Buying Cds About Record Labels Older Jazz Listeners Tend to Identity Recordings by the Companies That Produced and First Issued
Buying CDs About Record Labels Older jazz listeners tend to identity recordings by the companies that produced and first issued them commercially – Columbia (including subsidiaries Brunswick, Vocalion, OKeh, Harmony), RCA (Bluebird), and Decca were the original big three, with Capitol joining them in the early 40s and Mercury (Emarcy) a decade later. Next were smaller companies that specialized in jazz, all started by one or two entrepreneurs who were jazz fans – Commodore, Storyville, Aladdin, Riverside, Blue Note, Clef, Norgran, Verve, Pablo, Savoy, Fantasy, Prestige, Roulette, Pacific Jazz, Bethlehem, Atlantic, Argo, Vee Jay, Mainstream, ECM, Impulse, Steeplechase, Jazzland, Solid State, Novus, and Flying Dutchman. Some of them got to be large companies, some (including some big ones) disappeared or merged with others, and over the last decade or so, virtually all were swallowed up by a few conglomerates. CDs we can buy now will be on whatever labels the conglomerates who currently own the material choose to apply to them. For example, Columbia is now Sony Music, Capitol is reissued on Blue Note, RCA Victor originals are showing up on Bluebird, etc. The Mosaic label, which first appeared in the 70s and is still quite active today, and is devoted to limited edition, high quality box set reissues of the complete works of important artists or bands for a particular record label or period of time. The sound quality is usually excellent, and each set comes with a booklet that includes a well written background essay and musical annotations by a musically knowledgeable writer, and very nice black and white photographs.
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