Takoma Records was a small but influential
record labelIn the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
founded by
John FaheyJohn Fahey was an American fingerstyle guitarist and composer who pioneered the steel-string guitar as a solo instrument. His style has been greatly influential and has been described as American Primitivism, a term borrowed from painting and referring mainly to the self-taught nature of his art...
in the late 1950s. It was named after Fahey's hometown, the
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
suburb of
Takoma Park, MarylandTakoma Park is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Washington, D.C. and part of the Washington Metropolitan Area. Founded in 1883 and incorporated in 1890, Takoma Park, informally called "Azalea City," is a Tree City USA and a nuclear-free zone...
.
Takoma Records began with a custom pressing of 100 copies of
John Fahey/Blind Joe DeathBlind Joe Death is the first album by American fingerstyle guitarist and composer John Fahey. The original self-released edition of less than 100 copies is extremely rare.-History:...
, an album of his own guitar playing released by John Fahey around 1959. He had no distribution and sold the pressing mainly to friends, and at music parties.
| Takoma Records |
 |
| Parent company |
Concord Music GroupConcord Music Group is a record company formed in 2004 by the merger of Concord Records and Fantasy Records. In 2005, the company acquired the classics and jazz label Telarc International. On December 18, 2006, Concord announced the re-launch of the soul label Stax; rights to the name were...
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| Founded |
1959 |
| Founder(s) |
John Fahey John Fahey was an American fingerstyle guitarist and composer who pioneered the steel-string guitar as a solo instrument. His style has been greatly influential and has been described as American Primitivism, a term borrowed from painting and referring mainly to the self-taught nature of his art...
, ED DensonEugene "ED" Denson is an American music group manager, producer, record label owner, and - later - lawyer, who has made notable contributions to folk, blues, and early San Francisco rock.He was born in Washington D.C. in 1940...
, Norman Pierce |
| Distributing label |
Concord RecordsConcord Records is a U.S. record label now based in Beverly Hills, California. Originally known as Concord Jazz, it was established in 1972 as an off-shoot of the Concord Jazz Festival in Concord, California by festival founder Carl Jefferson, a local automobile dealer and jazz fan who sold his...
(In the USThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
), Universal Music GroupUniversal Music Group is the largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry. It is the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
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| Genre(s) |
Folk musicThe term folk music originated in the 19th century as a term for musical folklore. It has been defined in several ways; as music transmitted by word of mouth, music of the lower classes, music with no known composer...
|
| Country |
USThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
|
| Web address |
http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/labels/Takoma/ |
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Takoma Records was a small but influential
record labelIn the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
founded by
John FaheyJohn Fahey was an American fingerstyle guitarist and composer who pioneered the steel-string guitar as a solo instrument. His style has been greatly influential and has been described as American Primitivism, a term borrowed from painting and referring mainly to the self-taught nature of his art...
in the late 1950s. It was named after Fahey's hometown, the
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
suburb of
Takoma Park, MarylandTakoma Park is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Washington, D.C. and part of the Washington Metropolitan Area. Founded in 1883 and incorporated in 1890, Takoma Park, informally called "Azalea City," is a Tree City USA and a nuclear-free zone...
.
Takoma Records began with a custom pressing of 100 copies of
John Fahey/Blind Joe DeathBlind Joe Death is the first album by American fingerstyle guitarist and composer John Fahey. The original self-released edition of less than 100 copies is extremely rare.-History:...
, an album of his own guitar playing released by John Fahey around 1959. He had no distribution and sold the pressing mainly to friends, and at music parties. A copy of this record recently sold on
eBayeBay Inc. is an American Internet company that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. A majority of the sales take place through a set-time auction format, but subsequent methods include...
for several thousand dollars.
John moved to
Berkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, and the label was really launched when John rediscovered the country bluesman,
Bukka WhiteBukka White was a delta blues guitarist and singer. "Bukka" was not a nickname, but a misspelling of White's given name Booker, by his second record label . White himself disliked the spelling "Bukka" and preferred to be called "Booker".-Biography:Born Booker T...
. With
Eugene "ED" DensonEugene "ED" Denson is an American music group manager, producer, record label owner, and - later - lawyer, who has made notable contributions to folk, blues, and early San Francisco rock.He was born in Washington D.C. in 1940...
, John drove to
MemphisMemphis is a city in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. Memphis rises above the Mississippi River on the 4
th Chickasaw Bluff just south of the mouth of the Wolf River....
and the pair produced Bukka's first recording in 23 years. Later in 1963 they released it, as well as John's second album of his own music.
