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Leo Records

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Leo Records
Founded1979 (1979)
FounderLeo Feigin
GenreJazz
Country of originUK
LocationLondon, England
Official websiteleorecordsmusic.com

Leo Records is a British record company and label, founded in 1979, which releases jazz from Russian, American and British musicians. It concentrates on free jazz.[1] This label is different from the Leo Records that was formed by Edward Vesala in Helsinki, Finland, in 1978.[1]

History

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Leo Records was founded in 1979 by Leo Feigin (also known under his broadcasting name Aleksei Leonidov), a Russian immigrant to Britain.[2] The label was particularly associated with establishing the world reputation of the Ganelin Trio during the 1970s and 1980s.[3]

In its first ten years, releases from Leo included albums by musicians from the Soviet Union such as Sergey Kuryokhin, Sainkho Namtchylak and Valentina Ponomaryova.[4] By the end of 1986, Leo had released more than 20 albums by musicians from Communist countries, including the Soviet Union.[5] In 1987, a DownBeat reviewer commented that Leo had been "the main conduit for the Soviet avant garde's recorded output anywhere, East or West."[6] Leo's promotion of Soviet jazz musicians helped secure concerts for some of them spread over a week at the 1989 Zurich jazz festival; recordings from the concerts were released as Conspiracy: Soviet Jazz Festival, Zurich 1989.[7]

By the mid-1990s, Leo had introduced the Leo Lab series, "as an imprint for emerging and unknown artists".[8] Leo has released more than 50 recordings by saxophonist Ivo Perelman.[9]

By 2019, Feigin had ceased being actively involved in production, instead concentrating on "handling administrative tasks while the musicians themselves record and design artwork."[4] In 2024, he reached an agreement with Phil Freeman, a writer and owner of a record label, to make some of Leo's back catalogue available via Bandcamp.[10][11]

Noted artists

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References

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  1. ^ a b Adams, Simon (2002). Barry Kernfeld (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, vol. 1 (2nd ed.). New York: Grove's Dictionaries Inc. p. 573. ISBN 1561592846.
  2. ^ Leo Records, All About Jazz, 10 February 2004.
  3. ^ Kelsey, Chris. "Ganelin Trio: Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 9 January 2011.
  4. ^ a b Margasak, Peter (June 2019). "Enduring Passion". DownBeat. Vol. 86, no. 6. p. 58.
  5. ^ Roberts, Jim (November 1986). "Nostalgia in Red Square". DownBeat. Vol. 53, no. 11. p. 36.
  6. ^ Shoemaker, Bill (August 1987). "Book Reviews". DownBeat. Vol. 54, no. 8. p. 55.
  7. ^ Lange, Art (July 1992). "Who's Russian Now?". DownBeat. Vol. 59, no. 7. p. 54.
  8. ^ Corbett, John (May 1998). "Beyond the Bloc". DownBeat. Vol. 65, no. 5. p. 69.
  9. ^ Sharpe, John (July 2021). "On Screen". New York City Jazz Record. No. 231. p. 24.
  10. ^ Brady, Shaun (7 February 2025). "A Second Life for the Avant-Jazz of Leo Records". Bandcamp.com. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
  11. ^ "Free Jazz Blog Interview with Phil Freeman". freejazzblog. 13 November 2024. Retrieved 21 April 2025.

Further reading

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