Impulse! - Biography

Biography - Impulse!

USA

Written by Robert May (author of the Blue Note Labelography)

There are about 300 Impulse titles, although the best are concentrated in the first 150 titles. The label started in 1961, a project of ABC-Paramount, with the first 9 titles produced by Creed Taylor, and Bob Thiele thereafter. Aside from Coltrane, who was recorded prodigiously, Impulse did two or three albums each (never more) by two different sorts of artists - older greats, such as Duke Ellingtron, Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins, Lionel Hampton and Ben Webster, and the then hot artists on the scene - Max Roach, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, Johnny Hartman, etc. Many of these albums are among the greatest ever made - for example, Johnny Hartman/John Coltrane, Today and Now by Coleman Hawkins, Percussion Bittersuite and It's Time by Max Roach, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady by Mingus, Alfie by Sonny Rollins, Blues and the Abstract Truth by Oliver Nelson, etc, etc. (Not to mention, the great Coltrane albums.)

Musically, for me, Impulse is right up there with Blue Note, and in many ways superior.

Impulse, like Blue Note, used Rudy Van Gelder exclusively. The sound, however, is much different, and, I suspect, much more dominated by RVG's musical sensibilities than with Blue Note. This means spotlighting a lead instrument, usually a horn, with a very special and natural rendition of the mid-range.

Original Impulse recordings have black and orange labels, and have Van Gelder imprints in small block letters. All releases are in stereo, except for a couple of electronic re-process jobs which are re-releases of earlier ABC-Paramount recordings (e.g. Lambert, Hendricks and Ross's Sing a Song of Basie). They all come in distinctive gate-fold covers, with a uniform graphic design, orginal covers having a shiny plastic coating. Some records with black and orange covers are not Van Gelder pressings, but carry a Bell Sounds imprint. I've seen this on Ballads, Coltrane/Ellington and and Percussion BitterSuite. As far as I can tell, these are re-pressings of popular titles, and not part of any systematic re-issue program.

There were two major re-issues of Impulse releases, both of which are Van Gelder pressings, which are sonically indistinguishable from original black/orange releases. They both sport Black labels with a red ring around the outer circumference, and the same jackets as the originals. The first was done in 1968, and has "A Product of ABC Records, Inc. New York, N.Y. 10019. Made in USA" written along the bottom of the label. The second, done in 1972, and in place of the above just has the date and ABC Records.

Subsequent reissues, (along with some new issues), are not Van Gelder's. The first have black labels with Impulse written in script. The second, and final reissue series on ABC, have green labels, (again, also the labelled sported by new issues) and was done in the mid-70's. Both series have gatefold covers, but have a dull, not a shiny, finish. The green labels in particular are sonically far inferior, tending to have compressed dynamics and soundstage - by this time, Bob Thiele was no longer running the show.

After this, the label was sold to MCA, and there are a variety of reissues from them, some analog, some digital., usually not in gatefold covers. (In addition, there are a variety of foreign releases, including the Jasmine's from England, which tend to be pretty good sonically.)

In the '90's, the Impulse catalogue passed to GRP, who started doing vinyl reissues of some titles.They are on 180 gram vinyl, mastered by Capitol, with gatefold covers which are pretty much true to the originals. The first three issues were Coltrane/Hartman, Ballads and A Love Supreme.

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