| Yazoo Records | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Parent company | Shanachie |
| Founder | Nick Perls |
| Genre | Blues, country, folk, gospel, jazz |
| Country of origin | U.S. |
| Location | Newton, New Jersey |
| Official website | Yazoo at Shanachie |
Yazoo Records is an American record label founded in the mid-1960s by Nick Perls. It specializes in early American blues, country, jazz, and other rural American genres collectively known as roots music. [1]
The first five releases (L 1001 to L 1005) were issued under the label name of Belzona Records. The label was then renamed Yazoo Records, and the first five releases were reissued under the new name.
The Belzona and Yazoo labels featured an Art Deco drawing of a peacock, adapted from the 1927 label of Black Patti Records.
For Yazoo Records Perls compiled rare 78-rpm recordings made in the 1920s by musicians such as Charley Patton, Blind Willie McTell, the Memphis Jug Band, Blind Blake, and Blind Lemon Jefferson. Perls founded a second label, Blue Goose Records, in 1970, [2] for which he recorded "rediscovered" black blues artists and younger blues and jazz performers.
In 1987 Yazoo was acquired by Shanachie Records. [3] In 2014, Yazoo signed its first current artists, The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band [4] and released their album So Delicious on February 17, 2015.
Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated amongst African-Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African-American culture. The blues form is ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, and is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale, and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes, usually thirds, fifths or sevenths flattened in pitch, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove.
Blind Willie McTell was an American Piedmont blues and ragtime singer, songwriter and guitarist. He played in a fluid, syncopated finger picking guitar style common among many East Coast, Piedmont blues players. Like his Atlanta contemporaries, he came to use twelve-string guitars exclusively. McTell was also adept at slide guitar, unusual among ragtime bluesmen. He sang in a smooth and often laid-back tenor which differed greatly from the harsher voices of many Delta bluesmen such as Charley Patton. He performed in various musical styles including blues, ragtime, religious music, and hokum and recorded more than 120 titles during fourteen recording sessions.
Edward James "Son" House Jr. was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist, noted for his highly emotional style of singing and slide guitar playing.
Country blues is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in the early 20th century. It stands in contrast primarily to the urban blues style, especially in the pre-war era.
Gustavus Cannon was an American blues musician who helped to popularize jug bands in the 1920s and 1930s. There is uncertainty about his birth year; his tombstone gives the date as 1874.
J. Nicholas Perls was an American audio engineer and the founder and owner of Yazoo Records and Blue Goose Records.
Blue Goose Records was an American independent record label set up in the early 1970s by Nick Perls.
Stefan Grossman is an American acoustic fingerstyle guitarist and singer, music producer and educator, and co-founder of Kicking Mule records. He is known for his instructional videos and Vestapol line of videos and DVDs.
The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band is a three-piece American country blues band from Brown County, Indiana. They have played up to 250 dates per year at venues ranging from bars to festivals since 2006. To date, they have released ten albums and one EP, most of which have charted on the Billboard and iTunes Charts.
R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders Number 2 is the second 33⅓ rpm album by the retro string band R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders and its subtitle was "Persian Rug, Crying My Blues Away, Moana March and Other Favorites". The album was later retitled Chasin' Rainbows in re-release on CD from Shanachie Records. The band's personnel includes Robert Crumb on lead vocal and banjo, Allan Dodge on mandolin, violin, ukulele and vocals, Robert Armstrong on guitars, accordion, banjo, musical saw and vocals, Terry Zwigoff, who later produced the documentary Crumb, on cello. Originally released on Blue Goose Records in 1976, this record became a collectible not only for the whimsical string band renditions of and reminiscent of the early 20th century music, but for the cover art drawn by the band's frontman and well-known comics artist Robert Crumb.
Gospel blues is a form of blues-based gospel music that has been around since the inception of blues music. It combines evangelistic lyrics with blues instrumentation, often blues guitar accompaniment.
Document Records is an independent record label, founded in Austria and now based in Scotland, that specializes in reissuing vintage blues and jazz. The company has been recognised by The Blues Foundation, being honoured with a Keeping the Blues Alive Award in 2018. Document Records is the only UK-based recipient of the award.
Alone with My Friends is an album by American blues pianist Memphis Slim which was recorded in 1961 and released on the Battle label. The album, recorded in London during a European tour, is an exploration of the blues repertoire in terms of songs associated with blues singers Big Bill Broonzy, Tampa Red and Georgia Tom, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, Curtis Jones, St. Louis Jimmy, Sonny Boy Williamson and Blind Lemon Jefferson.
"Ragged & Dirty" is an old southern blues song, popular in Memphis and other cities of Tennessee and Mississippi. The song was recorded and improvised by many southern blues artists in the 1920s and 1930s, and is still covered by many younger blues musicians.
Stefan Grossman is an American acoustic fingerstyle guitarist and singer. His discography consists of 22 studio albums, 2 live albums, 12 compilations, 22 videos, and 14 collaborations with other artists. In addition, his production, compositions and guitar work have been featured on a number of albums by other artists.
Richard "Hacksaw" Harney was an American Delta blues guitarist and pianist. He first entered a recording studio with his brother Maylon in 1928, to wax guitar work backing for separate tracks by Pearl Dickson and Walter Rhodes. However, Harney recorded rarely, until his belated solo album, Sweet Man (1972).
Willie Baker was an American Piedmont blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He recorded eight tracks, playing a twelve-string guitar to back his own strong vocals. All of his recordings took place in January and March 1929 in Richmond, Indiana, United States. Details of his life outside of his recording career are sketchy.
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