Commodore Records

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Milt Gabler (left), Herbie Hill, Lou Blum, Jack Crystal. Commodore Record Shop, August 1947.
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb .

Commodore Records was an American jazz - label , especially in the area of Dixieland and Swing . It is the oldest independent jazz label in the United States and was formed a few months after the French label Swing .

History of the label

Commodore Records was founded in January 1938 by Milt Gabler , who owned the Commodore Music Shop in Manhattan (East 42nd Street), a meeting place for all jazz fans from New York and the surrounding area. The main focus of his activities was Dixieland Jazz, but other styles such as rhythm and blues also appeared on the label. He also released new releases of jazz records by buying up the pressings of records that were no longer available.

The first artist on the new label was Eddie Condon . In 1938 he became one of the main artists as a band leader at the newly founded label Commodore Records : On January 17, 1938, he recorded Love Is Just Around the Corner / Ja-Da (Commodore # 500), the New York record company's very first record. I Got Rhythm / Beat To The Socks was created on the same day with the legendary Bud Freeman Trio , but was later published with catalog # 502 as Freemans There's A Crowd / You Took Advantage of Me (# 501). Jelly Roll Morton recorded Mamie's Blues / Original Rags here with # 587 on December 16, 1939 . Other musicians on the label were Fats Waller , Muggsy Spanier , Edmond Hall , Lester Young , Bobby Hackett , Wild Bill Davison , Lester Young, Earl Hines , Coleman Hawkins , Art Tatum , Willie The Lion Smith , Hot Lips Page and Pee Wee Russell .

"Commodore" was one of the first record labels to list the full staff of their recordings. In the late 1930s, after her contract with the "Brunswick" label (later Columbia Records ) ended, Billie Holiday recorded several records for Commodore , including her famous " Strange Fruit " on April 20, 1939 , with the backing Fine and Mellow first appeared on that label. Strange Fruit reached number 16 on the pop hit parade.

After the Second World War Gabler worked for the large record label Decca Records . He had less and less time for his own label. The last recordings were made in the early 1950s with Frank Foster and Frank Wess , but the label was continued by Gabler's son-in-law, Jack Crystal, who also ran the record store. The last records were released by Commodore in 1957.

Re-releases

The "Commodore" label catalog was later re-released on vinyl by Decca. From 1995 the entire catalog appeared on " Mosaic Records ", from 1997 on CD with MCA / Universal Music; it comprises 66 LPs, including rare recordings by Teddy Wilson , which he had recorded for a piano lesson at the time.

The most famous Commodore sessions

Bud Freeman Trio - I Got Rhythm
Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

Collections

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b Jürgen Wölfer, Lexikon des Jazz Wien 1999, p. 103
  2. ↑ Line- up: Artie Shapiro (bass), Bobby Hackett (cornet), Bud Freeman (saxophone), Eddie Condon (guitar), George Brunies (trombone), George Wettling (drums), Jess Stacy (piano) and Pee Wee Russell ( Clarinet)
  3. ^ After "Strange Fruit" and "Fine and Mellow" (recorded April 20, 1939) Billie Holiday recorded four more tracks ( Yesterdays and I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues ). Later (after the record strike) she sang 12 more tracks for "Commodore" within two weeks in March and April 1944, such as I Cover the Waterfront , I'll Get By , My Old Flame and How am I now
  4. ↑ Father of Billy Crystal , who so u. a. got the honor of babysitting Billy Holiday