Vanguard Recording Society is an American record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and

Seymour Solomon Seymour Solomon (May 23, 1922 – July 18, 2002)New York City. It was a primarily classical label at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, but also has a catalogue of recordings by a number of pivotal jazz, folk, 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 ...

musicians. The Bach Guild was a subsidiary label. The label was acquired by Concord Bicycle Music in April 2015.

History

The newly founded venture's first record was of J.S. Bach's 21st cantata, ''Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis'', BWV 21 ("I had much grief"), with

Jonathan Sternberg Jonathan Sternberg (July 27, 1919 – May 8, 2018) was an American conductor, musical director and professor emeritus of music. He is known for his work with symphonic orchestras in the United States, China, Germany and Austria, and for introducing ...

conducting the tenor Hugues Cuénod and other soloists, chorus and orchestra. "What speaks for the Solomons' steadfastness in their taste and their task", wrote a ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' journalist in November 1966, "is that this record is still alive in the catalogue (SC-501). As Seymour says, it was a good performance, not easy to top. Of the whole Vanguard/Bach Guild catalogue, numbering about 480 issues, 30 are Bach records..." The label also recorded other

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

and earlier works, pieces from the English Madrigal School performed by the Deller Consort, Italian and French madrigal masterpieces, Elizabethan and Jacobean music, and

Henry Purcell Henry Purcell (, rare: September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer. Purcell's style of Baroque music was uniquely English, although it incorporated Italian and French elements. Generally considered among the greatest E ...

. In 1953, under the direction of John Hammond, the company began the Jazz Showcase series that concentrated on mainstream jazz, producing about two dozen recordings before it was closed in 1958. Recordings made at the

Spirituals to Swing ''From Spirituals to Swing'' was the title of two concerts presented by John Hammond in Carnegie Hall on 23 December 1938 and 24 December 1939. The concerts included performances by Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson ...

concerts in 1938 and 1939 were released by Vanguard in 1959. The company only intermittently pursued recording jazz after that. In the mid-1950s Vanguard signed blacklisted performers Paul Robeson and the Weavers. It continued to issue folk music with newly signed artists Joan Baez, Hedy West, the Rooftop Singers, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Ian and Sylvia, and

Mimi Mimi or MIMI may refer to: People * Mimi (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Constantin Mimi (1868–1935), Bessarabian politician and winemaker * Mimi (footballer, born 1996), Bissau Guinean footballer * Mohanad Ali (born 2 ...

and Richard Fariña. In the summer of 1965,

Maynard Solomon Maynard Elliott Solomon (January 5, 1930 – September 28, 2020) was an American music executive and musicologist, a co-founder of Vanguard Records as well as a music producer."Maynard Solomon" in ''Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians'', v ...

hired

Samuel Charters Samuel Barclay Charters IV (August 1, 1929 – March 18, 2015) was an American music historian, writer, record producer, musician, and poet. He was a widely published author on the subjects of blues and jazz. He also wrote fiction. Overview Cha ...

to edit the tapes of the 1964 Newport Folk Festival. Following that project, the company sent Charters to Chicago to capture the broad range of blues musicians there. Those sessions resulted in the 1966 three-album series titled ''Chicago/The Blues/Today!''. The albums included Junior Wells with Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters's bandmates

Otis Spann Otis Spann (March 21, 1924 or 1930April 24, 1970) was an American blues musician, whom many consider to be the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist. Early life Sources differ over Spann's early years. Some state that he was born in Jackson, Miss ...

and James Cotton,

Otis Rush Otis Rush Jr. (April 29, 1934 – September 29, 2018) was an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter. His distinctive guitar style featured a slow-burning sound and long bent notes. With qualities similar to the styles of other 1950s art ...

