BYG Records | |
---|---|
Founded | 1967 |
Founder | Jean Georgakarakos Jean-Luc Young Fernand Boruso |
Defunct | 1973 |
Genre | Free jazz, Avant-garde jazz |
Country of origin | France |
Location | Paris |
BYG Records was a French record label known for the Actuel series specializing in free jazz. However, the label released a handful of non-jazz recordings by artists such as Musica Elettronica Viva, Freedom and Gong.
BYG Records was founded in March 1967 by Jean Georgakarakos, Jean-Luc Young, and Fernand Boruso. The name of the label was formed from the initial letters of the founders' surnames. Georgakarakos had previously established himself as a record distributor and importer, while Young worked for Barclay Records and Boruso for Saravah, the record label formed by Pierre Barouh.
The label invited American free jazz musicians to Paris to record in the summer of 1969, a time when they were receiving little support or attention in the United States. Many of these musicians were already overseas at the time, having appeared at the Pan-African Music Festival in Algiers in July 1969. [1] (Jazz photographer Jacques Bisceglia was largely responsible for connecting the label and musicians, and the "B" in BYG is often wrongly held to refer to Bisceglia.) The resulting albums are an important repository of free jazz recordings from the period.
BYG Actuel was also responsible for organising the Actuel festival, which took place in late October 1969 in the small Belgian town of Amougies. The festival was initially intended to take place in or near Paris, but was banned by the French authorities. It featured many leading exponents of progressive rock, such as Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd, Captain Beefheart, Soft Machine, Ten Years After, Yes and The Nice. The festival was a popular success, with around 20,000 visitors over five nights, but it was a financial failure. In July 1970, Georgakarakos organised the Popanalia festival at Biot on the French Riviera, but this was also financially unsuccessful. By 1972, financial problems had plagued BYG to the point where it virtually went underground. Georgakarakos and Young later formed their own record labels, Celluloid (Georgakarakos) and Charly (Young). In 2002 a compilation album featuring the best of the label, JazzActuel: a collection of avant garde/free jazz/psychedelia from the BYG/Actuel catalogue of 1969–1971, was released by Charly (as a 3-CD set) and Get Back Records of Italy (as a 6-LP set). The collection was curated by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and journalist Byron Coley. [2]
(Actuel series releases)
Catalogue number | Artist | Album |
---|---|---|
529301 | Cherry, Don | Mu - First Part |
529302 | Art Ensemble of Chicago | A Jackson in Your House |
529303 | Murray, Sunny | Homage to Africa |
529304 | Shepp, Archie | Yasmina, a Black Woman |
529305 | Gong | Magick Brother |
529306 | Jones, Arthur | Africanasia |
529307 | Puig, Michel | Stigmates |
529308 | Greene, Burton | Aquariana |
529309 | Lyons, Jimmy | Other Afternoons |
529310 | Jack, Alan | Bluesy Mind [never issued] |
529311 | Shepp, Archie | Poem for Malcolm |
529312 | Silva, Alan | Luna Surface |
529313 | Bley, Paul | Ramblin' |
529314 | Acting Trio | Acting Trio |
529315 | Braxton, Anthony | B-Xo/N-0-1-4-7a |
529316 | Cyrille, Andrew | What About? |
529317 | Kuhn, Joachim | Sounds of Feelings |
529318 | Shepp, Archie | Blasé |
529319 | Coursil, Jacques | Way Ahead |
529320 | Burrell, Dave | Echo |
529321 | Moncur III, Grachan | New Africa |
529322 | Terroade, Kenneth | Love Rejoice |
529323 | Thornton, Clifford | Ketchaoua |
529324 | Ame Son | Catalyse |
529325 | Freedom | Freedom at Last |
529326 | Musica Elettronica Viva | The Sound Pool |
529327 | Marietan, Pierre & Terry Riley | Germ-Keyboard Study 2 |
529328 | Art Ensemble of Chicago | Message to Our Folks |
529329 | Art Ensemble of Chicago | Reese and the Smooth Ones |
529330 | Burrell, Dave | La Vie de Bohème |
529331 | Cherry, Don | Mu - Second Part |
529332 | Murray, Sunny | An Even Break (Never Give a Sucker) |
529333 | Moncur, Grachan | Aco Dei De Madrugada |
529334 | Redman, Dewey | Tarik |
529335 | Musica Elettronica Viva | Leave the City |
529336 | Wright, Frank | One for John |
529337 | Sharrock, Sonny | Monkey-Pockie-Boo |
529338 | Shepp, Archie | And The Full Moon Ensemble Live In Antibes Vol. 1 |
529339 | Shepp, Archie | And The Full Moon Ensemble Live In Antibes Vol. 2 |
529340 | Sun Ra | The Solar-Myth Approach Vol. 2 |
529341 | Sun Ra | The Solar-Myth Approach Vol. 1 |
529342-4 | Silva, Alan | Seasons |
529345 | Allen, Daevid | Banana Moon |
529346 | Kuhn, Joachim | Paris is Wonderful |
529347 | Braxton, Anthony | This Time... |
529348 | Murray, Sunny | Sunshine |
529349 | Coursil, Jacques | Black Suite |
529350 | Jones, Arthur | Scorpio |
529351 | Shepp, Archie | Live at the Pan-African Festival |
529352 | Lacy, Steve | Moon |
529353 | Gong | Camembert Electrique |
(Pop Blues series releases)
Catalogue number | Artist | Album |
---|---|---|
529501 | The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation | Watchin' Chain |
BYG Records launched its own website in 2020: http://www.bygrecords.com/
Grachan Moncur III was an American jazz trombonist. He was the son of jazz bassist Grachan Moncur II and the nephew of jazz saxophonist Al Cooper.
