member over at the Steve Hoffman forums, maybe someone over there could invite him to have a look-in here and share what he remembers about quad mixing (if anything), and if DSR did any quad mixing for Fantasy at all.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

I too came across that DSR matrix encoded info in Billboard btw.
Thanks Steely , for posting that article. A previously unknown quad matrix broadcasting effort by none other than 2 members of CCR. (Doug and Stu )

I wonder how far the QS program got into syndication in the U.S.?? and when it ended .



Additionlly and sadly CCR'S Album Gold-Greatest Hits......was never mixed in quad. It was "enhanced" for CD-4
All the featured FPM quadradiscs contain a tiny note indicating mixed in quad , but not THE CCR GOLD DISC. Instead....
" now enhanced in CD-4 "....that quote as per the FPM CD-4 advert featuring all their quad releases in Billboard mag May 01 1976 page 81.





And Charles Earland had an album mixed in quad on the Prestige label but not released
Billboard 23 June 1973 page 49 , at Village Recorders L A

Quote from the G.M. (La Palm) at Village recorders , " Had his first album mixed in quad and he freaked ".

The article was regarding recent quad mixes fwiw, so it may be his (Earland) latest album in 1973, released in the fall of 73.

 

[Larry Geller]

No matter what they or you say, CCR is in real quad. Indeed, Bad Moon Rising and Proud Mary are virtually mono everywhere but here, where the instruments are fully separated, so it definitely was remixed, not "enhanced".

 

[Q-Eight]

No matter what they or you say, CCR is in real quad. Indeed, Bad Moon Rising and Proud Mary are virtually mono everywhere but here, where the instruments are fully separated, so it definitely was remixed, not "enhanced".

I would agree. Maybe not all songs are from multitrack, but most of them are for sure. Mr. Fogerty had 8-track available to him right from the start at "The Factory" and 16-track available at Fantasy Studios in Burbank. Many of the early CCR songs have that "grungy" sound to them because the first generation 16-track is duped from a first generation 8-track. Sound silly? Let me explain. John and the boys would record basic tracks at The Factory onto their 8-track. Then, John would take that tape to Burbank, copy those 8 tracks onto a 16-track tape, then apply all his overdubs to his newly created 8 additional tracks. In his book, "Fortunate Son", he tells this story and how they were well into 1969 when a tape operator at Fantasy said: "Hey John, why don't you just get a 16-track desk & machine at The Factory and avoid all the extra work/time/money/tape?" Nobody had ever explained to him that you could do that, somewhat highlighting his lack of experience at the time. The "problem" with many of these multitrack tapes is that many of the tracks are used up with John's (obsessive) vocal overdubbing. I recall he mentions in the book that he did all the lead and backing vocals on ALL the CCR songs except for three where the other boys insisted they be allowed to sing. (I'm discounting the Mardi Gras album for this statement as Mr. Fogerty himself doesn't really like to acknowledge that album as a CCR album).

 

[boojidad]

FYI: There is a CCR Gold CD-4 available on eBay at the moment. Only $165. Caveat emptor.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

No matter what they or you say, CCR is in real quad. Indeed, Bad Moon Rising and Proud Mary are virtually mono everywhere but here, where the instruments are fully separated, so it definitely was remixed, not "enhanced".

I'm not disagreeing with what you hear , Larry , I'm simply pointing out that that ad DOES NOT say mixed as the other titles do. (Have a peak ).

I had the CD-4 album and found it more of a complete stereo spread in four channel. I love CCR btw and would have hoped for more multitracks of any of their albums.


If there is a quad tape at Fantasy , perhaps we may ......someday ......be able to purchase a hirez copy of it.
Regardless what I think of that mix? I would definitely purchase it.

 

[steelydave]

And Charles Earland had an album mixed in quad on the Prestige label but not released
Billboard 23 June 1973 page 49 , at Village Recorders L A

Quote from the G.M. (La Palm) at Village recorders , " Had his first album mixed in quad and he freaked ".

The article was regarding recent quad mixes fwiw, so it may be his (Earland) latest album in 1973, released in the fall of 73.