, Homesick James, Johnny Shines, Big Walter Horton, and Charlie Musselwhite. Vanguard released numerous classical recordings, both domestically produced and imported. Many of the latter came from the United Kingdom's Pye Records label, featuring performances by the Halle Orchestra conducted by Sir John Barbirolli. The recordings were so exceptional that many classical radio stations programmed them. Vanguard even released some quadraphonic classical recordings in the early 1970s, including a performance of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony with the

American Symphony Orchestra The American Symphony Orchestra is a New York-based American orchestra founded in 1962 by Leopold Stokowski whose mission is to demystify orchestral music and make it accessible and affordable for all audiences. Leon Botstein is the orchestra's m ...

conducted by Leopold Stokowski. The label also released many performances by the Utah Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maurice Abravanel, including one of the first sets of the complete ten symphonies of

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...

, a complete performance of '' The Nutcracker'', as well as the earlier P.D.Q. Bach recordings, from 1965 to 1983. Vanguard was the first American label to release the complete 1944 high fidelity recordings of composer

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...

conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in most of his tone poems; the recordings were made on the

Magnetophon Magnetophone, or simply Magnetophon, was the brand or model name of the pioneering reel-to-reel tape recorder developed by engineers of the German electronics company AEG in the 1930s, based on the magnetic tape invention by Fritz Pfleumer Fr ...

tape recording equipment in the Vienna Opera House. The multiplicity of popular in-house

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

series released by the Solomons on Vanguard and

Bach Guild Vanguard Recording Society is an American record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York City. It was a primarily classical label at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, but also has a catalogue of recordings by a n ...

between 1950 and 1966 include, in addition to 22 Bach

cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning of ...

s, the virtuoso trumpet, virtuoso flute and virtuoso oboe, along with German University Songs with Erich Kunz, songs of the Auvergne, Viennese dances with Willi Boskovsky, traditional songs by Roland Hayes, Vivaldi's

Four Seasons The Four Seasons, originally referring to the traditional seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter (typical of a temperate climate), may refer to: Music * ''The Four Seasons'' (Vivaldi), a 1725 set of four violin concertos by Antonio Viv ...

and other concertos from I Solisti di Zagreb, music by

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

, numerous Haydn symphonies performed by the Esterhazy Orchestra, a double LP of Gluck's opera

Orfeo ed Euridice ' (; French: '; English: ''Orpheus and Eurydice'') is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck, based on Orpheus, the myth of Orpheus and set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the ''azione teatrale'', mea ...

sung in Italian with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra led by Charles Mackerras, and an influential Mahler cycle with the Utah Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maurice Abravanel. After entering the rock and roll market by signing Country Joe and the Fish, Vanguard started a 6500 series for releases by rock acts but had little success. By the early 1970s, with acts such as Joan Baez and Ian & Sylvia leaving for other labels, and disappointing sales for the "Everyman" budget classical series, Vanguard's stature in the music industry was diminished. The label stayed minimally active with specialty releases such as those by Indian classical musician and sarod virtuoso Vasant Rai. An unexpected novelty hit on Vanguard, " Shaving Cream" by

Benny Bell Benny Bell (born Benjamin Samberg, March 21, 1906 – July 6, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter who reached popularity in the 1940s, with a comeback in the 1970s. He is remembered for his risqué but cheerfully optimistic songs. Career B ...

, led the company to release albums of humorous music inspired by Dr. Demento. In the late 1970s Tom Paxton issued two albums, ''New Songs from the Briar-patch'' and ''Heroes'', on the label. A few disco albums by acts such as Players Association, Alphone Mouzon's "Poussez", and Marcus Barone's "The Ring/Savage Lover" were released on Vanguard with both domestic and worldwide chart impact. After this period of near-dormancy, Vanguard was sold to the

Welk Music Group Welk Music Group is an American record company comprising Ranwood Records. It was founded by Lawrence Welk and is still owned by the Welk Family. The company evolved from when Welk's Teleklew Productions acquired Harry Von Tilzer Music in 1957. ...

in 1985. The Welk Group sold the classical music catalog back to Seymour Solomon. Welk Music Group revitalized the label, reissuing much of its extensive folk and popular music back catalogue (a good deal of which had been out of print for several years) on CD, as well as signing a number of new artists (such as Matt Nathanson, Mindy Smith, Greg Laswell, and Trevor Hall), in addition to established musicians such as Merle Haggard,

John Fogerty John Cameron Fogerty (born May 28, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. Together with Doug Clifford, Stu Cook, and his brother Tom Fogerty Thomas Richard Fogerty (November 9, 1941 – September 6, 1990) was an American mu ...

