BRUCE IGLAUER

Alligator Records was born from the passion for Blues music felt by its founder Bruce Iglauer. Bruce was working for a record company in Chicago when he heard an exciting slide-guitarist in a club, and when he couldn’t get his boss to bring him into the studio, he did the job himself. This started a…

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CHRIS STRACHWITZ

“Arr-hoolie” was a field call, common among agricultural workers back when the Blues began, and when the young Chris Strachwitz and his friend Mack McCormick were drifting around the South in 1960 looking for Blues singers to record, it was suggested as the name for a new record company. Arhoolie went on to be a…

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MEL LONDON

Mel London is perhaps best known as a record producer and record label owner, but he was also a talented songwriter whose work was often in the R&B charts when he was still in his early 20s. His Chief Records became one of the most progressive independent labels in Chicago in the 50s, during the…

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SYD NATHAN

Syd Nathan was an old-school, cigar-chomping, bad-tempered label owner who didn’t care much for the finer qualities of his artists, but put their records out anyway. His comment on James Brown’s first effort ‘Please, Please, Please’ was “That’s the worst piece of crap I’ve heard in my life.” but he persevered with several follow-ups that…

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HARRY PACE

Before Mamie Smith‘s groundbreaking ‘Crazy Blues’ in 1920, there was virtually no serious African American music on record. Mamie’s seminal disc proved there was a demand for ‘race music‘, and all the leading record companies jumped on the bandwagon. However, only one label on the scene was wholly black-owned: Black Swan, named in honour of…

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‘ROCKIN TABBY’ THOMAS

Swamp Blues has the insistent, hypnotic rhythm that penetrates the listeners body like a virus and provokes inevitable symptoms like shuffling feet and swinging hips. ‘Rockin Tabby’ Thomas played guitar and piano, and sang his energetic Swamp Blues for over 50 years, becoming a legend in the Baton Rouge area, with his band, his record…

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MIKE VERNON

As a producer and label owner, Mike Vernon has probably contributed more than anyone to the recording of early British Blues and presenting American original Blues players to the British public. By combining the keen young talent he found in London with the wealth of experience he brought from America, he created a heady mixture…

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BOB KOESTER

Bob Koester set up Delmark Records over sixty years ago, and his Jazz Record Mart in Chicago is the biggest Jazz and Blues record store in the world. A music lover and collector of classic Jazz and Blues records from an early age, Bob’s labour of love became a thriving business as he progressed from…

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CLIFFORD ANTONE

Clifford Antone made a massive contribution to contemporary Blues, with his world-famous club in Austin, his record label of the same name, and his huge enthusiasm for Texas roadhouse Blues. When he was a kid, Clifford listened to a lot of Chicago Blues but he loved living in Texas, so the idea of bringing the…

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MOE ASCH

Moe Asch was a strong-minded label owner who released music from all over the world and from many minority ethnicities. Managing his Folkways catalogue he refused to delete any album, saying “Just because the letter J is less popular than the letter S, you don’t delete it from the dictionary.” He also said “The real…

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