Warner Music Chile released a large portion of Victor Jara's discography in early 2001 -- including many rare and unreleased tracks -- in 8 remastered CDs and one double-CD anthology. EMI Odeón Chilena followed suit in September 2001 with a double-CD collection of nearly all the material Victor recorded for the label from 1959-1969. The collections mark a turning point for Victor's musical works, giving the tracks some much-needed restoration and remastering, yet leaving some unanswered questions as to the future availability of Victor's work in the rest of the world.

In 2000, Warner Music Chile reached an agreement with the Fundación Víctor Jara (owner of the rights to much of Victor's recorded works) to reissue his catalog in Chile and the rest of the world. In March 2001, Warner released 8 CDs in Chile representing the vast majority of Victor's recorded works. Represented in the Warner collection are the original LPs Víctor Jara (1966), Pongo en tus manos abiertas (1969), El derecho de vivir en paz (1971), La población (1972), and Canto por travesura (1973). Victor's posthumous collection of material, issued in the early 1970s under several different titles in various countries, is included here as Manifiesto. A live recording of Victor in Havana in 1972 and previously available only in Cuba is presented here as Habla y canta, and Victor's concert in Mexico from 1971 that had been previously available from Alerce is also part of the set, though it's unexplicably missing several tracks from the previous version. Several singles issued on the DICAP label that had been unavailable since their release and various live performances are included on the discs as bonus tracks. Apart from their individual releases, the 8 CDs are also available as a boxed set from Warner entitled Colección Víctor Jara. Six of the titles (all but the two live discs) were released in Argentina in May 2001.

In July 2001 Warner followed with Antología Musical, a two-CD set comprised mostly of material from the 8 Colección discs, but also including a couple of rare and otherwise unavailable tracks. The set makes for a strange "anthology," simply because it clearly excludes a large portion of Victor's work (the EMI material, discussed below). The selection of tracks for Antología Musical also seems a bit arbitrary, and though it is still a good complement to the other 8 discs, its stand-alone value is questionable. Warner plans to launch Antología Musical worldwide next year, though hopefully they'll rethink the track selection first.

Warner's attention to detail in compiling and remastering the material can't be overlooked. The discs sound fantastic, and for the first time the pops and crackles previously heard on every version of Pongo en tus manos abiertas and El derecho de vivir en paz are gone. The reissues of the DICAP material far surpass Alerce's meager attempt at presenting the "versiones originales remasterizadas" that it released in 1997 -- and whose sound quality was genuinely disappointing. La población is presented in true stereo, and the other DICAP material has been given some light stereophonic treatment in the remastering process. Warner's impressive packaging also includes complete lyrics and several unpublished photos, though there are limited liner notes and explanations (most notably in En México and Habla y canta).

Not to be outdone by a rival multinational, EMI Chile has also launched a new Victor Jara anthology. EMI possesses a treasure of Victor Jara material in its vaults, unique because the master tapes still exist. EMI Chile's previous anthologies of Victor's work have sounded fantastic but lacked in the packaging department, and that holds true for Víctor Jara 1959-1969. Material from Conjunto Concumén and from Victor's collaboration with Quilapayún, Canciones folklóricas de América (1968) are included, as are the complete Víctor Jara (1967) and Canto libre (1970) LPs (except an alternate version of "El aparecido" appears in place of the original). However, lyrics are left out and the brief liner notes hardly discuss the rich history of the recordings included in the collection. Also notably missing is "Canción del minero" from Conjunto Concumén's 1964 LP El folklore de Chile Vol. IX. It's really a shame that EMI didn't see fit to release Victor's works in a format that corresponds to the original releases, but it is a relief to hear this material -- much of which has never appeared on CD before -- come to life thanks to the work of Rubén Nouzielles, former EMI Chile Artistic Director and current currator of their archives. It's unclear whether this material will ever see the light of day outside Chile.

Warner also announced a video and DVD release (in Chile) of Carmen Luz-Parot's 1999 documentary "El Derecho de Vivir en Paz" in October 2001. The film was re-edited from its original 1999 version to incorporate nearly 20 minutes of newly-discovered live TV performances. Unfortunately, the filmmakers were also forced to cut out EMI material from the soundtrack, undoubtedly due to some unresolved rights issues that could also plague any future attempts to present Victor's work as a unified whole.

It's not yet certain how the new deal with Warner and EMI's assertion of its rights will affect the distribution of Victor's music in other parts of the world. The Foundation cited Warner's global reach as one reason for licensing the material to the multinational, but it's unclear exactly what they will release and when, or whether current licensees will retain any rights. Alerce, the Chilean label that defied the Pinochet regime in the 1970s by releasing material by Victor, Violeta Parra and others, and who had been steadily releasing a stream of Victor Jara releases in Chile for over 20 years, had its rights to the material withdrawn by the Foundation. They were ordered to stop selling their remaining Victor Jara stock by March 2001. The move seemed to catch Alerce -- who had just released 2 new Victor Jara anthology CDs earlier in 2000 -- off guard, and in the end forced them to reevaluate their business strategy (they had previously lost the rights to issue material by Quilapayún and Violeta Parra, among others). It's also not clear how the move will affect other labels, like Fonomusic in Spain and Pläne in Germany, who have been steadily reissuing Victor's material for years (Monitor, the U.S. label that issued several LPs in the late 1970s and early 1980s and 2 CDs still available, went out of business several years ago and bequeathed its collection to the Smithsonian). Warner has plans to issue the Antología Musical in several other markets, including Mexico, Spain, and the U.S., but many of the other releases may only be available in Chile.

Will the multinational music conglomerates that now control Victor Jara's musical legacy let their bottom line determine what, if any, of Victor's material will be available around the world? Undoubtedly the answer is yes. And while this may scoff at the ideas of community that the singer himself promoted, it underlines the fact that little has changed in the 30-plus years since a few young Chileans searching for musical freedom started their own label (later to become the infamous DICAP - Discoteca del Cantar Popular) to escape the control that EMI and other multinational labels exerted on the Chilean music industry at the time.

Michael W. Mann
October 2001
[revised January 2002]

Se encuentra un buen artículo en español sobre las reediciones acá.