AUM Fidelity

Last updated
AUM Fidelity
AUMFidelity LOGO.jpg
Founded1997 (1997)
FounderSteven Joerg
Genre Jazz, avant-garde jazz, free jazz, indie rock
Country of originU.S.
Location Brooklyn, New York
Official website www.aumfidelity.com

AUM Fidelity is an independent record label in New York City primarily devoted to avant-garde jazz artists such as William Parker, Matthew Shipp, and David S. Ware. It has also released recordings by improvisational rock band Shrimp Boat and exclusively distributes the CaseQuarter [1] and Riti labels. [2] It was founded in 1997 by former Homestead Records label manager Steven Joerg. [3]

Contents

History

Founder Steven Joerg is a native of Chicago [4] and has stated that in high school he was heavily influenced by the do-it-yourself (DIY) approach of punk rock, especially labels such as SST Records. [3] Moving to New York City after graduating college, [4] Joerg worked for Bar/None Records. He became a manager of the indie rock label Homestead Records in 1992, where he signed and promoted albums by Babe the Blue Ox, Tara Key, Sleepyhead, Soul-Junk, and others. After releasing a well-received album by free jazz drummer William Hooker, Joerg convinced a reluctant Homestead to sign notable jazz musician David S. Ware and his Quartet. Their first release on the label, Cryptology, received a lead review in Rolling Stone . [3]

Joerg left Homestead in December 1996 and founded AUM Fidelity in Brooklyn in January 1997. His intent was to concentrate on modern jazz. [5] He liquidated his savings, sold half his record collection, and took out a loan. The label derived its name partially from the Charles Mingus album Mingus Ah Um , but mostly from Om, the mantra representing the "soundless sound of the universe, the original tone and source of all creation". Not low fidelity or high fidelity, but AUM Fidelity." [6] The label launched in September 1997 with the release of David S. Ware's Wisdom of Uncertainty, and William Parker's Sunrise in the Tone World. [3] [7]

AUM has released over 90 albums which have been acclaimed around the world. [4] In addition to Ware and Parker, artists who have recorded for the label include Joe Morris, Whit Dickey, Other Dimensions in Music, Test, Farmers by Nature, Matthew Shipp, Mat Maneri, Hamid Drake, Rob Brown, Daniel Carter, Roy Campbell, Cooper-Moore, Chad Taylor, Roy Nathanson, Kidd Jordan, Eri Yamamoto, Gerald Cleaver, Craig Taborn, Bill Dixon, Jim Hobbs/The Fully Celebrated, Darius Jones, Little Women, Mike Pride, and others. [8] AUM Fidelity began distributing Joe Morris' Riti label in 2002. In 2003 it co-launched the CaseQuarter label, [1] which is devoted to gospel music of the American south.

AUM Fidelity has supported the New York City downtown jazz scene. [4] [3] Joerg has volunteered at the Vision Festival since 1996 and produced Vision One, a two-disc benefit compilation of material recorded at the festival. [5] AUM Fidelity was asked by musician and artist John Zorn to curate his avant-garde locale The Stone for June 16–30, 2011, which featured performances by many of the label's artists, including its then most recent signing, alto saxophonist/composer Darius Jones. [3] In January 2009, the label was instrumental in finding a kidney donor for David S. Ware. [4] Following his recovery and prior to his passing, Ware released five new albums with the label, including a recording of his final concert appearance, Live at Jazzfestival Saalfelden 2011. Setsuko S. Ware, David Ware's widow, and Joerg produced the Memorial Service for David S. Ware, which took place on January 7, 2013. [9] [10]

AUM Fidelity celebrated its 15th anniversary in June 2011 with two weeks of curated performances at the Stone, and culminated with a series of concerts in June 2012 at Suoni Per Il Popolo (Montreal) and Vision Festival (New York City). [4] [11] William Parker's 8-CD box set, Wood Flute Songs , was produced the following year and released in late 2013, garnering a 5-star review in Down Beat and chosen as the No.1 Archive Release of the Year by The Wire . [12] AUM continues to produce new recordings, and in 2015 launched the David S. Ware Archive Series (DSW-ARC) with a fully remixed & wholly expanded edition of Ware's first (1977) recordings as a bandleader, Birth of a Being .

Discography

Centering Records (William Parker & AUM Fidelity cooperative productions)

CaseQuarter (co–launched & distributed by AUM Fidelity; dedicated to sacred music of the American South)

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Parker (musician)</span> American jazz musician

William Parker is an American free jazz double bassist. Beginning in the 1980s, Parker played with Cecil Taylor for over a decade, and he has led the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra since 1981. The Village Voice named him "the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time" and DownBeat has called him "one of the most adventurous and prolific bandleaders in jazz".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Shipp</span> American pianist, composer, and bandleader

Matthew Shipp is an American avant-garde jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader.

Guillermo E. Brown is a multi-disciplinary performer whose works include Soul at the Hands of the Machine, The Beat Kids' Open Rhythm System and Sound Magazine, Black Dreams 1.0,...Is Arturo Klauft, Handeheld, Shuffle Mode, WOOF TICKET EP, PwEP2, forthcoming full-length album Dream&Destroy and performance piece Bee Boy. His one-man theater piece, Robeson in Space, premiered at Luna Stage (2005).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mat Maneri</span> American composer, violin, and viola player

Mat Maneri is an American composer, violin, and viola player. He is the son of the saxophonist Joe Maneri and Sonja Maneri.

