Leo Records is a British record company and

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product. Labels are most often affixed to packaging and containers using an adhesive, or sewing when affix ...

, founded in 1979, which releases

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 ...

from Russian, American and British musicians. It concentrates on

free jazz Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...

. This label is different from the Leo Records that was formed by

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 1970s ...

in Helsinki, Finland, in 1978.

History

Leo Records was founded in 1979 by Leo Feigin (also known under his broadcasting name Aleksei Leonidov), a Russian immigrant to Britain. The label was particularly associated with establishing the world reputation of the Ganelin Trio during the 1970s and 1980s. In its first ten years, releases from Leo included albums by musicians from the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

such as

Sergey Kuryokhin Sergey Anatolyevich Kuryokhin (16 June 19549 July 1996, nicknamed The Captain) was a Russian composer, pianist, music director, experimental artist, film actor and writer, based in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was an influential fig ...

Sainkho Namtchylak Sainkho Namtchylak (, , born 1957) is a singer originally from Tuva, an autonomous republic in the Russian Federation just north of Mongolia. She has been resident in Vienna, Austria since 1991. She is known for her Tuvan throat singing (khöö ...

and

Valentina Ponomaryova Valentina Leonidovna Ponomaryova (; []; 18 September 1933 – 8 November 2023), was a Soviet Russian cosmonaut, pilot and scientist. Biography Ponomaryova left the school for girls No. 156 in Moscow with a gold medal in 1951. She graduated f ...

. By the end of 1986, Leo had released more than 20 albums by musicians from Communist countries, including the Soviet Union. In 1987, a ''

DownBeat ''DownBeat'' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm that it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1 ...

'' reviewer commented that Leo had been "the main conduit for the Soviet avant garde's recorded output anywhere, East or West." Leo's promotion of Soviet jazz musicians helped secure concerts for some of them spread over a week at the 1989 Zurich jazz festival; recordings from the concerts were released as ''Conspiracy: Soviet Jazz Festival, Zurich 1989''. By the mid-1990s, Leo had introduced the Leo Lab series, "as an imprint for emerging and unknown artists". Leo has released more than 50 recordings by saxophonist

Ivo Perelman Ivo Perelman (born January 12, 1961) is a Brazilian free jazz saxophonist born in São Paulo. Career In his youth, Perelman learned to play guitar, cello, clarinet, trombone, and piano, concentrating on tenor sax since age 19. He attended the Be ...

. By 2019, Feigin had ceased being actively involved in production, instead concentrating on "handling administrative tasks while the musicians themselves record and design artwork." In 2024, he reached an agreement with Phil Freeman, a writer and owner of a record label, to make some of Leo's back catalogue available via

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

Noted artists

* Aardvark Jazz Orchestra *

Art Ensemble of Chicago The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an avant-garde jazz group that grew out of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, AACM) in the late 1960s. The ensemble integrates many jaz ...

Anthony Braxton Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American experimental composer, educator, music theorist, improviser and multi-instrumentalist who is best known for playing saxophones, particularly the alto. Braxton grew up on the South Side of Chi ...

John Wolf Brennan John Wolf Brennan (born 13 February 1954) is an Irish pianist, organist, melodica player, and composer based in Weggis, Switzerland. Career Brennan was born in Dublin, Ireland. His family moved to Switzerland when he was seven years old. He b ...

Jaki Byard John Arthur "Jaki" Byard (; June 15, 1922 – February 11, 1999) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and arranger. Mainly a pianist, he also played tenor and alto saxophones, among several other instruments. He was known for h ...

* Eugenio Colombo *

Marilyn Crispell Marilyn Crispell (born March 30, 1947) is an American jazz pianist and composer. Scott Yanow described her as "a powerful player... who has her own way of using space... She is near the top of her field." Jon Pareles of ''The New York Times'' ...

Carlo Actis Dato Carlo Actis Dato (born March 21, 1952, in Turin) is an Italian jazz saxophonist and composer. His Actis quartet toured worldwide in the 1990s.Stefano Zenni, "Carlo Actis Dato". '' the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz''. 2nd edition, ed. Barry Kernfel ...

* Patrick Defossez *

Joe Fonda Joe Fonda (born December 16, 1954) is an American 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, Eu ...

Satoko Fujii is a Japanese avant-garde jazz pianist, accordionist and composer. Early life Fujii was born in Tokyo on 9 October 1958.Huey, Stev"Satoko Fujii" AllMusic. Retrieved 9 February 2016. She started playing the piano at age 4, receiving classical tr ...

