Remembering jazz historian and record executive Seth Rothstein.

Story written by Arnaldo DeSouteiro on February 25, 2022.

Remembering my dear friend, the great record executive Seth Rothstein, who died on May 1, 1993.

Winner of 2 Grammy awards. Reissue Producer at Verve Records from 1987 to 1995, Product Manager at Columbia/Sony from 1995 to 2006, Production Director in several reissue projects, Seth Rothstein became Vice President of Jazz Marketing at Legacy Recordings, working with producers Bob Belden, Didier Deutsch, and Arnaldo DeSouteiro. Acted as Project Director on over 200 CD reissues, including the Miles Davis metal box set series, the futuristic Herbie Hancock floating box set, the Grammy-winning "Louis Armstrong - The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings," "The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia," as well as on the CTI "The Master Series" on CD format in 2001, and the historical releases of Dave Brubeck's "Time Out" and Miles Davis' "Kind Of Blue" on DualDisc format. A big fan and close friend of Manfred Eicher, Rothstein worked for ECM Records before and after he left Sony BMG in 2006.

He won his first Grammy award in 2001, in the Best Historical Album category, for "Louis Armstrong - The Complete Hot Five & Hot Seven Recordings", as part of a production team that included Steve Berkowitz, Phil Schaap, Michael Brooks, Seth Foster, Andreas K. Meyer ,Woody Pornpitaksuk, Ken Robertson, Tom Ruff and sound engineer Mark Wilder.

Rothstein's second Grammy (shared with Julian Alexander and Howard Fritzson), came in 2004, in the Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package category, for Miles Davis' "The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions".

In 2007, after he had already left Sony, Seth got a Grammy nomination (his third and final one), in the Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package category, for Miles Davis' 6-CD box set of unreleased concerts, "The Cellar Door Sessions 1970". Released on December 27, 2005, it peaked at the Billboard Jazz Albums chart at no. 32. It was one of his final iconic projects for Sony BMG before leaving the company in November 2006, when Sony BMG Music Entertainment underwent a downsizing within its Commercial Music Group, with the Legacy and Masterworks divisions hardest hit.

As reported by Jazz Station Blog, those cutbacks come on the heels of a small downsizing at Sony BMG Music Entertainment Sales, where about six staffers lost their jobs a few weeks back due to the liquidation of Tower Records.

RIP Carlos Barbosa-Lima

 

                            (Carlos Barbosa-Lima & Arnaldo DeSouteiro)

RIP: Antonio Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Brazil's all-time greatest classical guitarist. 

(Antonio Carlos Jobim, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Gal Costa at Carnegie Hall)

(Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sharon Isbin, Carlos Barbosa-Lima)

(Sharon Isbin, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Antonio Carlos Jobim)

(Carlos Barbosa-Lima in concert with Laurindo Almeida, Gaudencio Thiago de Mello and the Wren Orchestra of London, April 3, 1992 at St. John's Smith Square, London, UK)

                                                   (Carlos Barbosa-Lima's press release)

(Carlos Barbosa-Lima's review in The New York Times)

(Carlos Barbosa-Lima recording with singer Ithamara Koorax)

(Carlos Barbosa-Lima in concert with Gaudencio Thiago de Mello)

(Carlos Barbosa-Lima, cover story in Classical Guitar magazine, April 1981)

(Carlos Barbosa-Lima's album "Chants For The Chief" with Gaudencio Thiago de Mello, released by Concord Records with liner notes by Arnaldo DeSouteiro)

(Carlos Barbosa-Lima's "Favorite Solos" video, released by MelBay on VHS and DVD)

(Nilson Matta, Arnaldo DeSouteiro, Carlos Barbosa-Lima and Pascoal Meirelles at DeSouteiro's house, 1994)

(Carlos Barbosa-Lima's letters and postcards to Arnaldo DeSouteiro)

(Carlos Barbosa-Lima & Bobby Scott during a recording session)

(Arnaldo DeSouteiro & Carlos Barbosa-Lima's at DeSouteiro's home, 1987)

(Carlos Barbosa-Lima & Arnaldo DeSouteiro at the rooftop of Tenda da Raposa Studios, in 2005, during a recording session that remains unreleased)

(Carlos Barbosa-Lima & Larry Del Casale)

(Carlos Barbosa-Lima Plays The Music of Luiz Bonfá & Cole Porter)

(Carlos Barbosa-Lima's album with Gaudencio Thiago de Mello, "Chants For The Chief")