This was a real revelation to me, as I'd never come across this article - I think the wording probably indicates that it was the first album he'd ever had mixed in quad, rather than his first-ever album, which I think was in about 1970. Given the date of this article (June 23rd 1973) I think the most likely suspect is Charles III (Prestige PRT-10061) which was recorded in Feb '73 and released in June of that year. Interestingly, it was engineered by Rudy Van Gelder (as were all of Earland's albums before that one) right around the time that he was starting to do the CTI quad mixes, so maybe he put a bug in Earland's ear about quad that ended up with the album subsequently being mixed in quad at the Village Recorder. Or perhaps the quad mix was done by Van Gelder himself and the reporter in the Billboard article confused what Dick LaPalm was saying about the album having a quad mix with it actually being mixed in quad at the Village Recorder. Either way, it's an exciting development to discover that there's at least one more Prestige quad mix that never saw the light of day.

The article itself is really interesting, and seems to indicate that other Fantasy/Prestige/Milestone quad mixing was done at the Village when it mentions that Kenny Burrell's latest album (more on that below) was mixed there. I thought it was worth reproducing in full so I took a screen capture of it:

If there is a quad tape at Fantasy , perhaps we may ......someday ......be able to purchase a hirez copy of it.
Regardless what I think of that mix? I would definitely purchase it.

The CCR Gold quad master definitely still exists, if Steve Hoffman is to be believed - he confirmed it in a post on his forum just last year, after taking a dump on the quality of the mixes, as he's so fond of doing.


The other interesting development for me lately with the F/P/M catalog stems from a post that @furui_suterioo made in the What's the Latest MATRIX LP/CD Added to Your Pile? thread. I've looked through probably thousands of auctions on the various international eBay and Japanese auction sites over the last 10 or 15 years, so it's rare that something comes up that I haven't seen before, but the first LP in his post, The Fantastic World of Quadro caught my eye, because I'd never seen it before. I looked it up on discogs expecting it would have the usual Bacillus/Bellaphon stuff on it being a German release, but lo and behold it has 4 tracks from Fantasy Records artists that were never released in quad:

Kenny Burrell 'Both Feet on the Ground' (from Both Feet on the Ground, Fantasy F 9427, presumably the 'latest album' referred to in the Billboard article above)

Charlie Byrd 'Evil Ways' (from Crystal Silence, Fantasy F 9429)

Woody Herman 'Giant Steps' (from Giant Steps, Fantasy F 9432)

The Cannonball Adderley Quintet 'Inside Straight' (from Inside Straight, Fantasy F 9435)

When you combine these releases with the ones that were actually released as part of the FPM series it's something of a major revelation that Fantasy (and presumably Prestige and Milestone, which were both owned by Fantasy) was stockpiling quad mixes in 1973 and 1974, and for whatever reason (presumably the fact that quad wasn't setting the world in fire from a sales standpoint) decided not to put them out.

After doing a bit of research (including using Billboard archives and the US Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright entries) that even though the albums in the FPM series have a 1975 (p) date on them, they were actually released in early-mid 1976, and despite that, all the quad mixes are from albums between 1972 (CCR Gold) and the beginning of 1975 (Woody Herman's Children of Lima). This kind of solidifies my belief that none of the quad mixes for the FPM series were done in in late '75 or '76, but instead they were old mixes in the can that Fantasy were somehow persuaded to release - maybe JVC or the CD-4 group persuaded them (financially or otherwise) to give it a go, and since the mixes were already in the can it was a very low risk proposition. Probably given a good thing, since it appears that the FPM CD-4s weren't even in print for 2 years before they were deleted, which gives you some idea of how well they probably fared commercially.

Discovering that Toshiba/Bellaphon sampler with the Fantasy tracks on it got me wondering how everything (both released and unreleased) slotted in numerically, and curious about how many other Fantasy albums from the period may have received quad mixes that were never released, so over the last couple of days I've been compiling a list of all the Fantasy LP releases from the first one to receive quad release (CCR Gold, Fantasy F 9418) through F 9499, Woody Herman King Cobra, which came out in early 1976, around the time the FPM CD-4s were issued. I'm not saying by any means that most, or even some, of the others (and there are loads of bands in this list I've never heard of, Rewing? Moonquest? Jim Post?) may have been mixed in quad, but it's interesting to see everything in numerical order and let yourself wonder what's sitting in the Concord group's dusty vaults.

