Re: Panart Record Label

Date: 28 Apr 2003 09:19:50 -0700
Newsgroups: rec.music.afro-latin
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I remembered a friend had sent me a copy of the Miami New Times many
years ago with a great article about the history Panart by Judy
Cantor. I found it in the archives on line:
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/1996-12-26/feature2.html/1/index.html
The article is very long but the relevant part is excerpted below.
regards,
Barry
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In 1983 the Sabats sold the Panart catalogue to Wilhelm Ricken, a
Venezuelan who owned a company called T.H. (Top Hit) Records. Julia
will not disclose the price. "It wasn't what it was worth," she
admits. "But Ramon was sick and we needed the money. I couldn't keep
it going any longer."
She never heard from Ricken after the sale. "I tried to get in touch
with him to complete the collection at the University of Miami," she
says, shaking her head. "I have no idea what's happened to
everything." She assumed Ricken was dead and that the Panart tapes
were in storage somewhere.
Actually, Wilhelm Ricken is now retired and living in Caracas. In the
early Nineties his company merged with Rodven, and in 1992 they began
producing the budget compilations culled from Panart material, under
the title "The Real Cuban Music Series." Reached by phone, Ricken says
he knew the material well, having distributed the original Panart
records in Venezuela years before, and he calls his CDs faithful
reissues "in their original format with the same covers."
That is not true: Most of the CDs contain a hodgepodge of tracks from
different albums and offer no information about the originals. Discs
that feature music by a single artist are just as carelessly produced.
On a Chico O'Farrill reissue, for example, the artist's last name is
spelled O'Farills.
"The Sabats had bad luck when they sold Panart, because the people
they sold it to didn't know anything about Cuban music of that era,"
asserts record store owner Cepero, who stocks the Rodven CDs in his
sale bins. "They had no idea what they were doing."
Arturo Gomez, musical director at WDNA radio, agrees. "It's sad that
those reissues don't give the music the respect it deserves," says
Gomez, who has copies of many of the original Panart records in his
private collection. "The lack of liner notes, the combining of things
from one album and another -- it's misleading for those of us who know
the Panart catalogue, and for those who are unfamiliar with Panart,
it's doubtful that they'd pick up one of these CDs. I think the label
is worthy of a better reissue line."
Fortunately, that is coming to pass. Last year the Panart catalogue
was resold to the the Mexican label Musart, which has released about a
dozen Panart reissues, faithful reproductions that utilize the
original cover art and list all the musicians, revealing a plethora of
major talents, many of whom were at the height of their careers on
these recordings. In some cases the information about the recording
sessions that originally appeared on the back of the albums is
reprinted.
The only element still missing is context. The advent of the compact
disc has given record companies an opportunity to turn old masters
into new gold: The reissue boom has store shelves overflowing with
expertly assembled boxed sets in nearly every genre, complete with fat
liner notes with bios, discographies, and critical texts. Cuban music,
however, has so far escaped such detailed analysis, and much of it has
fallen into a chasm created by revolution, exile, and record-label
indifference. The Mexican company will continue to reissue more Panart
recordings. But for those who don't recognize the original album
covers, they may be difficult to find, because little is being done to
market the Panart story to new listeners.
"The way we present this product it's more of a collectors' edition,"
explains Bill Garcia, regional representative for Balboa Records,
Musart's U.S. distributor. "Meaning it's for older people who used to
have the LP. We don't expect young people to go out and buy this
product. If the younger generation does pick up on it, it's going to
be through their parents or grandparents."
Julia Sabat, who had no idea Ricken had sold out the catalogue to
Musart, is pleased to hear about the new reissues. But she suspects
there's a bigger market for the Panart reissues. "I've been listening
to the radio lately and I'm hearing a lot of familiar recordings from
the Fifties sung by modern artists," she argues, adding that she just
bought a Gloria Estefan Christmas album that includes Arbolito, a song
originally recorded on Panart. "A lot of it is the same stuff we
started with. I think young people would like to hear the original.
It's like going back to the music of Cole Porter -- it never dies."
Galo Sabat, retired and living in Hialeah, gave away his own record
collection years ago, and these days he rarely has occasion to talk
about his brother's record label. Musart's acquisition of the Panart
catalogue is news to him, and he says he's not inclined to go looking
for the new reissues. Still, he is confident the Panart legacy will
continue long after he is gone. "Panart speaks for itself," he says.
"I don't think people will forget it. You see, all music is the
product of a certain period. Every era has its music, and our music
was the product of a happy time. That's why it lasts. It was good
music then, and it will always be good music.