Vyacheslav Ganelin Vyacheslav (Slava) Ganelin (, , ; born 17 December 1944) is a Lithuanian– Israeli jazz pianist, composer, and pedagogue. Primarily a pianist, he also plays other keyboards (organ and synthesizer) as well as bass, guitar, and percussions. He w ...

/Ganelin Trio *

Katsuyuki Itakura , nicknamed Katsu, is a Japanese free jazz pianist. He made his debut in 1962 and has made ten recordings. He has performed throughout Japan, as well as in the United States and in Europe. In 1995 he performed in London for the 15th anniversary of L ...

Italian Instabile Orchestra The Italian Instabile Orchestra (IIO) is an eighteen piece experimental big band that performs orchestral jazz and avant-garde jazz. Its members include Alberto Mandarini, Bruno Tommaso, Carlo Actis Dato, Daniele Cavallanti, Eugenio Colombo, G ...

Joëlle Léandre Joëlle Léandre (born 12 September 1951) is a French double bassist, vocalist, and composer active in new music and free improvisation. In the field of contemporary music, she has performed with Pierre Boulez's Ensemble InterContemporain, and ...

* Keshavan Maslak *

Phil Minton Phil Minton (born 2 November 1940) is a British avant-garde jazz/ free-improvising vocalist and trumpeter. Minton is a highly dramatic baritone who tends to specialize in literary texts: he has sung lyrics by William Blake with Mike Westbrook' ...

Amina Claudine Myers Amina Claudine Myers (born March 21, 1942) is an American jazz pianist, organist, vocalist, composer, and arranger. Biography Born in Blackwell, Arkansas, "Myers was brought up largely by her great-aunt, a schoolteacher, and her great-uncle, a c ...

* Joe Morris *

Don Moye Donald Moye, Jr. (born May 23, 1946), known as Famoudou Don Moye, is an American jazz percussionist and drummer. He is most known for his involvement with the Art Ensemble of Chicago and is noted for his mastery of African and Caribbean percuss ...

Simon Nabatov Simon Nabatov (born 11 January 1959) is a Russian-American jazz pianist. Early life Nabatov was born in Moscow on 11 January 1959. His parents were Leon, a professional pianist and choir conductor who was a native of Belarus, and Regina. Nabatov ...

Mark Nauseef Mark Nauseef (born June 11, 1953) is an American drummer and percussionist who has enjoyed a varied career, ranging from rock music during the 1970s with his time as a member of the Ian Gillan Band and, temporarily with Thin Lizzy when Brian D ...

Maggie Nicols Maggie Nicols (or Nichols, as she originally spelled her name as a performer) (born 24 February 1948), is a Scottish free-jazz and improvising vocalist, dancer, and performer. Early life and career Nicols was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, as M ...

Evan Parker Evan Shaw Parker (born 5 April 1944) is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation. Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free ja ...

* Umberto Petrin *

Sun Ra Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific ou ...

Ned Rothenberg Ned Rothenberg (born September 15, 1956) is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer. He specializes in woodwind instruments, including the alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, and shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute). He is known ...

Wadada Leo Smith Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith (born December 18, 1941) is an American trumpeter and composer, working primarily in the field of creative music. He was one of three finalists for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music for ''Ten Freedom Summers'', released on ...

* Miroslav Tadić *

Aki Takase (born January 26, 1948) is a Japanese jazz pianist and composer. Biography Takase was born in Osaka and started to play piano at age 3. Raised in Tokyo, she studied classical piano at Toho Gakuen School of Music.Ankeny, Jaso"Artist Biography". ...

Cecil Taylor Cecil Percival Taylor (March 25, 1929April 5, 2018) was an American pianist and poet. Taylor was classically trained and was one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an energetic, physical approach, resulting in comple ...

* Gebhard Ullmann *

Matthew Welch Matthew Welch (born 1976) is an American bagpiper and composer. Welch took a bachelor's in music at Simon Fraser University in Canada and then enrolled at Wesleyan University, where he studied under Anthony Braxton and Alvin Lucier. He has releas ...

Reggie Workman Reginald "Reggie" Workman (born June 26, 1937) is an American avant-garde jazz and hard bop double bassist, recognized for his work with both John Coltrane and Art Blakey, in addition to Alice Coltrane, Mal Waldron, Max Roach, Archie Shepp, Tri ...

* Yuri Yukechev

References

External links

Leo Records website
{{Authority control British jazz record labels

History

Noted artists

References

Further reading

External links