Independent labels were a novelty at that period in American musical history, but gradually in the next several years word spread about the music. At the same time independent "
folk musicThe term folk music originated in the 19th century as a term for musical folklore. It has been defined in several ways; as music transmitted by word of mouth, music of the lower classes, music with no known composer...
" labels like
RounderRounder Records, originally of Cambridge, Massachusetts, but now based in Burlington, Massachusetts, is an independent record label founded in 1970 by Ken Irwin, Bill Nowlin and Marian Leighton-Levy, while all three were still university students. Rounder is now one of the biggest independent...
were springing up, and establishing distribution systems. The content of the Takoma label expanded to include other guitarists, such as Robbie Basho, and other types of folk music. At the same time the label ventured into the
avant-gardeAvant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
with
The Psychedelic Saxophone of Charlie Nothing.
Acoustic guitarAn acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only acoustic methods to project the sound produced by its strings. The term is a retronym, coined after the advent of electric guitars, which depend on electronic amplification to make their sound audible....
music, especially that of John Fahey, remained the mainstay of the label.
Around 1967, Denson moved to full-time management of the rock band
Country Joe and the FishCountry Joe and the Fish was a rock band most widely known for musical protests against the Vietnam War, from 1966 to 1971.-History:The group's name is derived from leftist politics; "Country Joe" was a popular name for Joseph Stalin in the 1940s, while "the fish" refers to Mao Tse-Tung's statement...
and John became the sole owner of Takoma. He moved the label and himself to
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
, where he was studying for his Masters degree at UCLA under D.K. Wilgus.
Leo KottkeLeo Kottke is an acoustic guitarist. He is widely known for his innovative fingerpicking style, which draws on influences from blues, jazz, and folk music, and his syncopated, polyphonic melodies...
's
6 and 12-String Guitar became a surprise hit and the profits funded an expansion of the label which now had a staff.
In 1970
Jon MondayJon Monday was born in San Jose, California in 1947. He has produced and distributes CDs and DVDs across an eclectic range of material from Swami Prabhavananda, Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, Huston Smith, Chalmers Johnson, and Charles Bukowski...
joined the label, first as Promotion Manager, and working his way up to General Manager. The label grew as progressive radio stations played new releases by Fahey and other Takoma artists. In 1973 Charlie Mitchell became Takoma's president. Takoma was one of the founding companies of NAIRD - the National Association of Independent Record Distributors.
Fahey had started a new genre of guitar music, known later as
American PrimitivismAmerican Primitivism, also known as American Primitive Guitar, is the guitar music genre started by John Fahey in the late 1950s. Fahey composed and recorded avant-garde/neo-classical compositions using traditional country blues fingerpicking techniques, which had previously been used primarily to...
, which comprised traditional fingerpicking steel string guitar techniques applied to neo-classical compositions. The Takoma label showcased such music; its roster included Leo Kottke,
Peter LangPeter Lang is an accomplished acoustic guitarist, from the same genre, American Primitivism, as the better-known guitarists Leo Kottke and John Fahey. All three artists shared the Takoma Records label, and a joint-titled album released in 1974 features a selection of songs from...
, Mike Aldridge,
Robbie BashoRobbie Basho was a composer, guitarist and pianist, and one of the pioneers of the acoustic steel string guitar in America. His vision was to see the steel string as a concert instrument and to create a Raga system for America. During a radio interview in 1974, promoting his album Zarthus, Robbie...
and already famous
MississippiMississippi is a state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi . The state is heavily forested outside of the...
bluesman Bukka White.
George WinstonGeorge Winston is an American pianist who was born in Michigan, and grew up mainly in Eastern Montana as well as Mississippi and Florida. He attended Stetson University in Deland, Florida and lives in Santa Cruz, California. When growing up his interest in music was listening to instrumentals in...
released his first album on Takoma and
Mike BloomfieldMichael Bernard Bloomfield was an American musician, guitarist, and composer, born in Chicago, Illinois, who became one of the first popular music superstars of the 1960s to earn his reputation entirely on his instrumental prowess...
released several solo albums on the label. American composer and electronic music pioneer
Joseph ByrdJoseph Byrd was the leader of The United States of America, a notable rock band from the 1960s, as well as the psychedelic group Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies, of cult fame through their release The American Metaphysical Circus...
released three records in 1975-76 on Takoma, which were co-produced by
Jon MondayJon Monday was born in San Jose, California in 1947. He has produced and distributes CDs and DVDs across an eclectic range of material from Swami Prabhavananda, Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, Huston Smith, Chalmers Johnson, and Charles Bukowski...
.
