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| Heads Up International | |
|---|---|
| Parent company | Concord |
| Founded | 1990 |
| Founder | Dave Love |
| Genre | Jazz, contemporary jazz |
| Country of origin | U.S. |
| Location | Cleveland, Ohio |
| Official website | at Concord |
Heads Up International is a jazz record label that was formed in Cleveland, Ohio. It was bought by the Concord Music Group in 2005.
The label got its name from a jazz group that Dave Love formed while attending North Texas State University. After college, Love became musical director for Donald Byrd. Later, he recorded an album with his band and soprano saxophonist Dave Liebman.
While trying to sell the album to record labels, he took a position as National Director of Sales & Marketing for Oxymoron P&D, where executives convinced him to start his own label with his album. Using Oxymoron for distribution, Love began Heads Up International in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. The label's first album was The Energy of the Chance by Dave Liebman. In 2000, Heads Up International merged with Telarc International Corporation.
In 2005 the two companies were acquired by the Concord Music Group. [1] [2] The label's roster includes Mindi Abair, Richard Elliot, Fourplay, Mike Stern, and Peter White. Its catalog includes Stanley Clarke, George Duke, Hiroshima, Earl Klugh, Jeff Lorber, Spyro Gyra, and Take 6. [3]
The Heads Up Africa series was begun to mark the tenth anniversary of the end of apartheid. Musicians such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, and Oliver Mtukudzi have recorded for the label.
In 2007, Heads Up released the final albums by Michael Brecker ( Pilgrimage ) and Joe Zawinul (Brown Street). Heads Up began its 18th year with recordings by George Duke, Taj Mahal, Esperanza Spalding, Take 6, and Victor Wooten.
For more than 12 years, the label has produced enhanced CDs with video, biographies, and other bonus material. Heads Up was among the first labels to release music in the Super Audio CD (SACD) format and the first to incorporate enhanced CD technology with SACDs.
Heads Up International's musicians have appeared on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz, Traditional Jazz, and World Music charts. The label's awards include the Billboard Contemporary Latin Jazz Album of the Year (Dreams & Desires by Roberto Perera), the AFIM's Independent Contemporary Jazz Album of the Year (Love's Silhouette by Pieces of a Dream) a Grammy Award nomination in 2004 ( Time Squared by the Yellowjackets), a Grammy Award for Best Traditional World Music Album in 2005 ( Raise Your Spirit Higher by Ladysmith Black Mambazo), a Grammy nomination for Best Surround Sound Award in the first surround sound category at the Grammys (Raise Your Spirit Higher by Ladysmith Black Mambazo), ten additional Grammy nominations for Spyro Gyra, Mike Stern, the JazzWeek Radio Programmers Album of the Year Award for two consecutive years (Word of Mouth Revisited and The Word Is Out! by Jaco Pastorius), and Gibson Guitar's Best Female Jazz Guitarist (Joyce Cooling). Heads Up artists have regularly captured the No. 1 position in national radio airplay.
John FrancisAnthony Pastorius III, also known as Jaco Pastorius was an American jazz bassist, composer, and producer. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential bassists of all time, Pastorius recorded albums as a solo artist, band leader, and as a member of the jazz fusion group Weather Report from 1976 to 1981. He also collaborated with numerous artists, including Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny and Joni Mitchell.
Hugh Ramapolo Masekela was a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, singer and composer who was described as "the father of South African jazz". Masekela was known for his jazz compositions and for writing well-known anti-apartheid songs such as "Soweto Blues" and "Bring Him Back Home". He also had a number-one US pop hit in 1968 with his version of "Grazing in the Grass".
Weather Report was an American jazz fusion band active from 1970 to 1986. The band was founded in 1970 by Austrian keyboardist Joe Zawinul, American saxophonist Wayne Shorter, Czech bassist Miroslav Vitouš, American drummer Alphonse Mouzon as well as American percussionists Don Alias and Barbara Burton. The band was initially co-led by Zawinul and Shorter but as the 1970s progressed, Zawinul became the primary composer and creative director of the group. Other prominent members throughout the band’s history included bassists Jaco Pastorius, Alphonso Johnson and Victor Bailey, drummers Chester Thompson and Peter Erskine, and percussionists Airto Moreira and Alex Acuña. A quintet of Zawinul & Shorter with a bassist, a drummer and a percussionist was the standard formation for Weather Report.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a South African male choral group singing in the local vocal styles of isicathamiya and mbube. They became known internationally after singing with American Paul Simon on his 1986 album Graceland. They have since won multiple awards, including five Grammy Awards the fifth of which they dedicated to the late former South African President Nelson Mandela.
