Class act

Like footsteps in the sands of time, record companies have provided the raw material around which jazz history has been constructed — RCA Victor, which recorded the first bona fide jazz band in 1917 and was the first to cash in on the post-first world war jazz craze, and Columbia, which quickly followed. As a burgeoning record industry blossomed in the 1920 and 1930s, a vast array of companies with romantic-sounding names like Decca, Okeh, Vocalion, Harmony, Parlophone and Brunswick sprung up that were host to some of the great names in jazz — Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman.

After the second world war, most of these companies had disappeared through corporate mergers and takeovers as the industry consolidated into the hands of a few major players such as Columbia, RCA Victor and Decca. And, while the majors continued to play their part in documenting the history of the music, most key developments were now being charted by small independent companies — Blue Note, Contemporary, Savoy, Prestige, Riverside, Verve and Pacific Jazz.