Little Labels--Big Sound: Small Record Companies and the Rise of American Music [Hardcover]

Rick Kennedy (Author), Randy McNutt (Author), Rick Kennedy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1999

'There would be no record business as we know it without the passion of these pioneers. Today's leaders and label heads pale in comparison to these legendary giants. Show me a man today who could stand up to a Syd Nathan or a Don Robey, and I'll show you a man behind bars - not behind a desk. Why, without Sam Phillips, the founder of Sun Records and the man who unearthed Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Rufus Thomas, and Howling Wolf to name but a few, there might not even have been any rock 'n' roll, electric blues, or rockabilly music' - Al Kooper, from the Foreword.From the 1920s through the 1960s, scores of small, independent record companies nurtured distinctly American music: jazz, blues, gospel, country, rhythm and blues, and the 1950s offspring of R&B, rock n' roll. Operated by families or individuals, often on the fringe of mainstream culture, these labels fostered America's musical voice by discovering original artists who would become giants of popular culture. "Little Labels - Big Sound" profiles ten such companies. Louis Armstrong, Hank Williams, James Brown, Roy Orbison, and other musicians, black and white, brought regional American styles to a world audience and won enduring fame for themselves.But often forgotten are the colorful owners of small record labels who first recorded these musicians and helped to popularize their sound before the dominant, more bureaucratic competitors knew what had happened. And yet, so many of these small labels crashed and burned almost as fast as they rose. Sometimes, their owners were visionaries. Ross Russell, a record-store owner in Los Angeles in the mid-1940s, risked his last dollar to create Dial Records because he was convinced that an obscure jazz saxophonist named Charlie Parker was creating a music revolution with his bebop jazz.Because Sam Phillips of Sun Records in Memphis recorded white country and black R&B singers in the early 1950s, he knew exactly what he was looking for when a shy, teenaged Elvis Presley walked into his storefront studio in 1954 and asked to make a record. Other owners had little appreciation for the music but were street-smart entrepreneurs. The white-owned 'race' labels of the 1920s, for example, recognized in black consumers a market that had been ignored by the major companies that dominated the recording business. Some small record companies have been extensions of a nightclub, record store, or booking agency. Influencing the development of music wasn't what these record label owners had in mind: they were trying to earn a living. While most of these record labels are long gone, the music that they produced on primitive equipment remains fresh - and bigger than life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Beginning with Henry Gennett, whose modest Midwestern record company, a piano dealership spinoff, helped launch the careers of jazz immortals King Oliver and Louis Armstrong, Kennedy (Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy) and McNutt (We Wanna Boogie) tell how 10 independent record labels shaped the course of American popular music. Predictably, Sam Phillipss Sun Records, perhaps the most celebrated little label in music history, merits a chapter. More interesting, though, are profiles of less familiar independents such as Don Robeys gospel-oriented Peacock Records and John Vincents pioneering rhythm-and-blues label, Ace. The authors skillfully lay out the complex racial politics of their story, showing, for example, how a shared interest in profits and fresh sounds could bring together personalities as diverse as Soul Brother Number One, James Brown, and Syd Nathan, the feisty Jewish entrepreneur whose Cincinnati-based King Records made Brown a million-seller. The book includes scores of fascinating label-artist dramas, some well known (Dial and Charlie Parker; Riverside and Thelonious Monk), others long forgotten (Peacock and white soul singer Roy Head; Sun and rockabilly visionary Billy Lee Riley). An invaluable guide to the businesspeople, musicians and hangers-on who transformed regional musical styles into a national soundtrack, this book belongs on the same shelf as Peter Guralnicks Sweet Soul Music and Alan Lomaxs The Land Where the Blues Began. B&w photos.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

