Whatever happened to the Jazzrascals?

Last year, when I first suggested that I should record an album (So I’m only going to record an album) I raised the possibility that it might be called ‘James Bisset & The Jazzrascals’.

This struck me as totally cool because:

• Pete Condor and I are The Jazzrascals, so I could drag Pete into the project
• I could rope anyone else I wanted into the project as a guest Rascal
• As I normally perform solo, no-one could be in any doubt that this album was an ensemble, not a solo performance

If only things were so simple

And so I travelled the country with laptop and mic stand and headphones, from deepest South Ayrshire to Edinburgh and Manchester (well, travelled the countries) rehearsing and recording. Followed by comping and gain staging, mixing and mastering. And finally submitting the completed album to the distribution company with the following meta data:

Primary Artist: James Bisset
Album Title: James Bisset & The Jazzrascals Volume 1

Several days later, the distribution company halted the submission. My album cover artwork read:

Which did not match the Artist and Album Title submitted. This would be deemed by their clients (eg Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Youtube Music etc.) as an attempt to game the system and would be rejected.

I spent a couple of days chewing this over and then realised the cunning solution was just to make the artwork exactly the same as the meta data:

BOOM!

Several days later, the distribution company halted the submission. if the Primary Artist was to be identified as James Bisset, who, they asked, were The Jazzrascals? If I could identify The Jazzrascals as an Additional Primary Artist then the submission could go through. I began chewing this over... Ahhh who cares! The Jazzrascals will be identified as an Additional Primary Artist.

Now we’re rolling!

.And the Distribution company said:

• Please submit or create a Spotify Profile for The Jazzrascals
• Please submit or create an Apple Music Profile for The Jazzrascals
• Please submit or create a Youtube profile for The Jazzrascals

Oh, for crying out loud

Oh for crying out loud! I’ll bet Bennie and The Jets never had this problem!

Are The Spiders From Mars an Additional Primary Artist?

‘Dear Mr Ziggy Stardust, an artist named David Bowie appears to be trying to steal your identity.’

So, am I going to stand up against this mindless beaurocracy! Am I going to stand up against the sausage machine’s chokehold on creativity, invention and art?

Am I B******s!

Primary Artist: James Bisset
Album title: James Bisset Volume 1

Buy it now on Bandcamp or stream it on your favourite streaming service!