Alfred Lion question - did he socialize...

[mjzee]

New York in the '40's and '50's was a hotbed of independent record labels. They were all small operations, so you have to assume the owners knew each other. Just curious: is there any indication whether Alfred Lion socialized with people like Moses Asch, Maynard Solomon, Jac Holzman, Bob Weinstock, etc., to discuss business or individual performers, or just to shoot the breeze? Seems to me these record label owners were all interesting people, and they definitely had a lot in common.

[Chuck Nessa]

Great question.

I want to direct you to a chapter/intro to a wonderful book assembled by Frank Driggs and Harris Lewine called Black Beauty White Heat. This (mostly) photo book has an early entry about collectors/fans meeting Al Lion and Frank Wolff that is worth the price you have to pay. Find the book somewhere.

Edited January 14, 2005 by Chuck Nessa

[Brandon Burke]

That's Black Beauty White Heat, right?

Edited January 14, 2005 by Brandon Burke

[Brandon Burke]

Wierd. There seem to be several covers....

[Chuck Nessa]

DUH! I will make the correction and make you look like a friggin' idiot.

[Christiern]

Chuck said the key word: collectors. Most of the label owners were record collectors. They had meeting, they swapped discs, discussed personnel, etc. That jncludes Bill Grauer, Bob Weinstock, Orrin, Alfted Lion, et al.

On a recent thread, I believe I posted some scans of The Record Changer magazine that showed Lion trading.

No, they were trading records.

Edited January 14, 2005 by Christiern

[Bill Fenohr]

I remember reading that Milt Gabler made reference to Alfred bringing BN 78's to his record shop personally in the early days. So i would guess they hang out.

[mjzee]

Thanks for the tip, Chuck. I'll definitely look for the book the next time I'm at Borders or B&N. Amazon has the book, but I couldn't read much of it.

I find business interesting, and the business of selling music has an interesting twist to it. That's why I expanded my musings to include label owners associated with other sorts of music, such as Asch and Holzman (although both Folkways and Elektra released some jazz, too). Some of the artists overlapped, too -- James P. Johnson recorded for both Blue Note and Folkways (or whatever it was called then).

As an aside, there's an interesting mini-interview with Herbie Hancock in this month's issue of Playboy (p. 36 - a one-column Q & A). See if this doesn't sound like someone recognizable:

PLAYBOY: What is wrong with music these days?

HANCOCK: It seems so money-driven and not creation-driven. It hasn't always been like that. When I first came on the scene, there were people in the industry who were passionate about the music. They wanted to sell records, of course, but it wasn't the be-all and end-all. Music is supposed to serve a function, and that function isn't to put money in someone's pocket. That's what you get after you serve the function. The function is to serve humanity.