Bethlehem Records
Bethlehem Records is an American jazz - and blues - label .
History of the record label
The record label Bethlehem Records was founded by Gus Wildi from Switzerland in September 1946 and later taken over by the record label King Records . First recording was a blue title by Johnny Temple , recorded in September 1946; on December 10, 1947, recordings of Lonnie Johnson followed . In 1953 the illustrator Burt Goldblatt began his collaboration with Bethlehem Records. All 10-inch albums were designed by Goldblatt; 40 different LPs were released between 1953 and 1955. This was followed by around 160 LPs in 12-inch format, which came onto the market by 1962.
In 1953 the producer Creed Taylor came to Bethlehem and produced on December 17 and 18, 1953 an album with the hitherto unknown singer Chris Connor ( Sings Lullaby of Birdland ), which he had recorded with the trio of Ellis Larkins . The label sold 20,000 copies. In Creeed's phase, albums with the pianist Bobby Scott fell on September 21, 1954, the flautist Herbie Mann and a quintet by Kai Winding and Jay Jay Johnson , with which Taylor then the first album for the Impulse label, founded in 1960 ! Recorded records . In 1958 King Records acquired 50% of the company and then took it over entirely in 1962.
In memory remains Bethlehem Records mainly by the legendary jazz recordings of Duke Ellington (1957), Charles Mingus with Bill Evans ( East Coasting , 1957) and the last recordings of the pianist Herbie Nichols , the then under the title Love, Gloom, Cash, Love published. The singer Nina Simone's debut album , Little Girl Blue , was released on the label in 1958 . Other jazz musicians who released records at Bethlehem in the 1950s and early 1960s included Stan Levey , Frank Socolow , Stu Williamson , Teddy Charles , Conte Candoli , Howard McGhee , Ralph Burns , Charlie Mariano , Hal McKusick , Ralph Sharon , Betty Roche , Dave McKenna , Mal Waldron , Bob Wilber / Johnny Glasel and Sam Most . The last recordings were made in 1970 by James Brown . The label's catalog was later published on CD by Fresh Sound Records .
literature
- Bielefeld catalog jazz 1988 & 2001
- Ashley Kahn : The House That Trane Build - The Story of Impulse Records