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116-776: ECM has been distributed in the U.S. by Warner Bros. Records , PolyGram Records , BMG , and, since 1999, Universal Music , the successor of PolyGram, worldwide. Its album covers were profiled in two books: Sleeves of Desire and Windfall Light , both published by Lars Müller. The first ECM release produced by Manfred Scheffner was pianist Mal Waldron 's 1969 recording Free at Last . The label went on to release recordings by many prominent jazz musicians, including Paul Bley , Keith Jarrett , Jan Garbarek , Pat Metheny , Gary Burton , Chick Corea , Charlie Haden , John Abercrombie , Dave Liebman , Eberhard Weber , Egberto Gismonti , Dave Holland , Terje Rypdal , Stefano Bollani and Ralph Towner . The label has also released recordings in

232-440: A Day (1998) and The Dust of Time (1999), among others by filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos released on ECM. The Swiss actor Bruno Ganz , who has also worked with Angelopoulos, has recorded two spoken word-albums for the label: one in 1984 with poems by Friedrich Hölderlin (ECM New Series 1285) and one in 1999 called Wenn Wasser Wäre (ECM New Series 1723) with works of T. S. Eliot and Giorgos Seferis . Another nameable release

348-503: A Gold Record award, and is cited as being the fastest-selling LP ever released in the US up to that time. Sherman also scored a hit single in late 1963 with a cut from his third WBR album, My Son, The Nut , when his song "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah" (which satirized the American summer camp tradition) became a surprise novelty hit, peaking at #2. Bill Cosby broke through soon after and he continued

464-448: A Large Ensemble/Violin Phase , and Tehillim by Reich were recorded before 1984 (all with the composer performing) and were later moved to the classical department together with some by Meredith Monk , Thomas Demenga and Harald Weiss . Several of John Adams' works from his minimalist period have been released through the label as well, including Harmonium and Harmonielehre . Over

580-410: A US No. 1 with " Windy ", and they reached No. 8 on the album chart with their first Warner Bros. album Insight Out . Their next single " Never My Love " also topped the charts in autumn 1967 (No. 2 Billboard , No. 1 Cashbox ), and now ranks as one of the most successful of all Warner Bros. recordings—it became a radio staple and is now accredited by BMI as the second most-played song on US radio in

696-576: A couple of his works to the Soviet/Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky . This includes pieces on his 2010 solo record Un jour si blanc (ECM 2103) and the albums Nostalghia - Song for Tarkovsky (ECM 1979) from 2006 as well as the Tarkovsky Quartet (ECM 2159) from 2011 - both with photographs and movie stills of Tarkovsky in the booklet. Other examples of works dedicated to the director are Arbos (ECM NewSeries 1325) by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt ,

812-596: A dinner, he recalled that Warner effusively greeted him as "the man who saved Warner Brothers Records". Despite the turnaround in the label's commercial and critical fortunes at the start of the new decade, Jim Conkling was unexpectedly forced out as CEO during 1961. The ostensible reason for his ousting was that Warner and the studio executives doubted Conkling's commitment to the label, after they discovered that he had sold his shares of Warner Bros stock, netting him around $ 1 million. However, label biographer Warren Zanes and former WBR executive Stan Cornyn both opined that this

928-434: A few local radio and TV appearances. His break came thanks to a friend, local DJ Dan Sorkin, who knew Warner CEO Jim Conkling. Sorkin arranged for Newhart to make a demo tape of a few of his original sketches, which Conkling heard and liked. Equally remarkably, Newhart revealed that he had never performed in a club prior to recording the album. Warners arranged to record him at a Houston, Texas club called The Tidelands, where he

1044-428: A few select compilations of major performers. In a press release on its website, ECM explained its decision: In recent years, ECM and the musicians have had to face unauthorized streaming of recordings via video sharing websites, plus piracy, bootlegs, and a proliferation of illegal download sites. It was important to make the catalogue accessible within a framework, where copyrights are respected. ECM further added that

