JAPO Records was a German

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the prod ...

founded in 1970 that specialized 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, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

. It was a division of

ECM Records ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) is an independent record label founded by Karl Egger, Manfred Eicher and Manfred Scheffner in Munich in 1969. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a variety of recordings, and ECM's ...

. JAPO stands for Jazz by Post. The label existed from 1970 until 1985 and produced over 40

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and key ...

and

free jazz Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians dur ...

records from musicians all over the world, the majority of them European. It was based in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, Germany.

History

JAPO's catalogue includes

Dollar Brand Abdullah Ibrahim (born Adolph Johannes Brand on 9 October 1934 and formerly known as Dollar Brand) is a South African pianist and composer. His music reflects many of the musical influences of his childhood in the multicultural port areas of Cap ...

Mal Waldron Malcolm Earl "Mal" Waldron (August 16, 1925 – December 2, 2002) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He started playing professionally in New York in 1950, after graduating from college. In the following dozen years or so Wa ...

Elton Dean Elton Dean (28 October 1945 – 8 February 2006) was an English jazz musician who performed on alto saxophone, saxello (a variant of the soprano saxophone) and occasionally keyboards. Part of the Canterbury scene, he featured in, among oth ...

George Gruntz George Gruntz (24 June 1932 – 10 January 2013) was a Swiss jazz pianist, organist, harpsichordist, keyboardist, and composer known for the George Gruntz Concert Big Band and his work with Phil Woods, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Don Cherry, Chet Baker, ...

Barry Guy Barry John Guy (born 22 April 1947, in London) is an English composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of orchestras ...

Alfred Harth Alfred Harth, now known as Alfred 23 Harth or A23H, is a German multimedia artist, band leader, multi-instrumentalist musician, and composer who creatively mixes genres. Career Harth founded a free improvisation band, Just Music (1967 to 1972 ...

Ken Hyder Ken Hyder (born 29 June 1946) is a Scottish jazz fusion drummer and percussionist born in Dundee, Scotland, perhaps best known for combining folk, ethnic and Celtic music with jazz. Career Hyder has worked with and recorded with many music ...

Herbert Joos Herbert Joos (; 21 March 1940 – 7 December 2019) was a German jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, and graphic designer. He made recordings solo and in groups, especially with the Vienna Art Orchestra. In 2017, he received the Jazzpreis Baden-Wür ...

Bobby Naughton Robert Naughton (June 25, 1944 – December 3, 2022) was an American jazz vibraphonist and pianist. Biography Naughton was born in Boston on June 25, 1944. He studied piano from the age of seven through his teens. He played in rock bands and loun ...

Manfred Schoof Manfred Schoof (born 6 April 1936) is a German jazz trumpeter. Career Schoof was born in Magdeburg, Germany, and studied music in Kassel and Cologne, where one of his teachers of the big band leader Kurt Edelhagen. Schoof performed on Edelhagen ...

Barre Phillips Barre Phillips (born October 27, 1934, in San Francisco, California, United States) is an American jazz bassist. A professional musician since 1960, he moved to New York City in 1962, then to Europe in 1967. Since 1972, he has been based in south ...

Jiří Stivín Jiří Stivín (born 23 November 1942 in Prague) is a Czech flute player and composer. Biography He graduated from the Film Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU). He also studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music a ...

& Rudolf Dašek,

Stephan Micus Stephan Micus (; born 19 January 1953) is a German musician and composer, whose musical style is heavily influenced by his study of traditional instruments and musical techniques from Japan, India, South America, and other countries. With the exc ...

Enrico Rava Enrico Rava (born 20 August 1939), is an Italian jazz trumpeter. He started on trombone, then changed to the trumpet after hearing Miles Davis. Career He was born in Trieste, Italy. His first commercial work was as a member of Gato Barbieri's ...

Lennart Åberg Lennart Åberg (26 February 1942 – 30 September 2021) was a Swedish jazz saxophonist and composer. In 1972, he founded Rena Rama, a Swedish jazz fusion group. He also taught jazz history at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm. He was a memb ...

Edward Vesala Edward Vesala (15 February 1945 – 4 December 1999), born Martti Vesala, was a Finnish avant-garde jazz drummer. Career Born in Mäntyharju, he began playing jazz and rock in the 1960s, in such bands as Blues Section and Apollo. In the 1970 ...

, and the

Globe Unity Orchestra The Globe Unity Orchestra is a free jazz ensemble. Globe Unity was formed in autumn 1966 with a commission received by Alexander von Schlippenbach from the Berlin Jazz Festival. It had its debut at the Berliner Philharmonie on 3 November combinin ...

.All Music Guide To Jazz, 2010

Production

Production for the label was overseen by musicians and established producers, and included work by

Jack DeJohnette Jack DeJohnette (born August 9, 1942) is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. Known for his extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians including Charles Lloyd, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, John Abercrombie ...

Manfred Eicher Manfred Eicher (born 9 July 1943) is a German record producer and the founder of ECM Records. Life and career Eicher was born in Lindau, Germany. He studied music at the Academy of Music in Berlin. He started as a double-bass player of classi ...

, and Håken Elmquist. Many of the records were produced by

Thomas Stöwsand Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the ...

Engineering

The engineering for the recording sessions was carried out by established recording engineers from Germany and Norway. Some of them, like

Martin Wieland Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Aus ...

and

Jan Erik Kongshaug Jan Erik Kongshaug (4 July 1944 – 5 November 2019) was a Norwegian sound engineer, jazz guitarist, and composer. Career Kongshaug was born in Trondheim, the son of guitarist John Kongshaug. Store Norske Leksikon (in Norwegian) During his ch ...

had already worked with Manfred Eicher at ECM Records, which was one of Germany's most progressive jazz record labels at the time and had musicians like

Jan Garbarek Jan Garbarek () (born 4 March 1947) is a Norwegian jazz saxophonist, who is also active in classical music and world music. Garbarek was born in Mysen, Østfold, southeastern Norway, the only child of a former Polish prisoner of war, Czesła ...

Dave Holland David “Dave” Holland (born 1 October 1946) is an English jazz double bassist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States for over 40 years. His extensive discography r ...

Chick Corea Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American jazz composer, pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba", and " ...

, and Keith Jarrett on its roster.

Legacy

Most of the JAPO catalogue was originally released on LP and many of the titles have yet to be re-issued on CD or any other format, although reissues have been seen as recently as 2006.

External links

* JAPO Records discograph

References

{{Authority control German record labels Jazz record labels Record labels established in 1970 IFPI members