Dial Records (1946)

This article is about the U.S.-based record label founded in 1946. For other uses, see Dial Records.
Dial Records
Label of Dial record by Charlie Parker
Label of Dial record by Charlie Parker
Founded1946 (1946)
FounderRoss Russell
DefunctJune 3, 1954 (1954-06-03)
StatusInactive
GenreJazz, contemporary classical
Country of originU.S.
LocationHollywood (1946–47)
New York City (1947–1954)

Dial Records was an American record company and label that specialized first in bebop jazz and then in contemporary classical music. It was founded in 1946 by Ross Russell. Notable artists who recorded for Dial include Charlie Parker, who signed an exclusive one-year recording contract with Russell on 26 February 1946,[1] as well as Miles Davis, Max Roach, and Milt Jackson. Dial Records initially pressed its music for the Tempo Music Shop of Hollywood, California, but soon relocated to New York City.

In the summer of 1949, Ross Russell announced a change of focus, with the label turning to the release of classical music by contemporary composers. The first release in this new series was Béla Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion.[2] This series, titled the Library of Contemporary Classics, was inspired when Russell obtained the master tape of a recording of Arnold Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1 from Blue Star Records in Paris, in lieu of payment for a number of Dial jazz masters for European distribution.[3]

Russell's interests shifted focus again in 1953, when he made field recordings of calypso music in the British, French, and Netherlands West Indies. This resulted in the Dial Ethnic Series (Dial 400 label) of ten ten-inch 33+1⁄3 rpm discs, issued between June and November 1953.[4]

Dial also continued to release material from jazz sessions recorded earlier, but in 1954 Russell sold his jazz recordings to Concert Hall Records, sending them the masters, pressing lists, and log sheets on June 3, 1954.[5]

Mosaic Records released a limited edition box-set (CD) of Dial recordings called The Complete Dial Modern Jazz Sessions.[6]

  1. ^ Edward M. Komara (1998) The Dial recordings of Charlie Parker: a discography, p. 11. Greenwood Publishing Group at Google Books. ISBN 0-313-29168-3. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
  2. ^ Anon., "Dial Records Goes Longhair", Billboard (August 13, 1949): 18.
  3. ^ David Smyth, "Schoenberg and Dial Records: The Composer's Correspondence with Ross Russell". Journal of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute 12, no. 1 (June 1989): 68–90. Citation on 69.
  4. ^ Edward M. Komara, The Dial Recordings of Charlie Parker: A Discography, Discographies, no. 76 (Westport and London: Greenwood Press, 1998), p. 6. ISBN 0-313-29168-3. Accessed 1 August 2016.
  5. ^ Edward M. Komara, The Dial Recordings of Charlie Parker: A Discography, Discographies, no. 76 (Westport and London: Greenwood Press, 1998), p. 8. ISBN 0-313-29168-3. Accessed 1 August 2016.
  6. ^ "Dial". Mosaicrecords.com. Retrieved 8 July 2016.