Basin Street Records is a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

-winning

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small and medium-sized enterprise, small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels ...

based in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

which specializes in

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

, and rhythm and blues ( R&B). Basin Street Records was founded in 1997 by Mark Samuels and Tom Thompson. The label arose out of an agreement to release a live album for New Orleans jazz trumpeter and vocalist

Kermit Ruffins Kermit Ruffins (born December 19, 1964) is an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and composer from New Orleans. He has been influenced by Louis Armstrong and Louis Jordan and says that the highest note he can hit on trumpet is a high C. He often a ...

, who was managed by Thompson. In mid-1998 Samuels bought Thompson's interest in the company. In 2005,

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

flooded the Basin Street Records office and Mark Samuels' home. Samuels continued to operate the company from "computers in coffee shops" while rebuilding his home and office in New Orleans. Basin Street concentrates on jazz, funk, rhythm and blues, and blues. The roster includes

, Los Hombres Calientes,

Jason Marsalis Jason Marsalis (born March 4, 1977) is an American jazz drummer, vibraphone player, composer, producer, band leader, and member of the Marsalis family of musicians. He is the youngest son of Dolores Ferdinand Marsalis and the late Ellis Marsalis ...

Irvin Mayfield Irvin Mayfield Jr. (born December 23, 1977) is an American trumpeter, composer, bandleader and educator. On November 3, 2021, Mayfield was sentenced to 18 months in prison for defrauding the New Orleans Public Library, New Orleans public librar ...

, Michael White,

The Headhunters The Headhunters was an American jazz fusion band formed by Herbie Hancock in 1973. The group fused jazz, funk, and rock music. History and band name Hancock had grown dissatisfied with his prior band, Mwandishi, and wanted to make a band with ...

Henry Butler Henry Butler (September 21, 1948 – July 2, 2018) was an American jazz and blues pianist. He learned piano, drums, and saxophone in school. He received a college degree and graduate degree and taught at the New Orleans Center for Creative ...

Jon Cleary Jon Stephen Cleary (22 November 191719 July 2010) was an Australian writer and novelist. He wrote numerous books, including '' The Sundowners'' (1951), a portrait of a rural family in the 1920s as they move from one job to the next, and '' The ...

Theresa Andersson Theresa Andersson (born 11 September 1971) is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. History General Andersson came to New Orleans in 1990 to play violin with fellow singer-songwriter and Swede, Anders Osborne. Nine years later, she ...

Jeremy Davenport Jeremy Davenport (born 1970 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American jazz trumpeter and singer based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jeremy Davenport was born in St. Louis, Missouri into a family of musicians. His mother has been a music educator for n ...

Rebirth Brass Band The Rebirth Brass Band is a New Orleans brass band. The group was founded in 1983 by Phillip "Tuba Phil" Frazier, his brother Keith Frazier, Kermit Ruffins,Skelly, RichardAllMusic Profile Retrieved 2013-02-9 and classmates from Joseph S. Cla ...

, and Davell Crawford.

Awards

* Best Latin Jazz Album, ''Los Hombres Calientes'',

Billboard Latin Music Awards The ''Billboard'' Latin Music Awards grew out of the ''Billboard'' Music Awards program from ''Billboard'' magazine, an industry publication charting the sales and radio airplay success of musical recordings. The ''Billboard'' awards are the La ...

(1998) * Best Record Label, '' OffBeat'' magazine, 2000, 2002–2005, 2009, 2012–2015 * Music Business of the Year, ''OffBeat'' magazine, 2003, 2004, 2013 *

Grammy Award for Best Regional Roots Music Album The Grammy Award for Best Regional Roots Music Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 as the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for releasing albums in the regionally based traditional Ameri ...

, ''Rebirth of New Orleans'',

(2012)

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control American independent record labels American jazz record labels Record labels based in Louisiana