Chesky Records is a record company and label founded in 1978 by brothers

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

and

Norman Chesky Norman Chesky is a music entrepreneur and executive producer of two Grammy award winning albums. He is the co-founder and co-owner of Manhattan Production Music and Chesky Records. Chesky also co-founded HDtracks, a music download service. He was ...

. The company produces high-definition recordings of music in a variety of genres, including

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 ...

, classical, pop, R&B,

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fo ...

and world/ethnic. Chesky artists include

McCoy Tyner Alfred McCoy Tyner (December 11, 1938March 6, 2020) was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet (from 1960 to 1965) and his long solo career afterwards. He was an NEA Jazz Master and five-time Gram ...

Herbie Mann Herbert Jay Solomon (April 16, 1930 – July 1, 2003), known by his stage name Herbie Mann, was an American jazz flute player and important early practitioner of world music. Early in his career, he also played tenor saxophone and clarinet (inclu ...

David Johansen David Roger Johansen (sometimes spelled ''David Jo Hansen''; born January 9, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter and actor. He is best known as a member of the seminal proto-punk band the New York Dolls. He is also known for his work under ...

and the Harry Smiths,

Joe Henderson Joe Henderson (April 24, 1937 – June 30, 2001) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than four decades, Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent l ...

Macy Gray Natalie Renée McIntyre (born September 6, 1967), known by her stage name Macy Gray, is an American R&B and soul singer and actress. She is known for her distinctive raspy voice and a singing style heavily influenced by Billie Holiday. Gray ha ...

Chuck Mangione Charles Frank Mangione ( ; born November 29, 1940) is an American flugelhorn player, voice actor, trumpeter and composer. He came to prominence as a member of Art Blakey's band in the 1960s, and later co-led the Jazz Brothers with his brother ...

, Paquito D'Rivera, Ron Carter, Larry Coryell,

John Pizzarelli John Paul Pizzarelli Jr. (born April 6, 1960, in Paterson, New Jersey) is an American jazz guitarist and vocalist. He has recorded over twenty solo albums and has appeared on more than forty albums by other recording artists, including Paul McCa ...

Bucky Pizzarelli John Paul "Bucky" Pizzarelli (January 9, 1926 – April 1, 2020) was an American jazz guitarist. He was the father of jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli and double bassist Martin Pizzarelli. He worked for NBC as a staffman for Dick Cavett (1971) ...

Babatunde Olatunji Michael Babatunde Olatunji (April 7, 1927 – April 6, 2003) was a Nigerian drummer, educator, social activist, and recording artist. Early life Olatunji was born in the village of Ajido, near Badagry, Lagos State, in southwestern Nige ...

Ana Caram Ana Lucia Ribeiro Caram (born 1 October 1958) is a Brazilian singer, guitarist, and flautist who sings jazz, samba, and bossa nova music. Caram was born in São Paulo to a family versed in musical expression. She graduated from São Paulo Unive ...

, and

Rebecca Pidgeon Rebecca Pidgeon (born October 10, 1965) is an American actress who has appeared on stage and in feature films, and a singer, songwriter and recording artist. She is married to American playwright David Mamet. Early life Pidgeon was born to Engl ...

. Chesky Records also offers

binaural recording Binaural recording is a method of recording sound that uses two microphones, arranged with the intent to create a 3-D stereo sound sensation for the listener of actually being in the room with the performers or instruments. This effect is ...

s, which seeks to replicate 3-D stereo sound so that the recording sounds as if the listener is in the same room with the musicians. They capture this sound using

dummy head recording In acoustics, the dummy head recording (also known as ''artificial head'', ''Kunstkopf'' or ''Head and Torso Simulator'') is a method of recording used to generate binaural recordings. The tracks are then listened to through headphones allowi ...

. For its recordings, Chesky Records uses acoustically vibrant spaces, including the Hirsch Center in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and St. Paul the Apostle Church located in Manhattan. The company has a mastering studio in New York City, New York.

History

Studio musician and composer David Chesky founded Chesky Records with his brother Norman in 1978. They began the label to preserve the sound of live-in-the studio recordings, without overdubbing original records. In 1990, they switched from recording in studios to recording in churches. One of the company's first attempts at improving sound quality was the re-issue of classical pianist

Earl Wild Earl Wild (November 26, 1915January 23, 2010) was an American pianist known for his transcriptions of jazz and classical music. Biography Royland Earl Wild was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1915. Wild was a musically precocious child and ...

's recordings of Rachmaninoff for ''

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...

''. In 1990, Chesky Records released its ''Jazz Sampler & Audiophile Test Compact Disc'', with the first nine tracks devoted to music and the remaining twenty devoted to listening and technical tests for headphones and loud speakers. Other test discs include ''Dr. Chesky's Sensational, Fantastic, and Simply Amazing Binaural Sound Show'' and the ''Ultimate Demo Disc''. In 2007, David and Norman Chesky also started an audiophile music download website called

HDtracks HDtracks is a high-resolution digital music store offering DRM-free music in multiple formats as well as cover art (and liner notes via PDF file downloads for a majority of catalog offerings) with audio CD-quality and high-definition audio master ...

