| Yazoo Records | |
|---|---|
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| 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 1989 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 in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues 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.
Arthur Blake, known as Blind Blake, was an American blues and ragtime singer and guitarist. He is known for recordings he made for Paramount Records between 1926 and 1932.
Blind Willie McTell was a Piedmont blues and ragtime singer and guitarist. He played with a fluid, syncopated fingerstyle guitar technique, common among many exponents of Piedmont blues. Unlike his contemporaries, he came to use twelve-string guitars exclusively. McTell was also an adept slide guitarist, unusual among ragtime bluesmen. His vocal style, a smooth and often laid-back tenor, differed greatly from many of the harsher voices of Delta bluesmen such as Charley Patton. McTell performed in various musical styles, including blues, ragtime, religious music and hokum.
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 "Gus" 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.
Kicking Mule Records was an American independent record label, founded in Berkeley, California in 1971 by guitarist Stefan Grossman and Eugene "ED" Denson, formerly co-owner of Takoma Records. The company's name comes from the country blues sexual two-timing allegory "there's another mule kicking in your stall".
JSP Records is a British record label, founded in 1978 by John Stedman, releasing recordings by blues musicians such as Professor Longhair, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Witherspoon, Louisiana Red, Deitra Farr, Charlie Sayles, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Kansas City Red, Eddie Taylor, and Big John Wrencher. The label is based in London, England.
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. Document Records is the only UK-based recipient of the award in 2018.
"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.
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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