Johnny Parth

Johnny Parth (born January 11, 1930 in Vienna , Austria ) was a formative personality on the Austrian jazz scene as early as the 50s and 60s - he headed the later legendary "HCdV - Hot Club de Vienne", which was held in various Viennese pubs (including in the "Golser G'moa Keller" directly behind the Wiener Konzerthaus ) organized record evenings and jazz concerts. Almost all musicians on the traditional Viennese jazz scene benefited significantly from his pioneering work, which was also documented by the release of several jazz long-playing records. In addition to the recordings of King Oliver , Louis Armstrong , Jelly Roll Morton , Johnny Dodds and other stars from the early days of classical jazz, which were only available on rare 78s at the time , Johnny Parth dared to compile a "History of Jazz" on 10 LPs as early as 1960 whose selection deserves the greatest respect even today. In the 1970s he founded the Austrian labels Roots and Document Records as well as various other sublabels (Earl Archives, Eden, RST Blues Documents, HK Records, Selmerphone), which are mainly known for their re-releases of pre-war blues , gospel and jazz recordings became.

After he had achieved one of his goals, namely to publish every tangible blues recording from the turn of the century 1800/1900 to the pre-World War II period on his Document Records in CD format, he gave the label to Gary in 2000 Atkinson sold and since then has limited himself to producing.

Because of his services to jazz, blues and gospel, Parth was honored in the USA with the “Keeping The Blues Alive” award in 2001 and in January 2003 with the Golden Medal of Merit of the State of Vienna .

Web links

• Official Document Records Homepage
• "Keeping The Blues Alive" award 2001