#Monk in #PaloAlto the story so far (a thread): back in mid-June, the Monk estate and Impulse/Universal announced internationally with top marketing push for a #jazz release that an #unreleased concert in Palo Alto was coming out on July 31. /1
Great backstory: gig promoter was high school kid, recorded by school's janitor. Single was launched on digital platforms. Then, around July 25 it "disappeared" without notice. Bare-bones official explanation: release had been postponed indefinitely. /2
Given how this was disrupted (tracks disappearing from personal devices), eyes turned to Columbia/Sony: big corp with serious legal team. Monk was under exclusive contract with them and they'd have first call on any releases of Monk's recordings made during his contract. /3
Astute fans noted there were exceptions to this ('At Carnegie Hall', 'At Monterey', 'At the Olympia', 'Paris 1969') but it was confirmed #Monk's "previous label" was involved (paloaltoonline.com/news/2020/07/2…) /4
Release was blocked within ***one week*** of ETA, so physical copies were already printed and on their way. In the Netherlands, vinyl copies have been sold (discogs.com/Thelonious-Mon…). In the UK, one HMV store sold at least two CDs on July 31-Aug 1st. /5
On Aug 2nd, another HMV store told me they'd had it on Friday 31, but "returned it because label asked them back claiming all copies faulty". /6
On Aug 3rd, a third HMV had copies in store but told me they were waiting for authorization from label. A fourth, non-HMV, store told me they were expecting to have copies week starting Aug 3rd. Conflicting stories and unknown new ETA may imply negotiations in flux./7
PS -- (One) moral of this story: remember that paying for music online doesn't guarantee you "have" it.
