can we talk artist-run (jazz) labels
leisurebandit
1,006 Posts
i know there are too many of these to get a comprehensive list, but let's see what we can do. I know there must be some obvious ones I'm missing, like an early one? Please make corrections to my list if necessary. I realize that some of these had releases on a lot of artists, whereas others were basically vehicles for the one artist in question.Also, is there any good reference source or discussion of this type of thing that you're aware of (book or website)?Debut (Max Roach/Mingus)Saturn (Sun Ra)Mary (Mary Lou Williams)Strata (Kenny Cox?)Strata East (Charles Tolliver/Stanley Cowell)Black Jazz (Gene Russell)Tribe (Marcus Belgrave/Phil Ranelin/Wendell Harrison)Bet-Car (Betty Carter)Skye (Gary McFarland/Cal Tjader?)JCOA (carla Bley et al)Survival (Rashied Ali)Ak-Ba (Charles Tyler)Mustevic (Steve Reid)Anima (billy Bang)Daffodil (Blossom Dearie)Otic (bobby Naughton)Improvising Artists (Paul Bley)
Comments
that label's product looked so shoddy i thought it was just another budget label from the east coast
Nationhouse Positive Action Center / Institute of Positive Education (Haki Madhubuti?)
What about the records from The East? Andrew?
Mojo (Jimmy Smith)
Glad-Hamp (Lionel Hampton)
Creative World (Stan Kenton)
Skye was Szabo, Tjader and McFarland from what I understood.
A&M (Herb Alpert)
Stones Throw (?)
GreenLeaf (dave douglas)
I am pretty sure it is. A budget label, that is. No connection to the artists that I know of.
Huh, I could swear I read something before about the label being started by Herbie Hancock and Donald Byrd. I am probably wrong, but can somebody confirm? They are pretty bootleg lookin' records.
PBR
Legend
Encounter
Nodlew
Didn't they once put out an album by those two artists?
Well, I may just be mixed up then. Like I said I was probably wrong. I always wondered if the albums were just repackaged reissues of other albums, but I could never figure that out. I never tried that hard either, though. Ah well.
I wasn't implying, just stating a fact - TCB did indeed put out a Hancock/Byrd elpee.
I think this is a budget reissue. Is that Eddie Harris record where he just plays piano on TCB?
The Herbie Hancock Jammin With 1006 is a Wayne Henderson reissue I believe. There are also the Super Sax, and Super Horns various artists sets that I assume are reissues.
I doubt the artists had anything to do with these releases. I doubt they were even licensed.
+ Vortex before that.
Please teach me about these labels.
Oh. I couldn't tell if you were asking me that in preperation to try and prove a point or not, sorry.
PBR was a LA label. Most notably they put out leroy vinnegar "the kid."
Legend was another LA label, run I believe by vinnegar himself. "Glass of water" is good, so is the buddy collette LP.
I could be here all day making a list. Just on one shelf in the I - K jazz section I believe these are musician-run:
IPS
re-entry
ninth note
judnell
humming bird
sweet earth
dragon
labor
jbp
kromel
jahari
kwela
kabel
masterscores
...or he was at least Exec Producer on a few of those LP's.
Not to mention a Billie Holiday release (this had to have been the umpteenth Holiday reissue that cashed in on the Lady Sings The Blues movie) and a generic compilation of R&B oldies "presented" by New York radio DJ Eddie O'Jay.
thanks man, and everyone else, i like this discussion
i guess what i'm wondering, what are the earliest examples of artist-run labels? from my original list it would be Debut and Saturn, with Mary Lou Williams being the first woman, but i KNOW there's other stuff i'm blanking on. (and this doesn't even really have to be limited to jazz labels )
Sinatra had a hand in starting Reprise, but I don't think he ran it.
There is a Paul Robeson on Othello, but I think that was fan, not artist, run.
I just can't think of anything else from the 50s. Rock nada, folk nada, country nada. Wait I got one:
Derby/SAR Sam Cooke. Are these different imprints of the same Cooke owned label or is Derby something else.
My hat is off to Ashrock. I don't think I know a single one of those second list labels. And that was just I-K or something.
And technically that was from the early, pre-Beatle sixties.
All the examples I can think of are from the mid-sixties and onward, starting with Otis Redding's Jotis and Curtis Mayfield's Windy C (and Mayfield), continuing with the Isleys' T-Neck and really going wild in the '70s (Jefferson Airplane's Grunt, Elton John's Rocket and the Youngbloods' Raccoon, although I know there are several more I'm omitting).
Don't forget Tangerine/TRC.
I don't think labels like Embroy and Rocket really count because they were more like vanity imprints that parent labels let artist play with. Whereas T-Neck or Windy C were independent labels that existed withorwithout the distributor.
Just trying to keep it manageable.