An Untapped Market

As I mentioned once before in a previous posting, many people who come to this blog have been searching for information about particular musicians. Lately, there have been several hits from people looking for information about Michal Urbaniak and Urszula Dudziak, two jazz musicians whose work is under-represented on CD.

Urszula Dudziak has not yet had Urszula (Arista 4065), Newborn Light (Columbia) and Future Talk (Inner City 1066) released on CD, three albums in which she serves as a leader after having achieved recognition for her vocal work as a member of Michal Urbaniak’s band. Columbia has released Michal Urbaniak’s Fusion on CD, but both Atma and Fusion III remain available only on vinyl. Once Urbaniak left the Columbia label, he recorded several other albums for different labels, including Body English (Arista 4086), Facts of Life (Love Records), Serenade for the City (Motown), Daybreak (Pausa 7114), and Urbaniak (Inner City 1036). Together, Michal Urbaniak and Urszula Dudziak recorded Tribute to Komeda (MPS 21657).

Of all these albums, the ones that would probably attract the largest audience if they were released on CD are Urszula Dudziak’s Future Talk (which features Zbigniew Namyslowski and Michal Urbaniak), Michal Urbaniak’s Atma, Fusion III, Daybreak, and Urbaniak (which features Zbigniew Namyslowski, too), and Michal Urbaniak and Urszula Dudziak's Tribute to Komeda (which features Tomasz Stanko and Zbigniew Seifert).

Zbigniew Namyslowski’s output as a leader is also under-represented outside of Poland because neither Namyslowski (Inner City 1048) nor Air Condition (Affinity, AFF83) is available on CD.

There is an untapped market out there waiting for someone who is able to purchase the master tapes and the rights from, say, Inner City or Columbia.