, Chris Isaak, Robert Cray, Shawn Mullins, and Linda Ronstadt. The label also formed marketing partnerships with a number of artist-run label imprints, to include

Levon Helm Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm (May 26, 1940 – April 19, 2012) was an American musician who achieved fame as the drummer and one of the three lead vocalists for the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. H ...

(

Dirt Farmer Music Dirt is an unclean matter, especially when in contact with a person's clothes, skin, or possessions. In such cases, they are said to become dirty. Common types of dirt include: * Debris: scattered pieces of waste or remains * Dust: a genera ...

Indigo Girls Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo from Atlanta, Georgia, United States, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. The two met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part o ...

(

IG Recording IG, Ig, or ig may refer to: Companies * IG Farben, a former German industrial conglomerate * IG Group, a UK financial services company * IG Recordings, a record label formed by the Indigo Girls, an American folk/rock duo * Production I.G, a Japane ...

), and Chely Wright (

Painted Red Music Paint is any pigmented liquid, liquefiable, or solid mastic composition that, after application to a substrate in a thin layer, converts to a solid film. It is most commonly used to protect, color, or provide texture. Paint can be made in many ...

), among others. This era for Vanguard also garnered the label three consecutive Grammy Awards for Levon Helm, multiple Grammy Awards for Robert Cray, and an

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

certified platinum single for Matt Nathanson's " Come on Get Higher." In 2008, Welk Music Group began a distribution deal with EMI to handle its labels, including Vanguard. After Seymour Solomon's death, Vanguard Classics was sold to Artemis Records, which reactivated the company with new releases by Leon Fleisher and Gil Shaham. When Artemis folded in 2004, the Vanguard Classics catalogue was sold to

Sheridan Square Entertainment Sheridan may refer to: People Surname *Sheridan (surname) *Philip Sheridan (1831–1888), U.S. Army general after whom the Sheridan tank is named *Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816), Irish playwright (''The Rivals''), poet and politician ...

, which is licensing the Vanguard Classics material. Sheridan Square eventually became IndieBlu, which was acquired by

Entertainment One Entertainment One Ltd., trading as eOne, is an American-owned Canadian multinational entertainment company. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition, distribution, and production of films and television se ...

in 2010. Vanguard Music Group was acquired by Concord Bicycle Music in April 2015., Vanguard used the

Brooklyn Masonic Temple Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behin ...

in New York City as one of its recording studios for many of its sessions. Kahn, Ashley
''Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece''
Da Capo Press, 2001. Cf. p.77"The Vanguard Sessions"
''Jazz Lives'', November 12, 2009.

Roster

Classical artists (1950-1966)

* Maurice Abravanel *

Julius Baker Julius Baker (September 23, 1915 – August 6, 2003) was one of the foremost American orchestral flute players. During the course of five decades he concertized with several of America's premier orchestral ensembles including the Chicago Sympho ...

* Alfred Brendel *

Adrian Boult Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London ...

* John Barbirolli * Willi Boskovsky * Jeanne-Marie Darre *

Netania Davrath Netania Davrath (Нетания Доврат) (12 August 193111 April 1987) was a Ukrainian-born Israeli soprano opera and concert singer. Early life and study In 1948, Davrath moved to Israel with her family. There, she studied in Jerusalem wit ...

* Alfred Deller *

Mischa Elman Mischa (Mikhail Saulovich) Elman (russian: Михаил Саулович Эльман; January 20, 1891April 5, 1967) was a Russian-born American violinist famed for his passionate style, beautiful tone, and impeccable artistry and musicality. E ...

* Maureen Forrester * Vladimir Golschmann * Anton Heiller *

Antonio Janigro Antonio Janigro (21 January 19181 May 1989) was an Italian cellist and conductor. Biography Born in Milan, he began studying piano when he was six and cello when he was eight. Initially taught by Giovanni Berti, Janigro enrolled in the Verdi ...

