Flashback Friday: Some of my music promotions during the 1990s

As a label and junior artist & repertoire manager for a local record company, I handled a lot of the small jazz and classical labels. It was a tough job because before this happened, the local WEA (Warner-Elektra-Asylum) label split into two. Warner decided to open its own office and that left out some of its former executives and personnel.

When they put up their new label -- they grabbed a lot of labels almost all of them small. Many of these were unknown jazz and classical labels. And that was the challenge -- to promote them and to sell them.

Naxos was this small classical label that made its name selling cheap compact discs featuring unknown performers from Europe. Obviously, classical purists looked down on Naxos and these cheap labels.

Locally, they were priced at P200-250 which is significantly less than the regular P375-450 priced CDs.

One of the first things I did was produce a sampler -- that I called The Dreaming that was a nod to Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic book -- for record store use. I had to teach the sales ladies the proper way of pronouncing the names of composers which put off snobbish buyers. I also had a special rack for these CDs that stood out in record bars.

It sold well. Well, but not great. After all this was the Alternative 90s.

And there's that jazz compilation Pastiche -- lifted from the Manhattan Transfer's album of the same title -- featuring my fave jazz performances from the labels I handled. I sold this for P250 and sold out the 2,000 copies I had pressed. 

One of the artists that I was happy to promote was guitarist Peter White. The Scotsman became known during his time with compatriot and pop-folk singer Al Stewart. He also performed with Basia  on her albums and tours.

I put together this cheap CD sampler that I gave away as a promo. And it helped entice jazz music fans to pick up his five albums that I promoted. White also came over to Manila for a performance and he signed this sampler (you can see the signed copies in the picture above). 

I wrote the liner notes to several albums I put out. Pastiche was one. I also did one Eddie Katindig album. I kept the inlay card but lost the cassette tape. When I find it, I will post it.

Pianist John Boswell had some very interesting albums. He didn't play jazz and his music was categorized in the New Age genre. To promote this album, Count Me In, I used the Robert Downey Jr. angle. The actor was a co-writer of the second track "Do It as a Friend". Now RDJ could sing some and if you saw Hearts and Souls, he can sing some. That film came out before this album was released so that was one angle and I secured a video featuring Boswell and Downey performing the song. I played this at record bars in the Makati, Pasig, and Greenhills area which I felt was our market for this music. 

The other angle I used was Boswell was dating at this time, actress Kathy Najimy. Najimy played a lead role in the two Sister Act films alongside Whoopi Goldberg and this also helped generate some attention for Count Me In and Boswell's other albums.