Prestige Records

Prestige Records is a 1950 founded by Bob Weinstock record label.

It grew out of the New Jazz label. The catalog of the labels included classic jazz musicians such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk and others. Vine campaigned for an authentic sound of artists and encouraged them to go without rehearsals to the recording studio.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the recording engineer Rudy Van worked funds together with the label and in the early '50s produced the jazz critic Ira Gitler occasionally albums. 1958 Prestige Records began to shape his musical program varied and used the former New Jazz label again, and brought out albums of talented musicians out. Two sub-labels Swingville and Moodsville were created, but were only briefly active. Their recordings were self-released back in the 1960s on Prestige Records. A more durable sublabel called Bluesville.

Without samples vine could produce faster, about 75 albums per year. Another characteristic vine was to reuse tapes and failed to publish, which explains why Prestige Records has so little alternate takes.

Some characteristics of the Prestige label were:

  • The albums consisted normally of five tracks ( three on the A-side, two on the B side) and took part significantly less than forty minutes.
  • The majority of the pieces consisted of standards, partly because the musicians no time was left to sample, on the other hand, because the rights of its prestige publications maintained, which is why many musicians decided to use their own material.
  • Sometimes the B- side contained a long Blues ( 10 to 15 minutes ) (eg on Saxophone Colossus by Sonny Rollins and Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane, as well as Shirley Scott Plays Horace Silver the Señor Blues ). Sometimes he was on the A- side (eg, Screamin 'for the Blues by Oliver Nelson, a rare example of a Prestige album, which consists exclusively of original material). On one of the first albums of the Modern Jazz Quartet (Modern Jazz Quartet First Recordings, PR 7749 ) on the other hand, the Two Bass Hit was recorded four times, each time with a different instrument. It was renamed La Ronde Suite. Vine allowed such an approach, if too little material was available to get the disk full

Weinstock had a good nose for talent and established many jazz careers (he had the debut album of John Coltrane as a leader, Two Tenors recorded) and produced other basic albums, including the already quoted Saxophone Colossus.

Must be mentioned the pre- Columbia recordings by Miles Davis ( the vine from 1951 to 1956 made ​​), which included the albums Cookin ', Relaxin', Workin ', and Steamin ', which showed the success of the quintet.

On the other hand, led the way to make only unrehearsed recordings, which allowed only mediocre albums, in addition, that few artists made their good shots during ihreres contract with Prestige.

In the 60s, Weinstock left the production work Chris Albertson, Ozzie Cadena, Esmond Edwards, Don carriage and other producers. Prestige Records had the pianist Jaki Byard, among others, and the tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin under contract. The artistic standard was still high, but the Prestige label was not as successful with his new recordings, as with the albums of Miles, Coltrane and Monk. The label survived with commercially successful soul-jazz artists such as Charles Earland, Richard " Groove" Holmes and Jack McDuff Brother.

In contrast to the Blue Note label prestige could pay the musicians no two-day samples. This is also seen as a reason that the productions in comparable ways, they had mostly the same musicians and studios, and claim failed to match the success of Blue Note.

1971 bought Fantasy Records label. The Prestige albums that were made ​​in the 1950s and 1960s jazz history, were published in the Original Jazz Classics series again.

Disco Graphical Notes

  • Sonny Stitt / Bud Powell / J.J. Johnson ( 1949)
  • Miles Davis / Horace Silver / J.J. Johnson / Lucky Johnson: Walkin ' (1954 )
  • Miles Davis / Milt Jackson: Bags' Groove (1954 )
  • Miles Davis / Milt Jackson / Thelonious Monk: Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants (1954 )
  • Miles Davis / John Coltrane: Relaxin 'with the Miles Davis Quintet (1956 )
  • John Coltrane: Soul Trane ( 1958)
Rudy Van Gelder Columbia Records Blue Note Records Soultrane Coleman Hawkins Red Garland
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