BLUE NOTE "BLUE NOTE" means "blue note". The American BLUE NOTE record company, founded by ALFRED LION in 1939, is undoubtedly "older" than VERVE. It mainly records and publishes jazz records, but also publishes some blues records. Now It is part of CAPITAL Records, a subsidiary of EMI International Records Group.
In 1953, recording master Rudy VAN GELDER joined BLUE NOTE to leave a large number of excellent recordings in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1956, BLUE NOTE The addition of cover designer REID MILES makes BLUE NOTE's records not only sound good but also look great. Almost every record cover can be called a beautiful work of art. There is no doubt that the records recorded and published in that era are still the most precious treasures in BLUE NOTE's more than 60-year history, including "Duke" Ellington, Louis Armstrong, "Cannon" Adderley, Chet Baker, "COUNT BASIE", ART BLAKEY, Kenny Barrell, DONALD BYRD, JOHN COLTRANE, Bud Powell (BUD POWELL), Bill Evans, NAT KING COLE, CHICK COREA, Betty Carter, RON CARTER, Paul Chamber PAUL CHAMBERS, MILES DAVIS, ERIC DORPHY, JIM HALL, Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny ·JOHNNY GRIFFIN, BENNY GOODMAN, DEXTER GORDON, HERBIE HANCOCK, MILT JACKSON , Peggy LEE, THELONIOUS MONK, Charlie Parker, SONNY ROLLINS and other jazz masters who have left their mark on the BLUE NOTE recordings It has always been a treasure that jazz fans have been longing for. Today's BLUE NOTE still maintains strong vitality and produces a wide variety of products, but its positioning is slightly different from VERVE. It pays more attention to fusion jazz, acid jazz and even funk jazz than VERVE.
In addition, another difference from VERVE is that BLUE NOTE has its own jazz performance venue, which is the BLUE NOTE Jazz Club founded in 1981 and located in Greenwich Village, New York. Over the past 20 years, countless jazz masters have performed at BLUE NOTE Club, which has become a world-renowned jazz destination. If any of you have the opportunity to go to New York, don’t forget to go to the BLUE NOTE JAZZ CLUB (I haven’t been)!
FANTASY
FANTASY is also an old jazz record company with a history of more than half a century. It was founded in 1949 by the WEISS brothers in Berkeley, California, USA.
In the first dozen years after its establishment, although FANTASY also released many jazz records one after another, because the Weiss brothers did not focus all their attention on jazz, FANTASY did not immediately become a prominent jazz label. , but instead cultivated a band that has an important position in the history of rock music - C.C.R., which is "Clearwater Revival". In 1964, SAUL ROENTZ bought FANTASY from the Weiss brothers, and starting in the 1970s, he successively acquired several record labels with an important position in the history of jazz music, thus developing into a large-scale Big jazz record group. "DOWN BEAT", the most authoritative jazz magazine in the United States, once defined FANTASY as "FANTASY—A LEGENDARY LABEL OF JAZZ". It can be seen that FANTASY’s reputation is really good!
The five sub-labels of FANTASY are briefly introduced as follows:
PRESTIGE was founded in New York by BOB WEINSTOCK in 1949. From the establishment of the company until In the 22 years since it was acquired by FANTASY in 1971, PRESTIGE has accumulated an astonishing number of jazz recordings, which can be called classic treasures in the history of jazz music. Its recordings cover the three major genres of mainstream jazz, cool jazz and hard bop jazz, and completely record the rapid development of jazz from the 1950s to the 1970s. At that time, artists such as Miles Davis and John Co. Important figures active in the jazz scene such as Sichuan, Thelonious Monk, and Sonny Rollins have left many valuable classic recordings in PRESTIGE.
RIVERSIDE was founded in New York in 1953 by BILL GRAUER JR. and ORRIN KEEPNEWS. It initially copied master tapes from other companies by purchasing them. Published records and began recording on its own in 1954. It was one of the most important jazz record labels at the time, and featured artists such as Thelonious Monk, Johnny Griffin, Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery, and Ed "Cannon" Leigh and BARRY HARRIS both left excellent recordings at RIVERSIDE. Riverside closed down in 1964, and many of its precious historical recordings were not compiled and published by FANTASY until the mid-1970s.
