| Riverside Records | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Founded | 1953 (1953) |
| Founder | Bill Grauer, Jr Orrin Keepnews |
| Defunct | 1964 (1964) |
| Status | Defunct |
| Genre | Jazz,blues,folk |
| Country of origin | U.S. |
| Location | New York City |
Riverside Records was an Americanjazz record company and label. Founded byOrrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer, Jr, under his firm Bill Grauer Productions in 1953, the label played an important role in the jazz record industry for a decade.[1][2] Riverside headquarters were located inNew York City, at 553 West 51st Street.[3]
Initially the company was dedicated to reissuing early jazz material drawn from the issues of theParamount andGennett andHot Record Society (H.R.S.), labels among others.[2] Reissued artists includedJelly Roll Morton,King Oliver,Ma Rainey, andJames P. Johnson, but the label began issuing its own contemporary jazz recordings in April 1954, beginning with pianistRandy Weston. In 1955 thePrestige Records contract ofThelonious Monk was bought out and Monk was signed by Riverside, where he remained for the next five years. During the next few years,Cannonball Adderley,Bill Evans,Charlie Byrd,Johnny Griffin, andWes Montgomery made substantial contributions to Riverside's catalog. Most new records were produced by Keepnews, who served as creative head of the label and several subsidiaries, such asJazzland Records, with Grauer directing the company's sales and business operations. Judson was another subsidiary label which mainly concentrated on musical genres other than jazz.[4]
Riverside offered an extensive folk catalog, including traditional performers likeBascom Lamar Lunsford, Obray Ramsey, and George Pegram and Walter Parham; and folk interpreters likeEwan MacColl,Jean Ritchie,Paul Clayton,Billy Faier,Oscar Brand,Cynthia Gooding andBob Gibson.
In 1956, Bill Grauer recorded, produced and edited the racing sounds of the Florida International Twelve-Hour Grand Prix of Endurance, Riverside Records RLP 5001. The record also contains interviews withStirling Moss,Juan Manuel Fangio and other racing drivers.
In 1960–61 Riverside produced an acclaimed series of albums featuring jazz and blues veterans such asJim Robinson,Sweet Emma Barrett andAlberta Hunter. The objective was to record musicians before their artistry was lost forever. Indeed, many were no longer active, and thus their union memberships had expired. Recognizing the importance of the project, the American Federation of Musicians suspended itsunion shop rules on their behalf. This "Living Legends" series was initially recorded in New Orleans. Later sessions were recorded inChicago. The sessions took place at Societé des Jeunes Amis Hall, built in the 1800s. According to the producer,Chris Albertson, the hall was a "Creole fraternal headquarters and it proved to have every advantage over a studio; apart from its live sound, it gave the performers familiar surroundings... The hall's acoustical sound was exactly what I wanted to recapture: the same kind of ambience that lent such character toBill Russell's 1940s American Music recordings from San Jacinto Hall." One of the musicians invited to participate wasLouis Cottrell, Jr.[5] Cottrell organized a trio comprising McNeal Breaux,Alcide "Slow Drag" Pavageau withEmanuel Sayles sitting in playing guitar and banjo. The band was so well received that they continued to play together. The music on this album has been described as "more polite and subtle than the city's 'downtown' music... an intimate, low-key delight."[6] Cottrell's playing has also been well received:
[In 1961] Cottrell recorded a masterwork, entitled New Orleans: The Living Legends, which was reissued in 1994. To hear it is to conjure up the elegance of a bygone era by a man who did much to create it. From the opening note on "Bourbon Street Parade," to the charming "Three Little Words," to the reverent "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," the listener is hearing the living history of jazz.[7]
Under the subsidiary label Riverside Wonderland, the company also produced a series of children's albums, theGrandpa Magic series of albums starringEd Wynn, including twoAlec Templeton albums, an album ofMartyn Green reading from theArabian Nights, and a six-record album set of the completeAlice in Wonderland, narrated byCyril Ritchard, a rarity in the LP era when books were seldom recorded complete. An album of excerpts from the book was also issued, and the six records in the complete set were also issued as separate volumes.[8] Riverside Wonderland also acquired U.S. rights to package and distribute musical recordings produced in England by Fiona Bentley, includingThe First Christmas withDame Edith Evans,Musical Zoo withThe Mike Sammes Singers, and Beatrix Potter stories narrated byVivien Leigh. The British recordings were licensed by A.A. Records in the seventies, when that company was transitioning fromGolden Records to Wonderland Records (no connection to Riverside).
Grauer died of a suddenheart attack in December 1963, and the company filed forvoluntary bankruptcy in July 1964. The catalogue was taken over by ABC Records, which reissued some of it, but virtually all Riverside masters were acquired byFantasy Records in 1972. The majority of this material was subsequently reissued on LP on the Milestone label and as part of Fantasy'sOriginal Jazz Classics series from the 1980s on CD. The Riverside catalog is now owned by theConcord label group.
