Spotlite Records 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 ...

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 ...

. It was founded in 1968 by British producer Tony Williams, originally as an outlet for

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

's Dial

recordings A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

. It has reissued other Dial masters, and undertaken new recordings featuring artists such as,

Don Rendell Donald Percy Rendell (4 March 1926 – 20 October 2015) was an English jazz musician and arranger. Mainly active as a tenor saxophonist, he also played soprano saxophone, flute, and clarinet. Career Rendell was born in Plymouth, England, an ...

Al Haig Alan Warren Haig (July 19, 1922 – November 16, 1982) was an American jazz pianist, best known as one of the pioneers of bebop. Biography Haig was born in Newark, New Jersey and raised in nearby Nutley. In 1940, he majored in piano at Obe ...

and Peter King. The origins of Spotlite Records grew out of a discography of Charlie Parker that Tony Williams produced in the early 1960s. This led to correspondence with Ross Russell, the proprietor of Dial Records, who subsequently gave Williams the rights to reproduce the Dial sessions under the Spotlite label. Friendship with Ross Russell, with encouragement from Williams resulted in Russell completing the writing and publication of his biography of Charlie Parker, ''Bird Lives''.

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{{Authority control Jazz record labels British jazz record labels