American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
Record Label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
that focuses on multiple genres, including but not limited to hip hop, electronic,
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
, Latin,
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
Ubiquity Records was conceived by Michael McFadin in the late 80’s after reading an article about how Delicious Vinyl was inspired by an article on Def Jam Records. He founded the label in 1990 along with his wife at the time out of the back of his record shop Groove Merchant Records in the Lower Haight of San Francisco.
In 1989, Groove Merchant was a first of its kind (in the U.S.) boutique record shop in the Lower Haight area of San Francisco that specialized in vintage jazz, funk and soul genres. The shop soon got a reputation as ‘the place’ for collectors and musicians to visit when in town. Some frequent customers included Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest, Jamiroquai, Red Hot Chili Peppers, DJ Shadow, DJ Lethal, Neneh Cherry and her father Don Cherry, Tracy Chapman, Victor Willis of the Village People, Craig Kallman, Biz Markie, Marques Wyatt, Dante Ross, Dee-Lite and most notably the Beastie Boys who gave Michael a shout out in their song ‘Professor Booty’ ''“This one goes out to my man, the Groove Merchant, Coming through with beats for which I've been searching, Like two sealed copies, of Expansions, I'm like Tom Vu with yachts and mansions”''.
Ubiquity Recordings is located in Costa Mesa, California, with an office in DTLA, California. Ubiquity has two imprint labels, Luv N' Haight (specializing in reissues) and Cubop Records (specializing in Latin jazz and salsa). Including all three imprints, the label has released over 8000 songs spanning all genres of music.
Artists
;Ubiquity
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Babatunde Lea
Babatunde Lea ( ) is an American percussionist who plays Afro-Cuban jazz and worldbeat. He took his name from Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji.
Biography
Michael Lea was raised in Englewood, New Jersey, while regularly commuting to 116th an ...
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Beatless
''Beatless'' is a Japanese science fiction serial novel written by Satoshi Hase and illustrated by Redjuice. The series has inspired three spin-off manga series and a 24-episode anime television series by Diomedéa, which aired from Janua ...
Breakestra
Breakestra is a ten-piece funk "orchestra" from Los Angeles, California, formed by Miles Tackett in 1996.
Tackett, also known as "Musicman", records, composes, plays bass, upright cello, guitar, keyboards and drums. He also sings along with the ...
Clutchy Hopkins
Clutchy Hopkins is purportedly a multi-instrumentalist musician based out of California. His existence has not yet been fully verified, though he is widely believed to be a pseudonym for one of several popular DJs. The true identity of the pers ...
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Connie Price and the Keystones
Connie Price and the Keystones is a project helmed by guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Dan Ubick from Los Angeles, California, combining influences of funk, hip-hop, psych and soul. Besides Ubick, it had a revolving membership while they performe ...
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Darondo
William Daron Pulliam (October 5, 1946 – June 9, 2013), who performed in the 1970s under the name Darondo, was an American soul singer from the San Francisco Bay Area.
Life and career
Darondo was born in 1946 in Berkeley, California. As a ch ...
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DJ Greyboy
DJ Greyboy (a.k.a. Andreas Stevens) is an acid jazz DJ from San Diego, California now residing in Long Beach, California. Early in his career he was the partner of Rob Dyrdek in Crime on the Turn Tables. His style of music includes hip hop, so ...
Eddie Harris
Eddie Harris (October 20, 1934 – November 5, 1996) was an American jazz musician, best known for playing tenor saxophone and for introducing the electrically amplified saxophone. He was also fluent on the electric piano and organ. His best-k ...
James Taylor Quartet
The James Taylor Quartet (or JTQ) are a British four-piece jazz funk band formed in 1985 by Hammond organ player James Taylor following the break-up of his former band The Prisoners (band), The Prisoners, and in the wake of Stiff Records' ba ...
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Jeremy Ellis
Jeremy Ellis (15 February 1866 – 14 August 1943) was an English cricketer active from 1892 to 1898 who played for Lancashire. He was born in Bury and died in Billington. He appeared in six first-class matches as a lefthanded batsman who bowled ...
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Jimi Tenor
Jimi Tenor (born Lassi O. T. Lehto, 1965) is a Finnish musician. His artist name is a combination of the first name of his youth idol Jimmy Osmond and the tenor saxophone. His band Jimi Tenor & His Shamans released its first album in 1988, whilst ...
