Oliver Weindling (born 1955) is a British

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 ...

promoter and founder of the

Babel Babel is a name used in the Hebrew Bible for the city of Babylon and may refer to: Arts and media Written works Books *Babel (book), ''Babel'' (book), by Patti Smith * Babel (2012 manga), ''Babel'' (2012 manga), by Narumi Shigematsu * Babel (20 ...

jazz record label.

Background

He came from a family that encouraged his interest in music, being taken to the

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

and concerts regularly. Originally an economist by training with degrees from

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

and

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

and ten years working in various banks and other organisations. He nevertheless became more and more involved with music, as a performer, such as

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

tist with

The Oxcentrics The Oxcentrics is a Dixieland jazz band founded in 1975 at Oxford University. The band's name was derived from ''The Oxontrics'', an original 1920s jazz band. Several (although by no means all) members were from University College, where many of ...

, and latterly as an organiser. Weindling started the Babel Label in 1994, which has since had over 150 releases ranging from

Penny Rimbaud Penny Lapsang Rimbaud (born Jeremy John Ratter, 1943) is a writer, poet, philosopher, painter, musician and activist. He was a member of the performance art groups EXIT and Ceres Confusion, and in 1972 was co-founder of the Stonehenge Free Fes ...

to Billy Jenkins to

Polar Bear The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear specie ...

and

Acoustic Ladyland Acoustic Ladyland was a London-based jazz-punk band consisting of Pete Wareham on vocals and saxophone, Seb Rochford on drums, Chris Sharkey on guitar, and Ruth Goller on bass guitar. Tom Herbert of The Invisible (band), The Invisible played b ...

. He is also a director of the Vortex Jazz Club and was instrumental in achieving the successful move of the club from

Stoke Newington Stoke Newington is an area occupying the north-west part of the London Borough of Hackney in north-east London, England. It is northeast of Charing Cross. The Manor of Stoke Newington gave its name to Stoke Newington the ancient parish. The ...

to the Dalston Culture House. He is a director of Radio Jazz Research in Germany. He has regularly contributed articles to the website of the Vortex Jazz Club and of Londonjazznews. He was nominated for a BBC Jazz Award in 2008 for Services to Jazz and was awarded an Honorary

ARAM Aram may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Aram'' (film), 2002 French action drama * Aram, a fictional character in Japanese manga series '' MeruPuri'' * Aram Quartet, an Italian music group * ''Aram'' (Kural book), the first of the three ...

degree from the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

in 2009.News: Jazz figures honoured at RAMLondonJazz
2009.

References

External links

Babel Label

Vortex Jazz Club

Ollie Weindling (babellabel)
on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weindling, Oliver 1955 births Living people English record producers Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Alumni of the London School of Economics English jazz clarinetists Jazz record producers 21st-century clarinetists Oxcentrics members