THE RECORD LABELS

"THE INDIES"

One of the unique aspects in the development of R&B is that it wasn't the major record labels, such as Decca, Capitol or Columbia that would feed the voracious appetites of the record buying public looking for R&B records.  Instead, it was the "Independant" record companies that produced the vast majority of  R&B material.  

In reality, they were typically no more than a one man, one room operation trying to make a quick buck.  They were also the springboard of fame or fortune, real or imagined for thousands of R&B / R&R artists.   

The first small "Indie" labels such as Exclusive, Beacon and Keynote sprang up in the 1930's and early 1940's.  Interestingly, the first company, Exclusive, was founded by two black brothers from New Orleans, Otis and Leon Rene.  It appears that they founded Exclusive as a vehicle to produce songs that they had written.  The Rene brothers would become mainstays in the "golden" years of  R&B with their later company, Class records.

Joe Davis launched Beacon records in 1942 and developed new black artists like Una Mae Carlisle, The Five Red Caps and Savannah Churchill.  

Between 1942 and 1944, four other East Coast R&B labels set up shop.  Herman Lubinsky opened his Savoy records in Newark, NJ.   The Braun family opened DeLuxe records in nearby Linden, NJ.   Over in NYC, three partners, Hy Seigal, Ike Berman and Sam Schneider opened Apollo records (it had no connection to the famed Harlem Apollo Theatre).   Last but probably the most important pioneering R&B label was National.

National records was a Manhattan based company founded by A.B.Green.  However, the driving force behind National was it's A&R man Herb Abramson who would later co-found Atlantic records with Ahmet Ertegun.

Syd Nathan set up a record company in an abandoned ice house in Cincinnati and called it King records.  Nathan was a shrewd businessman who would build one of the most significant independant R&B labels in the country.  He ultimately would be able to record, press and produce finished disks in his own plant unlike most of his competitors who had to pay pressing plants.   He would later add the Federal to his enterprise and the King / Federal complex was hard to beat in the 1950's with artists such as the Dominoe's, Checkers, Swallows, Five Royales, Royals, Midnighters, Hurricanes, Five Keys, Otis Williams, James Brown and Falmes and many, many others.  It was the royalty of R&B.  

Chess records was another small independant company that began in a Chicago storefront and rose to prominance in the music industry.   The original label was called Aristocrat and was launched in 1946 by Leonard and Phil Chess.   The more familiar blue and white  label with the chessboard image first appeared in June of 1950 to introduce Chess records.   Initially, the Chess brothers concentrated on recording blues singers and Chicago was chock full of those performers.   Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Willie Mabon, Willie Dixon and other blues legends found a recording home at Chess.

Another legendary Chicago independant label was Vee-Jay records.   It appeared for a while that Vee-Jay was on track to become the fist major black owned company but that honor would go to Motown some years later.  Vee-Jay was founded in 1952 by Vivian Carter Bracken, husband James Bracken and her brother Calvin Carter.   Their initial release was "Baby It's You" by the Spaniels and the rest is history.   They would also build quite an impressive "who's who of R&B artists" in the 1950's and early 1960's, such as the El Dorados, Dells, Impressions and Gladys Knight for a brief spell.  

Atlantic records started as a small independant label in 1947.  Ahmet Ertegun borrowed $500 from a family friend and rented a small office in Manhattan.  One end of the room had a beat-up desk to conduct business and the other end was a rudimentary "recording studio". Under the leadership of Ertegun, along with Herb Abromson and the musical genius of Jerry Wexler, Atlantic would go to become one of the largest and most profitable record companies in the world.    

New York City probably holds the record for the number of independant record company's that sprang up in the 1950's.   There really were groups singing on almost every corner and entrepeneur's like George Goldner (Tico, Roulette, Gee, Gone), Hy Weiss (Old Town), Al Silver (Herald), Monte Bruce (Bruce), Bobby Robinson (Fury, Whirlin' Disc) and others saw $$$ dollar signs floating over the heads of those groups.   It's said that Goldner prowled the streets of Harlem and the Spanish sections of Brooklyn in search of amateur Puerto Rican and Black groups.  

Philadelpia also had it's share of now legendary 'Indie" labels such as Grand, Gotham, Jamie, Cameo and Parkway. There were many others scattered across the country that made their contributions to R&B.

Most of these companies are long gone.  The men who built them from literally nothing but a strong will to succeed are also gone with a few exceptions, such as Bobby Robinson in Harlem who is still making records today.  Over the years some of these labels have taken on mythic proportions in the minds of present day record collector's and fans of R&B music.   The love of this music has put a "golden glitter" around the memories of these ramshackle, dingy, frontstore operations and the men that ram them.   In a large measure, the "Indies" were responsible for bringing this music to the American public.  If you love R&B music, you owe them a nod of gratitude.  Whether or not they were honorable men in how they treated their artists is another story.  The next time you look at one of those little round plastic discs you might just stop a moment and think about what really went into producing that record.  The music lives on today because these "Indie" record owners took a chance and tapped into the music of the urban ghettos and produced those wonderful little platsic discs playing R&B.

THE RECORD COMPANIES   

"LARGE AND SMALL"

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