Spyro Gyra is an American jazz fusion band that was formed in Buffalo, New York, in 1974. The band's music combines jazz, R&B, funk, and pop music. The band's name comes from Spirogyra, a genus of green algae which founder Jay Beckenstein had learned about in college.
Concord Records is an American record label owned by Concord and based in Los Angeles, California. Concord Records was launched in 1995 as an imprint designed to reach beyond the company's foundational Concord Jazz label. The label's artists have won 14 GRAMMY Awards and 88 GRAMMY nominations.
Michael Leonard Brecker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He was awarded 15 Grammy Awards as a performer and composer, received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in 2004, and was inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame in 2007.
Mindi Abair is an American saxophonist, vocalist, author, and National Trustee for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the organization that puts on the Grammy Awards show.
GRP® Records is a jazz record label founded by Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen in 1978. Distributed by Verve Records, GRP® was originally known for its digital recordings that focuses on its jazz genre.
Mike Stern is an American jazz guitarist. After playing with Blood, Sweat & Tears, he worked with drummer Billy Cobham, then with trumpeter Miles Davis from 1981 to 1983 and again in 1985. He then began a solo career, releasing more than a dozen albums.
Telarc International Corporation is an American audiophile independent record label founded in 1977 by two classically trained musicians and former teachers, Jack Renner and Robert Woods. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, the label has had a long association with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra, as well as with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Although it started as a classical music label, Telarc has released jazz, blues and country music recordings.
Cyro Baptista is a Brazilian-born percussionist in jazz and world music. He creates many of the percussion instruments he plays.
Gallo Record Company is the largest record label in South Africa. It is based in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is owned by Arena Holdings. The current Gallo Record Company is a hybrid of two South African record labels, rivals between the 1940s and 1980s: the original Gallo Africa (1926–85) and G.R.C.. In 1985 Gallo Africa acquired G.R.C.; as a result, Gallo Africa became known as Gallo-GRC. Five years after the acquisition, the company was renamed Gallo Record Company.
Manolo Badrena is a percussionist most noted for his work with Weather Report from 1976 to 1977. He has made contributions to over 100 recordings that span jazz, world music, pop, and Latin music. Badrena has played with The Zawinul Syndicate, the Rolling Stones, Mezzoforte, Joni Mitchell, Spyro Gyra, Art Blakey, Bill Evans, Steve Khan, Carla Bley, Talking Heads, Blondie, Michael Franks, Ahmad Jamal, Hugo Fattoruso, and others.
Ilembe is a 2007 album by the South African isicathamiya group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. It was released on 26 February 2007 and did not feature collaborations, and was simply "Ladysmith Black Mambazo at its best", as the Gallo press release for the anticipated release put it. It was re-released in 2008 with the title Ilembe: Honoring Shaka Zulu.
Thomas William Schuman is an American jazz pianist, smooth jazz keyboardist and was the longtime co-leader, composer and arranger of 13 Grammy nominated contemporary jazz group, Spyro Gyra. He has been the keyboardist for Spyro Gyra since he was 16 years old. He has performed on all of Spyro Gyra's albums to date and has written or co-written over sixty Spyro Gyra compositions since the album Catching the Sun. At the end of 2022, Schuman announced his resignation from Spyro Gyra, effective March 2023, in order to move to Europe.
Janis Siegel is a multiple grammy-winning American jazz singer, best known as a member of the vocal group The Manhattan Transfer.
Wild Heart is the seventh full-length solo studio album by American musician Mindi Abair. Released on May 27, 2014, Wild Heart marks Abair's fourth release on Concord Records imprint, Heads Up International. The album debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart, staying there for two weeks. Wild Heart received a 2015 Grammy nomination in the Contemporary Instrumental Album category, Abair's second Grammy nomination.
No Borders is the forty-fourth and final studio album by South African jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela. The album was released on 11 November 2016 via Universal Music label.
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