This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2017) |
Soul Jazz Records | |
---|---|
Founder | Stuart Baker |
Distributor(s) | PIAS (UK) |
Genre | Various |
Country of origin | UK |
Location | London, England |
Official website | soundsoftheuniverse |
Soul Jazz Records is a British record label based in London. [1] Outside of releasing records, the label also publishes books, occasionally films and performs as a DJ set. [1] The music releases labels from a variety of genres, including reggae, house, hip hop, punk rock, jazz, funk, bossa nova and soul. [2]
Soul Jazz Records was founded by Stuart Baker in 1991. [3] [4] [5] Baker purchased his first record at the age of 10 and prior to starting the label, had his roots selling records at a secondhand record vinyl stall in the Camden market in the late 1980s. [3] [6]
The label initially worked doing straight reissues of old albums before releasing Nu Yorica! , a double album of classic salsa and Latin funk from the 1970s. [4] Peter Reilly spoke on the labels behalf that Nu Yorica was their first "really successful record" form Soul Jazz noting that "it was more of a kind of cult thing up until then. It opened it up to a lot of people." and that the album sold specifically well in New York. [4]
The reggae releases were praised by important people of the genre, such as Chris Blackwell of Island records who called the It's Dynamite! compilations as the "university of reggae." [3] Radio 1's Gilles Peterson commented that "Soul Jazz put out the best compilations. They've consistently done it, from the Studio One stuff to the free jazz stuff to the acid house compilations. As a reissue label, they're the best." [3] Grant Marshall of Massive Attack stated that one thing he wanted to do when entering the music business was to release Studio One records in England and tried to deal with the Coxsone Dodd of Studio One. [3] Baker managed to talk to Dodd to let him have access to their archives after Dodd had put out rare jazz compilations. [3] Dodd died in 2004 leading to the labels relationship to continue via his daughter Carol and his wife Norma Dodd, who died in 2010. [2] These deaths briefly led to breaks in releasing Studio One related material. [2]
The booklets of Soul Jazz Records album are often written by Baker himself, with Baker explaining that he likes to describe the relationships between music and society, the connections between genres, and the history of the music industry. [7]
Soul Jazz has released album through sublabels. These include Universal Sound, which was described by the Soul Jazz website as both a sister label and a subsidiary label. [5] [8] Soul Jazz described Universal Sound as containing "releases that are slightly more specialist. Mainly artist releases rather than compilations they often follow on from an earlier Soul Jazz Release. Many of these releases come with extensive sleeve notes and original photos." [8] Another was Satellite Records, which was a label home to bands such as Add N to X, Sand, Bell, and Yossarian. [9]
Winston Rodney OD, better known by the stage name Burning Spear, is a Jamaican roots reggae singer-songwriter, vocalist and musician. Burning Spear is a Rastafarian and one of the most influential and long-standing roots artists to emerge from the 1970s.
Lincoln Barrington "Sugar" Minott was a Jamaican reggae singer, producer and sound-system operator.
Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was the dominant style of music in Jamaica for nearly two years, performed by many of the artists who helped establish reggae, including harmony groups such as the Techniques, the Paragons, the Heptones and the Gaylads; soulful singers such as Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, Bob Andy, Ken Boothe and Phyllis Dillon; musicians such as Jackie Mittoo, Lynn Taitt and Tommy McCook. The term rocksteady comes from a popular (slower) dance style mentioned in the Alton Ellis song "Rocksteady", that matched the new sound. Some rocksteady songs became hits outside Jamaica, as with ska, helping to secure the international base reggae music has today.
Black music is a sound created, produced, or inspired by black people, including African music traditions and African popular music as well as the music genres of the African diaspora, including some Caribbean music, Latin music, Brazilian music and African-American music. These genres include spiritual, gospel, rumba, blues, bomba, rock and roll, rock, jazz, salsa, R&B, samba, calypso, soca, soul, disco, kwaito, cumbia, funk, ska, reggae, dub reggae, house, Detroit techno, amapiano, hip hop, pop, gqom, afrobeat, and others.
Studio One is one of Jamaica's most renowned record labels and recording studios; it has been described as the Motown of Jamaica. The record label was involved with most of the major music movements in Jamaica during the 1960s and 1970s, including ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub and dancehall.
Donat Roy Mittoo, better known as Jackie Mittoo, was a Jamaican-Canadian keyboardist, songwriter and musical director. He was a member of The Skatalites and musical director of the Studio One record label.
Joe Gibbs born Joel Arthur Gibson was a Jamaican reggae producer.
In Jamaican popular culture, a sound system is a group of disc jockeys, engineers and MCs playing ska, rocksteady or reggae music. The sound system is an important part of Jamaican culture and history.
Justin Boland, also known as J Boogie is a DJ, music producer, radio host, music director and music curator from San Francisco with over 25 years of experience in the music industry.
Johnny Osbourne is one of the most popular Jamaican reggae and dancehall singers of all time, who rose to success in the late 1970s and mid-1980s. His album Truths and Rights was a roots reggae success, and featured "Jah Promise" and the album's title track, "Truths and Rights".
Willi Williams is a Jamaican reggae and dub musician and producer. He is known as the "Armagideon Man" after his hit, "Armagideon Time", first recorded in 1977 at Studio One in Kingston. The song was covered by The Clash as the flipside of their "London Calling" single.
Nik Weston is a DJ, music producer, record label owner of Mukatsuku Records and music buyer for Juno Records. Based out of London, UK, he was from the late 1990s to 2007 a key player in the promotion and distribution of Japanese recording artists and their releases outside of the country, as part of the late 1990s into 2000s revival in the jazz dance, soul-jazz and electronic Japanese music scene. He is a keen advocate of the vinyl record format.
Lone Ranger is a Jamaican reggae deejay who recorded nine albums between the late 1970s and mid-1980s.
Gladstone Anderson, also known by his nickname "Gladdy", was a Jamaican pianist, keyboard player, and singer, who played a major part in the island's musical history, playing a key role in defining the ska sound and the rocksteady beat, and playing on hundreds of recordings as a session musician, a solo artist, and as leader of Gladdy's All Stars, featuring bassist Jackie Jackson, drummer Winston Grennan, guitarist Hux Brown, and keyboardist Winston Wright. As Harry J All Stars the band had a massive hit in Jamaica and United Kingdom with the instrumental song "The Liquidator" 1969.
Abiodun Odukoya, better known as Abiodun, is a Nigerian-German singer, songwriter, producer and music arranger. Abiodun's name is of Yoruba origin and means "he who is born on a day of festivity". He is better known as the co founder of the Afro German music collective Brothers Keepers and as one of the pioneers of the German reggae, afro and soul music scene.
Mafia Tone is a music brand active early in the UK reggae movement. The Jah MafiaTone HiFi sound system launched in Birmingham, UK in 1975 and remained active until 1980.
Nu Yorica! – Culture Clash in New York City: Experiments in Latin Music 1970–77 is a 1996 compilation album of Latin music released by Soul Jazz Records in 1996. The album was received positive reviews in The Guardian and Muzik on its initial release. A follow-up album titled Nu Yorica 2! was released in 1997. The album was reissued in 2015 with remastered audio and some re-arranged and re-placed tracks.