Paramount Records was an American record label, best known for its recordings of African-American jazz and blues in the 1920s and early 1930s, including such artists as Ma Rainey and Blind Lemon Jefferson. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the In the Music industry, a record label can be a Brand and a Trademark associated with the Marketing of music recordings and Music African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa Jazz is an American Musical art form which originated in the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States The Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of Music based on the use of the Blue notes It emerged as an accessible form of self-expression The 1920s is sometimes referred to as the " Jazz Age " or the " Roaring Twenties " when speaking about the United States and Canada The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression. Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett Rainey, better known as Ma Rainey ( April 26, 1886 – December 22, 1939) was one of the earliest known "Blind" Lemon Jefferson ( September 24, 1893 or October 26, 1894 or July 1897 &ndash December 1929 was an influential
Paramount Records was founded in the 1910s as a subsidiary of the Wisconsin Chair Company of Port Washington, Wisconsin, Fred Dennett Key, director. The 1910s decade ran from January 1 1910 through December 31 1919 The Wisconsin Chair Company was a large factory that for over half a century was the main backbone of Port Washington Wisconsin. Port Washington is a city in and the County seat of Ozaukee County in the U [1] The chair company had made some wooden phonograph cabinets by contract for Edison Records. The phonograph, or gramophone, was the most common device for playing recorded Sound from the 1870s through the 1980s Edison Records was the first Record label, pioneering Recorded sound and an important player in the early Record industry. Wisconsin Chair decided to start making its own line of phonographs with a subsidiary called the "United Phonograph Corporation" at the end of 1915. Year 1915 ( MCMXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year It made phonographs under the "Vista" brand name through the end of the decade; the line failed commercially.
In 1918 a line of phonograph gramophone records was debuted with the "Paramount" label. Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common A gramophone They were recorded and pressed by Chair Company subsidiary "The New York Recording Laboratories, Incorporated", which despite its name was located in the same Wisconsin factory complex as the parent concern (advertisements, however, stated somewhat misleadingly, "Paramounts are recorded in our own New York laboratory").
In its initial years, the Paramount label fared only slightly better than the "Vista Phonograph" line. The product had little to distinguish itself. Paramount offered recordings of standard pop-music fare, on records recorded with below-average audio fidelity pressed in below-average quality shellac. Shellac is the commercial resin marketed in the form of amber flakes made from Lac, the secretion of the family of lac-producing insects though most commonly from the
In the early 1920s, Paramount was still racking up debts for the Chair Company while producing no net profit. Paramount began offering to press records for other companies at low prices.
The Paramount Record pressing plant was contracted to press discs for Black Swan Records. Black Swan Records was a United States Record label in the 1920s it was the first to be owned and operated by and marketed to African Americans When that later company floundered, Paramount bought out Black Swan and thus got into the business of making recordings by and for African-Americans. These so-called "race music" records became Paramount's most famous and lucrative business. African American music (also called black music) is an umbrella term given to a range of Music and Musical genres emerging from or influenced by the
Paramount's "race record" series was launched in 1922 with a few vaudeville blues songs by Lucille Hegamin and Alberta Hunter. Vaudeville was a Genre of variety entertainment prevalent on the stage in the United States and Canada, from the early 1880s Lucille Nelson Hegamin ( November 29, 1894 – 1 March, 1970) was a United States Singer and Entertainer, and Alberta Hunter ( April 1 1895 - October 17 1984) was an American Blues Singer, Songwriter, and It had a large mail-order operation that was a key to its early success. [1]
Most of Paramount's race music recordings were arranged by Black entrepreneur J. Mayo Williams. Jay Mayo "Ink" Williams (September 25 1894 - January 2 1980 was a pioneering African-American producer of recorded Blues music "Ink" Williams had no official position with Paramount, but was given wide latitude to bring African-American talent to Paramount recording studios and to market Paramount records to African-American consumers. Williams did not know at the time that the "race market" had become Paramount's prime business, and he was essentially keeping the label afloat.
Problems with low audio fidelity and poor pressings continued. Blind Lemon Jefferson's big 1926 hit, "Got the Blues" and "Long Lonesome Blues", had to be hurriedly rerecorded in the superior facilities of Marsh Laboratories and subsequent releases used that version; since both versions appear on compilation albums, they may be compared. "Blind" Lemon Jefferson ( September 24, 1893 or October 26, 1894 or July 1897 &ndash December 1929 was an influential Year 1926 ( MCMXXVI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
In 1927, Mayo Williams moved to competitor OKeh records, taking Blind Lemon Jefferson with him for just one recording, the now classic "Matchbox Blues". Okeh Records began as an Independent record label based in the United States of America in Paramount's recording of the same song can be compared with OKeh's on compilation albums, to Paramount's detriment.
The Great Depression drove many record companies out of business, and the initial incarnation of Paramount closed down in 1935. Year 1935 ( MCMXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
In 1942 the then-inactive Paramount Records company was purchased from Wisconsin Chair Company by John Steiner, who revived the label for reissues of important historical Paramount recordings as well as new recordings of jazz and blues. Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. John Steiner (born 7 January, 1941 in Chester) is an English actor In 1952, Steiner leased reissue rights to a newly-formed jazz label, Riverside Records, which reissued a substantial number of 10" and then 12" LPs by many of the blues singers in the Paramount catalog, as well as instrumental jazz by such Chicago-based notables as Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band (which included a very young Louis Armstrong), Johnny Dodds, Muggsy Spanier, and Meade Lux Lewis. Riverside remained active until 1964.
The rights to the portion of Paramount's back catalogue not yet in the public domain were next acquired by George H. The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone Buck in 1970. Buck continues to reissue Paramount recordings as part of his Jazzology Records group, but use of the name "Paramount Records" was purchased from Buck by Paramount Pictures, a previously unconnected company. Jazzology Records is a United States based Record label specializing in traditional Jazz. Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and Distribution company, based in Hollywood California.
As happened with a number of record companies in the Great Depression, the majority of Paramount's metal masters were sold for their scrap metal value. Scrap is a term used to describe Recyclable materials left over from every manner of product consumption such as parts of vehicles building supplies and surplus materials Some of the company's recordings were said to have been thrown into the Milwaukee River by disgruntled employees when the record company was closing down. The Milwaukee River is a River in the state of Wisconsin, about 75 miles (121 km long In 2006 an episode of PBS television show History Detectives had local divers searching the river to try to find Paramount masters and unsold 78's, but they were unsuccessful. The Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) is a Non-profit Public broadcasting Television service with 354 member TV stations in the History Detectives is a Television program on PBS. A group of researchers (listed on right help people to seek answers to various historical questions [2]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b Barlow, William. This is a list of notable Record labels Due to the large number of entries the list has been divided by the first character of the label's name See also Paramount Records was a Record label started in 1969 by Paramount Pictures (then a unit of Gulf+Western) after acquiring the rights to the name "Looking Up At Down": The Emergence of Blues Culture. Temple University Press (1989), p. 131. ISBN 0-87722-583-4.
- ^ Journal Sentinel article
External links
- ParamountsHome.org
- Online Paramount Discography at the Mills Music Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Paramount Album Discography mostly on later Paramount; has some of the label's history wrong
- Paramount 78 Rpm Records
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