* Charles Mackerras *

Jan Peerce Jan Peerce (born Yehoshua Pinkhes Perelmuth; June 3, 1904 December 15, 1984) was an American operatic tenor. Peerce was an accomplished performer on the operatic and Broadway theatre, Broadway concert stages, in solo recitals, and as a recordi ...

* Felix Prohaska * Alexander Schneider * Peter Serkin * Leopold Stokowski * Joseph Szigeti

Current artists

Barenaked Ladies Barenaked Ladies is a Canadian rock band formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario. The band developed a following in Canada, with their self-titled 1991 cassette becoming the first independent release to be certified gold in Canada. They reach ...

* Blue Giant * Bruce Hornsby * Chely Wright * Chris Isaak * Clairy Browne & The Bangin' Rackettes * Collective Soul * Diane Schuur * The Gourds * Greg Laswell *

* Isobel Campbell * Lee DeWyze * The Living Sisters * Marc Broussard * Matt Nathanson * O.A.R. * Ozomatli *

Parachute A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag or, in a ram-air parachute, aerodynamic lift. A major application is to support people, for recreation or as a safety device for aviators, who ...

* Robert Francis * Rodney Crowell * Shawn Mullins * Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers *

Susanna Hoffs Susanna Lee Hoffs (born January 17, 1959) is an American singer and guitarist, best known as a co-founder of the pop-rock band The Bangles. Hoffs founded The Bangles (originally called the Bangs) in 1981 with Debbi and Vicki Peterson. They re ...

* Trevor Hall * Viva Voce

Former artists

(Partial list) * Pat Martino *

Alisha Alisha (Arabic: علیشا Romanized: 'Alīshā) is cognate of the female given name Alicia, a variant of Alice, which comes from the Old English name Æthelhādas or Æðelhādas, meaning "noble natured" (noble of kind). Variant forms used by no ...

Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness Andrew Ross McMahon (born September 3, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter. He was the vocalist, pianist and primary lyricist for the bands Something Corporate and main songwriter for Jack's Mannequin and performs solo both under his own nam ...

The Alternate Routes The Alternate Routes are an American rock band based in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The group was formed by Tim Warren and Eric Donnelly in 2002 while studying at Fairfield University. As of early 2013, The Alternate Routes were touring and workin ...

* Eric Andersen * Joan Baez * BeauSoleil *

Blues Traveler Blues Traveler (formerly known as "The Establishment" or "The Black Cat Jam" or "The Establishment Blues Band") is an American rock band that formed in Princeton, New Jersey in 1987. They are known for extensive use of segues in live performance ...

* Robert Bradley * Alison Brown * Sandy Bull * Kimberly Caldwell *

Camper Van Beethoven Camper Van Beethoven is an American rock band formed in Redlands, California in 1983, later based in Santa Cruz and San Francisco. Their style mixes elements of pop, ska, punk rock, folk, alternative country, and world music. The band init ...

* Carbon Leaf * Peter Case * Don Williams * Deana Carter * Liam Clancy * The Clancy Brothers * Buck Clayton *

Larry Coryell Larry Coryell (born Lorenz Albert Van DeLinder III; April 2, 1943 – February 19, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist. Early life Larry Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas, United States. He never knew his biological father, a musician. He w ...

* James Cotton * Joe Grushecky * The Country Gentlemen * Country Joe & the Fish * Robert Cray * Pee Wee Crayton * Catie Curtis * Erik Darling * Vic Dickenson * The Dillards * Ramblin' Jack Elliott * John Fahey * Richard Fariña & Mimi Fariña * Flashman * Flogging Molly *

Julia Fordham Julia Fordham (born 10 August 1962) is a British singer-songwriter. Her professional career started in the early 1980s, under the name "Jules Fordham", as a backing singer for Mari Wilson and Kim Wilde, before signing a recording contract of he ...

Bob Frank Robert Landis Frank (February 26, 1944 – July 18, 2019) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and composer. His debut self-titled record was issued on Vanguard Records in 1972 to critical acclaim and is a collectors itemRuhlmann, Willia ...

