Record Label Profile

Calligram Records: Chicago Meets the World

by Mark McKergow
June 23, 2026

Chicago-based Calligram Records was founded in 2023 by trumpeter Chad McCullough and saxophonist Geof Bradfield. Three years and 34 albums later, they have emerged as an authoritative and varied voice for creative jazz from the Windy City and around the world. Their output ranges from small groups to chamber jazz to lively, horn-driven soul outings. With third anniversary celebration events coming up, it seems like a good time to look behind the scenes of this small yet distinctive label.

Nkomo Records: Protest and Poetry

by AAJ Staff
June 20, 2026

This article was first published on All About Jazz on January 10, 2004. Keyboard player Mike Perry shares the management of Nkomo Records, an independent South African jazz label, with saxophonist Winston Mankunku. The two musicians met in Cape Town in 1976. After gigging together in the early '80s, they joined forces to create Nkomo Records as a means to release independent music without the heavy-handed control of a major label. This is the story of ...

Ogun Recordings: Small Is Beautiful

by Duncan Heining
April 5, 2026

In 2023, Ogun Recordings celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, making it the longest living independent British jazz label. It was a huge achievement for an undertaking that was begun somewhat reluctantly by its co-creators ex-pat South African bassist Harry Miller, his partner Hazel and recording engineer Keith Beal and was run out of the Miller's home in North London. As Hazel Miller notes on the label's site, “Harry was working with several bands and a friend had ...

GleAM Records: Italian Passion And Dedication

by Neil Duggan
March 11, 2026

Founded in 2017 by musician and producer Angelo Mastronardi, GleAM Records is an independent Italian label and music publisher based near Lecce. What began as a jazz-focused venture has since expanded to embrace a broad spectrum of recordings, from new artists and modern post-bop to experimental jazz and live sessions. Archival reissues and unreleased tape also form a major part of the label's framework, beginning in 2023 with the audio restoration and remastering of Modern Art Trio by Franco D'Andrea ...

The Blues Period: The First Decade of Nola Blue Records, 2014-2024

by Scott Gudell
May 4, 2024

Start with a degree in Business Administration and Management and you might just wind up running and owning a record company. Sounds like a long shot but that's what happened to Sallie Bengtson in 2014 when her passion for all things blues--especially if it has something to do with New Orleans--inspired her to visit the city. “It started with the atmosphere--it's a gumbo of the architecture, the food, the music and the spirit. “It's 'my' place" she recalled during a ...

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The Mosaic Records Story

by Michael Cuscuna
April 22, 2024

In memory of Mosaic Records co-founder Michael Cuscuna (1948-2024). Although Mosaic Records' first release came out in July of 1983, the seeds for the business were planted in 1970. As a journalist, radio show host and record producer, I began coming into contact with many musicians who had been major players in Blue Note's repertory company. Since Blue Note had always been my favorite label for its consistent quality, conversations would ultimately drift to those great days of ...

Edition Records: A Guide To The First Fifteen Years

by Ian Patterson
April 25, 2023

Edition Records celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2023. The label founded in Cardiff in 2008 by keyboardist Dave Stapleton has come a long way in that time. Initially conceived of as a means to release his own music and that of his friends, Edition Records went from being a cottage industry to a position as one of hottest European jazz labels in just a few short years. Since 2014, when Stapleton signed tenor saxophonist Chris Potter to the ...

Rhythm And Blues Records: Small But Perfectly Formed

by Duncan Heining
November 10, 2022

Back in 2007, music fan Nick Duckett walked into a record shop hoping to buy a comprehensive history of rhythm and blues on CD. To his surprise, the owner told him no such set existed at the time. Having a bit of time on his hands, Duckett thought to himself, “Well, there bloody ought to be?" From that small acorn, the oak that would become Rhythm and Blues Records took root. The Middlesex-based UK label now boasts some ...

We Jazz Records: Finland's indie label shaking up the global conversation

by Rob Garratt
September 15, 2022

The past decade's genre-bending jazz renaissance has been well-documented, but between the trailblazing players taking improvised music to increasingly hip places, and the ever-growing audience queuing up to hear them, sits the homegrown labels bottling these brave, thrilling (r)evolutions for all to hear. In conversations about the state of jazz today, it's often easier to distil the music's disparate scenes and sounds by referring to the labels who document them, instead of the musicians who play it. And it's not ...

Jazz World Records: From Hong Kong with Love

by Rob Garratt
July 14, 2022

"I've had plenty of labels in the past--three or four, I can't remember--and I always swore I'd never do it again," begins Clarence Chang as he sits down to lunch. And yet here we are, chewing linguine and discussing the label he just founded, Jazz World Records. “The only true jazz label in HK" proudly claims the new venture's online bio. If creating an indie imprint of any kind is a distinctly brave proposition in 2022, then ...