One of the enduring legends of the music business is the record company honcho, huge cigar clenched in his teeth, signing the naive country boy to a one-sided contract. The problem with this cliche is that usually a small, independent label has been the company out there beating the bushes for new talent and fresh trends. No label exemplifies this better than Chess Records. When Chess released a record in 1950 by an unknown (to white audiences anyway) blues singer named Muddy Waters, an empire was born, built on the foundation of blues and later rock'n'roll. Some of the greatest names in both genres recorded for Chess, from Howlin' Wolf to Chuck Berry to Bo Diddley to Buddy Guy. But along with the musical success came the almost inevitable charges of withholding royalties from artists. Freelancer Collis includes a liberal sprinkling of vintage photos to break up a sometimes overwhelming catalog of artists and hits. Chess was not the only trailblazing record label; in Little Labels?Big Sound we get a rundown of ten of the best, featuring such labels as Dial Records, instrumental in starting the bebop revolution with Charlie Parker, and Sun Records, which jump-started rock'n'roll by recording Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins. Journalists Kennedy and McNutt have produced an extensively researched look at a time when primitive recording equipment was the standard and hunger for a quick buck was the rule. A guide to reissue anthologies for each of the labels covered is an added treat. Both books are recommended for music libraries.?Dan Bogey, Clearfield Cty. P.L. Federation, Curwensville, PA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 183 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press; First Edition edition (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253335485
• ISBN-13: 978-0253335487
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,091,143 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Little labels played a huge role in the evolution of Amercian popular music, July 6, 2005

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Paul Tognetti "The real world is so much more... (Cranston, RI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Little Labels--Big Sound: Small Record Companies and the Rise of American Music (Hardcover)

O how the landscape has changed! Fifty years ago there were literally hundreds of independent record labels operating in cities and towns all across the USA. Many of these companies were fly by night operations that lasted for only a short period of time. Some managed to stick around long enough to have a hit record or two before disappearing from the scene forever. But, a fair number of these independent labels were quite successful and would leave an indelible mark on American popular music. This is what "Little Labels-Big Sound" is all about.
Whether you are a fan of the blues, rock and roll, R & B, group harmony or jazz, there is little doubt that these "little labels" made a significant contribution to the development of your kind of music. Authors Rick Kennedy and Randy McNutt have focused on 10 of these important independent labels. It is a very readable and highly entertaining book that both record collectors and history buffs are sure to enjoy.

Hoagy Carmicheal and Louis Armstrong spent their formative years in the 1920's at Gennett Records, a small indie based in Richmond, In. When a young and dynamic James Brown audtioned for King Records in the mid 1950's, label owner Syd Nathan remarked "Nobody wants to hear that noise." History would indeed prove him wrong. Most critics agree that jazz legend Charlie Parker made his finest recordings at Ross Russell's Dial records. "Little Labels-Big Sound" tells the story of how Charlie Parker wound up at Dial. There are also chapters devoted to seven other notable indies including Sun, Riverside, Monument and Duke-Peacock. I enjoyed reading about them all.

Today, a few major conglomerates dominate the music business. There is little for most of us to get excited about. "Little Labels-Big Sound" fondly recalls that time in America when small record labels flourished and creativity thrived. It is worth remembering. Recommended.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific book. Will be in print for years., October 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Little Labels--Big Sound: Small Record Companies and the Rise of American Music (Hardcover)

This book tells what it was like to operate a small record label in the heyday of indie recording.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Little Labels, Big Impact, October 20, 2005

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Cherie (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Little Labels -Big Sound: Small Record Companies and the Rise of American Music (Paperback)

I bought this book after buying Mr. McNutt's "Too Hot to Handle," a thoroughly researched and fascinating book designed like a fanzine for we small-time studio fanatics. "Little Labels" did not disappoint. Like his other book, this one has many, many interviews with the label owners, engineers, and musicians. Very few writers today take the time to go to the scene and interview the people who were involved. I appreciate this book so much because Mr. McNutt and Mr. Kennedy do take the time to find the people who made the sounds. I didn't grow up on this music, but I have learned to love it. Give it five stars!