Part TWO: Pathways into the Greenleaf Music Vault – Album Series
Alongside our regular catalog of releases Greenleaf has released several additional album series, some exclusively for subscribers and others available to the public. These album series include the ‘Paperback Series’, the ‘Greenleaf Portable Series (GPS)’, various incarnations of the ‘Subscriber Series’, as well as many live sets and miscellaneous releases. In this article we dive into a brief history of each of these series and lay out which recordings were a part of each series.
Paperback Series
The ‘Paperback Series’ was a series of limited edition live recordings released between 2005 and 2008 that were packaged in minimalist cardboard sleeves and hand stamped. All of the Paperback Series releases were recorded by existing bands, all of which were on the Greenleaf roster with the exception of Nicole Mitchell’s Indigo Trio. These records functioned as a kind of official bootleg for subscribers.
The albums included in this series include:
Dave Douglas Quintet – Live at the Bimhuis (2005)
Dave Douglas & Keystone – Live In Sweden (2006)
Nicole Mitchell – Indigo Trio Live In Montreal (2007)
Michael Bates – Live in New York (2008).
Note: The album cover of ‘Serial Sessions 2015’ states that it is Volume 6 of the Paperback series but we decided that it fits better into the “A Track A Month” section for more information on this release and the others like it read on.
Greenleaf Portable Series (GPS)
The Greenleaf Portable Series (GPS) was a series of digital releases that were recorded in informal sessions with a variety of ensembles. These sessions were meant to be shorter in length than typical CDs and were a showcase for new compositions, arrangements, and ensembles. On the release of the first installment ‘Rare Metals’, Dave said: “…the idea of shorter, more informal sessions appealed to me as it harked back to the way jazz records used to be made”. The three recordings publicly released in this series were ‘GPS, Volume 1: Rare Metals’ with Brass Ecstacy in 2011, ‘GPS, Volume 2: Orange Afternoons’ with Dave Douglas, Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh, Ravi Coltrane, and Marcus Gilmore, and ‘GPS, Volume 3: Bad Mango’ with Dave Douglas and So Percussion. These albums were later combined and released in a physical box set that came with a usb containing MP3s of all three albums, polaroid style photos from the recording sessions, three 4-page digital booklets, cover art, and a performance video of ‘Orologi’ from GPS, Volume 2. There are also two subscriber exclusive live recordings included in this series; ‘Dave Douglas & Brass Ecstacy, GPS: Live at Jazz Standard [2011]’ and ‘Dave Douglas & So Percussion, GPS: Live at Jazz Standard [2011]’.
Subscriber Series
The original ‘Subscriber Series’ albums were released between 2005 and 2014 and consisted of compilation albums including live takes, studio outtakes, alternate takes, and exclusive recordings from a variety of Greenleaf Music artists including both established ensembles and other groups exclusive to these recordings.
2005 – The first Subscriber Series album consisted of five tracks from from Dave Douglas & Keystone, The Dave Douglas Quintet, Kneebody, and Brass Ecstasy
2006 – Includes twelve tracks from the Dave Douglas Quintet, Dave Douglas & Keystone, Adam Benjamin, Nicole Mitchell’s Indigo Trio, and Brass Ecstacy.
2007 – Includes twelve tracks from Dave Douglas Quintet, Nicole Mitchell’s Indigo Trio, Keystone, and Dave Douglas’ Blue Latitudes Trio with Mark Dresser and Susie Ibarra.
2008-2012 – Includes twelve tracks from Dave Douglas & Keystone, Donny McCaslin solo and trio, Brass Ecstacy, Michael Bates, Key Motion Quintet, Dave Douglas Quintet
2013 – Includes just two tracks, a live take from the Dave Douglas Quintet and a bonus studio outtake from Rudy Royston’s ‘303’ album session.
2014 – Includes nine tracks from the Linda Oh quartet, Riverside, the Dave Douglas Quintet, Dave Douglas & Uri Caine, Matt Ulery’s Loom+, and Ryan Keberle’s Catharsis
A Track A Month
