Document Records is an

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 ...

, founded in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and now based in Scotland, that specializes in reissuing vintage

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

and

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 ...

. 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.

History

Document was established in 1986 by Johnny Parth, the former owner of Roots Records, in Austria to make previously unreleased

and

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

records from before the

1942–44 musicians' strike Year 194 ( CXCIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Septimius and Septimius (or, less frequently, year 947 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 194 for thi ...

available on a number of European labels. In 1990, Parth felt obliged to switch production from LP to CD. With this change, he consolidated the catalogue into complete reissues in chronological order, increasingly on the Document label as other label names were dropped. The new policy was to reissue as many as possible of the recordings listed in the book, ''Blues and Gospel Records: 1890–1943''. The scope was expanded to include bluegrass,

spirituals Spirituals (also known as Negro spirituals, African American spirituals, Black spirituals, or spiritual music) is a genre of Christian music that is associated with African Americans, which merged varied African cultural influences with the exp ...

, and other rural American

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

s (collectively known as

roots A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients. Root or roots may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusin ...

music), made between 1900 and 1945. Since 2000 it has been owned by Gary and Gillian Atkinson and is based in

Newton Stewart Newton Stewart (Scottish Gaelic language, Gd: ''Baile Ùr nan Stiùbhartach'') is a former burgh town in the historical county of Wigtownshire in Dumfries and Galloway, southwest Scotland. The town is on the River Cree with most of the town to ...

, Scotland. Document has the exclusive rights to a great deal of unreleased music and other audio media produced by

Edison Records Edison Records was one of the early record labels that pioneered sound recording and reproduction, and was an important and successful company in the early recording industry. The first phonograph cylinders were manufactured in 1888, followed by ...

between 1914 and 1929.

Artists

* Ora Alexander *

Albert Ammons Albert Clifton Ammons (March 1, 1907 – December 2, 1949) was an American pianist and player of boogie-woogie, a blues style popular from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s. Life and career Ammons was born in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were ...

* Pink Anderson * Kokomo Arnold *

Josephine Baker Freda Josephine Baker (; June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975), naturalized as Joséphine Baker, was an American and French dancer, singer, and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in France. She was the first Black woman to s ...

* Kid Bailey * Barbecue Bob * Blue Lu Barker * Ed Bell * Gladys Bentley * Big Maceo * Esther Bigeou * Binkley Brothers' Dixie Clodhoppers *

Black Ace Babe Kyro Lemon Turner (December 21, 1905 – November 7, 1972) was an American Texas blues musician most frequently known by the stage name Black Ace. He was also known as B. K. Turner, Black Ace Turner, Babe Turner and Buck Turner. Biog ...

Scrapper Blackwell Francis Hillman "Scrapper" Blackwell (February 21, 1903 – October 7, 1962) was an American blues guitarist and singer, best known as half of the guitar-piano duo he formed with Leroy Carr in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He was a 2024 indu ...

Blind Blake Arthur Blake (1896 – December 1, 1934), 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. Early life Little is known of Blake's life. ...

* Lucille Bogan * Ishmon Bracey *

Big Bill Broonzy Big Bill Broonzy (born Lee Conley Bradley; June 26, 1893 or 1903August 14, 1958) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s, when he played country music to mostly African-American audiences. In the 19 ...

* Ada Brown * Bessie Brown *

Cleo Patra Brown Cleopatra Brown (December 8, 1909 or 1909 – April 15, 1995), known as Cleo Brown, C. Patra Brown or Cleo Patra Brown, was an American blues and jazz vocalist and pianist. She was the first woman instrumentalist to receive the NEA Jazz Masters ...

* Gabriel Brown * Kitty Brown *

Rabbit Brown Richard "Rabbit" Brown (1937) was an American blues guitarist and composer. His music has been characterized as a mixture of blues, pop songs, and original topical ballads. He recorded six sides for Victor Records on March 11, 1927, one of whi ...

* Burnett & Rutherford * Butterbeans and Susie * Gus Cannon *

Leroy Carr Leroy Carr (March 27, 1904 or 1905 – April 29, 1935) was an American blues singer, songwriter and pianist who developed a laid-back, crooning technique and whose popularity and style influenced such artists as Nat King Cole and Ray Charles. Mu ...

Fiddlin' John Carson "Fiddlin'" John Carson (March 23, 1868 – December 11, 1949) was an American musician and singer who is widely considered to be one of the early pioneers of country music. Early life Carson was born near McCaysville in Fannin County, Georgia. ...

* Alice Leslie Carter *

Bo Carter Armenter (or Armentia) Chatmon (March 21, 1893 or January 1894 – September 21, 1964), known as Bo Carter, was an early American blues musician. He was a member of the Mississippi Sheiks in concerts and on a few of their recordings. He also m ...