. HDtracks allows customers to download high-resolution versions of albums in numerous formats (FLAC, AIFF). The site contains many varied artists and labels. In 2012,

Crosby, Stills, and Nash Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) were a folk rock supergroup made up of American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and English singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young as a fourth member, ...

announced that they would be releasing HD versions of its first three albums through HDtracks, and the company also released remastered titles from the Blue Note label, including

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of br ...

's '' Blue Train'', Eric Dolphy's '' Out To Lunch'',

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...

's '' Maiden Voyage'',

Wayne Shorter Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Shorter came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he joined Miles Dav ...

's ''

Speak No Evil ''Speak No Evil'' is the sixth album by Wayne Shorter. It was released in June 1966 by Blue Note Records. The music combines elements of hard bop and modal jazz, and features Shorter on tenor saxophone, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, pianist Herbi ...

'',

Horace Silver Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s. After playing tenor saxophone and piano at sc ...

's ''

Song for My Father ''Song for My Father'' is a 1965 album by the Horace Silver Quintet, released on the Blue Note label in 1965. The album was inspired by a trip that Silver had made to Brazil. The cover artwork features a photograph of Silver's father, John Tava ...

'' and Larry Young's ''

Unity Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a h ...

''. Other notable artists include Carole King, Janis Joplin,

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

and

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

. In 2011, Chesky Records incorporated High Resolution Technology in their label and introduced

s. The Binaural+ masters are captured in high-resolution (24-bit/192 kHz) sound using a binaural dummy head nicknamed "Lars". David Chesky collaborated with

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

professor Edgar Y. Choueiri to begin producing binaural recordings. The purpose of the technology is to capture three-dimensional sound and imaging. In 2016, Chesky Records released the critically acclaimed

debut of

, ''

Stripped Stripped may refer to: Music * "Stripped" (song), by Depeche Mode, 1986 * ''Stripped'' (Christina Aguilera album) or the title song, 2002 * ''Stripped'' (Daniel Ash album), 2014 * ''Stripped'' (Macy Gray album), 2016 * ''Stripped'' (Pretty Ma ...

'', which debuted No. 3 on the ''Billboard'' Jazz Charts. The label also released the debut album from City of the Sun, which debuted No. 12 on the ''Billboard'' Jazz Charts, would go on to garner over 17 million album streams on Spotify and peak at No. 2 on the Spotify US Viral 50. In 2018,

Casey Abrams Casey Abrams (born February 12, 1991) is an American musician from Idyllwild, California, who finished in sixth place in the 10th season of ''American Idol,'' five weeks after being saved from elimination by the judges. A self-titled debut al ...

and Meiko signed with Chesky Records. Abrams' debut album for the label, ''

Put a Spell on You Put a Spell on You is Casey Abrams' first release on Chesky Records and features the former American Idol contestant returning to his jazz roots. Abrams recorded the album over two days at the Hirsch Center in Brooklyn, New York, a decommissioned ...

'', hit #5 on the ''Billboard'' Jazz Charts, and Meiko hit #23 on the ''Billboard'' Folk Charts with ''Playing Favorites''. In 2019,

Anna Nalick Anna Christine Nalick ( ; born March 30, 1984) is an American singer-songwriter. Her debut album, '' Wreck of the Day'', featuring her first radio hit, "Breathe (2 AM)", was released on April 19, 2005. Nalick left her label under Sony in 2009 ...

signed with Chesky Records and released her label debut The Blackest Crow that December. Chesky Records uses custom recording equipment and experiments with recording techniques and formats.

Artists

* Camille Thurman *

* City of the Sun *

* Meiko

Awards and recognition

* 1997 Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Performance – '' Portraits of Cuba'', Paquito D'Rivera * 1998 Nominated:

Grammy Award for Best World Music Album The Grammy Award for Best Global Music Album is an honor presented to recording artists for influential music from around the globe at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Honors i ...

– ''Love Drum Talk'',

* 2000

Latin Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album The Latin Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz/Jazz Album is an honor presented annually at the Latin Grammy Awards, a ceremony that recognizes excellence and creates a wider awareness of cultural diversity and contributions of Latin recording artist ...

– '' Tropicana Nights'', Paquito D'Rivera * 2005 Nominated: Grammy Award for Best Engineered Classical Recording – ''Area 31'', David Chesky * 2005 Nominated:

– ''The Body Acoustic'', David Chesky * 2007 Nominated:

Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to composers for quality works of contemporary classical ...

– Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra, David Chesky * 2013 Independent Music Award – Contemporary Classical Album – ''String Theory'', David Chesky * 2015 Independent Music Award – Contemporary Classical Album – ''Rap Symphony'', David Chesky * 2016 Independent Music Award – Jazz Vocal Album – ''Stripped'', Macy Gray * 2016 Nominated: Independent Music Award – Contemporary Classical Album – ''The Venetian Concertos'', David Chesky * 2019 Nominated: Independent Music Award - Contemporary Classical Album - ''Piano Concertos 2,3'', David Chesky * 2019 Nominated: Independent Music Award - Tribute Album - ''Playing Favorites'', Meiko * 2019 Nominated: Independent Music Award - Cover Song - "Super Freak" (Meiko)

External links

Official site

HD Tracks

References

{{Authority control American record labels Jazz record labels Classical music record labels Audiophile record labels

History

Artists

Awards and recognition

See also

External links

References