Joseph Francis Michael Morris is an American jazz guitarist, bassist, composer, and educator.

Other Dimensions in Music is an American free jazz group founded in the 1980s.

Thirsty Ear Recordings is an American independent record label. It was founded in the late 1970s as a marketing company for the then-unnamed alternative music field, and expanded to issue its own records in 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamid Drake</span> American jazz drummer and percussionist (born 1955)

Hamid Drake is an American jazz drummer and percussionist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David S. Ware</span> American jazz saxophonist

David Spencer Ware was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerald Cleaver</span> American drummer

Gerald Cleaver is a jazz drummer from Detroit, Michigan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assif Tsahar</span> Musical artist

Assif Tsahar is an Israeli tenor saxophonist and bass clarinetist. He has lived in New York City since 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cooper-Moore</span> Musical artist

Cooper-Moore is an American jazz pianist, composer and instrument builder/designer based in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivo Perelman</span> Brazilian free jazz saxophonist (born 1961)

Ivo Perelman is a Brazilian free jazz saxophonist born in São Paulo.

<i>Cryptology</i> (album) 1995 studio album by David S. Ware

Cryptology is an album by jazz saxophonist David S. Ware, recorded in 1994 and released by Homestead Records.

<i>Wood Flute Songs</i> 2013 live album by William Parker

Wood Flute Songs is an eight-CD box set by bassist and composer William Parker which was recorded in California in 2006, Houston in 2007, Geneva and Montreal in 2011and New York in 2009 and 2012, and released on the AUM Fidelity label.

<i>Altitude</i> (Joe Morris album) 2012 live album by Joe Morris

Altitude is an album by American jazz guitarist Joe Morris which was recorded live in 2011 and released on the AUM Fidelity label. It documents the first time performance by Morris, bassist William Parker and drummer Gerald Cleaver as a trio during a two-week of dates curated at John Zorn's club The Stone by label owner Steven Joerg. For the second set, excerpted in the final two cuts of the album, Parker played sintir, the Moroccan bass lute, instead of upright bass. All the tracks are collective and completely improvised.

<i>Farmers by Nature</i> 2009 live album by Gerald Cleaver, William Parker, Craig Taborn

Farmers by Nature is an album by a collective trio consisting of Gerald Cleaver on drums, William Parker on bass and Craig Taborn on piano. The three of them were specifically brought together by Cleaver. They had played previously on Rob Brown's album Crown Trunk Root Funk. The album was recorded live at The Stone in 2008 and released on the AUM Fidelity label.

<i>Out of This Worlds Distortions</i> 2011 studio album by Farmers by Nature

Out of This World's Distortions is the second album by Farmers by Nature, a collective trio consisting of Gerald Cleaver on drums, William Parker on bass and Craig Taborn on piano. It was recorded in 2010 and released on the AUM Fidelity label. The first track is a tribute to saxophonist Fred Anderson, who died the evening before the recording.

<i>Love and Ghosts</i> 2014 live album by Farmers by Nature

Love and Ghosts is the third album by Farmers by Nature, a collective trio consisting of Gerald Cleaver on drums, William Parker on bass and Craig Taborn on piano. The double disc set documents two complete, all improvised concerts recorded in France during their 2011 tour. It was released on the AUM Fidelity label.

<i>Vessel in Orbit</i> 2017 studio album by Whit Dickey, Mat Maneri, and Matthew Shipp

Vessel in Orbit is an album by American jazz drummer Whit Dickey, Mat Maneri, and Matthew Shipp recorded in 2016 and released on the Aum Fidelity label. The recording presents a new trio with violist Mat Maneri and pianist Matthew Shipp, who were both part of the quartet, along with saxophonist Rob Brown, for 2001 Dickey's album Life Cycle.

References

  1. 1 2 "CaseQuarter". AUM Fidelity. Retrieved 2011-08-22.
  2. "Riti Records". AUM Fidelity. Retrieved 2011-08-22.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Cohen, Brad (June 15, 2011). "Smashing Jazzheads on the Punk Rock with AUM Fidelity". Village Voice . Retrieved 2011-08-22.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Henrickson, Tad (June 15, 2011). "A Label With Swing to Spare - AUM Fidelity Marks (Almost) 15 Years With a Series of Performances at the Stone". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved 2011-08-22.
  5. 1 2 Medwin, Marc (June 7, 2006). "AUM Fidelity". All About Jazz . Retrieved 2011-08-22.
  6. "An AAJ Interview with Steven Joerg of AUM Fidelity". All About Jazz . March 1, 2004. Retrieved 2011-08-22.
  7. "High Two". AUM Fidelity. Retrieved 2011-08-22.
  8. "Artists". AUM Fidelity. Archived from the original on 2008-06-21. Retrieved 2011-08-22.
  9. Chinen, Nate (January 8, 2013). "Free Improvisation at a Memorial Helps Affirm a Saxophonist's Legacy". The New York Times . Retrieved 2014-10-25.
  10. "David S. Ware, Forever / Never to be Forgotten". AUM Fidelity. Retrieved 2014-10-25.
  11. "AUM 15th Live Celebrations". AUM Fidelity. Retrieved 2014-10-25.
  12. "WILLIAM PARKER - Wood Flute Songs: Anthology/Live 2006-2012". AUM Fidelity. Retrieved 2014-10-25.

Further reading