* Kinky Friedman * The Frost * Steve Gillette * Buddy Guy * Merle Haggard * John Hammond *

* John Hiatt * Big Walter Horton * Cisco Houston * Jesca Hoop * Mississippi John Hurt *

J.B. Hutto Joseph Benjamin Hutto (April 26, 1926 – June 12, 1983) was an American blues musician. He was influenced by Elmore James and became known for his slide guitar playing and declamatory style of singing. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fa ...

Ian & Sylvia Ian & Sylvia were a Canadian folk and country music duo which consisted of Ian and Sylvia Tyson, née Fricker. They began performing together in 1959 (full-time in 1961), married in 1964, and divorced and stopped performing together in 1975. ...

* Indigenous * Skip James * Bert Jansch *

David Earle Johnson David Earle Johnson (April 10, 1938 - December 22, 1998) was a percussionist, composer and music producer. The son of Earle H. Johnson and Lottie Ruth Troutman Johnson of Florence, SC. He appeared on Billy Cobhams’ Total Eclipse and Voyage ...

* Joey + Rory * Klezmer Conservatory Band * Patty Larkin *

Live Live may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film * ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film *'' ''Live'' (Apocalyptica DVD) Music *Live (band), American alternative rock band * List of albums ...

Dave Mallett David Mallett (born April 21, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter best known for his authorship of the "folk standard" composition " Garden Song". He has recorded for independent record labels for most of his career. Biography A resident o ...

* Edwin McCain * John McEuen * Max Morath * Nellie McKay *

Ramsay Midwood Ramsay Midwood is an Austin, Texas-based singer and songwriter. His voice has been likened to Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash, John Prine, and Bruce Springsteen, his lyrical imagery to Tom Waits, and his raw blues music to John Lee Hooker. Biography ...

* Charlie Musselwhite *

Phil Ochs Philip David Ochs (; December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was an American songwriter and protest singer (or, as he preferred, a topical singer). Ochs was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, political activism, often alliterative lyrics, and ...

Sinéad O'Connor Shuhada Sadaqat (born Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor on 8 December 1966; ) is an Irish singer-songwriter. Her debut album, ''The Lion and the Cobra'', was released in 1987 and charted internationally. Her second album, ''I Do Not Want What ...

* Odetta * Oregon * Joan Osborne * Tom Paxton *

* Perrey & Kingsley * Gershon Kingsley * Jean-Jacques Perrey * Jim Kweskin * Kim Richey * Paul Robeson * Linda Ronstadt * The Rooftop Singers *

* Jimmy Rushing * Buffy Sainte-Marie * Peter Schickele * Mark Selby * Shurman * Mindy Smith * Siegel-Schwall Band * Patrick Sky *

* Garrison Starr *

Big Mama Thornton Willie Mae Thornton (December 11, 1926 – July 25, 1984), better known as Big Mama Thornton, was an American singer and songwriter of the blues and R&B genres. She was the first to record Leiber and Stoller's " Hound Dog", in 1952, which becam ...

Switchfoot Switchfoot is an American rock band from San Diego, California. The band's members are Jon Foreman (lead vocals, guitar), Tim Foreman (bass guitar, backing vocals), Chad Butler (drums, percussion), and Jerome Fontamillas (guitar, keyboards, back ...

Twilight 22 Twilight 22 was an American electro band led by Gordon Bahary, but also featuring lead singer and co-songwriter Joseph Saulter. "Electric Kingdom" The duo released only one single, "Electric Kingdom", released on their 1984 debut album '' Twilig ...

* The Vagrants * Jerry Jeff Walker * Peter Walker * The Watson Twins * Doc Watson * The Weavers * Junior Wells * Hedy West * David Wilcox * Mason Williams *

Daphne Willis Daphne Willis is a singer and songwriter residing in Los Angeles, California. __TOC__ Early life Willis was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1987. Willis grew up in a musical family. Her mother studied classical vocal performance at the Universit ...

* Yonder Mountain String Band *

The Young Tradition The Young Tradition were an English folk group of the 1960s, formed by Peter Bellamy, Royston Wood and Heather Wood. They recorded three albums of mainly traditional British folk music, sung in arrangements for their three unaccompanied voic ...

* Zager and Evans

References