Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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CONCORD JAZZ

Label originally called Concord Jazz, formed in Concord, California by car dealer/jazz fan Carl Jefferson, who founded a Concord Jazz Festival '69 according to Billboard; he certainly turned a local summer fête into a music party and got more deeply involved in music when Joe Pass and Herb Ellis complained about not being able to record. A few hundred albums later the car dealership had long since been sold. He was also instrumental in getting the Concord Pavilion opened May '75; the Concord Jazz Festival became an annual institution. The Concord Picante label was started for Latin jazz (first release La Onda Va Bien by Cal Tjader won a Grammy '81); Concord Concerto for classical (Laurindo Almeida's First Concerto For Guitar And Orchestra was nominated for a Grammy the same year). The George Wein Collection named after the impresario included the Dirty Dozen Brass Band (My Feet Can't Fail Me Now) and an Art Blakey set made live '84 in Manhattan club (New York Scene). The label scorned too much multi-tracking technology, aiming for a natural live-set effect; many LPs were recorded live at festivals, including the Concord Jazz All Stars with Al Cohn; the Concord Super Band (without Cohn) in Tokyo included mainstream players like Scott Hamilton, Warren Vaché, drummers Jake Hanna and Marvin 'Smitty' Smith. Guitarists Ellis, Charlie Byrd, Barney Kessel make their own albums plus play nice together in the Great Guitars series; Almeida and Ray Brown play in the all-star quartet L.A. Four; neglected vocalists alone who have been served include Ernestine Anderson, Rosemary Clooney, Carmen McRae, Mel Tormé, Joe Williams; the highly rated Capp/Pierce Juggernaut big band made four albums; new young stars making debuts included Blakey sidemen Donald Harrison and Terence Blanchard; also established modernists Ron Carter, Harold Land, others. Among the most valuable of Concord's innovations has been the Maybeck Hall series of piano recitals by great keyboardists (Vol. 1 by Joanne Brackeen '90, Vol. 42 by James Williams '96; the series continues), then the Duo series (ten vols. '93-6, cf. pianist Adam Makowicz and bassist George Mraz '94).

Concord was sold '94 to Alliance Entertainment, having had 40 Grammy nominations, eight wins; Jefferson d 29 March '95 aged 75, but his taste lives on: the product ignored by major labels yields such market identity that fans can buy Concord records by the label alone. Four-CD set Jazz Celebration: A Tribute to Carl Jefferson '97 was almost all new tracks recorded in concert. The label was sold again in 1999 to Act III Communications (TV and film execs Norman Lear and Hal Gaba) and has been widening its scope, taking on for example Carole King and Rita Coolidge, two of the best-loved divas of the '60s generation. In 2002 the label's HQ was moved to Beverley Hills to be closer to the center of the entertainment industry; in 2004 Fantasy Records (which see), the largest and most valuable independent vault of American music, was purchased by a consortium led by Lear and merged with Concord.