Getting To Know The Record Label of The Year Nominees

Latin Jazz is such a personal and spontaneous music; we naturally focus upon the performers, yet a larger process exists to move the music from the artist to the public. The musicians create the artistic statement that we know and love, but someone records the performance, masters it, and transforms it into a product. An artist creates an album cover, a writer composes the liner notes, and someone burns a picture onto the CD itself. The CD needs to be promoted, distributed, and sold in a wide variety of stores. With today’s music market, a technically savvy individual needs to find connections with online distributors, convert music into the correct file format, and manage online sales. The road from an artistic statement to a product touching a listener’s ears can be a long one, and for many musicians, the post-performance stage is handled by a record label.

Several record labels have generously pushed Latin Jazz into the world during 2008, and each of these labels brings an identifiable slant to the music. Adventure Music specializes in Brazilian artists with unique jazz perspectives, presenting artists such as Jovino Santos Neto and Hamilton de Holanda. Cacao Musica elegantly presents music from Venezuela and beyond with gorgeous packaging and extensive liner notes. Both Jazzheads and Zoho bring the best of New York’s jazz scene to the world. This year, Jazzheads gave us a Brazilian Jazz release from Mark Weinstein, and Zoho supported Latin Jazz artists such as Hendrik Muerkens, Arturo O’Farrill, and the Brazilian Trio. Lima Limón Records has shown the world New York’s burgeoning Afro-Peruvian Jazz scene with albums from bassist Edward Perez and guitarist Eric Kurimski in 2008. Patois Records, headed by trombonist Wayne Wallace, has spent the last few years gathering a roster that includes some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best musicians; in 2008, Patois released albums from Wallace and vocalist Kat Parra. A number of high quality releases have been discovered by the general public as a result of these five record labels.

As a listener, it can be hard to keep track of the companies behind the music, so I’ve provided a list of labels originally nominated for the Best Record Label of 2008 Award. I’ve listed the majority of 2008 Latin Jazz releases for each label Take some time to consider what each label has contributed to the Latin Jazz world over the course of 2008 – the number of albums produced, the quality of the music presented, and the importance of the artists being promoted are all important factors behind your decision. In some ways, the record label holds the power and resources to move the Latin Jazz world in a variety of creative directions, simply by their promotional choices. This power has been lessened in today’s music world by greater accessibility to artist self-promotion, but record companies still hold some clout. So check out the list below, think it over, and then VOTE TODAY!

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Adventure Music

Lucia Pulido: Waning Moon