Herman Davis "Dave" Burrell is an American jazz pianist. He has played with many jazz musicians including Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Marion Brown and David Murray.
Didier Malherbe, is a French jazz, rock and world music musician, known as a member of the bands Gong and Hadouk, as well as a poet.
Celluloid Records, a French/American record label, founded by Jean Georgakarakos operated from 1976 to 1989 in New York City, and produced a series of eclectic and ground-breaking releases, particularly in the early to late 1980s, largely under the auspices of de facto in-house producer Bill Laswell.
Camembert Electrique is the second studio album by the progressive rock band Gong, recorded and originally released in 1971 on the French BYG Actuel label. The album was recorded at Château d'Hérouville near Paris, France, produced by Pierre Lattès and engineered by Gilles Salle. Jean Karakos was executive producer.
Echo is a studio album released by jazz pianist Dave Burrell. It was recorded on August 13, 1969, and first released as an LP album by BYG Actuel. It was re-released twice, first again on LP by Get Back Records in 2001 before finding its way to compact disc in 2004 via Sunspots Records.
Clifford Edward Thornton III was an American jazz trumpeter, trombonist, political activist, and educator. He played free jazz and avant-garde jazz in the 1960s and '70s.
Live in Paris is a double live album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded in Paris and first released on the BYG Actuel label in Japan as two separate volumes in 1974. It was issued on CD by Charly Records under the title 'Live In Paris' presumably to avoid confusion with the Delmark 'Live At Mandel Hall' album, and then later issued in the US, with the same artwork and design, by Fuel 2000 Records in the US. It features performances by Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors Maghostut, Fontella Bass and Don Moye. Despite reissues identifying it as "Live In Paris" and claiming a date of 5 October 1969, it was actually a radio broadcast from performances in Chateauvailon on 13 August 1970.
Banana Moon is the debut solo album by Australian singer/songwriter/guitarist and Gong leader Daevid Allen, released in July 1971 on the French BYG Actuel label. The album is sometimes referred to as Bananamoon and it was also reissued as a Gong album.
Yasmina, a Black Woman is a jazz album by Archie Shepp, recorded in 1969 in Paris for BYG Actuel. It features musicians from the Art Ensemble of Chicago. The first track, giving its title to the album, is a long free jazz piece by an 11-piece orchestra; in it, the references to Africa that Shepp had experimented with only a few weeks earlier in Algiers are to be found in the use of African percussion instruments, or the African incantations sung by Shepp himself at the beginning of the track. The other two pieces, a homage to Sonny Rollins written by trombonist Grachan Moncur III and a standard, played by a more traditional quintet and quartet respectively, are more reminiscent of the hard bop genre, although the fiery playing of the musicians, notably Shepp himself, gives them a definite avant-garde edge. It was originally issued on CD by Affinity, mastered from an incredibly noisy vinyl source and later reissued by Charly from the original master tapes.
Magick Brother is the debut studio album by the progressive rock band Gong, recorded in Paris during September and October 1969 and released in March 1970 on the French BYG Actuel label.
Arthur Jones was an American Free Jazz alto saxophonist known for his highly energetic but warm tones.
Jean Georgakarakos was a French-born Greek music producer, record label owner, and artist manager.
Sunshine is an album by American free jazz drummer Sunny Murray, his third as a leader. It was recorded in Paris in August 1969, and released on the BYG Actuel label later that year. On the album, Murray is joined by Arthur Jones and Roscoe Mitchell on alto saxophone, Archie Shepp and Kenneth Terroade on tenor saxophone, Lester Bowie on trumpet, Dave Burrell on piano, and Malachi Favors and Alan Silva on bass.
Homage to Africa is an album by American free jazz drummer Sunny Murray. It was recorded in Paris in August 1969, and released on the BYG Actuel label in 1970. On the album, Murray is joined by saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell, Archie Shepp and Kenneth Terroade, trumpeter Lester Bowie, cornetist Clifford Thornton, trombonist Grachan Moncur III, vocalist Jeanne Lee, pianist Dave Burrell, bassist Alan Silva, and percussionists Malachi Favors, Earl Freeman, and Arthur Jones.
An Even Break (Never Give a Sucker) is an album by American free jazz drummer Sunny Murray. It was recorded in Paris in November 1969, and released on the BYG Actuel label in 1970. On the album, Murray is joined by saxophonists Byard Lancaster and Kenneth Terroade, and bassist Malachi Favors.
Ketchaoua is an album by multi-instrumentalist and composer Clifford Thornton. It was recorded in August 1969 at Studio Saravah in Paris, and was released by the Actuel label later that year. On the album, Thornton is heard on cornet, and is joined by saxophonists Arthur Jones and Archie Shepp, trombonist Grachan Moncur III, pianist Dave Burrell, bassists Beb Guérin and Earl Freeman, and drummers Sunny Murray and Claude Delcloo.
Jacques Coursil was a composer, jazz trumpeter, scholar, and professor of literature, linguistics, and philosophy.
Way Ahead is an album by trumpeter and composer Jacques Coursil. It was recorded at Studio Saravah in Paris in July 1969, and was released later that year by BYG Records as part of their Actuel series. On the album, Coursil is joined by saxophonist Arthur Jones, bassist Beb Guérin, and drummer Claude Delcloo.
One for John is an album by saxophonist Frank Wright. Dedicated to Wright's mentor, John Coltrane, it was recorded at Studio Saravah in Paris on December 5, 1969, and was released in 1970 by BYG Records as part of their Actuel series. On the album, Wright is joined by saxophonist Noah Howard, pianist Bobby Few, and drummer Muhammad Ali.