Sensation Records

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Sensation Records was an American blues - Rhythm & blues - and jazz - independent label , which consisted 1947-1952.

founding

Todd Rhodes - Bell-Boy Boogie (October 1947)

The record label was created as a subsidiary of the Pan-American Distributing Company , founded in April 1946 , a sales company of John Kaplan and Bernie Besman. She owned the distribution rights for up to 100 small labels. Kaplan and Besman decided to acquire artists themselves, make recordings with them and market them. Sensation Records was founded in August 1947, with Besman taking over the artistic-technical area while Kaplan was responsible for the finances. The label was initially located at 3747 Woodward Avenue in Chicago (from July 1950: 3731 Woodward Ave ).

When Besman heard the blues pianist Todd Rhodes in Lee's Sensation Lounge in the spring of 1947 , he not only adopted Rhodes as the first artist for his record label, but also the name of the club as a new label name. The label's first single with the audio carrier catalog # 1 came from Todd Rhodes under the title Dance of the Red Skins / Blue Sensation (August 1947), followed in October 1947 by Rhodes Bell-Boy Boogie / Flying Disc (# 2). The other singles up to # 6 also came from the pianist. Besman concluded a distribution contract with Vitacoustic Records at the same time , but from April 1948 they got into trouble. In June 1948, took King Records the national sales for Sensation Records and at the same time, the Todd Rhodes with the new label immediately to the Rhythm & Blues - hit parade came. When the Chicago Defender reported on the beginning of Sensation Records on October 15, 1949, the label had long been established.

John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker - Boogie Chilling '# 2 (Sensation Records, July 1950)
John Lee Hooker - Burnin 'Hell (November 1949)

The small label's most successful discovery was John Lee Hooker . He had made a demo recording on June 12, 1948 and was placed in United Sound Studios by Besman . Here he recorded a total of 10 tracks for Sensation Records on September 3, 1948 in Studio B - produced and composed by Bernard Besman. The first three tracks used up a large part of the scheduled 3-hour recording time, so the track Boogie Chillen ' came about under time pressure. Besman decided to give the rights to Modern Records , who were able to land a million seller with Boogie Chillen 'in 1949 . Boogie Chillen 'became a number one hit on the R&B charts in February 1949 .

From November 1949 Sensation Records released a total of five Hooker singles on its own label; first was Burnin 'Hell / Miss Sadie Mae (published November 1949; # 21), followed by Huckle Up Baby / Canal Street Blues (December 1949; # 26), Let Your Daddy Ride / Goin' On Highway 51 (March 1950; # 30), My Baby's Got Somethin´ / Decoration Day Blues (May 1950; # 33) and the remake Boogie Chillen´ # 2 / Miss Eloise (July 1950; # 34).

More artists

Other artists joined the label, such as TJ Fowler's Detroit Jump band . Another successful local band was Dave Hamilton's Noc-Tunes with I Fell for You / Lazy Daisy (# 22) from 1950. Local musicians such as Wild Bill Moore ( Football Boogie , # 17; November 1949), Jack Surrell and Kitty Stevenson also took part for the label. For Sensation , recordings of bebop pioneers Milt Jackson , Sir Charles Thompson , Russell Jacquet , Sonny Stitt , JJ Johnson , Max Roach , Leo Parker , Kenny Clarke , John Lewis and Ray Brown were also made in 1947/48 .

From 1948 onwards, only part of the Sensation catalog was published; twelve titles appeared in 1963 on a Galaxy Records LP. The recordings were re-released on the British label Ace Records and in MP3 format under the title The Roots Of Modern Jazz: 1948 Sensation Sessions .

The End

At the end of 1951, Sensation Records got into a crisis due to the contract with King Records and was liquidated in 1952, Besman moved to California and worked there in the toy trade, Kaplan continued to run the Pan-American Distributing Company until June 1956.

The Detroit label is not to be confused with the Canadian reissue label on which u. a. Recordings by Annette Hanshaw , Irving Mills , Charles Mingus and Guy Lombardo have been released.

literature

  • Lars Bjorn with Jim Gallert: Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit, 1920-60 . University of Michigan Press, 2001

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lars Björn / Jim Gallert, Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit , 1920-60, 2001, p. 171
  2. ↑ Billboard Magazine, July 3, 1949, King to Distribution Sensation Disks , p. 37
  3. ↑ Chicago Defender, October 15, 1949, Sensation Records To Enter Race Disc Field , p. 26
  4. ↑ Lars Björn / Jim Gallert, Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit , 2004, p. 145
  5. ↑ David A. Carson, Grit, Noise & Revolution: The Birth of Detroit Rock 'n Roll , 2006, p. 8
  6. ^ Charles Shaar Murray, Boogie Man: The Adventures of John Lee Hooker in the American Twentieth Century , 2011, p. 126 ff.
  7. ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 53
  8. ↑ Emmett G. Price, III./Tammy Kernodle (ed.), Encyclopedia of African American Music, Volume 1 , Horace Maxille, 2010, p. 283
  9. ^ Bill Dahl, Motown: The Golden Years: More than 100 rare photographs , 2011, p. 57
  10. ↑ a b Tom Lord The Jazz Discography (online, accessed October 31, 2014)
  11. ^ The Roots Of Modern Jazz: 1948 Sensation Sessions
  12. ↑ Billboard Magazine, Dec. 4, 1982