Ajax Records was a record company and

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed dir ...

founded in 1921.

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

records were produced in New York City, with some in Montreal, and marketed via the Ajax Record Company of Chicago.

History

Ajax was a subsidiary of the Compo Company of

Lachine, Quebec Lachine () is a borough (''arrondissement'') within the city of Montreal on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It was an autonomous city until the municipal mergers in 2002. History Lachine, apparently from the French term ' ...

. Although a U.S.

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

on the name "Ajax" was filed in 1921, Ajax did not issue its first record until October 1923. The head of Ajax Records was H. S. Berliner, son of

disc record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts near ...

pioneer

Emile Berliner Emile Berliner (May 20, 1851 – August 3, 1929) originally Emil Berliner, was a German-American inventor. He is best known for inventing the lateral-cut flat disc record (called a "gramophone record" in British and American English) used with a ...

. Berliner's corporate headquarters were in

Quebec City, Quebec Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is th ...

, although U.S. issues listed the company as being based in Chicago, Illinois, where its U.S. office was located, but apparently no recording studio. Ajax is known to have used Compo's

recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enoug ...

s in Montreal and New York City. In addition to the sides which Ajax recorded themselves, the label also issued discs pressed from masters leased from New York Recording Laboratories and the Regal Record Company. The last Ajax released was in August 1925.

Recordings and marketing

Ajax was marketed as "The Superior

Race Record Race records were 78-rpm phonograph records marketed to African Americans between the 1920s and 1940s.Oliver, Paul. "Race record." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 13 Feb. 2015. They primarily contained race music, comprising various Afri ...

" and "The Quality Race Record." It was sold for 75 cents. The records were pressed in Quebec but distributed in USA only, and were Compo's only operations in the United States. Distribution of Ajax Records in the USA outside of the north-east and north-central part of the nation seems to have been poor. The records carried a catalog sequence of 17000, ending with 17136. Artists such as

Rosa Henderson Rosa Henderson (November 24, 1896 – April 6, 1968) was an American jazz and classic female blues singer and vaudeville entertainer of the Harlem Renaissance era. Life and career Born Rosa Deschamps in Henderson, Kentucky, Henderson, Kentucky, ...

Edna Hicks Edna Hicks (October 14, 1891 or 1895 – August 16, 1925) was an American blues singer and musician. Her recorded songs include "Hard Luck Blues" and "Poor Me Blues". She also recorded "Down Hearted Blues", and "Gulf Coast Blues" on the Brunswick ...

Viola McCoy Viola McCoy (c. 1900 – c. 1956) was an American blues singer who performed in the classic female blues style during a career that lasted from the early 1920s to the late 1930s. Life and career Her birth name may have been Amanda Brown (a nam ...

Helen Gross Helen Gross (born Hellen R. Gross, May 1896 – unknown) was an American classic female blues singer, active as a recording artist in the mid-1920s. Songs she recorded include "I Wanna Jazz Some More", "Bloody Razor Blues", and "Strange Man" ...

Monette Moore Monette Moore (May 19, 1902 in Gainesville, Texas – October 21, 1962 in Garden Grove, California) was an American jazz and classic female blues singer. Moore was raised in Kansas City, Missouri. She taught herself to play the piano in her ...

Ethel Finnie Ethel V. Finnie (January 7, 1898 – May 1, 1981) was an American classic female blues singer. Her most notable recording is "You're Gonna Wake Up Some Morning, but Your Papa Will Be Gone". Information about her life outside music is sketchy. Li ...

, and

Fletcher Henderson James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson (December 18, 1897 – December 29, 1952) was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. He was one of the most prolific black musi ...

were among those who recorded for the label.

Mamie Smith Mamie Smith (née Robinson; May 26, 1891 – September 16, 1946) was an American vaudeville singer, dancer, pianist, and actress. As a vaudeville singer she performed in multiple styles, including jazz and blues. In 1920, she entered blues histor ...

, who went on to record for

Victor Records The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer that operated independently from 1901 until 1929, when it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and subsequently operated as a subsidi ...

when Ajax folded, was signed away from

Okeh Records Okeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name was spelled "OkeH" from the initials of Ott ...

in 1924.

Joe Davis Joseph Davis (15 April 190110 July 1978) was an English professional snooker and English billiards player. He was the dominant figure in snooker from the 1920s to the 1950s, and has been credited with inventing aspects of the way the game i ...

was an important talent scout for the label. Although marketed as a race records label, some mainstream material was released, including classical violin solos and pop sides by

Arthur Fields Arthur Fields (August 6, 1884 – March 29, 1953) was an American singer (baritone) and songwriter. Biography He was born Abraham Finkelstein in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but grew up mainly in Utica, New York. He became a professional ...

and Arthur Hall and some

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

Legacy

After Ajax was discontinued in 1925, some of the masters were reissued on the American

Pathé Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French people, French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest ...

label. The audio fidelity of Ajax discs is above average for the time. Most issues are acoustic, but some late Ajax releases are electrically recorded. The historical and musical importance of the performances, and the quality of the recordings and pressings, make Ajax records highly sought-after by some record collectors.

References

General references

* Komara, Edward (ed.) (2006), ''Encyclopedia of the Blues'', Routledge *

Inline citations