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OverviewFrom the 1920s to the 1960s, many small, independent American record companies nurtured jazz, blues, gospel, country, rhythm `n' blues and rock `n' roll. This is a celebration of 10 popular record labels - the music, the people, and the small homegrown companies who produced the music on primitive equipment. These companies, run on shoestring budgets, were on the fringe of mainstream culture. Louis Armstrong, Hank Williams, James Brown, Roy Orbison, and other musicians brought regional American styles to a world audience and won enduring fame for themselves. But often forgotten are the colourful owners of small record labels who first recorded these musicians and helped to popularize their sound before more dominant, bureaucratic competitors. This survey aims to bring alive this period, and these entrepreneurs, many of whom are interviewed in the book. Ross Russell, for example, a record-store owner in Los Angeles in the mid-1940s, risked his last dollar to create Dial Records, becasuse he was convinced that an obscure jazz saxophonist named Charlie Parker was creating a music revolution with his bebop jazz. Sam Phillips in Memphis had recorded white country and R&B singers in the early 1950s, so he was prepared when a shy, teenaged Elvis Presley walked into his storefront studio in 1954 and asked to make a record. The book tells with verve and affection the story of the people and the small homegrown companies who gave America the beat. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Rick Kennedy , Randy McNult , Al KooperPublisher: Indiana University Press Imprint: Indiana University Press Edition: New edition Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.500kg ISBN: 9780253214348ISBN 10: 0253214343 Pages: 224 Publication Date: 22 May 1999 Audience: General/trade , Professional and scholarly , General , Professional & Vocational Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print  This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsPreface Introduction: Little Labels and the American Beat, 1920-1970 1. Gennett Records 2. Paramount Records 3. Dial Records 4. King Records 5. Duke-Peacock Records 6. Sun Records 7. Riverside Records 8. Ace Records 9. Monument Records 10. Delmark Records Little Labels on Reissue Anthologies Notes Bibliography IndexReviewsIn this era of monolithic record companies and predictably contrived music, it's refreshing to read about mavericks who took chances... a look at ten visionaries who altered the course of popular music. --Playboy ... close-up portraits of risk-taking label owners who often gambled their careers and livelihoods to release music they believed in. --Billboard ... [a] volume that--like the labels it celebrates, and the 45s and 78s those labels put out--is full of exciting and vital content. --San Francisco Chronicle This book is a great piece of storytelling... well written, crammed full of interesting facts, and great fun. --Dirty Linen Kennedy and McNutt celebrate the predecessors of today's vaunted indie record companies in this rich survey... In profiling the feisty underdogs who produced so much music that 'is still very much with us,' Kennedy and McNutt also explore the commercial and social forces affecting the industry. --Booklist Kennedy and McNutt profile ten of the most influential independent record labels from the 1920s through the 1960s. While the major labels over this period garnered the lion's share of the market, the small labels produced some of the most significant music recorded at the time. Moreover, independent labels catapulted many artists to fame-e.g., Elvis Presley on Sun, Charlie Parker on Dial. Because the little labels typically served smaller geographic areas and concentrated on a single genre (jazz, blues, etc.), they provide better historical documents for researchers looking for eddies below the popular mainstream. Collectors have long recognized the importance of recordings issued by independent labels, as demonstrated by the high prices these records fetch. Now more researchers are paying attention to these artifacts, as the study of discography expands in scope. Although Kennedy and McNutt provide plenty of worthwhile information about artists, Little Labels concentrates on the fortunes of the owners/producers. Some of these stories have been told elsewhere (for example, in Kennedy's Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy, CH, Oct'94, which looks at the Gennett studio). The authors relied heavily on personal correspondence and interviews with surviving label owners; their secondary documentation is sparser or lacking. A worthwhile book for large music collections.J. Farrington, Eastman School of Music, Choice, December 1999 ... close-up portraits of risk-taking label owners who often gambled their careers and livelihoods to release music they believed in. -Billboard Author InformationRick Kennedy, a media relations manager, worked for a decade as a journalist. Kennedy plays jazz piano and is the author of Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy: Gennett Studios and the Birth of Recorded Jazz (Indiana University Press). Randy McNutt is a longtime reporter with the Cincinnati Enquirer and the author of We Wanna Boogie: An Illustrated History of the American Rockabilly Movement and a book on Ohio ghost towns. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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