MILESTONE was founded in New York in 1966 by Orin Kipnius, one of the former owners of RIVERSIDE. It has been recorded by LEE KONITZ, MCCOY TYNER and Sonny Rollins.
CONTEMPORARY was one of the most active jazz record labels on the West Coast of the United States in its early years. It was founded by LESTER KOENIG in 1951. It published a variety of jazz, with modern jazz being its focus. .
PABLO was founded in Los Angeles in 1973 by Norman Granz, the boss of VERVE, and was named after the Spanish painter Picasso.
PABLO's operation has always followed the VERVE model. The recordings of Oscar Peterson, "Count" Basie, Joe PASS and Ella Fitzgerald account for the majority of PABLO's records. By the late 1980s, PABLO and its affiliated labels PABLO LIVE and PABLO TODAY had released hundreds of albums. Although most of them were new recordings, there were still many records that received widespread praise. In 1987, Norman Granz, who moved to Switzerland, sold PABLO to FANTASY.
COLUMBIA JAZZ The Columbia Broadcasting Network (CBS) of the United States is a witness to the history of the United States and the world in the 20th century, and a large number of records produced and published by Columbia Records, which was originally owned by it, are also the witnesses of American and world music in the 20th century. In a microcosm, even as far as jazz is concerned, the number of classic recordings owned by Columbia Records can be described as "a huge number"! From the 1920s to the late 1940s, the ups and downs of swing music and "big band" were faithfully recorded by "Columbia", and the number of recordings was unparalleled; from "Duke" Ellington to "Count" Basie, from From Lonis Monk to Miles Davis, many jazz masters left precious early sounds in "Columbia". After Columbia Records was acquired by Sony Corporation of Japan in the early 1980s, it published a large number of records, including jazz, under the "CBS" trademark. In recent years, it has promoted the "COLUMBIA JAZZ" label and frequently released multi-disc sets. Choose a way to publish your own classic recordings of jazz masters, such as the Miles Davis Collection CD, which collects all of Miles's classic recordings in "Columbia" and becomes a good collection for jazz fans. If you want to find early recordings of a certain jazz master in the first half of the last century, you may only be able to find them in the "COLUMBIA JAZZ" records!
TELARC JAZZ is a sub-label of the American TELARC record company. TELARC was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, USA in 1973 by JACK REINER and ROBERT WOODS. In its early years, it mainly recorded and published classical music, American modern works and audiophile sound effects records, and later launched It has established a dedicated jazz sub-label "TELARC JAZZ" and a blues sub-label "TELARC BLUES", which are welcomed by the majority of jazz and blues fans. It is most famous for its superb recording standards and its foresight in digital audio technology. This uniqueness makes the jazz records produced by it have distinctive characteristics that are different from those of VERVE, BLUE NOTE and other jazz record brands with a much longer history. Three generations of jazz masters, including Ray Brown, Oscar Peterson, JOHN CLAYTON, MONTY ALEXANDER, and BENNY GREEN, all recorded at TELARC. Over records. Currently, in addition to ordinary 20-bit CDs, TELARC JAZZ's products also include many high-format records such as SACD and DVD-AUDIO. Many varieties have even launched three versions of ordinary CD, SACD and DVD-AUDIO for consumers to choose from. In terms of overall recording quality, TELARC JAZZ should be considered the best among all the jazz record labels introduced in this article. Currently, the jazz label that also belongs to TELARC is HEADS UP, which was just acquired by TELARC last year.
HEADS UP Although HEADS UP in the United States is a small independent record company, it has always adhered to the modern jazz line and has a good reputation among jazz fans. The famous black jazz keyboardist and singer Joe Mack JOE MCBRIDE's famous CDs "A GIFT FOR TOMORROW" (No. HUCD 3025) and "KEYS TO YOUR HEART" (No. HUCD) 3035) is recorded by HEADS UP. Currently, HEADS UP's signed musicians include Joe McBride, jazz electric bassist GERALD VEASLEY, Latin jazz quintet SPYRO GYRA, and Cuban jazz band "THE CARIBBEAN JAZZ PROJECT" , South African jazz band SMOOTH AFRICA, etc., most of the records produced and published are in the ENHANCED CD format, which means that the content of these CDs is divided into two parts. The main part is naturally the PCM audio information common to CDs (i.e., music recordings). The secondary part is equivalent to a CD-ROM, which includes profiles of relevant musicians or bands, music videos, interview videos, photos and even music scores. CD owners can use this to get a general idea of ??the musicians and the music. situation and get the information you are interested in.