* Baby Doo Caston *

Doctor Clayton Doctor Clayton (born Peter Joe Clayton; April 19, 1898 – January 7, 1947) was an American blues singer and songwriter. Biography Clayton was born in Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia (though he claimed he had been born in Africa) and moved to St. ...

* Sam Collins * Martha Copeland * Floyd "Dipper Boy" Council * Ida Cox * Katie Crippen * Arthur Crudup * James Crutchfield * Leroy Dallas * Cow Cow Davenport * Blind Gary Davis *

Blind John Davis Blind John Davis (December 7, 1913 – October 12, 1985) was an American blues and boogie-woogie pianist and singer. He is best remembered for his recordings, including "A Little Every Day" and "Everybody's Boogie". Biography Davis was born in ...

* Madlyn Davis * Walter Davis * Georgia Tom Dorsey * Little Buddy Doyle * David "Honeyboy" Edwards *

Sleepy John Estes John Adam Estes (January 25, 1899 or 1900June 5, 1977),
known as Sleepy John Estes, was an A ...

* William Ezell * Ethel Finnie * Fisk University Jubilee Singers * Baby Face Leroy Foster * Miss Frankie * Blind Boy Fuller *

Bill Gaither William James Gaither (born March 28, 1936) is an American singer and songwriter of Southern gospel and contemporary Christian music. He has written numerous popular Christian songs with his wife Gloria; he is also known for performing as par ...

* Lawrence Gellert *

Jazz Gillum William McKinley "Jazz" Gillum (September 11, 1902 or 1904 – March 29, 1966) was an American blues harmonica player and singer. Biography Gillum was born in Indianola, Mississippi. He ran away from home at age seven and for the next few ye ...

* Lillian Glinn * Lillian Goodner * Lil Green * Helen Gross *

Harlem Hamfats The Harlem Hamfats was a Chicago jazz band formed in 1936. Initially, they mainly provided backup music for jazz and blues singers, such as Johnny Temple (musician), Johnny Temple, Rosetta Howard, and Frankie Jaxon, for Decca Records. Their firs ...

* Kelly Harrell * Hattie Hart *

Lucille Hegamin Lucille Nelson Hegamin (November 29, 1894 – March 1, 1970) was an American singer and entertainer and an early African-American blues recording artist. Life and career Lucille Nelson was born in Macon, Georgia, the daughter of John and Minnie ...

* Rosa Henderson * Edna Hicks * Bertha "Chippie" Hill * King Solomon Hill * Mattie Hite * Smokey Hogg * Lightnin Hopkins *

Son House Edward James "Son" House Jr. (March 21, 1902 – October 19, 1988) was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist, noted for his highly emotional style of singing and slide guitar playing. After years of hostility to secular music, as a prea ...

* Rosetta Howard * Peg Leg Howell *

Alberta Hunter Alberta Hunter (April 1, 1895 – October 17, 1984) was an American jazz and blues singer and songwriter from the early 1920s to the late 1950s. After twenty years of working as a nurse, Hunter resumed her singing career in 1977. Early life Hu ...

Mississippi John Hurt John Smith Hurt (March 8, 1893 – November 2, 1966), known as Mississippi John Hurt, was an American country blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Biography Early years John Hurt was born in Teoc,Cohen, Lawrence (1996). Liner notes to ''Av ...

* Bertha Idaho * Jim Jackson * New Orleans Willie Jackson *

Skip James Nehemiah Curtis "Skip" James (June 9, 1902October 3, 1969) was an American Delta blues singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter. AllMusic stated: "Coupling an oddball guitar tuning set against eerie, falsetto vocals, James' early recordings ...

* Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon *

Blind Lemon Jefferson Lemon Henry "Blind Lemon" Jefferson (September 24, 1893 – December 19, 1929) was an American blues and gospel singer-songwriter and musician. He was one of the most popular and successful blues singers of the 1920s and has been called the "Fat ...

* Monkey Joe * Bunk Johnson * Lil Johnson * Lonnie Johnson * Margaret Johnson * Mary Johnson * Merline Johnson *

Robert Johnson Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His singing, guitar playing and songwriting on his landmark 1936 and 1937 recordings have influenced later generations of musicians. Although his r ...

* Tommy Johnson *

Blind Willie Johnson Willie Johnson (January 25, 1897 – September 18, 1945), commonly known as Blind Willie Johnson, was an American gospel blues singer and guitarist. His landmark recordings completed between 1927 and 1930, thirty songs in all, display a combinat ...

