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.
Norman Ray Harris was an American guitarist, producer, music arranger and songwriter, closely associated with Philly soul. He was a founding member of MFSB, the Philadelphia studio band, and one of the Baker-Harris-Young record production trio.
Salsoul Records is an American New York City based record label, founded by three brothers, Joseph Cayre, Kenneth Cayre, and Stanley Cayre. Salsoul issued about 300 singles, including many disco/post-disco 12-inch releases, and a string of albums in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Many of the early Gold Mind tracks were amalgamated by DJ Walter Gibbons. These tracks date from the late 1970s; a couple of years later, Salsoul (with the help of Shep Pettibone) would revive some of the Gold Mind tracks like First Choice's "Doctor Love" and "Let No Man Put Asunder", and Loleatta Holloway's "Love Sensation" for the early 1980s dance jams auditions. These were opened on Salsoul and Larry Levan chose "Double Cross" and "The Greatest Performance Of My Life" for his Larry Levan's Greatest Mixes Volume Two.
Walter Gibbons was an American record producer, early disco DJ, and remixer. He helped pioneer the remix and 12" single in America, and was among the most influential New York DJs of the 1970s.
Shep Pettibone is an American record producer, remixer, songwriter and club DJ, one of the most prolific of the 1980s.
Loleatta Holloway was an American singer, mainly known for disco songs such as "Hit and Run" and "Love Sensation", both of which have been sampled extensively. In December 2016, Billboard magazine ranked her as the 95th most successful dance artist of all-time.
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House music is a genre of electronic dance music created by club DJs and music producers in Chicago in the early 1980s. Early house music was generally characterized by repetitive 4/4 beats, rhythms provided by drum machines, off-beat hi-hat cymbals, and synthesized basslines. While house displayed several characteristics similar to disco music, which preceded and influenced it, as both were DJ and record producer-created dance music, house was more electronic and minimalistic. The mechanical, repetitive rhythm of house was one of its main components. Many house compositions were instrumental, with no vocals; some had singing throughout the song with lyrics; and some had singing but no actual words.
Larry Levan was an American DJ best known for his decade-long residency at the New York City night club Paradise Garage, which has been described as the prototype of the modern dance club. He developed a cult following who referred to his sets as "Saturday Mass". Influential post-disco DJ François Kevorkian credits Levan with introducing the dub aesthetic into dance music. Along with Kevorkian, Levan experimented with drum machines and synthesizers in his productions and live sets, ushering in an electronic, post-disco sound that presaged the ascendence of house music. He DJ'd at Club Zanzibar in the 1980s as well, home to the Jersey Sound brand of deep house or garage house.
The Paradise Garage, also known as "the Garage" or the "Gay-rage", was a discotheque in New York City notable in the history of modern dance and pop music, as well as LGBT and nightclub cultures. It was founded by Michael Brody and was located at 84 King Street, in the Hudson Square neighborhood. It operated from 1977 to 1987 and was the base for resident DJ Larry Levan.
Philadelphia soul, sometimes called Philly soul, the Philadelphia sound, or TSOP, is a genre of late 1960s–1970s soul music characterized by funk influences and lush instrumental arrangements, often featuring sweeping strings and piercing horns. The genre laid the groundwork for disco by fusing the R&B rhythm sections of the 1960s with the pop vocal tradition, and featuring a slightly more pronounced jazz influence in its melodic structures and arrangements. Fred Wesley, the trombonist of the James Brown band and Parliament-Funkadelic, described the signature deep but orchestrated sound as "putting the bow tie on funk."
MFSB, officially standing for "Mother Father Sister Brother", was a pool of more than thirty studio musicians based at Philadelphia’s Sigma Sound Studios. They worked closely with the production team of Gamble and Huff and producer/arranger Thom Bell, and backed up such groups as Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, the O’Jays, the Stylistics, the Spinners, Wilson Pickett, and Billy Paul.
Instant Funk were an American 1970s and 1980s disco band, best known for their disco classic, "I Got My Mind Made Up ".
A maxi single or maxi-single is a music single release with more than the usual two tracks of an A-side song and a B-side song.
Vincent Montana Jr., known as Vince Montana, was an American composer, arranger, vibraphonist, and percussionist, best known as a member of MFSB and as the founder of the Salsoul Orchestra. He has been called "the Godfather of disco".
Patrick Adams
First Choice is an American girl group vocal music trio from Philadelphia. The group produced the Soul/disco hits "Armed and Extremely Dangerous", "Smarty Pants", "The Player", "Love Thang", "Let No Man Put Asunder" and "Doctor Love". They were signed to soul label Philly Groove Records and to disco label Gold Mine in addition to Warner Bros. Records and Salsoul.
Inner Life was an American club-oriented soul studio project formed in 1979 that enjoyed success with "I'm Caught Up " (1979), "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" (1981), and "Moment of My Life" (1982). Tracks featured the vocals of Jocelyn Brown and Leroy Burgess. They were produced and arranged by Patrick Adams and engineered by Bob Blank and Joe Arlotta, the album was originally produced for executive producer Greg Carmichael, whose Red Greg Records was an early and prolific disco label based in New York. "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" is probably most well known in its classic remix by DJ Larry Levan.
Walter "Bunny" Sigler was an American R&B singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer who did extensive work with the team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, and was instrumental in creating the "Philly Sound" in the early 1970s.
Salsoul Jam 2000 is a DJ mix album by Grandmaster Flash. It was originally released in the US in 1997, and was his first release in nine years. The album consists of classic disco tracks originally released on the Salsoul Records label, mixed and segued together as a continuous DJ mix in front of a live crowd.
Skyy was an American R&B/funk/disco band based in New York. They are perhaps best known for their 1981 hit, "Call Me", as well as their 1989 "comeback" hits, "Start of a Romance" and "Real Love".
"I Got My Mind Made Up " is a song recorded by the disco band Instant Funk in 1979. Released from their self-titled debut album, the song spent three non-consecutive weeks at number one on the R&B singles chart. It also enjoyed success on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, peaking at number twenty. The single also peaked at number one on the disco chart.
It was recognizably sampled by De La Soul in their track "A Rollerskating Jam named 'Saturdays'".
Live & Remastered is a box set released by the record label of British nightclub Ministry of Sound in September 2011. It was released to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Ministry of Sound, as part of their 20:20 Project campaign, following the Ministry of Sound's foundation in 1991. Focusing on the early years of the club, the box set contains five discs, each an iconic DJ set performed live at the Ministry of Sound from 1991 to 1994. The DJ sets are mixed by New York DJ veterans Larry Levan, David Morales, Todd Terry, Kenny Carpenter and the club's British co-founder Justin Berkmann, each delivering their own house style. Between them, genres explored include deep house and garage house. The packaging for the set resembles a "flightcase" box, with all the CDs themselves in "record sleeves", whilst the discs themselves are made to look like actual vinyl LPs.
