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The Fontana label story


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Ever now and again I will see and sometimes purchase an LP on the old Fontana label. The jackets are always very light...like those old UK Brunswick releases. From what I always see on them, they are issued in Holland. Are they a European licensee for Columbia?

What's the history of the label? I never see them listed in Goldmine, and I deduce that is because they are foreign pressed.

This leads me to another point I was going to make. Why isn't there a price guide/reference book for jazz records from all countries - or is there one already and I just don't know about it?

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From Wikipedia.com:

Fontana Records was a record label active in the sixties, as a subsiduary of the Dutch Philips Records. When Philips restructured its music operations it dropped Fontana in favour of Vertigo Records and Mercury Records. In the seventies Polygram acquired the dormant label. Fontana was revived in the nineties and is currently an active division of Mercury Records.

FontanaRecord45Small.jpg

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Fontana was issued in Holland, the UK and (I think) also in France.

Some of the very best UK jazz of the 1960s (including gems from Tubby Hayes, Kenny Wheeler, Ronnie Ross and Graham Collier) appeared on this imprint. In the early 1970s both Vertigo and the 'Philips' label itself covered the jazz issues.

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This leads me to another point I was going to make. Why isn't there a price guide/reference book for jazz records from all countries -  or is there one already and I just don't know about it?

Paris Jazz Corner put out one for jazz records a few years ago, but it was based on stratospheric margins - like $100 for FMPs.

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Paris Jazz Corner put out one for jazz records a few years ago, but it was based on stratospheric margins - like $100 for FMPs.

You mean the 'Cote Europeennedu Jazz' book that came out in 2002? Written by PJC headman Arnaud Boubet.

I find that one pretty accurate and obviously the people dealing with vinyls use the book as reference from what I see in secondhand shops and record conventions.

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Paris Jazz Corner put out one for jazz records a few years ago, but it was based on stratospheric margins - like $100 for FMPs.

You mean the 'Cote Europeennedu Jazz' book that came out in 2002? Written by PJC headman Arnaud Boubet.

I find that one pretty accurate and obviously the people dealing with vinyls use the book as reference from what I see in secondhand shops and record conventions.

Any idea as to how to get a copy of that one?

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Fontana was issued in Holland, the UK and (I think) also in France.

Some of the very best UK jazz of the 1960s (including gems from Tubby Hayes, Kenny Wheeler, Ronnie Ross and Graham Collier) appeared on this imprint. In the early 1970s both Vertigo and the 'Philips' label itself covered the jazz issues.

The French Fontana operation was part of the Philips conglomerate.

The Miles Davis soundtrack to the film 'Ascenseur pour l'Echafaud' and the Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers soundtrack to the film 'Des Femmes Disparaissent', also for 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' originally appeared with the Fontana imprint. A number more of jazz interest albums also came out on French Fontana.

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I'm not shitting you with this one, either. You know the record...

McCoy Tyner

"Time for Tyner"

Blue Note, 1968, 33t, occasion

Pressage original US

Etat du disque : M, état de la pochette : VG+

70.00 euros [84.00 US$, 9,450.00 ¥]

> informations complémentaires (pochette)

| ajouter à mon panier | voir mon panier |

From the PJC site...

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I'm not shitting you with this one, either. You know the record...

McCoy Tyner

"Time for Tyner"

Blue Note, 1968, 33t, occasion

Pressage original US

Etat du disque : M, état de la pochette : VG+

70.00 euros [84.00 US$, 9,450.00 ¥]

> informations complémentaires (pochette)

| ajouter à mon panier | voir mon panier |

From the PJC site...

I think mine cost £8 (not including 10% discount) for the same pressing.. :crazy:

Is it really that rare on the blue/white Liberty?

Edited by sidewinder
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Some of the prices quoted from the PJC website tend to be on the expensive side but the quotes in the Cote Européenne book look pretty accurate.

By the way Clifford, Ichecked the book for a couple of Brotzmann FMP vinyls. They are listed in the €21-30 range which seems OK.

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I think mine cost £8 (not including 10% discount) for the same pressing..  :crazy:

Is it really that rare on the blue/white Liberty?

No, emphatically, no. That's crazy.

I haven't looked at the book in some time, but I remember being surprised about a number of things. Now, very little surprises me in record pricing.

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If I remember correctly the first UK issue of 'Kind Of Blue' was on Fontana.

I think most of the early Columbia Miles LPs were released on Fontana (some, such as 'Milestones' appeared on the 'Philips' imprint). It must have been around 1965-66 when CBS UK started issuing Miles' albums domestically. I suspect from the time of 'ESP' onwards.

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  • 1 month later...

Just ordered it from Amazon France. Looks like it went through OK.

Has anyone actually received their order yet? Amazon.fr sent me an email stating that it was not currently available but may ship in another six weeks...

translated: not going to happen.

Yes, I got the same reply from them :rmad:

I suspect that you are right, it will not happen.

Any luck with second-hand copies, Brownie?

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