Document Records is an independent record label, founded in Austria and now based in Scotland, that specializes in reissuing vintage blues and jazz. The company has been recognised by Blues Foundation, being honoured with a Keeping the Blues Alive Award in 2018. Document Records is the only UK-based recipient of the award.
History
Document was established in 1986 by
Johnny Parth, the former owner of Roots Records, in Austria to make previously unreleased
blues and
gospel music records from before the 1942–44 musicians' strike available on a number of European labels. In 1990, Parth felt obliged to switch production from LP to CD. With this change, he consolidated the catalogue into complete reissues in chronological order, increasingly on the Document label as other label names were dropped. The new policy was to reissue as many as possible of the recordings listed in the book,
Blues and Gospel Records: 1890–1943.
[Dixon, Robert M. W.; Godrich, John; and Rye, Howard (1997), Blues and Gospel Records, 1890–1943. Oxford University Press. .] The scope was expanded to include
bluegrass music, spirituals,
jazz, and other rural American
Musical genre (collectively known as roots music), made between 1900 and 1945. Since 2000 it has been owned by Gary and Gillian Atkinson and is based in
Newton Stewart, Scotland.
[Rye, Howard (2001). Afterword, in Dixon, Robert M.W., and Godrich, John, Recording the Blues. Republished in Oliver, Paul, et al. (2001). Yonder Come the Blues. Cambridge University Press. pp. 335–336. .][Rye, Howard (2006). "Document" entry in Encyclopedia of the Blues. Routledge. .]
Document has the exclusive rights to a great deal of unreleased music and other audio media produced by Edison Records between 1914 and 1929.
Artists
See also
External links
