Oblivion Records is an independent American record label that focuses on under recorded blues and jazz musicians. The company was originally based in

Huntington, New York The Town of Huntington is one of ten towns in Suffolk County, New York. Founded in 1653, it is located on the north shore of Long Island in northwestern Suffolk County, with Long Island Sound to its north and Nassau County adjacent to the west. ...

and the WKCR-FM studios at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, with a post office box (Box X) in

Roslyn Heights, New York Roslyn Heights is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. It is considered part of the Greater Roslyn area, which is anchored by the Incorporated Vil ...

from 1972–1976. It now operates out of Los Angeles. After almost 50 years, Oblivion announced a new release in November 2021.

History

The company was formed based on a casual conversation between

Long Island, New York Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18th ...

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

record shop A record shop or record store is a retail outlet that sells Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music. In the late 19th century and the early 20th century, record shops only sold gramophone records, but over the 20th century, record sho ...

co-owner, musician, 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 ...

scholar Tom Pomposello, and college student, former musician, and amateur recording engineer

Fred Seibert Frederick (Fred) Seibert (born September 15, 1951) is an American television producer, co-founder of MTV and the CEO of FredFilms, an animation production company based in Burbank, California. His official biography states he has led five (working ...

, when Pomposello was musing about the best way to record and release his band's music. Seibert suggested a major label was a thing of the past and the way of the future was that Pomposello should record himself. The two quickly formed a partnership. Seibert hosted a

, WKCR-FM radio show, and had recorded Pomposello when he accompanied legendary country blues artist

Mississippi Fred McDowell Fred McDowell (January 12, 1904 – July 3, 1972), known by his stage name Mississippi Fred McDowell, was an American hill country blues singer and guitar player. Career McDowell was born in Rossville, Tennessee, United States. His parents were f ...

The Gaslight Cafe The Gaslight Cafe was a coffeehouse in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York. Also known as The Village Gaslight, it opened in 1958 and became notable as a venue for folk music and other musical acts.Al AronowitzThe Gaslight, ...

in November 1971. They agreed that the tapes were a commercial offering that could be used to launch the label. Pomposello suggested the tongue-in-cheek name Oblivion, cadged from an obscure Leo Kottke album, mistakenly believing the name to be a satire. Along with third partner Dick Pennington, who provided the initial financing, Oblivion released its maiden album,

: '' Live in New York'' in the spring of 1972. 1972 also saw the release of the label's only

45rpm single In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separat ...

, "

Johnny Woods Johnny Woods (November 1, 1917 – February 1, 1990) was an American blues singer and harmonica player in the north Mississippi hill country blues style. Woods was born in Looxahoma, Mississippi, a small town just west of Mississippi Highway ...

: Mississippi Harmonica" from Fred McDowell's sometime musical partner,

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

player

. Seibert's interest was jazz, and by the end of 1972 the first jazz session was recorded, pointing the company towards the future.

Marc Cohen Marc Cohen is an American radio personality who has spent over 30 years as a prominent Southern California announcer. He has performed on both television and radio and has a long running technology show, which is not only well respected, it is on ...

(who eventually changed his last name and primary instrument) was a former Columbia student and mainstream jazz alto saxophone player who came to WKCR with a trio and his saxophone plugged into an Echoplex and amplifier. Seibert heard kinship with

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...

', Tony Williams', and

John McLaughlin John or Jon McLaughlin may refer to: Arts and entertainment * John McLaughlin (musician) (born 1942), English jazz fusion guitarist, member of Mahavishnu Orchestra * Jon McLaughlin (musician) (born 1982), American singer-songwriter * John McLaugh ...

's electronic experiments, and with the addition of guitarist John Abercrombie recorded one of the earliest "electronic jazz" records, soon to be known as

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...

. The album (five stars from ''

Down Beat Magazine ' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...

'') was named "Friends" (Copland felt it was a collective effort), with a cover by a

based "outsider"

Sam Steinberg Samuel Steinberg, (December 25, 1905 – May 24, 1978) was a Hungarian-born Canadian businessman, investor and philanthropist. He was an immigrant to Canada who transformed the grocery store founded by his mother, Steinberg's Supermarket, into ...

, it was Oblivion's third release. Pomposello's

scholarship was increasing and one area of particular interest was the state of the form in the immediate

metropolitan area, Oblivion's home territory. Never a deep hotbed of traditional blues (

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

was the Northern U.S. center of the music), nevertheless New York had a reliable output over the postwar years by such artists as Elmore James, Wilbert Harrison, and

Buster Brown Buster Brown is a comic-strip character created in 1902 by Richard F. Outcault. Adopted as the mascot of the Brown Shoe Company in 1904, Buster Brown, along with Mary Jane, and with his dog Tige, became well known to the United States of America ...

. When guitarist & vocalist Charles Walker visited WKCR, Pomposello made it his mission to record him over a year's time with various configurations of a dozen local players. ''

Blues from the Apple 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 Afric ...

'' came out in 1974 and fittingly credited to "Charles Walker & the New York City Blues Band."

Joe Lee Wilson Joe Lee Wilson (December 22, 1935 – July 17, 2011) was an American jazz singer from Bristow, Oklahoma, who lived in Europe since 1977. Biography Part African-American and part Creek people, Creek Native American,John Fordham (jazz critic), ...

was a mainstream jazz vocalist who was making his name in Manhattan's loft scene of the 1970s. He recorded a highly buzzed session at WKCR in 1972, which Oblivion launched as ''Livin' High Off Nickels and Dimes'', a New York jazz radio sensation in the autumn of 1974. Oblivion's last album was its inspiration. ''Honest Tom Pomposello'' was an album of Americana "roots music", spanning from the expected

, to

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 Fol ...

and R&B, utilizing nine musicians recorded over two years. With only two reliably commercial records,

Fred McDowell Fred McDowell (January 12, 1904 – July 3, 1972), known by his stage name Mississippi Fred McDowell, was an American hill country blues singer and guitar player. Career McDowell was born in Rossville, Tennessee, United States. His parents were f ...

's '' Live in New York'' and

's ''Livin' High Off Nickels and Dimes'', Oblivion found it could no longer be sustained off the passions of its founders, the saga of many independent labels with inadequate capitalization. The company ceased initial operations in 1976.

Activities in the digital era

Dick Pennington left company operations after

, Tom Pomposello passed away after a car accident in 1999,

went on to work in television, becoming a leading independent animation producer and a pioneer in digital video. In 2001,

Seibert Seibert is a surname of German origin. It comes from the German personal name ''Seibert'', which is derived from one of three related "battle names" which were originally spelled ''Siegfried'', ''Siegbert'', and ''Sigismund''; translating as "Vi ...

–having led MTV Networks' internet division and founding trailblazing video programmer

Next New Networks The YouTube Next Lab and Audience Development Group, founded as Next New Networks, is a company based in New York City. Next New was launched in March 2007 by founders Fred Seibert & Emil Rensing, and co-founders Herb Scannell, Timothy Shey and ...

– revived Oblivion's catalog, first in downloads and eventually in streaming audio on all global platforms. The company's activities are chronicled on a Tumblr blog. Its latest release will drop in early 2022.

Discography

''All titles available on streaming services.''

References

External links

The Official Oblivion Records website
{{Authority control American independent record labels Companies based in Suffolk County, New York WKCR-FM Defunct companies based in New York City Record labels disestablished in 1976 Record labels established in 1972