ENJA was founded in Munich in 1971 by German jazz fans MATTHIAS WINCKELMANN and HORST WEBER. It is one of the leading jazz record labels in Europe. The most representative one. Over the past 31 years, ENJA has not only continued the exquisite American jazz tradition, but also adhered to the international music concept. It has done a lot of work in the discovery of new contemporary jazz talents, the exchange of Asian and European jazz musicians, and the integration of various ethnic music colors. It has produced It covers many jazz schools from traditional to modern, with unique taste and unique vision. By mid-1931, ENJA had published novels by Jill Evans, Chet Baker, Zeke Currie, McCoy Taylor, CLARK TERRY, CECIL TAYLOR, Arthur · ARTHUR TAYLOR, CHARLES MINGUS, Abby Lincoln, Lee Konitz, DAVE HOLLAND, Joe Henderson, Coleman Hawkins ( Nearly 600 jazz recordings, including recordings by first-class jazz musicians such as COLEMAN HAWKINS, Dizzy Gilspie, TOMMY FLANAGAN and Eric Dolphy. Most of ENJA's early records were produced in Germany, using American bands that toured in Germany. In recent years, ENJA has moved its recording base to New York, USA. However, ENJA is still a European label in a fundamental sense, and it is a quite prosperous jazz label.
ECM, the full name of "EDITIONS OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC" (meaning "Contemporary Music Edition"), was founded in Germany in 1969 by Manfred EICHER. ECM is not a pure jazz label. It mainly records and publishes experimental jazz, and even publishes modern music records. ECM's records incorporate musical elements from all over the world, and the recording musicians were all found by Manfred Esser himself while traveling around the world. In the recording process, ECM has a unique approach, that is, most of its records are recorded in Oslo, the capital of Norway, because Manfred believes that "cold can promote the purity and clarity of music."
ECM not only provides a stage for Nordic musicians, but also provides a space for American musicians to express themselves freely in Europe.
Musicians who have signed contracts with ECM include KEITH JARRETT, JAN GARBAREK, PAUL MOTIAN, Pat Mai PAT METHENY, STEVE SWALLOW, etc. Among them, Keith Garrett has recorded the most albums in ECM, and he has released famous albums one after another, which is eye-catching. ECM's artistic taste and recording quality have always been appreciated. Currently, while publishing CDs, they are still diligently producing and releasing LP vinyl discs.
TBM's full name is "THREE BLIND MICE", which means "Three Blind Mice". It was founded in Japan in 1970 by Takenobu Fujii and Yoshihiko Kaminari (recording engineer) to record excellent sound quality for Japanese jazz musicians. Well-known for its jazz records, it has recorded many albums for Takeshi Yamamoto, Isao Suzuki, Ayako Hosokawa, etc. Its products are well-known among jazz fans and "audiophiles". In recent years, TBM has adopted a large number of XRCD series technologies developed by JVC. All its products are XRCD products, which are very popular among music fans.
GML, the full name of "GOLD MASTAFON LABO", is a famous Japanese jazz label founded by the Japanese jazz master, gimbalist and saxophonist Ichiro Masuda. It not only publishes albums of Japanese jazz musicians, but also Make your own recordings or reprint and re-release records by North American jazz masters. American jazz masters who have collaborated with GML include Milt Jackson, Ray Brown, JOHN CLAYTON, ANITA 'O DAY, and BOB CRANSHAW , BENNY GREEN and others. GML is a small independent company that produces very few products each year. In its early years, it used 24K pure gold coating to press discs. In recent years, it has also joined the XRCD camp and produces almost all XRCD products. No matter in terms of musical value, performance level or production quality, GML's products are worthy of attention!