In 1979, Fahey sold Takoma to
Chrysalis RecordsChrysalis Records was a British record label that was created in 1969. The name was both a reference to the pupal stage of a butterfly and an amalgam of its founders names, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis...
, owned by
Terry EllisTerry Ellis is an African-American R&B singer best known for her work with the quartet En Vogue.-Biography:...
and
Chris WrightChris Wright may refer to:* Chris Wright , plays for Essex County Cricket Club* Chris Wright * Chris Wright , plays for Boston United F.C.* Chris Wright , see Chrysalis Records* Chris Wright...
, which had artists such as
BlondieBlondie is an American rock band founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American new wave and punk rock scenes of the mid 1970s...
,
Pat BenatarPat Benatar is a four-time Grammy Award-winning American singer best known for her mezzo-soprano vocal range and establishing herself as one of rock's top vocalists and one of music's top-selling female artists with hit songs such as "Love Is a Battlefield", "Hit Me with Your Best Shot", and...
, and
Huey LewisHuey Lewis is an American musician, songwriter and occasional actor.He sings lead vocals and plays harmonica for his band Huey Lewis and the News, in addition to writing or co-writing many of the band's songs....
.
Jon MondayJon Monday was born in San Jose, California in 1947. He has produced and distributes CDs and DVDs across an eclectic range of material from Swami Prabhavananda, Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, Huston Smith, Chalmers Johnson, and Charles Bukowski...
continued as General Manager of the label for Chrysalis until 1982 when Chrysalis sold the Takoma catalog. During the Chrysalis years, Takoma released albums by
The Fabulous ThunderbirdsThe Fabulous Thunderbirds are a Grammy-nominated blues-rock band, formed in 1974.-Career:After performing for several years in the Austin, Texas blues scene, the band won a recording contract with Takoma/Chrysalis Records, and later on signed with Epic Records.Their first two albums, released in...
,
Maria MuldaurMaria Muldaur is a folk-blues singer who was part of the folk music revival of the early 1960s...
,
Canned HeatCanned Heat is a blues-rock/boogie band that formed in Los Angeles, California, USA, in 1965. The group has been noted for its own interpretations of blues material as well as for efforts to promote the interest in this type of music and its original artists...
,
Mike BloomfieldMichael Bernard Bloomfield was an American musician, guitarist, and composer, born in Chicago, Illinois, who became one of the first popular music superstars of the 1960s to earn his reputation entirely on his instrumental prowess...
, and
T-Bone BurnettJoseph Henry "T-Bone" Burnett is an American songwriter, musician and producer. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and raised in Fort Worth, Texas....
. The catalog was purchased in 1995 by
Fantasy RecordsFantasy Records is a United States based record label, which was founded by Max and Sol Weiss in 1949 in San Francisco, California. They had previously operated a record pressing plant called Circle Record Company before forming the Fantasy label...
, which in 2004 was taken over by the
Concord Music GroupConcord Records is a U.S. record label now based in Beverly Hills, California. Originally known as Concord Jazz, it was established in 1972 as an off-shoot of the Concord Jazz Festival in Concord, California by festival founder Carl Jefferson, a local automobile dealer and jazz fan who sold his...
. Fantasy has a handful of the Takoma recordings on the market as CDs as of this writing in 2007.
The label's best selling release was Kottke's
6 and 12-String Guitar (often called The Armadillo Album because of the cover art). Another influential album on Takoma was the 1974
eponymAn eponym is the name of a person, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named. One who is referred to as eponymous is someone who gives his or her name to something, e.g...
ous
compilation LPLeo Kottke/Peter Lang/John Fahey is a compilation album by American guitarists Leo Kottke, Peter Lang, and John Fahey, released in 1974. The cover contains the names of the three guitarists in a circle in order that none is listed first. Therefore, various discographies note the title in different...
featuring Fahey, Kottke and Lang.
ED Denson went on to co-found and manage
Kicking Mule RecordsKicking Mule Records was a record label founded in 1972 by Stefan Grossman and Eugene "ED" Denson, who had previously been a co-founder of Takoma Records. The company's title comes from the country blues sexual two-timing allegory "there's another mule kicking in your stall". During the 1970s the...
, which similarly featured acoustic guitarists. In 1995, he left the music business and became a criminal defense lawyer. By the early 21st century, the news about the label seems limited to death notices. Robbie Basho died in 1986, John Fahey in 2001, and
Charlie NothingCharles Martin Simon , better known as Charlie Nothing, was an American musician, musical instrument maker and writer. He created the dingulator, guitar sculptures made out of American cars, and performed at several music festivals in the United States and Europe...
died of cancer October 23, 2007.
External links