Pacific Jazz Records: A History of the Label and Its Artists, 1952-1965

From its modest beginning in the back of a drum shop, Pacific Jazz became one of the most respected and successful independent jazz record labels in America, starting with a single 78 rpm release in 1952 that introduced the Gerry Mulligan Quartet. Its exponential growth during the 1950s launched the jazz careers of Mulligan, Chet Baker, Chico Hamilton, and Bud Shank. With expansion in the mid '50s and a name change to World Pacific, the catalog included folk, comedy, pop, vocal, Latin, and world music genres featuring artists such as Kimio Eto and Ravi Shankar. Jazz releases continued to introduce major artists in the 1960s including the Jazz Crusaders, Les McCann, Curtis Amy, Paul Bryant, Clare Fischer, Joe Pass, Gerald Wilson, and Carmell Jones. Dick Bock sold Pacific Jazz to Liberty Records in the spring of 1965, ending its 13-year run as an independent jazz label. This history covers in depth all 13 years of the transformative record label's independence. Read more