Label Guide: EmArcy
EmArcy Records was founded in 1954 byMercury Records founder and president Irving Green and producer Bob Shad as the jazz subsidiary label for Mercury. The name is a phonetic spelling of "MRC", the initials for Mercury Record Company.
With musicians such as Max Roach, Clifford Brown, Cannonball Adderley and Erroll Garner, the new label quickly evolved into a direct competitor forVerve Records, the leading jazz label of the time. Jack Tracey replaced Bob Shad in 1958 and introduced a new and very successful jazz/pop cross-over sound with singers as Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan.
When Mercury and its subsidiaries were sold toPhilips in 1962, EmArcy Records became dormant for more than two decades. It was briefly relaunched in the late 1980s by the French jazz-subdivision of Polygram with a few albums by Stan Getz, Randy Weston or Helen Merrill. A second relaunch happened in 1996 with a focus on new European jazz artists. Today, EmArcy is part ofDecca Records with Universal Music Group.
