Record Label
Stephen Pearl was inspired while working with Irv Kratka at Music Minus One to create a series of recordings of Broadway musicals that would provide background music for singers. In 1997, his newly formed company, Stage Star Records, released its first product, recordings for the musical The...
Don Blocker worked behind the music, promoting and selling for several record companies over his long and impressive career. First working for Dot Records, Don learned the craft, which he later honed at Liberty Records. His deep understanding of the business and his caring approach to the artist...
Bill Gardner grew up in Los Angeles surrounded by music. His mother worked at a local record store where he heard the music that would forever shape his life. Years later, Bill went on the air for his first radio show to honor those early musical pioneers. Bill's most recent program, Rhapsody In...
Jim Merod is the founder of BluePort Sound recording studio and BluePort Jazz, his record label. Since the early 1990s, Jim has recorded a long list of legendary jazz, blues, and latin musicians including Herbie Hancock, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Kenny Barron, Clark Terry, and Wayne Shorter,...
Don Puluse played clarinet as a young student and went on to play in the Marine Band. He soon began to study recording engineering and joined AES in 1958. Less than a decade later, Don found himself editing classical music for CBS Records. Don soon established a reputation and found that a large...
Bob Koester was the founder of the Delmark label who began recording blues and jazz in 1953 in St. Louis. He later moved to Chicago where he helped define the music scene by recording artists such as Bud Powell, Donald Byrd, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Luther Allison, Magic Sam, Otis Rush, Sonny Stitt...
Ralph Peer II is the Chairman and CEO of Peermusic, which was formed by his father in 1928. While his father played a historic role in early-recorded music, the publishing company is equally significant. Ralph has been very active in the music publishing industry as he also serves as vice president...
Quinton Claunch was a musical innovator who formed Hi Records in Memphis as well as the Goldwax label. He played guitar and bass professionally beginning in 1943 and can be heard on a number of recordings on the Sun label in the early to mid 1950s, including those by Carl Perkins and Wanda Jackson...
This audio only interview was conducted by David Schwartz and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Jerry Wexler became a major contributor to the record business in the 1950s and 60s with his work as a producer at Atlantic Records. Many feel it was Jerry who coined the phrase “rhythm and blues...