Mountain Records is a

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

started in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

in 1980 by Patrick Lee-Thorp. The record label produces mostly South African music and is known as the home of

Cape Jazz Cape jazz is a genre of jazz that is performed in the very southern part of Africa, the name being a reference to Cape Town, South Africa. Some writers say that Cape jazz began to emerge in 1959 with the formation of The Jazz Epistles, many of w ...

recordings, having issued a number of albums by such names as

Basil Coetzee Basil "Manenberg" Coetzee (2 February 1944 – 11 March 1998) was a South African musician, perhaps best known as a saxophonist. Biography Coetzee was born in District Six, Cape Town, South Africa. Mountain Records describes Coetzee thus: His d ...

, Robbie Jansen,

Jonathan Butler Jonathan Kenneth Butler (born 10 October 1961) is a South African singer-songwriter and guitarist. His music is often classified as R&B, jazz fusion or worship music. Biography Born and raised in Athlone, Cape Town, South Africa, during apa ...

, Tony Schilder and others. In the early years of the label's existence, a certain amount of commercial success was garnered from releases by such artists as David Kramer, Robin Auld and later the neo-traditional African band

Amampondo Amampondo is a South African percussion ensemble that was started by Dizu Plaatjies in Langa, Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Pa ...

. This success was partly due to the label's involvement in the live presentation of these artists. From the label's outset through to the early 1990s, the state-owned radio and TV media,

SABC The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations (Amplitude modulation, AM/Frequency modulation, FM) as well as 6 television broadcasts and 3 OTT Services to the general ...

, restricted their stations from playing certain music by Kramer, Edi Niederlander, Coenie de Villiers and others because of the critical text in the songs by these performers on records released by Mountain Records. From 1996, the label set up a European base, with an office in Hamburg, Germany. The label continued to market their own artists but also facilitated the release or distribution of non-label South African acts such as

Brenda Fassie Brenda Nokuzola Fassie (3 November 1964 – 9 May 2004) was a South African singer, songwriter, dancer and activist. Affectionately called MaBrrr by her fans, she is also known as the "Queen of African Pop" or the "Madonna of The Townships." Fas ...

Philip Tabane Philip Tabane (25 March 1934 – 18 May 2018) was a South African musician, vocalist, jazz guitarist and band leader. He was born in rural Ga Ramotshegoa northeast of Pretoria into a family of guitarists. His mother was a spiritual healer. ...

and the Soul Brothers. The artists Tony Bird (Malawi/USA), Janvier Honfo (Benin) and Celso Fonseca (Brazil), all in some way connected by Africa and its music, were released on the label through the European offices. A sub-label, known as Sea Records, was launched in about 1989 to release jazz productions and several South African and German jazz ensembles had their music issued on this sister label. The label still maintained an office in Cape Town until 2022 after which all business was directed from Hamburg, Germany. Releases in the period 2000 to 2010 include a DVD of the original Amampondo line-up performing live, and the re-issue of a jazz album by saxophonist classic Morris Goldberg and the third part in the label's Cape Jazz series. Former Amampondo leader Dizu Plaatjies has three solo projects on the label. The second solo album by Plaatjies, entitled ''African Kings'', was launched in Paris and Cape Town in February and March 2009 respectively. The CDs were distributed by

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

and

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum ...

in southern Africa and New Music Distribution, Membran, Xango, Discovery and L'Autre, in Europe. Mountain Records have won numerous awards with their artists. These include Sarie Awards, Scotty Awards, SA Music Awards (ASAMI) and most recently the SAMA Awards for the aforementioned "African Kings" release in 2009 and Plaatjies' "Ubuntu" released in 2015. In the period after 2010 the label scaled back productions, as did many other labels, but continued a modest output which included re-issues of back catalogue in the digital sphere. A new CD album highlight included a special release of the label's jazz project from The Cape Jazz Band (CJB), led by veteran Cape based drummer, Jack Momple. The album entitled, ''Musical Democracy'' garnered high critical acclaim and revived the fortunes and moral of the label somewhat. In October 2015, Plaatjies released the aforementioned album, a collaboration with South African and French artists, once again produced by label owner, Lee-Thorp. It was released under the banner, Dizu Plaatjies and Friends entitled, ''Ubuntu - The Common String''. The album has attracted considerable media interest and entered the International World Music charts, where it stayed for four months climbing to position six. Following the 2013 CJB release a special solo piano jazz project was released in 2018. It is entitled, ''Cape Jazz Piano'' which features six of the big names in the genre performing some of the classic repertoire in Cape Jazz. The record included two relative newcomers to the genre, pianists Kyle Shepherd and Ramon Alexander. This world music Mountain label should not be confused with a British record label of the same name, believed to have been started by Bill Fehilly, manager of

Nazareth Nazareth is the largest Cities in Israel, city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. In its population was . Known as "the Arab capital of Israel", Nazareth serves as a cultural, political, religious, economic and ...

, who died in a plane crash in the Scottish Borders, near Moffat, in July 1976. Between 1975 and 1980, the UK label released material by Nazareth, the

Sensational Alex Harvey Band The Sensational Alex Harvey Band were a Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow in 1972. Fronted by Alex Harvey accompanied by Zal Cleminson on guitar, bassist Chris Glen, keyboard player Hugh McKenna (28 November 1949 – 18 December 2019) and ...

, Martyn Ford Orchestra and

Voyager Voyager may refer to: Computing and communications * LG Voyager, a mobile phone model manufactured by LG Electronics * NCR Voyager, a computer platform produced by NCR Corporation * Voyager (computer worm), a computer worm affecting Oracle ...

, and was distributed successively by

Phonogram Phonogram may refer to: * A sound recording – see Geneva Phonograms Convention * ''Phonogram'' (comics), a comic book by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie * Phonogram (linguistics), a grapheme which represents a phoneme or a combination of phon ...

and

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

. There is no evidence that it is associated with the aforementioned like named label. Internet searches in 2011 turned up numerous record labels incorporating "mountain" in their names. Interviewed in 2000, label management of the African company stated that they were not aware of the existence of the UK-based label until several years into business, by which time the name had established itself substantially in the

World Music "World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, Cross-cultural communication, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical ...

field, having appeared in African and European world music charts a number of times with Amampondo, Celso Fonseca,

(a compilation) and Jean Bosco Mwenda.

References

External links

Official website

Site updates
* {{Authority control South African record labels Cape Town culture Record labels established in 1980

See also

References

External links