Bob Shad

Robert "Bob" Shad (born February 12, 1920 in New York City as Abraham Shadrinky , † March 13, 1985 in Los Angeles ) was an American music producer and record label owner in the field of jazz , blues and pop music . He produced the first album of the band Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin . His most successful ventures include Time Records, Brent Records, and Mainstream Records.

Life

Shad began his career as the owner of a record store on Rockaway Avenue, Brooklyn ; as a music producer he worked in the 1940s for Savoy Records and National Records , where he a. a. was involved in recordings of Charlie Parker as well as blues and rhythm & blues artists such as Dusty Fletcher. He founded the first of his own companies in 1948 with his brother Morty in New York; at Sittin 'In With , the first Platten u. a. Published by Chu Berry , Charlie Ventura , Stan Getz , Wardell Gray and Beryl Booker . Since he was only able to sell around 7,000 to 8,000 copies of the jazz recordings, he shifted the label's focus to blues and acquired a magnecord, one of the first portable tape recorders, and operated from Houston , Texas in 1950/51 . Subsequently appeared u. a. Recordings of Lightnin 'Hopkins , Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee , Smokey Hogg , Peppermint Harris ( Raining in My Heart , 1950), Big Chief Ellis and Curley Weaver .

In 1951 he was A&R at Mercury Records , where he created the sub-label EmArcy Records in 1954, where recordings of modern jazz a . a. by Cannonball Adderley , Quincy Jones , Maynard Ferguson , Helen Merrill , Erroll Garner , Sarah Vaughan ( In the Land of HiFi 1955), the Clifford Brown / Max Roach Quintet ( Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street 1956), Billy Eckstine and Dinah Washington ( Sings Fats Waller 1957) published. In the field of pop he worked with Patti Page , Vic Damone , with vocal ensembles such as The Platters , The Diamonds , The Ravens and The Crewcuts, as well as with the blues musicians Lightin 'Hopkins and Big Bill Broonzy .

At the end of the 1950s, Shad founded the Time Records label on which, in addition to jazz ( Kenny Dorham , Terry Gibbs , Sonny Clark ) and big band productions (such as Billy May , Hugo Montenegro and Gordon Jenkins ) and cocktail pop, he also avant-garde Published music by Pierre Boulez , John Cage , Morton Feldman , Charles Ives , Luigi Nono and Karlheinz Stockhausen . This was produced from 1960 to 1963 by the composer Earle Brown in the Contemporary Sound Series for the Time label.

Shad, who produced the first record of Lou Reed (as a member of the doo-wop group The Jades ) ( So Blue / Leave Her ) on Time , also had hits with the rock and roll formation The Bell Notes , and on his Another label Shad with The Knockouts . He also founded the Brent label , mainly for West Coast musicians, with whom he had hits with the bands Skip & Flip, The Chevrons and Bertha Tillman. In 1966 he ended the activities of Time Records .

In 1964 Shad founded Mainstream Records in Detroit , on which he published older material from his previous ventures and other labels ( Commodore Jazz Classics - Original Recordings Series ) and also produced new recordings. a. Shelly Manne ( Mannekind , 1972), Dizzy Gillespie , Roy Haynes , Clark Terry / Bob Brookmeyer , Harold Land , Morgana King , Carmen McRae and an album with Sarah Vaughan and the Michel Legrand orchestra . During this time he continued his collaboration with blues musicians such as Lightnin 'Hopkins, Arbee Stidham and Sonny Terry. In the field of rock music , he produced the debut albums by Janis Joplin and Ted Nugent ( The Amboy Dukes ). Shad himself released the funk album Bobby Shad and The Bad Men - A 65-Piece Rock Workshop on his label in 1973 , for which he created an all-star ensemble of musicians such as Jimmy Buffington , Bernie Glow , Arnie Lawrence , Bernie Leighton , Joe Newman , Specs Powell , Grady Tate, and Snooky Young gathered.

After Bob Shad's death in 1985, his daughter Tamara Shad reactivated the Mainstream Records label in 1990 and re-released a number of jazz and blues recordings on CD. In 1993, Sony acquired a large part of the label catalog.

The critic Leonard Feather praised Bob Shad as an "extraordinary man" who was "ahead of his time" and whom he placed in a row with producers such as John Hammond , Alfred Lion , Lester Koenig and Norman Granz .

Discographic information and label overview

The recordings of the various label Shads appeared on compilations such as Rockin 'on Broadway: The Time / Brent / Shad Story (Ace Records) or Wop Ding A Ling (Ace), with doo-wop recordings from the late 1950s and early 1960s the vocal groups The Chevrons, The Tradewinds (aka The Rob Roys ), The Genies and The Wheels .

Label	active in	genre	Remarks
Brent	1950 / 60s	Pop, R&B, Rock & Roll
jade	Late 1940s	R&B, blues	Sittin 'In With sub-label
Jax	Early 1950s	R&B	Sittin 'In With sub-label
Mainstream Records	1964-1977	Pop, jazz, rock
Sittin 'In With	1948-1951	Jazz, blues
Series 2000	1960-1967	Easy listening	Time sub-label
Shad	around 1960	Pop, Doo Wop
Time records	1959-1966	Pop, jazz

Web links

• Bob Shad at Allmusic (English)
• Bob shad in Discogs (English)
• Bob Shad fansite
• Sittin 'in With website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jay Warner: The Da Capo book of American singing groups: a history, 1940-1990
2. ↑ Information about Bob Shad and the Sittin 'In With label on Sunday Blues
3. ↑ Singles Discography for Sittin 'In With Records
4. ↑ David Evans: Big road blues: tradition and creativity in the folk blues , p. 85
5. ↑ Time Records at Discogs
6. ^ So Blue - An Interview with Phil Harris
7. ↑ Mainstream Records at Discogs
8. ↑ Bobby Shad and The Bad Men - A 65-Piece Rock Workshop
9. ↑ Tamara Shad. In: Discogs. Retrieved January 23, 2018 . 
10. ^ Mainstream Records. In: Discogs. Retrieved January 23, 2018 . 
11. ↑ L. Feather, Liner Notes from the album Mannekind by Shelly Manne (Mainstream Records, 1971)
12. ^ Operator: Bob Gaddy
13. ↑ Morty Shad continued the activities of the Jax label and founded the Harlem label in 1953 .
14. ↑ Bob Shad at Discogs