GREEN: Released in quad | RED: Possible unreleased quad mixes

CATALOG #	ARTIST	TITLE	YEAR	NOTES
F 9418	Creedence Clearwater Revival	Creedence Gold	1972​	CD-4 LP: FPM-4001
F 9419	Sandra Rhodes	Where's Your Love Been	1973​
F 9420	Black Girl	Original Soundtrack Recording	1973​
F 9421	Merl Saunders	Fire Up	1973​
F 9422	Cal Tjader	Primo	1973​
F 9423	The Staple Singers	Use What You Got	1973​	Reissue / 1963/1964 recordings
F 9424	Cal Tjader	Mambo with Tjader	1973​	Reissue
F 9425	Jim Post	Rattlesnake	1973​
F 9426	Jerry Hahn	Moses	1973​
F 9427	Kenny Burrell	Both Feet on the Ground	1973​	Toshiba/Bellaphon Sampler
F 9428	Letta Mbulu	Naturally	1973​
F 9429	Charlie Byrd	Crystal Silence	1973​	Toshiba/Bellaphon Sampler
F 9430	Creedence Clearwater Revival	More Creedence Gold	1973​
F 9431	Mongo Santamaria's Afro-Latin Band	Mongo Y La Lupe	1973​	Reissue
F 9432	Woody Herman	Giant Steps	1973​	Toshiba/Bellaphon Sampler
F 9433	Duke Ellington and His Orchestra	Yale Concert (1968)	1973​
F 9434	Frank White	Nice to Be on Your Show	1973​
F 9435	The Cannonball Adderley Quintet	Inside Straight	1973​	Toshiba/Bellaphon Sampler
F 9436	Heavy Traffic	Original Soundtrack Recording	1973​
F 9437	Johnny Guitar Watson	Listen	1973​
F 9438	Mississippi	Mississippi	1973​
F 9439	Redwing	Take Me Home	1973​
F 9440	Natural Essence	In Search of Happiness	1973​
F 9441	Joe Williams	Joe Williams Live	1973​
F 9442	The Staple Singers	The Twenty-Fifth Day of December	1973​	Reissue
F 9443	The Challengers	Where Were You in the Summer of '62?	1973​	Compilation
F 9444	The Blackbyrds	The Blackbyrds	1973​
F 9445	Cannonball Adderley presents Rick Holmes	Love, Sex, and the Zodiac	1973​
F 9446	Cal Tjader	Last Bolero in Berkeley	1973​
F 9447	Betty Everett	Love Rhymes	1974​
F 9448	Tom Fogerty	Zephyr National	1974​
F 9449	The Cats	The Love in Your Eyes	1974​
F 9450	Moonquake	Moonquake	1974​
F 9451	Jim Post	Looks Good to Me	1974​
F 9452	Woody Herman	Thundering Herd	1974​
F 9453	Cal Tjader and Charlie Byrd	Tambu	1974​
F 9454	Michael Dinner	The Great Pretender	1974​
F 9455	The Cannonball Adderley Quintet	Pyramid	1974​
F 9456	David Axelrod	Heavy Axe	1974​
F 9457	Bill Evans	The Tokyo Concert	1974​
F 9458	Kenny Burrell	Up the Street, 'Round the Corner, Down the Block	1974​
F 9459	Redwing	Dead or Alive	1974​
F 9460	Merl Saunders	Merl Saunders	1974​
F 9461	Luis Gasca ft. Joe Henderson	Born to Love You	1974​
F 9462	Duke Ellington	The Pianist	1974​
F 9463	Cal Tjader	Puttin' it Together	1974​
F 9464	Frijid Pink	All Pink Inside	1974​
F 9465	Stanley Turrentine	Pieces of Dreams	1974​	CD-4 LP: FPM-4002
F 9466	Charlie Byrd	Byrd by the Sea	1974​
F 9467	Gayle McCormick	One More Hour	1974​
F 9468	J. D. Blackfoot	The Song of Crazy Horse	1974​
F 9469	Tom Fogerty	Myopia	1974​
F 9470	Woody Herman	Herd at Montreux	1974​
F 9471	Lyle Swedeen	Sunshine Inside	1974​
F 9472	The Blackbyrds	Flying Start	1974​	CD-4 LP: FPM-4004
F 9473	Pleasure	Dust Yourself Off	1975​
F 9474	The Golliwogs	Pre-Creedence	1975​
F 9475	Bill Evans / Eddie Gomez	Intuition	1975​
F 9476	The 3 Pieces	Vibes of Truth	1975​
F 9477	Woody Herman	Children of Lima	1975​	CD-4 LP: FPM-4003
F 9478	Stanley Turrentine	In the Pocket	1975​
F 9479	Arthur Adams	Home Brew	1975​
F 9480	Betty Everett	Happy Endings	1975​
F 9481	The Duke Ellington Orchestra	Continuum	1975​
F 9482	Cal Tjader	Last Night When We Were Young	1975​
F 9483	The Blackbyrds	Cornbread, Earl and Me Soundtrack	1975​
F 9484	Johnny Guitar Watson	I Don't Want to Be Alone, Stranger	1975​
F 9485	Frank Hayhurst	Your Love, My Love	1975​
F 9486	Moonquake	Star Struck	1975​
F 9487	J. D. Blackfoot	Southbound and Gone	1975​
F 9488	Redwing	Beyond the Sun and Stars	1975​
F 9489	Tony Bennett / Bill Evans	The Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album	1975​
F 9490	The Blackbyrds	City Life	1975​
F 9491	Side Effect	Side Effect	1975​
F 9492	Janice	Janice	1975​
F 9493	Stanley Turrentine	Have You Ever Seen the Rain	1975​
F 9494	Water & Power	Water & Power	1975​
F 9495	Country Joe McDonald	Paradise with an Ocean View	1975​	CANCELLED CD-4 LP: FPM-4007
F 9496	Charlie Byrd ft. Nat Adderley	Top Hat	1975​
F 9497	John Fogerty	John Fogerty	1975​
F 9498	Duke Ellington	The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse	1975​
F 9499	Woody Herman	King Cobra	1976​