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Kirk Degiorgio
Kirk Degiorgio, better known as As One, is a British techno producer and DJ. Born in the late 1960s in Stepney, East London, and raised in Suffolk, he started producing music in the early 1990s. He founded the labels A.R.T. Records and Op-Art ...
Ohmega Watts
Ohmega Watts, real name Milton Campbell, is an American hip hop producer and vocalist from Brooklyn, New York. He releases music under the name Ohmega Watts and as a part of the Lightheaded crew.
Biography
Campbell was born and raised in Broo ...
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Orgone
Orgone () is a pseudoscientific concept variously described as an esoteric energy or hypothetical universal life force. Originally proposed in the 1930s by Wilhelm Reich, and developed by Reich's student Charles Kelley after Reich's death in 1 ...
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Platinum Pied Pipers
Platinum Pied Pipers is a Detroit-based hip hop and R&B group composed of producer Waajeed (Robert O'Bryant), and multi-instrumentalist Saadiq (Darnell Bolden, not to be confused with Raphael Saadiq). Their music usually features a rotating a ...
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Puracane
Puracane is an electronic music band from New York, featuring Ali Rogers on vocals, Juan Masotta on guitar and programming, David Leatherwood on bass, Susan Elinger on Piano, and Tony Diodore on guitar and violin.
History
Puracane formed in 1999 ...
Sa-Ra Creative Partners
Sa-Ra is an American musical group based in Los Angeles, California, also known by its full name, The Sa-Ra Creative Partners. The group is composed of Om'Mas Keith, Taz Arnold, and Shafiq Husayn. The name translates roughly to "the children of G ...
Theo Parrish
Theo Parrish (born 1972) is an American DJ and record producer based in Detroit, Michigan, and known for his genre-spanning DJ sets and unconventional house productions. He is an owner of the Sound Signature record label.
Biography
Theo Parrish w ...
;Cubop
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Francisco Aguabella
Francisco Aguabella (October 10, 1925 – May 7, 2010) was an Afro-Cuban percussionist whose career spanned folk, jazz, and dance bands. He was a prolific session musician and recorded seven albums as a leader.
Biography In Cuba
Aguabella wa ...
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Jack Costanzo
Jack Costanzo (September 24, 1919 – August 18, 2018) was an American percussionist.
Biography
A composer, conductor and drummer, Costanzo is best known for having been a bongo player, and was nicknamed "Mr. Bongo". He visited Havana three ...
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Bobby Matos
Bobby Matos (July 24, 1941 – November 11, 2017) was an American Latin jazz percussionist.
Life and career
Bobby Matos was born in the Bronx, New York on July 24, 1941. He began playing music by hitting pots and pans in his grandmother's apartmen ...
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Dave Pike
David Samuel Pike (March 23, 1938 – October 3, 2015) was an American jazz vibraphone and marimba player. He appeared on many albums by Nick Brignola, Paul Bley and Kenny Clarke, Bill Evans, and Herbie Mann. He also recorded extensively as lea ...
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Arturo Sandoval
Arturo Sandoval is a Cuban-American jazz trumpeter, pianist, and composer. While living in his native Cuba, Sandoval was influenced by jazz musicians Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, and Dizzy Gillespie. In 1977 he met Gillespie, who became his ...
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Snowboy
Snowboy (a.k.a. Mark Cotgrove) is an English percussionist, bandleader, DJ and journalist.Gloria Ann Taylor
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Weldon Irvine
Weldon Jonathan Irvine Jr. (October 27, 1943 – April 9, 2002), also known as Master Wel, was an American composer, playwright, poet, pianist, organist, and keyboardist.
Biography
Irvine, an African American, was born in Hampton, Virginia, on ...
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RAMP
An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an angle from the vertical direction, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a load. The inclined plane is one of the six clas ...
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Darondo
William Daron Pulliam (October 5, 1946 – June 9, 2013), who performed in the 1970s under the name Darondo, was an American soul singer from the San Francisco Bay Area.
Life and career
Darondo was born in 1946 in Berkeley, California. As a ch ...
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Mike James Kirkland
Mike James Kirkland (born 1949 in Yazoo City, Mississippi) is an American R&B singer. He began his recording career in 1965, as leader of Mike & The Censations, a quartet which included his brother Robert, their sister and her husband. He was also ...