Pacific Jazz Records

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 the fall of 1952 introducing the Gerry Mulligan Quartet. Its exponential growth during the 1950s launched the jazz careers of Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Chico Hamilton, and Bud Shank. The label’s expansion in the mid ’50s included a name change to World Pacific, which broadened the catalogue to include 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.

Author Biography

James A. Harrod is a member of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, the Jazz Journalists Association, and the Los Angeles Jazz Institute. He lives in Laguna Beach, California.