ESP-Disk

File:Helix, v.4, no.6, Aug. 29, 1968 - DPLA - 73a8fb15a58855b090d500dba021b984 (page 21).jpg offers a free ESP-DISK with a year's subscription.]]

Though it originally existed to release Esperanto-based music, beginning with its second release (Albert Ayler's Spiritual Unity), ESP became the most important exponent of what is commonly referred to as free jazz.{{cite book|last=Wilmer|first=Valerie |author-link=Val Wilmer | title=As Serious As Your Life: The Story of the New Jazz| publisher=Quartet | year=1977|isbn=1852427019|pages=231–233}} Early releases included albums by Paul Bley, Pharoah Sanders and Sun Ra.{{Cite news |last=Blumenfeld |first=Larry |date=2010-07-08 |title=The Artist Alone Decides—in a New Era |language=en-US |work=Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704862404575350963753398600 |access-date=2022-10-12 |issn=0099-9660 |archive-date=2022-10-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221012212836/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704862404575350963753398600 |url-status=live }} ESP also released recordings by uncommercial underground rock acts including the Fugs, The Godz and Pearls Before Swine. The label's motto is "The artists alone decide what you will hear."{{Cite news |last=Blumenfeld |first=Larry |date=2010-07-08 |title=The Artist Alone Decides—in a New Era |language=en-US |work=Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704862404575350963753398600 |access-date=2022-10-12 |issn=0099-9660 |archive-date=2022-10-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221012212836/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704862404575350963753398600 |url-status=live }}

Bernard Stollman faced allegations of not paying royalties to the artists that were signed to ESP-Disk.{{cite web|last=Kelley|first=Frannie|title=Legendary Record Label Loses Staff In Split|url=https://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2010/10/20/130707348/esp-fracas|publisher=NPR|access-date=29 November 2013|archive-date=4 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131204022009/http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2010/10/20/130707348/esp-fracas|url-status=live}} Tom Rapp of the band Pearls Before Swine claimed that: "We never got any money from ESP. Never, not even like a hundred dollars or something. My real sense is that he [Stollman] was abducted by aliens, and when he was probed it erased his memory of where all the money was".{{cite book|last=Weiss|first=Jason|title=Always in Trouble: An Oral History of ESP-Disk', the Most Outrageous Record Label in America|year=2012|publisher=Wesleyan|isbn=9780819571595|url=http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/dignity-conviction-and-mrs-stollmans-checkbook/|access-date=2013-11-26|archive-date=2013-12-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202234950/http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/dignity-conviction-and-mrs-stollmans-checkbook/|url-status=live}} Peter Stampfel of the band Holy Modal Rounders and The Fugs claimed that Stollman told him that "the contract says that all rights belong to me. You have no royalties ever, ever, ever. The publishing is mine. You don't own the songs anymore. We don't owe you anything".{{cite book|last=Weiss|first=Jason|title=Always in Trouble: An Oral History of ESP-Disk', the Most Outrageous Record Label in America|year=2012|publisher=Wesleyan|isbn=9780819571595|url=http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/dignity-conviction-and-mrs-stollmans-checkbook/|access-date=2013-11-26|archive-date=2013-12-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202234950/http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/dignity-conviction-and-mrs-stollmans-checkbook/|url-status=live}} Members of The Fugs have also stated claims that they received an unfavourable record contract. Ed Sanders said that "our royalty rate was less than 3%, one of the lower percentages in the history of western civilization".{{cite web|title=History of the Fugs|url=http://www.thefugs.com/history2.html|website=Thefugs.com|access-date=26 November 2013|archive-date=17 February 2001|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010217143107/http://www.thefugs.com/history2.html|url-status=live}} 801 Magazine, which featured an interview with Stollman in 2008, said that Stollman claimed that "he paid all the recording costs and gave the musicians small advances", and that "he never made any money from the music".{{cite web|title=Bernard Stollman feature in 801 Magazine, 17 April 2008|url=http://pressairplay.espdisk.com/archives/3135|website=Pressairplay.espdisk.com|access-date=29 November 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203031754/http://pressairplay.espdisk.com/archives/3135|archive-date=3 December 2013}}

{{main|ESP-Disk discography}}

• BYG Actuel
• AACM
• List of record labels

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.espdisk.com/ Official site]
• [http://www.myspace.com/espdisk Official Myspace]
• [http://www.totalshutdown.com/espdisk/esplinks.html Collectors' discography]
• [http://www.wumingfoundation.com/english/outtakes/oldnewthing.htm The Old New Thing is Newer Than Ever]. Liner notes for an ESP-Disk mash-up by Wu Ming 1
• [http://www.wesleyan.edu/wespress/espdiscography.pdf an esp-disk' discography] at Wesleyan University

{{Jazz}}

{{Authority control}}

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Category:Alternative rock record labels

Category:Experimental music record labels

Category:American jazz record labels

Category:Record labels established in 1964

Category:Companies based in Brooklyn

Category:Esperanto music