(Billboard magazine May 1st 1976 advertisement)

 

[furui_suterioo]

I remember there was quad effects on side one but my focus was on side two when I first played it, I'll have to play it again and compare the mix to an actual release (or possibly yoitube).

 

[JonUrban]

......The CCR Gold quad master definitely still exists, if Steve Hoffman is to be believed - he confirmed it in a post on his forum just last year, after taking a dump on the quality of the mixes, as he's so fond of doing.......

They must be readily available as well, since the 2011(?) Mercedes Benz 5.1 Demo Disc (DTS) has a Creedence Track on it, with a totally "new" mix.

 

[furui_suterioo]

Played the sampler again already (surprise day off), I played two different videos of Woody Herman La Fiesta, a video of Cannonball Adderley Inside Straight, and a video of Kenny Burrell Both Feet On The Ground through SQ also toggling RM. Woody Herman and Cannonball Adderley sounded like quad but Kenny Burrell video was different mix from sampler, couldn't find a video of the Charlie Byrd track.

 

[Q-Eight]

They must be readily available as well, since the 2011(?) Mercedes Benz 5.1 Demo Disc (DTS) has a Creedence Track on it, with a totally "new" mix.

According to Mr. Fogerty, all the CCR multitracks are present and accounted for. Although it was never specifically mentioned, I would also assume the master tape for the CCR Gold album must also exist. If Mr. Fogerty can be thankful about anything relating to Mr. Zaentz, is that Mr. Zaentz was meticulous about protecting the tapes made by the Goose that laid the Golden Egg. When Concord Music purchased Fantasy Records in 2004, they received detailed spreadsheets relating to all of the Fantasy Records masters and multitracks. While I can't speak for the other artists, Mr. Fogerty has mentioned on several occasions how the "new" Fantasy Records has taken many steps in repairing the relationship between him and the former version of his record label. One of those steps was a complete audit on the state of the "CCR Vault".

