Jazz Man Records was an American record company and

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- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

devoted to traditional New Orleans-style jazz. David Stuart ''(né'' David Ashford Stuart; 1910–1984) founded the label in 1941 and sold it to Marili Morden and

Nesuhi Ertegun Nesuhi Ertegun (Turkish spelling: Nesuhi Ertegün; November 26, 1917 – July 15, 1989) was a Turkish-American record producer and executive of Atlantic Records and WEA International. Early life Born in Istanbul in the Ottoman Empire, Nesuhi ...

. The label and its namesake – Jazz Man Record Shop, in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

– were in the vanguard of an international revival of traditional jazz in the 1940s.

History

Jazz Man Records was founded in 1941 by David Stuart, owner of the Jazz Man Record Shop in Hollywood, California. The label was an offshoot of the shop, established in 1939 as the only shop on the West Coast that specialized in used

78s A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts near ...

for jazz collectors. Stuart was a purist who felt that traditional New Orleans jazz was the real jazz. He preserved and promoted the traditional jazz music that had fallen out of favor in the late 1920s, and regarded the

swing music Swing music is a style of jazz that developed in the United States during the late 1920s and early 1930s. It became nationally popular from the mid-1930s. The name derived from its emphasis on the off-beat, or nominally weaker beat. Swing bands ...

that had eclipsed it with contempt. Stuart modeled Jazz Man Records after

Commodore Records Commodore Records was an American independent record label known for producing Dixieland jazz and swing. It is also remembered for releasing Billie Holiday's hit "Strange Fruit". History Commodore Records was founded in the spring of 1938 by Mil ...

, whose issues were released by a comparable record shop operating in Manhattan from 1938. He adopted its style of printing the names and instrumentation of the personnel on the label. The label also bore the address of the Jazz Man Record Shop, the exclusive sales outlet. Lester Koenig and Stuart produced the first recordings by

Lu Watters Lucius Carl Watters (December 19, 1911 – November 5, 1989) was a trumpeter and bandleader of the Yerba Buena Jazz Band. Jazz critic Leonard Feather said, “The Yerba Buena band was perhaps the most vital factor in the reawakening of public int ...

Yerba Buena Jazz Band Lu Watters & the Yerba Buena Jazz Band is the name of an American traditional jazz revival band founded by Lu Watters in 1940. Yerba Buena was the original name of San Francisco, California. Notable members included singer and banjoist Clancy Haye ...

December 19–20, 1941.Ginell, Cary, ''Hot Jazz for Sale: Hollywood's Jazz Man Record Shop''.

Lulu.com Lulu Press, Inc., doing business under trade name Lulu, is an online print-on-demand, self-publishing, and distribution platform. By 2014, it had issued approximately two million titles. The company's founder is Red Hat co-founder Bob Young. Lu ...

: Cary Ginell, 2010 A second recording session with the Watters band was produced in March 1942. In June 1942, Stuart produced a historic recording session in New Orleans with

Bunk Johnson Willie Gary "Bunk" Johnson (December 27, 1879 – July 7, 1949) was an American prominent jazz trumpeter in New Orleans. Johnson gave the year of his birth as 1879, although there is speculation that he may have been younger by as much as a dec ...

, putting together a group he called Bunk Johnson's Original Superior Band. In December 1942, Jazz Man Records issued four unreleased sides by

Jelly Roll Morton Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (later Morton; c. September 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer. Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a ge ...

, recorded in 1938, in partnership with

. Ertegun had acquired the solo piano recordings, made in Washington, D.C., while Morton was being interviewed by

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, s ...

, from a private collection in 1941. Ertegun purchased Jazz Man Records from David Stuart in late 1946. In January 1947, Jazz Man record labels were redesigned and a dark green color, matching that of

Crescent Records Crescent Records was an American independent record label that produced jazz recordings from 1944 to 1946. It was founded by Nesuhi Ertegun to record a band that was assembled to perform on CBS Radio's 1944 variety series '' The Orson Welles Alman ...

. Ertegun retired the Crescent label. On January 15, 1952, Jazz Man Records sold its masters to Lester Koenig's

Good Time Jazz Records Good Time Jazz Records was an American jazz record company and label. It was founded in 1949 by Lester Koenig to record the Firehouse Five Plus Two and earned a reputation for Dixieland jazz. The label produced new releases and reissues, incl ...

for $5,500. Recordings were produced on the Jazz Man label through 1954. The last was an album by

Joe Venuti Giuseppe "Joe" Venuti (September 16, 1903 – August 14, 1978) was an American jazz musician and pioneer jazz violinist. Considered the father of jazz violin, he pioneered the use of string instruments in jazz along with the guitarist Eddie ...

and Tony Romano (Jazz Man LP LJ-336), recorded in October 1954 and released the following month.

Select discography

The Jazz Man Records discography is available online from the Jazz Discography Project and is further detailed in Cary Ginell's 2010 book, ''Hot Jazz for Sale: Hollywood's Jazz Man Record Shop''.

References

External links

6. Marili Morden: "This is the real jazz"
at

Gene Deitch Eugene Merril Deitch (August 8, 1924 – April 16, 2020) was an American illustrator, animator, comics artist, and film director who was based in Prague from the 1960s until his death in 2020. Deitch was known for creating animated cartoo ...

, ''Roll the Credits!'' (archived at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music ...

)
1939 Jazz Man Record Shop
at The Kid Ory Archive {{Authority control Record labels established in 1941 American independent record labels Defunct record labels of the United States Jazz record labels

History

Select discography

See also

References

External links