Little Labels--Big Sound: Small Record Companies and the Rise of American Music [Hardcover] Review

O how the landscape has changed!Fifty years ago there were literally hundreds of independent record labels operating in cities and towns all across the USA.Many of these companies were fly by night operations that lasted for only a short period of time. Some managed to stick around long enough to have a hit record or two before disappearing from the scene forever.But, a fair number of these independent labels were quite successful and would leave an indelible mark on American popular music.This is what "Little Labels-Big Sound" is all about.
Whether you are a fan of the blues, rock and roll, R & B, group harmony or jazz, there is little doubt that these "little labels" made asignificant contribution to the development of your kind of music.Authors Rick Kennedy and Randy McNutt have focused on 10 of these important independent labels.It is a very readable and highly entertaining book that both record collectors and history buffs are sure to enjoy.
Hoagy Carmicheal and Louis Armstrong spent their formative years in the 1920's at Gennett Records, a small indie based in Richmond, In.When a young and dynamic James Brown audtioned for King Records in the mid 1950's, label owner Syd Nathan remarked "Nobody wants to hear that noise."History would indeed prove him wrong.Most critics agree that jazz legend Charlie Parker made his finest recordings at Ross Russell's Dial records."Little Labels-Big Sound" tells the story of how Charlie Parker wound up at Dial.There are also chapters devoted to seven other notable indies including Sun, Riverside, Monument and Duke-Peacock. I enjoyed reading about them all.
Today, a few major conglomerates dominate the music business.There is little for most of us to get excited about. "Little Labels-Big Sound" fondly recalls that time in America when small record labels flourished and creativity thrived.It is worth remembering.Recommended.

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Horizons Touched: The Music of ECM [Hardcover] Review

It has been 35 years since Manfred Eicher's brilliant ECM label released Gary Burton's and Chick Corea's wonderful collaboration Crystal Silence.It is 38 years since the label was first launched..

Since then, ECM has created and released so vast and extraordinary a collection of music - path breaking improvisational music, often jazz that does not swing -- that adventurous jazz lovers have come to know the "ECM sound."Over its lifetime so far, it has released the work of a huge range of artists, including these extraordinary albums: Oregon,Dave Holland's Prime Directive, Keith Jarrett's The Köln Concert, John Abercrombie's Timeless, Kenny Wheeler's Angel Song, Trygve Seim's Different Rivers, Ralph Towner's and Gary Burton's Matchbook, and Art Lande & Mark Isham's Rubisa Patrol.

When the Portland Jazz Festival honored the anniversary of Crystal Silence's release in February, 2007, listeners, critics and ECM representatives spent hours in lively seminars seeking words to define this ECM Sound.For me, that sound is usually abstract, pristinely clear and spare in production, often with the disciplined ambiance of chamber music, and always original.ECM is deservedly an award winning label.The Jazz Journalists Association has voted ECM the 2007 "Record Label of the Year" in its 11th Annual Jazz Awards.The Association is an international group comprised of more than 450 writers, editors, photographers, broadcasters, filmmakers, educators and other media professionals.ECM Records was also voted "Label of the Year 2007" at the MIDEM Classical Awards in Cannes.As unique and compelling as the ECM Sound is, its cover art is equally identifiable and moving.

In Horizons Touched, Steve Lake and Paul Griffiths have collected many of these images, illuminated by many statements from artists and others associated with the label, as well as those of experts contributing essays to explore aspects of the label's wide-ranging catalog. Together with shorter contributions from more than 100 musicians, 20 essays and interviews explore the ECM ethos, be it in European or American jazz, folk, experimental fare or moving fusions of genres.Design, sound engineering, film and photography and other non-musical aspects of ECMare also explored. Some pieces are analytical or historical, others are anecdotal, philosophical, or jazzily idiosyncratic.Cover and other images are sprinkled generously throughout.

The book is stunning and enriching, and will be welcomed by fans and newbies alike.It is pricey, but handsome; for anyone interested, it lives up to its cost.

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Product Description:

In 1969 producer Manfred Eicher founded a new record label, Edition of Contemporary Music, in Munich. More than 1,000 albums later, after many landmark recordings and new discoveries-including Keith Jarrett's best-selling "Koln Concert," Jan Garbarek's saxophone improvisations, and Estonian composer Arvo Part's profoundly moving minimalism-ECM stands as a model of musical independence unique in the history of the record industry. This portrait of the label traces how ECM set new standards with meticulously realized productions of improvised and notated music, introduced hundreds of musicians to a wider public, and has changed the way music is played, recorded, and perceived. Much more than a conventional label history, this stunningly illustrated tome celebrates and reflects on the ways in which ECM has grown and changed from its origins in jazz to contemporary classical, and from medieval chant to free jazz and traditional folk music from around the world. It includes extensive interviews with Manfred Eicher, more than 20 specially commissioned essays by an international line-up of music journalists and writers, and more than 100 contributions from artists, composers, designers, and engineers who have worked with the label, and whose voices form an oral history in counterpoint.



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