Mr. F has been approached a few times asking if he would ever remix the old catalog, and most times he's declined citing the "lightning never strikes twice" mantra, in that it would probably take many years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to collect and restore enough vintage mixing equipment to even come close to replicating the "CCR Sound". The multitracks are very dry with most of the echo/reverb added post-production. The only "effect" on the multitracks is how they would run the cymbals and hi-hat from the drum kit through their home-made echo chamber and record that live back onto the multitrack.

Never say never, as he's been the one pushing to release a lot of the stuff that remained socked away for many years. But a full remix or something new in surround sound? Doubtful that will ever happen. I mean, if it hasn't happened yet, it might not happen.


Just like Steve Miller once told me in an email that "Book of Dreams" was also going to get a 35th Anniversary Remix and Surround release and "The Joker" was "in the pipline" as well. Well, 2012 has come and gone and ain't no sign of either yet!

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Well I likely confused the issue on my CCR statement , sorry for that.


I'm certain a discrete tape must exist as there was a Q 8 issued from it. What I should have said would be something more akin to ----that discrete mix "if you can call it that" may be a type of upmix prepared for discrete. It could be a case where it was rushed for quad and all multi's were not available.

For my part I always thought "Suzie Q" and "Heard It Through The Grapevine " had something going on with front to rear.

Now Jon says there is a new mix of one of those tracks on CCR Gold . That sounds promising , because like I stated prior I am a big fan of CCR , and of course in quad.

 

[JonUrban]

.....
Now Jon says there is a new mix of one of those tracks on CCR Gold . That sounds promising , because like I stated prior I am a big fan of CCR , and of course in quad.

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/mercedes-benz-signature-sound-dvd.16511/

 

[fizzywiggs41]

This was a real revelation to me, as I'd never come across this article - I think the wording probably indicates that it was the first album he'd ever had mixed in quad, rather than his first-ever album, which I think was in about 1970. Given the date of this article (June 23rd 1973) I think the most likely suspect is Charles III (Prestige PRT-10061) which was recorded in Feb '73 and released in June of that year. Interestingly, it was engineered by Rudy Van Gelder (as were all of Earland's albums before that one) right around the time that he was starting to do the CTI quad mixes, so maybe he put a bug in Earland's ear about quad that ended up with the album subsequently being mixed in quad at the Village Recorder. Or perhaps the quad mix was done by Van Gelder himself and the reporter in the Billboard article confused what Dick LaPalm was saying about the album having a quad mix with it actually being mixed in quad at the Village Recorder. Either way, it's an exciting development to discover that there's at least one more Prestige quad mix that never saw the light of day.

The article itself is really interesting, and seems to indicate that other Fantasy/Prestige/Milestone quad mixing was done at the Village when it mentions that Kenny Burrell's latest album (more on that below) was mixed there. I thought it was worth reproducing in full so I took a screen capture of it:

View attachment 45679






The CCR Gold quad master definitely still exists, if Steve Hoffman is to be believed - he confirmed it in a post on his forum just last year, after taking a dump on the quality of the mixes, as he's so fond of doing.


The other interesting development for me lately with the F/P/M catalog stems from a post that @furui_suterioo made in the What's the Latest MATRIX LP/CD Added to Your Pile? thread. I've looked through probably thousands of auctions on the various international eBay and Japanese auction sites over the last 10 or 15 years, so it's rare that something comes up that I haven't seen before, but the first LP in his post, The Fantastic World of Quadro caught my eye, because I'd never seen it before. I looked it up on discogs expecting it would have the usual Bacillus/Bellaphon stuff on it being a German release, but lo and behold it has 4 tracks from Fantasy Records artists that were never released in quad:

Kenny Burrell 'Both Feet on the Ground' (from Both Feet on the Ground, Fantasy F 9427, presumably the 'latest album' referred to in the Billboard article above)

