- Riverside Records
Riverside Records, a
United States record label specializing injazz , was the raison d'etre for Bill Grauer Productions, a company founded byBill Grauer andOrrin Keepnews in 1953 inNew York City . The label's name was inspired by theManhattan telephone exchange of "The Record Changer ", a magazine owned by Grauer and edited by Keepnews. The label was to be a major presence in the jazz record industry for a decade.History
Initially the company was dedicated to reissuing early jazz material that had fallen into the
public domain or was licensed from the Chicago-basedParamount Records label. Reissued artists includedJelly Roll Morton ,King Oliver Ma Rainey andJames P. Johnson , but the label began issuing its own contemporary jazz recordings in April1954 , starting with pianistRandy Weston . In1955 thePrestige Records contract ofThelonious Monk was bought out for $108.24, and—at the suggestion of Randy Weston—Monk was signed by Riverside, where he remained for the next five years. In the next few years,Cannonball Adderley ,Bill Evans ,Johnny Griffin andWes Montgomery made substantial contributions to Riverside's catalog, establishing it as a major jazz label. Almost all their new jazz recordings were produced by Keepnews, who served as creative head of the label (and several subsidiaries, most notably Jazzland Records), with Grauer directing the company's sales and business operations. Grauer died, following a sudden heart attack, in December 1963,and the company went bankrupt not long after. By that time, its catalogue had become impressive, both in terms of artist and performances, but it remained inactive until late 1972, when virtually all its masters were acquired byFantasy Records . The vast bulk of this material was subsequently reissued on CD as part of the new owners' "Original Jazz Classics " series and remains available today from current Riverside catalogue ownerConcord Records .Quote
* “We were fans who became record companies. If you had your own company and said you were a producer, who was going to say you weren’t?” - Orrin Keepnews
ee also
*
List of record labels
*Milestone Records
*External links
* [http://www.jazzdisco.org/riverside/ Riverside Records Discography Project Page]
* [http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/labels/?label=Riverside Riverside Records History] at Concord Music Groupources
* [http://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/nov04/features2.php "A Life In Jazz"] feature on Orrin Keepnews by "Columbia College Today".
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