A record label whose 1950’s courage ... bore fruit in the 1960’s, after the jump ….
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A pair of brothers founded a record label in 1950, that ceased to be independent in 1985 (at a time of great consolidation in the music industry) and so exists only as a subsidiary label today. What began as a classical music label later expanded to include other genres, leading the All-Music Guide to declare Vanguard Records to be “the most successful of the folk and blues labels of the 1960’s”. For that legacy, the label deserves a fresh look.
The older brother Seymour Solomon was a violinist in the US Army Corps Orchestra during WW-II and afterwards was a music critic. He travelled to Europe with a tape recorder in 1950, recording Bach works by the Vienna Philharmonic and released it on his own Bach Guild label. Later that year, he added that label to the new company he formed with his younger brother (with a $10k loan from their father). After the sale of Vanguard in 1985, he went on to found a new label (Omega Classics) devoted to classical music. Seymour Solomon died in 2002 at the age of eighty.
Seymour (1922-2002)Maynard Solomon co-founded (at only age twenty) Vanguard Records with his older brother as noted, and his early career was noted for his Marxist beliefs. His 1973 book Marxism and Art has never been out-of-print and after the sale of the company in 1985 left the record business: becoming a musicologist, for many years was on the graduate faculty at the Julliard School and has written several classical music books, among them 1995’s Mozart: A Life— a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for biography. He is still alive today at age eight-eight.
Maynard Solomon (b. 1930)The brothers’ first venture out of classical music was their 1953-1958 Jazz Showcase series (that was managed by John Hammond). Their commitment to jazz was sporadic after that, but they issued recordings by Larry Coryell and the Third Stream jazz group Oregon (both of whom were my introduction to the label).
Yet where the brothers made-their-mark: was with an act of courage in the mid-1950’s (in no small part due to Maynard Solomon’s affinity for Marxism). They signed two blacklisted performers: Paul Robeson, and The Weavers. The brothers made it a point to place historical preservation at the top of their list of goals and sought-out lesser-known artists, rather than only seek best-sellers.
This gave them enormous credibility when the folk music boom took place later in the decade (and into the 1960’s). They insisted upon a clean-cut look in those early days (along with clean diction) which helped their acts breakthrough a crowded field, although obviously relenting later on that decade, due to changing times.
In 1964, they released live recordings of the Newport Folk Festival and went further afield in 1966 with recordings not just of acoustic blues, but also electric Chicago blues. And their list of folk performers grew even after its decline, post-British Invasion.
All-the-while, they never abandoned their initial mission to release classical music. They licensed recordings from Britain’s Pye Records label, and also featured recordings by the Utah Symphony Orchestra plus P.D.Q. Bach from 1965-1983.
In the late 1960’s, they finally began to expand their roster to include rock acts (plus the nascent singer-songwriter movement) such as Country Joe & the Fish. However, time had begun to pass-them-by, as major acts such as Ian & Sylvia plus Joan Baez had left for other labels, plus their garnering lackluster sales for its budget classical “Everyman” label.
After a quiet period, they were sold in 1985 to a music firm owned by ...… Lawrence Welk. (Really). Thirty years later in 2015, the Vanguard subsidiary label was acquired by the Concord jazz label of California, where it exists today.
In 2012, a four disc boxed-set was released (photo below) that showcased its range of popular music talent throughout the 1960’s, especially in folk, blues and singer-songwriters. As the All-Music Guide’s ’s Steve Leggett writes, “Vanguard’s ‘60’s catalog continues to be the label’s defining jewel — this set shows why”.
But perhaps the best legacy of the original label: are the artists who appeared on the label. Just a partial list of former stars (besides those already noted) include:
Folk — Eric Andersen, Joan Baez, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton
Blues — James Cotton, Buddy Guy/Junior Wells, Otis Rush, Otis Spann, Skip James
Country/Bluegrass — Kinky Friedman, Jerry Jeff Walker, Doc Watson, John Hiatt
Jazz — Jimmy Rushing, Vic Dickenson, Ruby Braff, Big Joe Williams, Clark Terry
Pop — Joan Osborne, Linda Ronstadt, Zager & Evans, Nellie McKay, Julia Fordham
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Today, the Concord-owned label has Bruce Hornsby, Barenaked Ladies, Rodney Crowell, Diane Schuur and the Indigo Girls. Not too shabby for a subsidiary label.
4-disc boxed set — the label’s heydayAmong the tunes on the boxed set listed: the title song to a 1970 film entitled Soldier Blue— was written and performed by Buffy Sainte-Marie, released as a single and became a top ten hit in the UK as well as other countries in Europe and Japan during the summer of 1971. And below you can listen to it.
I'll tell you a story and it's a true one I'll tell it like you understand And I ain't gonna talk like some history maid
I look out and I see a land Young and lovely, hard and strong For fifty thousand years we've danced her praises Prayed our thanks and we've just begun
Yes, this is my country Young and growing, free and flowing sea to sea Yes, this is my country Ripe and bearing miracles in every pond and tree Her spirit walks the high country She's giving free wild samples And setting an example how to give
Yes, this is my country Retching and turning She is like a baby learning how to live
I can stand upon a hill at dawn Look all around me - feel her surround me Soldier blue Can't you see her life has just begun Beating inside us - telling us she's here to guide us Soldier Blue
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