Charlie Byrd 'Evil Ways' (from Crystal Silence, Fantasy F 9429)

Woody Herman 'Giant Steps' (from Giant Steps, Fantasy F 9432)

The Cannonball Adderley Quintet 'Inside Straight' (from Inside Straight, Fantasy F 9435)

When you combine these releases with the ones that were actually released as part of the FPM series it's something of a major revelation that Fantasy (and presumably Prestige and Milestone, which were both owned by Fantasy) was stockpiling quad mixes in 1973 and 1974, and for whatever reason (presumably the fact that quad wasn't setting the world in fire from a sales standpoint) decided not to put them out.

After doing a bit of research (including using Billboard archives and the US Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright entries) that even though the albums in the FPM series have a 1975 (p) date on them, they were actually released in early-mid 1976, and despite that, all the quad mixes are from albums between 1972 (CCR Gold) and the beginning of 1975 (Woody Herman's Children of Lima). This kind of solidifies my belief that none of the quad mixes for the FPM series were done in in late '75 or '76, but instead they were old mixes in the can that Fantasy were somehow persuaded to release - maybe JVC or the CD-4 group persuaded them (financially or otherwise) to give it a go, and since the mixes were already in the can it was a very low risk proposition. Probably given a good thing, since it appears that the FPM CD-4s weren't even in print for 2 years before they were deleted, which gives you some idea of how well they probably fared commercially.

Discovering that Toshiba/Bellaphon sampler with the Fantasy tracks on it got me wondering how everything (both released and unreleased) slotted in numerically, and curious about how many other Fantasy albums from the period may have received quad mixes that were never released, so over the last couple of days I've been compiling a list of all the Fantasy LP releases from the first one to receive quad release (CCR Gold, Fantasy F 9418) through F 9499, Woody Herman King Cobra, which came out in early 1976, around the time the FPM CD-4s were issued. I'm not saying by any means that most, or even some, of the others (and there are loads of bands in this list I've never heard of, Rewing? Moonquest? Jim Post?) may have been mixed in quad, but it's interesting to see everything in numerical order and let yourself wonder what's sitting in the Concord group's dusty vaults.

