Day 1, album #3?

[john]

From a 2007 article in Fortune. Concord has had a different marketing approach from other record companies for many years

A new spin on classic records
Concord Music is shaking up the music business with creative marketing - and songs recorded half a century ago.

[...]
"The business that's not working today is the hits-driven business, and hits were always driven by teenagers," says Glenn Barros, Concord's president and CEO. Concord concentrates on selling albums to adults, who are more loyal to their favorite acts and less likely to download music without paying for it.

And in 2004 it acquired the rights to music that plenty of adults like when it paid a reported $83 million for Fantasy Records, which owned Stax, several jazz labels, and the recordings of Creedence Clearwater Revival (Fogerty's old band, of course).

"Concord is almost in a different business from the one the major labels are in," says Adam Stulberger, a managing director at Tailwind, which invested in Concord when it purchased Fantasy. Instead of swinging for the fences by trying to find potential superstars, Concord concentrates on steady singles and doubles - jazz and other genre releases that can sell 25,000 or 50,000 copies to turn a modest profit. (Major-label releases typically need to sell several hundred thousand copies to make money.)

The company has more ambitious goals for Hear Music projects, but Starbucks shares the risk and provides low-cost marketing in the form of product placement on several thousand coffee-shop counters.
[...]

Barros believes that Concord can thrive at online outlets as music sales start to resemble the "long tail," in which relatively unpopular artists account for a growing percentage of total sales. Much of the material it acquired - Jackson's spoken-word album, for example - might never sell well enough to justify the cost of shipping and distribution.

"We're doing several digital-only releases this year because the economics of putting them out at retail don't really pay off," says John Burk, Concord's executive vice president and creative leader. And without pressing and shipping costs, albums from artists like Sho-Nuff and Fat Larry's Band - both available exclusively at eMusic, the second-largest online music store - should generate a slow but steady drip of revenue for as long as deejays sample soul music....

http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/for...2007100806

From a 2003 interview with John Burk

[...]
FJ: What is the size of the jazz market?


JB: What is the size of the jazz market? I don't know. I would say 50,000 units or so and you have really saturated the jazz world. You have really connected with them and if you go beyond that, you are stepping outside of the jazz world and getting a wider audience.

There are a lot more people that like jazz and are interested in jazz than go out and buy these records. The problem is the pipelines to the consumer and the ability to put records in front of them is somewhat hindered by the current setup of the media and the music industry.

It is not easy to get in front of an adult consumer with a jazz artist. It is not easy to get them on evening talk shows. It is not easy to get them to perform on television. Jazz radio is not based on repetition, which typically drives record sales. Even the publications are somewhat limited in their circulation. It is kind of an underground thing until we break through and Diana Krall completely broke through and is now covered by major media.

[...]
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/a-fireside-...-staff.php

In the Fortune article he commented to the effect that PBS is Concord's MTV in selling jazz.

They own a lot of catalogs of old music, which may not sell in high volume but in many cases bring in a stream of income. Outlets like YT did not exist at the time of this article but represent outlets that can put jazz or other genres in front of more people.

---

John Burk seems to be an idea guy who often pitches ideas to performers and brings together themes and collaborators.

From a Rita Coolidge interview

Rita:
John Burk came with Concord Records, and he had a particular interest in this project...
Debra:
How did you select the songs for “And So Is Love”?
Rita:
John Burk is a song man, he knows all the jazz standards, and he is a great source. I had songs that I wanted to sing, plus John had a list of songs to contribute.

http://luxuryexperience.com/music_scene/...rview.html

From Al Jurreau interview (2006)

SmoothViews (SV): This seems like such an obvious match-up. How did it finally happen?
Al Jarreau (AJ): I got a call from John Burk who’s with Concord. He’s a producer and executive over there. At that point George Benson had signed with Concord, but he hadn’t started his first project. In the meantime I had left GRP early last year and I was looking for a record deal. Some contacts had been made with Concord, which has such vision and some real success while other labels are struggling or getting out of jazz altogether. John Burk said he had an idea and he wanted me to meet with him and George Benson. George was newly signed and I was still not signed to Concord. That’s how fast we went with the notion. We met in late February or March and he asked me what I thought about me and George doing a record. George and I looked at each other and said, “When do you want to do it? Let’s go!” and that’s how it happened. At the next meeting we started talking about songs and the fact that we needed to get it done before George and I started our summer tours. That meant we went in to do the record in April and did it in five weeks, which is really fast! There was still some mixing done in May, but we did the recording in less than 25 days, the days that George and I were in the studio singing and playing music. Unbelievable! It was uncomfortably fast, but we found the beauty in that process where you trust your instincts and you go with your first notions. You don’t second guess yourself, and you work on it. There was so much spontaneity and improvisation in the formation of songs, in the putting together of songs. Larry Williams came in to do some very important arrangements. It was amazing. It felt as though the project was being guided.

http://www.smoothviews.com/interviews/jarreau1106.htm

more Jarreau (2007) about same topic

“Once you think about it, it’s a no-brainer. But the circumstances for it coming together were just extraordinary,” the legendary singer/songwriter, who turns 67 on March 12, said. “George, just having signed (with Concord Records), was thinking about what his first project would be. I was looking around for a new record label and begun these talks with Concord myself, but hadn’t signed yet. John Burk, really the messenger from God, put all of these things together in his head. He said ‘Hey listen, I’ve been to the mountain, and I have this letter from Big G, and I want you guys to come over to the office and let me read it to you.’ That’s exactly what happened. George and I looked at each other and said ‘Shoot, when do we start?’ We can do some music that may bring people back to the table again, where people sit down and listen to a record and enjoy a glass of wine and chill for an hour. We don’t listen like that anymore,” Jarreau added.

http://smoothjazznews.com/archives/feb07/index.html

---

Article about the re-release of Ray Charles "Genius Loves Company" with accompanying DVD (the making of the record). The triple platinum record was John Burk's idea.

...The album was initially hatched at a fundraiser, but Charles only became convinced to make it due to his faith in John Burk, Concord Music Group’s chief creative officer, and co-producer of the album....

http://www.popmatters.com/review/189228-...s-company/



This one is particularly interesting if Haley's record's "mission" is to pay homage to the '60s or something like that.

From an article with Dave Koz (saxophonist who has played with PMJ) [Miguel quoted from this article weeks back]

John Burk, longtime producer for Concord Records, was also an important part of the team. “He was kind of like the big idea guy and he kept us focused on the mission statement of this album,” explains Koz. “We basically worked on all that together-what this album was to be. It made the decision-making process a lot easier. Every little decision was put through that sieve of: Does this fulfill our mission statement of what this album is supposed to be?”

Perhaps because of that “sieve” approach, there was plenty of material left of the cutting room floor. “The funny thing I like to talk about that nobody knows is that there are incredible outtakes. I mean there’s an album-at least another sixty minutes of outtakes of music that will never be heard. Or maybe one day it will be heard. But each song that we recorded live, we finished the four minutes or so of the song and then the band wouldn’t stop. All of a sudden when the song was done, Marcus would sort of go someplace else feel-wise and then this other kind of jam would take place for another five minutes. And it killed me because we couldn’t use any of that because, you know, you can’t have thirteen songs at ten minutes each.”

After looking through material about Burk, it appears to me that Haley's record is one of his hands-on projects. I would not be surprised to learn that Haley gets a lot of freedom on record, but also support and guidance. I'll bet she has a lot of trust in Burk and that people like those pictured below (producing horns and strings, etc) are brought in by Burk with her happy blessing. He may be perfect for her if he is doing a lot of the left brain lifting. Does he have his sieve out?