* Curtis Jones * Maggie Jones * Charley Jordan * Lottie Kimbrough * Rube Lacey *

Lead Belly Huddie William Ledbetter ( ; January 1888 or 1889 – December 6, 1949), better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk music, folk and blues singer notable for his strong vocals, virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the ...

* Meade "Lux" Lewis * Charley Lincoln * Virginia Liston * Robert Lockwood, Jr. * Cripple Clarence Lofton * Eddie Mapp * Daisy Martin *

Sara Martin Sara Martin (June 18, 1884 – May 24, 1955) was an American blues singer, in her time one of the most popular of the classic blues singers. She was billed as "The Famous Moanin' Mama" and "The Colored Sophie Tucker". She made many recordings, ...

* Tommy McClennan *

Charlie McCoy Charlie McCoy (born Charles Ray McCoy, March 28, 1941) is an American harmonica virtuoso and multi-instrumentalist in country music. He is best known for his harmonica solos on iconic recordings such as " Candy Man" ( Roy Orbison), "He Stoppe ...

Kansas Joe McCoy Wilbur Joe "Kansas Joe" McCoy (May 11, 1905 – January 28, 1950) was an American Delta blues singer, musician and songwriter. Career McCoy performed under various stage names but is best known as Kansas Joe McCoy. Born in Raymond, Mississippi ...

* Viola McCoy *

Hattie McDaniel Hattie McDaniel (June 10, 1893 – October 26, 1952) was an African-American actress, singer-songwriter, and comedian. For her role as Mammy in ''Gone with the Wind'' (1939), she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the f ...

* Charlie "Specks" McFadden * Barrelhouse Buck McFarland *

Brownie McGhee Walter Brown "Brownie" McGhee (November 30, 1915 – February 16, 1996) was an American folk and Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaboration with the harmonica player Sonny Terry. Life and career McGhee was bor ...

Blind Willie McTell Blind Willie McTell (born William Samuel McTier; May 5, 1898 – August 19, 1959) was an American Piedmont blues and ragtime singer, songwriter and guitarist. He played in a fluid, syncopated finger picking guitar style common among many Eas ...

Memphis Minnie Lizzie Douglas (June 3, 1897 – August 6, 1973), better known as Memphis Minnie, was a blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter whose recording career lasted for over three decades. She recorded around 200 songs, some of the best known being " ...

* Hazel Meyers * Josie Miles * Lizzie Miles * Mississippi Sheiks * Little Brother Montgomery *

Monette Moore Monette Moore (May 19, 1902 in Gainesville, Texas – October 21, 1962 in Garden Grove, California) was an American jazz and classic female blues singer. Background Moore was raised in Kansas City, Missouri. She taught herself to play the ...

* Buddy Moss *

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913April 30, 1983), better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer-songwriter and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of moder ...

* Romeo Nelson * Reverend A. W. Nix *

Paul Oliver Paul Hereford Oliver MBE (25 May 1927 – 15 August 2017) was an English architectural historian and writer on the blues and other forms of African-American music. He was equally distinguished in both fields, although it is likely that afici ...

Kid Ory Edward "Kid" Ory (December 25, 1886 – January 23, 1973) was an American jazz composer, Trombone, trombonist and bandleader. One of the early users of the glissando technique, he helped establish it as a central element of Music of New Orle ...

* Pace Jubilee Singers *

Charlie Patton Charlie Patton (April 1891 (probable) – April 28, 1934), more often spelled Charley Patton, was an American Delta blues musician and songwriter. Considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues", he created an enduring body of America ...

* Robert Petway * Joe Pullum * Ma Rainey * Fiddlin' Doc Roberts * Banjo Ikey Robinson * Elzadie Robinson * Walter Roland * Bayless Rose *

Dan Sane Dan Sane (possibly September 22, 1896 – February 18, 1956) was an American Memphis blues and country blues guitarist and songwriter. He was an associate of Frank Stokes. According to the Music journalist Jason Ankeny, "they had emerged am ...

* Irene Scruggs * Ollie Shepard *

Johnny Shines John Ned Shines (April 26, 1915 – April 20, 1992) was an American blues singer and guitarist. Biography Shines was born in Frayser, Tennessee, today a neighborhood of Memphis. He was taught to play the guitar by his mother and spent m ...

* J.D. Short * Henry "Son" Sims *

Bessie Smith Bessie Smith (April 15, 1892 – September 26, 1937) was an African-American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Empress of the Blues" and formerly Queen of the Blues, she was t ...

* Clara Smith * Laura Smith *

Mamie Smith Mamie Smith ( Robinson; May 26, 1891 – August or September 16, 1946) was an American singer. As a vaudeville singer, she performed in multiple styles, including jazz and blues. In 1920, she entered blues history as the first African-American a ...