GREEN: Released in quad | RED: Possible unreleased quad mixes

CATALOG #	ARTIST	TITLE	YEAR	NOTES
F 9418	Creedence Clearwater Revival	Creedence Gold	1972​	CD-4 LP: FPM-4001
F 9419	Sandra Rhodes	Where's Your Love Been	1973​
F 9420	Black Girl	Original Soundtrack Recording	1973​
F 9421	Merl Saunders	Fire Up	1973​
F 9422	Cal Tjader	Primo	1973​
F 9423	The Staple Singers	Use What You Got	1973​	Reissue / 1963/1964 recordings
F 9424	Cal Tjader	Mambo with Tjader	1973​	Reissue
F 9425	Jim Post	Rattlesnake	1973​
F 9426	Jerry Hahn	Moses	1973​
F 9427	Kenny Burrell	Both Feet on the Ground	1973​	Toshiba/Bellaphon Sampler
F 9428	Letta Mbulu	Naturally	1973​
F 9429	Charlie Byrd	Crystal Silence	1973​	Toshiba/Bellaphon Sampler
F 9430	Creedence Clearwater Revival	More Creedence Gold	1973​
F 9431	Mongo Santamaria's Afro-Latin Band	Mongo Y La Lupe	1973​	Reissue
F 9432	Woody Herman	Giant Steps	1973​	Toshiba/Bellaphon Sampler
F 9433	Duke Ellington and His Orchestra	Yale Concert (1968)	1973​
F 9434	Frank White	Nice to Be on Your Show	1973​
F 9435	The Cannonball Adderley Quintet	Inside Straight	1973​	Toshiba/Bellaphon Sampler
F 9436	Heavy Traffic	Original Soundtrack Recording	1973​
F 9437	Johnny Guitar Watson	Listen	1973​
F 9438	Mississippi	Mississippi	1973​
F 9439	Redwing	Take Me Home	1973​
F 9440	Natural Essence	In Search of Happiness	1973​
F 9441	Joe Williams	Joe Williams Live	1973​
F 9442	The Staple Singers	The Twenty-Fifth Day of December	1973​	Reissue
F 9443	The Challengers	Where Were You in the Summer of '62?	1973​	Compilation
F 9444	The Blackbyrds	The Blackbyrds	1973​
F 9445	Cannonball Adderley presents Rick Holmes	Love, Sex, and the Zodiac	1973​
F 9446	Cal Tjader	Last Bolero in Berkeley	1973​
F 9447	Betty Everett	Love Rhymes	1974​
F 9448	Tom Fogerty	Zephyr National	1974​
F 9449	The Cats	The Love in Your Eyes	1974​
F 9450	Moonquake	Moonquake	1974​
F 9451	Jim Post	Looks Good to Me	1974​
F 9452	Woody Herman	Thundering Herd	1974​
F 9453	Cal Tjader and Charlie Byrd	Tambu	1974​
F 9454	Michael Dinner	The Great Pretender	1974​
F 9455	The Cannonball Adderley Quintet	Pyramid	1974​
F 9456	David Axelrod	Heavy Axe	1974​
F 9457	Bill Evans	The Tokyo Concert	1974​
F 9458	Kenny Burrell	Up the Street, 'Round the Corner, Down the Block	1974​
F 9459	Redwing	Dead or Alive	1974​
F 9460	Merl Saunders	Merl Saunders	1974​
F 9461	Luis Gasca ft. Joe Henderson	Born to Love You	1974​
F 9462	Duke Ellington	The Pianist	1974​
F 9463	Cal Tjader	Puttin' it Together	1974​
F 9464	Frijid Pink	All Pink Inside	1974​
F 9465	Stanley Turrentine	Pieces of Dreams	1974​	CD-4 LP: FPM-4002
F 9466	Charlie Byrd	Byrd by the Sea	1974​
F 9467	Gayle McCormick	One More Hour	1974​
F 9468	J. D. Blackfoot	The Song of Crazy Horse	1974​
F 9469	Tom Fogerty	Myopia	1974​
F 9470	Woody Herman	Herd at Montreux	1974​
F 9471	Lyle Swedeen	Sunshine Inside	1974​
F 9472	The Blackbyrds	Flying Start	1974​	CD-4 LP: FPM-4004
F 9473	Pleasure	Dust Yourself Off	1975​
F 9474	The Golliwogs	Pre-Creedence	1975​
F 9475	Bill Evans / Eddie Gomez	Intuition	1975​
F 9476	The 3 Pieces	Vibes of Truth	1975​
F 9477	Woody Herman	Children of Lima	1975​	CD-4 LP: FPM-4003
F 9478	Stanley Turrentine	In the Pocket	1975​
F 9479	Arthur Adams	Home Brew	1975​
F 9480	Betty Everett	Happy Endings	1975​
F 9481	The Duke Ellington Orchestra	Continuum	1975​
F 9482	Cal Tjader	Last Night When We Were Young	1975​
F 9483	The Blackbyrds	Cornbread, Earl and Me Soundtrack	1975​
F 9484	Johnny Guitar Watson	I Don't Want to Be Alone, Stranger	1975​
F 9485	Frank Hayhurst	Your Love, My Love	1975​
F 9486	Moonquake	Star Struck	1975​
F 9487	J. D. Blackfoot	Southbound and Gone	1975​
F 9488	Redwing	Beyond the Sun and Stars	1975​
F 9489	Tony Bennett / Bill Evans	The Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album	1975​
F 9490	The Blackbyrds	City Life	1975​
F 9491	Side Effect	Side Effect	1975​
F 9492	Janice	Janice	1975​
F 9493	Stanley Turrentine	Have You Ever Seen the Rain	1975​
F 9494	Water & Power	Water & Power	1975​
F 9495	Country Joe McDonald	Paradise with an Ocean View	1975​	CANCELLED CD-4 LP: FPM-4007
F 9496	Charlie Byrd ft. Nat Adderley	Top Hat	1975​
F 9497	John Fogerty	John Fogerty	1975​
F 9498	Duke Ellington	The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse	1975​
F 9499	Woody Herman	King Cobra	1976​

(Billboard magazine May 1st 1976 advertisement)
View attachment 45680

Thanks for posting those Billboard articles, Steely.


