Leo Records

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Leo Records
Leo Records logo.jpg
Founded1979 (1979)
FounderLeo Feigin
Genre Jazz
Country of originUK
LocationLondon, England
Official website leorecordsmusic.com

Leo Records is a British record company and label, founded in 1979, which releases jazz from Russian, American and British musicians. It concentrates on free jazz. [1] This label is different from the Leo Records that was formed by Edward Vesala in Helsinki, Finland, in 1978. [1]

Contents

History

Leo Records was founded in 1979 by Leo Feigin (also known under his broadcasting name Aleksei Leonidov), a Russian immigrant to Britain. [2] The label was particularly associated with establishing the world reputation of the Ganelin Trio during the 1970s and 1980s. [3]

In its first ten years, releases from Leo included albums by musicians from the Soviet Union such as Sergey Kuryokhin, Sainkho Namtchylak and Valentina Ponomaryova. [4] By the end of 1986, Leo had released more than 20 albums by musicians from Communist countries, including the Soviet Union. [5] In 1987, a DownBeat reviewer commented that Leo had been "the main conduit for the Soviet avant garde's recorded output anywhere, East or West." [6] Leo's promotion of Soviet jazz musicians helped secure concerts for some of them spread over a week at the 1989 Zurich jazz festival; recordings from the concerts were released as Conspiracy: Soviet Jazz Festival, Zurich 1989. [7]

By the mid-1990s, Leo had introduced the Leo Lab series, "as an imprint for emerging and unknown artists". [8] Leo has released more than 50 recordings by saxophonist Ivo Perelman. [9]

By 2019, Feigin had ceased being actively involved in production, instead concentrating on "handling administrative tasks while the musicians themselves record and design artwork." [4] In 2024, he reached an agreement with Phil Freeman, a writer and owner of a record label, to make some of Leo's back catalogue available via Bandcamp. [10] [11]

Noted artists

References

  1. 1 2 Adams, Simon (2002). Barry Kernfeld (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, vol. 1 (2nd ed.). New York: Grove's Dictionaries Inc. p. 573. ISBN   1561592846.
  2. ↑ Leo Records, All About Jazz, 10 February 2004.
  3. ↑ Kelsey, Chris. "Ganelin Trio: Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 9 January 2011.
  4. 1 2 Margasak, Peter (June 2019). "Enduring Passion". DownBeat . Vol. 86, no. 6. p. 58.
  5. ↑ Roberts, Jim (November 1986). "Nostalgia in Red Square". DownBeat . Vol. 53, no. 11. p. 36.
  6. ↑ Shoemaker, Bill (August 1987). "Book Reviews". DownBeat . Vol. 54, no. 8. p. 55.
  7. ↑ Lange, Art (July 1992). "Who's Russian Now?". DownBeat . Vol. 59, no. 7. p. 54.
  8. ↑ Corbett, John (May 1998). "Beyond the Bloc". DownBeat . Vol. 65, no. 5. p. 69.
  9. ↑ Sharpe, John (July 2021). "On Screen". New York City Jazz Record . No. 231. p. 24.
  10. ↑ Brady, Shaun (7 February 2025). "A Second Life for the Avant-Jazz of Leo Records". Bandcamp.com. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
  11. ↑ "Free Jazz Blog Interview with Phil Freeman". freejazzblog. 13 November 2024. Retrieved 21 April 2025.

Further reading

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