| MPS Records | |
|---|---|
| Parent company | Edel AG |
| Founded | 1968 (1968) |
| Founder | Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer |
| Distributors | BASF, Metronome Music |
| Genre | Jazz |
| Country of origin | Germany |
| Location | Villingen-Schwenningen |
MPS Records is a Germanjazz record company and label founded in 1968 byHans Georg Brunner-Schwer. MPS stands for "Musik Produktion Schwarzwald" (Music Production Black Forest).[1]
Originally based inVillingen, MPS was founded as the successor to theSABA record label byHans Georg Brunner-Schwer,Joachim-Ernst Berendt, Willy Fruth, and Achim Hebgen (who also worked as producers). Founded in 1968, MPS was the first German label to exclusively release jazz recordings.[2] MPS produced and released albums by American, Canadian, European and Japanese jazz artists. Recordings of the JazzFest Berlin, theDonaueschingen Festival and the New Jazz Meeting Baden-Baden[3] were also issued. Besides its own productions, MPS also licensed and distributed recordings from other companies.
Performers under contract to MPS includedOscar Peterson,Hans Koller,Horst Jankowski,George Duke,Erwin Lehn,Volker Kriegel,Albert Mangelsdorff,the Singers Unlimited,Wolfgang Dauner, theKenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band,Jean-Luc Ponty,Lee Konitz,Charlie Mariano,Alphonse Mouzon,Monty Alexander,Dave Pike andArt Van Damme.[4] There is a wide stylistic spectrum, fromswing tofree jazz,jazz rock and precursors ofethno jazz.
The hallmarks of MPS releases were the high quality of the recordings (some of the production was undertaken in the private atmosphere of label founder Brunner-Schwer's living room), the attractive design of the sleeves, and the detail of information about artists, instruments and performances. Some of these recordings have been re-released on CD.
The label was distributed byBASF from 1971, then by Metronome Music GmbH Hamburg from 1974. In 1983, Brunner-Schwer sold the rights toPhilips, which then transferred it toPolydor. In 1993, Polydor subsidiaryMotor Music began to release individual recordings on CD. In 1999,Universal Music Group began re-releases. Since 2000, Speakers Corner Records have releasedvinyl reissues of individual MPS albums with their original artwork.
Universal spun the label off in 2012,[5] withEdel AG acquiring MPS in January 2014.[6]
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