A little more regarding jazz in quad , which may or may not be FPM discs( but you never know ), is that Claude Nobs offered free to all artists at Montreaux .......free mixing of anything live while in attendance.
His facility was fully quad capable and he was promoting quad at the time , as the quad rep for WEA Europe.

We know that 2 quad releases were made from Montreaux via Mongo Santamaria(Q8) and Fats Domino(CD-4) on Atlantic .
Additionally Ed Michel mixed and issued QS albums from Monteaux (Impulse Artists On Tour) , for one.

This article can be viewed on Billboard ,28-07 -73, page 49. And additionally June 06,1973 , page 39 .



Well so anyways, there may also be some from Prestige or Milestone so I thought I'd mention this find.

 

[Q-Eight]

Things like this often get me wondering.... "If a company spent the time and money to mix an album to Quad, why would they leave it unreleased?" My logic being that the bulk of the money has been spent on the man-hours and studio time for remixing, plus whatever tape costs are associated thereof. That's all expenses the record company must absorb, so it only makes sense that by releasing that title, they'd make their money back.

Does the artist disapprove of the final mix? Ok, I can see that happening and has happened in other situations.
Reluctance to choose the commercial format? Allright, that can be a daunting task for some of the smaller labels, JVC and CBS requiring a license fee for their systems, while QS does not, QS (anecdotally) has the weakest performance of the bunch and cannot replicate certain discrete mixing decisions. That has also been known to happen.

One thing I've never considered was TIME. (I'm getting to my point, hang in there!) So, let's pretend you're a smaller label with Quad mix in your hands. Being smaller, you decide to eschew the Quad LP route and go straight for the Q8 format. (another decision also not unheard of). Now, say your label group, let's take Fantasy Records as our subject; contracts with AMPEX for tape duplication.

Fantasy: Do you guys dupe in Quad?
AMPEX: "We sure do!"
Fantasy: "Great! We've got an album we want to have done on Quad tape. When can you do it?"
AMPEX: "Well, seeing as how right now we've got a run of ABC tapes to do, then a big batch of tapes from London..... we could probably slot you in next January!"
Fantasy: "Hmph, well that's not ideal, but we'll have to wait I guess."

November rolls around and for whatever reason, AMPEX and Fantasy stop doing business. So that first batch of Quads never gets made.

Fast forward a year and now Fantasy is using GRT for tape duplication.

Fantasy: Do you guys dupe in Quad?
GRT: "We sure do!"
Fantasy: "Great! We've got an album we want to have done on Quad tape. When can you do it?"
GRT: "Well, seeing as how right now we've got a TON of ABC tapes to do, then a big batch of tapes from Ranwood, DOT, Monument, Arista......... we could probably slot you in March of 1975!"
Fantasy: "Hmph, well that's not ideal, but we'll have to wait I guess."
GRT: "Oh, by the way, we're discontinuing duplication of Quad tapes in the summer of 1975."
Fantasy: "Well Fuck me running...."

(Now, those conversations were pure speculation on my part. Only the names have been changed to protect the guilty)

But, there were only so many hours in a day, and so many duplicators that could do the job and they (probably) had more contracts than they could possibly fill; what with everybody else doing the Quad thing. So, some companies had to wait in line who knows how long for their stuff to make it to the point that it COULD get done. I would imagine that often times, a record was mixed and ready, but couldn't get done for the next 10 months. By which point, the public had moved on, the record dropped out of the charts and there was no point in putting out the Quad tape, so the company would cancel the order.

I would imagine this sort of situation my have also happened to United Artists, and possibly Warners, Atlantic/Atco and even Asylum/Electra. Maybe even ABC/Dunhill as all those companies seem to have a, shall we say, inordinate number of supposed unreleased titles?