| Arto Records | |
|---|---|
| Parent company | Standard Music Roll Company |
| Founded | 1920 |
| Defunct | 1923 |
| Status | Defunct |
| Genre | Blues, jazz |
| Country of origin | U.S. |
| Location | New York City |
Arto Records was a record company and label that operated from 1920 to 1923.
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing, promotion, and enforcement of copyright for sound recordings and music videos, while also conducting talent scouting and development of new artists, and maintaining contracts with recording artists and their managers. The term "record label" derives from the circular label in the center of a vinyl record which prominently displays the manufacturer's name, along with other information. Within the mainstream music industry, recording artists have traditionally been reliant upon record labels to broaden their consumer base, market their albums, and be both promoted and heard on music streaming services, radio, and television. Record labels also provide publicists, who assist performers in gaining positive media coverage, and arrange for their merchandise to be available via stores and other media outlets.
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Arto was owned by the Standard Music Roll Company in Orange, New Jersey. The recording studio was located in New York City. Arto was one of the first labels to issue releases of vaudeville blues musicians. It also issued Lucille Hegamin and the Original Memphis Five. [1]
The City of Orange is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township's population was 30,134, reflecting a decline of 2,734 (-8.3%) from the 32,868 counted in 2000, which had in turn increased by 2,943 (+9.8%) from the 29,925 counted in the 1990 Census.
Vaudeville is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 18th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a kind of dramatic composition or light poetry, interspersed with songs or ballets. It became popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, but the idea of vaudeville's theatre changed radically from its French antecedent.
Lucille Nelson Hegamin was an American singer and entertainer and an early African-American blues recording artist.
Arto issued a Black Label series of popular music including such artists as The California Ramblers and Vernon Dalhart, and a Red Label series of classical and ethnic music that included the Peerless Quartet and Fred Van Eps. [2]
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional or "folk" music. Art music was historically disseminated through the performances of written music, although since the beginning of the recording industry, it is also disseminated through recordings. Traditional music forms such as early blues songs or hymns were passed along orally, or to smaller, local audiences.
The California Ramblers were an American jazz group that recorded hundreds of songs for many different record labels throughout the 1920s. Four members of the band – Red Nichols, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, and Adrian Rollini – went on to front big bands in later decades.
Marion Try Slaughter, better known by his stage name Vernon Dalhart, was an American country music singer and songwriter. He recorded the first country song to sell one million copies.
Arto pressed masters for other record companies, including Nordskog Records for Kid Ory's band, the first black band from New Orleans to be recorded, [1] and Arto's sister company Bell Records. The label licensed masters from other companies, particularly for release on the Red Label series. [2]
A record press is a machine for manufacturing vinyl records. It is essentially a hydraulic press fitted with thin nickel stampers which are negative impressions of a master disc. Labels and a pre-heated vinyl patty are placed in a heated mold cavity. Two stampers are used, one for each of side of the disc. The record press closes under a pressure of about 150 tons. The process of compression molding forces the hot vinyl to fill the grooves in the stampers, and take the form of the finished record.
Nordskog Records was a jazz record company and label founded by Andrae Nordskog in 1921 in Santa Monica, California.
Edward "Kid" Ory was a Louisiana French-speaking jazz trombonist and bandleader. He was born on Woodland Plantation, near LaPlace, Louisiana.
