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Jazz musicians that started their own labels.


Hardbopjazz

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Today I was in a vinyl record shop and came across an album of Mary Lou Williams on "Mary Records." This was the label she formed when no other record label was recording her. I started to wonder what other jazz musicians started their own labels. Another that comes to mind is Willie Jones III. He has his own label. Are there any others? 

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Milford Graves + Don Pullen = SRP, Self Reliance Projects

Milford Graves + Andrew Cyrille = IPS, Institute of Percussive Studies

Kenny Cox a.o. = Strata

Charles Tolliver, Stanley Cowell a.o. = Strata-East 

Jazz Composers' Orchestra = JCOA

Heiner Stadler = Labor

Loren Mazzacane Connors = St. Joan

Mike & Kate Westbrook = Original Records

Misha Mengelberg, Han Bennink, Willem Breuker = Instant Composers Pool

Hans Dulfer = Heavy Soul Music

Franz Köglmann = Pipe

Charles Tyler = Ak-Ba

Julius Hemphill = Mbari

Vinny Golia = Nine Winds

3 minutes ago, chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez said:

Peter Ind- WAVE

yeah, great label from a fascinating musician

Phil Ranelin, Doug Hammond a.o. = Tribe

Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, Tony Oxley = Incus

 

Phill Wachsmann, Peter Cusack a.o. = Bead

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I have often wondered why some jazz labels succeeded and others didn't, and why the players didn't get far with their own labels. Obviously, an active musician did not have time to administer a record business, but still ...

Look at Prestige: just one guy. And Blue Note: just two guys. Yet both labels continued for years.

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K2B2 by Marty Krystall and Buell Neidlinger: https://k2b2.com/ 

PNL records by Paal Nilssen-Love: https://pnlrecords.bandcamp.com/ 

NEMU by Albrecht Maurer and Klaus Kuhgel: http://www.nemu-records.com/ 

A lot of people, really. It is easy these days. You won't make money anyway.  

Edited by Д.Д.
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14 minutes ago, Shrdlu said:

I have often wondered why some jazz labels succeeded and others didn't, and why the players didn't get far with their own labels. Obviously, an active musician did not have time to administer a record business, but still ...

Look at Prestige: just one guy. And Blue Note: just two guys. Yet both labels continued for years.

Yes, Prestige and BN really were Incredible. But the BN Story is much more documentated than the Prestige Story. So many books and films About the famous Two guys runnin the Business of BN, and so little about Bob Weinstock. You even don´t see many photos of Bob Weinstock, but hundreds of Lion and Wolff......

Very often the only thing you read about Prestige is that they didn´t offer time for rehearsal, but with or without rehearsals, so many of the Prestige albums became classics just like BN. 

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Ken, I was disgusted to hear that, in the 60s, some distributors were not paying Blue Note quickly, or at all. This at a time when Alfred Lion's health was deteriorating because of the stress of running the business. The "Sidewinder" phenomenon didn't help. Funnily enough, I am not greatly impressed by "The Sidewinder", and I got tired of a would-be follow up being required for several other sessions.

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