* Ruby Smith *

Trixie Smith Trixie Smith (c.1885/1895 – September 21, 1943), was an American blues singer and film actress. She made four dozen recordings and appeared in five films. Biography Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Smith came from a middle-class backgroun ...

* Charlie Spand * Pinetop Sparks *

Victoria Spivey Victoria Regina Spivey (October 15, 1906 – October 3, 1976), sometimes known as Queen Victoria, was an American blues singer, songwriter, and record company founder. During a recording career that spanned 40 years, from 1926 to the mid-1960s, s ...

* Mary Stafford * Sunnyland Slim *

Roosevelt Sykes Roosevelt Sykes (January 31, 1906July 17, 1983) was an American blues musician, also known as "the Honeydripper". Career Sykes was born the son of a musician in Elmar, Arkansas. "Just a little old sawmill town", Sykes said of his birthplace. The ...

Hannah Sylvester Hannah Sylvester (January 19, 1903 – October 15, 1973) was an American blues singer who performed in the classic female blues style, which was popular during the 1920s. She was billed as "Harlem's Mae West".Harris 1994, p. 492. Biography Sylv ...

* Blind Joe Taggart *

Tampa Red Hudson Whittaker (born Hudson Woodbridge; January 8, 1903March 19, 1981), known as Tampa Red, was an American Chicago blues musician. His distinctive single-string slide guitar style, songwriting and bottleneck technique influenced other Chicago ...

* Eva Taylor * Montana Taylor *

Johnny Temple John Ellis Temple (August 8, 1927 – January 9, 1994) was an American professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as a second baseman from 1952 to 1964, most prominently as a member of the Cincinnati Reds, where ...

Sonny Terry Saunders Terrell (October 24, 1911 – March 11, 1986), known as Sonny Terry, was an American Piedmont blues and folk musician, who was known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers and occas ...

Sister Rosetta Tharpe Sister Rosetta Tharpe (born Rosetta Nubin, March 20, 1915 – October 9, 1973) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. She gained popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with her gospel recordings, characterized by a unique mixture of spirit ...

* Elvie Thomas *

Henry Thomas Henry Jackson Thomas (born September 9, 1971) is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor and had the lead role of Elliott Taylor in the film '' E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (1982), for which he won a Young Artist Award and rece ...

* Hociel Thomas * Jesse Thomas * Ramblin' Thomas * Henry Townsend * Bessie Tucker * Blind Willie Walker * Sippie Wallace * Wesley Wallace *

Washboard Sam Robert Clifford Brown (July 15, 1910 – November 6, 1966), known professionally as Washboard Sam, was an American blues musician and singer. Biography Brown's date and place of birth are uncertain; many sources state that he was born in 191 ...

* Curley Weaver * Casey Bill Weldon * Peetie Wheatstraw *

Bukka White Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White (November 12, 1906 – February 26, 1977) was an American Delta blues guitarist and singer. His first full-length biography'', The Life and Music of Booker "Bukka" White: Recalling the Blues'' (2024), has been ...

Georgia White Georgia White (9 March 1903 – c.1980) was an American blues singer, most prolific in the 1930s and 1940s. White was born in Sandersville, Georgia in 1903. By the late 1920s she was singing in nightclub, clubs in Chicago. She made her first sou ...

Josh White Joshua Daniel White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names Pinewood Tom and Tippy Barton in the 1930s. White grew up in the Sou ...

* Bert Williams *

Big Joe Williams Joseph Lee Williams (October 16, 1903 – December 17, 1982) was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar. Performing over five decades, he recorded the songs "Baby, Pl ...

Sonny Boy Williamson I John Lee Curtis "Sonny Boy" Williamson (March 30, 1914 – June 1, 1948) was an American blues harmonica player and singer-songwriter. He is often regarded as the pioneer of the blues harp as a solo instrument. He played on hundreds of r ...

Sonny Boy Williamson II Alex or Aleck Miller (originally Ford, possibly December 5, 1912 – May 24, 1965), known later in his career as Sonny Boy Williamson, was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. He was an early and influential blues harp s ...

* Ralph Willis (blues musician), Ralph Willis * Edith Wilson (singer), Edith Wilson * Lena Wilson * Bill Wyman * Jimmy Yancey * Estelle Yancey, Mama Yancey

References

External links

Official site

Document Records Store
{{Authority control Austrian record labels Blues record labels British jazz record labels Folk record labels Reissue record labels Gospel music record labels Record labels established in 1990 Record labels established in 2000

History

Artists

See also

References

External links