1160-457: A film series of eleven selected movies, which relate to the label. While some of its filmmakers have been related to ECM, like Theo Angelopoulos or Jean-Luc Godard , others gave inspiration to the label, like Ingmar Bergman or Andrei Tarkovsky , and others used music by ECM. The physical catalogue of the exhibition was published by Prestel Verlag in German and English. Another extended exhibition

1276-410: A freelance producer for some of Autumn's acts including The Tikis (who later became Harpers Bizarre ), The Beau Brummels , and The Mojo Men , and for these recording sessions he brought in several musician friends who were then becoming established on the L.A. music scene: composer/musicians Randy Newman (a childhood friend), Leon Russell , and Van Dyke Parks . Together they became the foundation of

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1392-567: A generous retainer of $ 200 per week. Hanging out around Laurel Canyon , Wickham scouted for new talent and established a rapport with the young musicians Warner Bros. was seeking to sign. Like Lenny Waronker, Wickham's youth, intelligence and hip attitude allowed him to bridge the "generation gap between these young performers and the older Warner 'establishment'". He played a major role in signing Eric Andersen , Jethro Tull , Van Morrison , and Joni Mitchell (who signed to Reprise), whom Wickham successfully recommended to Ostin in his first week with

1508-412: A high profile in the industry thanks to songs he wrote that were covered by other acts like Three Dog Night and Alan Price . Although Warner Bros. spent large sums on albums that sold poorly, and there were some missteps in its promotion strategy, the presence of unorthodox acts like The Grateful Dead and critically acclaimed 'cult' performers like Newman and Parks, combined with the artistic freedom that

1624-453: A major reorganization of the entire Warner-Seven Arts music division. Mike Maitland was promoted to Executive Vice-president of both the recorded music and publishing operations, and George Lee took over from Victor Blau as operational head of the recording division. The restructure also reversed the reporting arrangement put in place in 1960, and from this point the Warner publishing arm reported to

1740-430: A meeting with Jerry Wexler , and Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun , co-owners of leading independent label Atlantic Records , which eventually resulted in the purchase of Atlantic in 1968. In June 1967, Mo Ostin attended the historic Monterey International Pop Festival , where The Association performed the opening set. Ostin had already acquired the US rights to The Jimi Hendrix Experience 's recordings, sight unseen, but he

1856-479: A new four-year production and distribution deal with local label Festival Records without informing Warner Bros. During 1969, the rivalry between Mike Maitland and Ahmet Ertegun quickly escalated into an all-out executive battle, but Steve Ross favored Ertegun, and the conflict culminated in Maitland being dismissed from his position on January 25, 1970. He declined an offer of a job with Warner Bros. Pictures and left

1972-423: A portrait about Abercrombie called Open Land: Meeting John Abercrombie (ECM 5053), filmed by Arno Oehri and Oliver Primus . Besides these movies, ECM has also released concert videos of Karaindrou, Marc Sinan, Keith Jarrett solo and with his Standards trio. Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label . A subsidiary of

2088-569: A seat on the Warner/Reprise board; Warner Bros. Records head Mike Maitland became the president of the new combine and Mo Ostin was retained as manager of the Reprise label. Reprise was heavily in debt at the time of the takeover, and the Warner Records management team was reportedly dismayed at their balance sheet being pushed back into the red by the acquisition, but they were given no choice in

2204-480: A special relation towards film and directors. Founder Manfred Eicher himself is a very passionate movie viewer and directed in 1990 an adaption of Max Frisch 's Holozän together with Heinz Bütler . The label has also released some soundtracks e.g. for The Return (2003) by Andrey Zvyagintsev or Nouvelle Vague (ECM NewSeries 1600-01) and Histoire(s) du cinéma (ECM NewSeries 1706) by French-Swiss director Jean-Luc Godard . This collaboration expanded over

2320-408: A strong relationship: all works premiere on recordings for the label and all are done in presence of the composer. Keith Jarrett, better known as a jazz musician, contributed together with Gidon Kremer amongst others to Tabula Rasa . He later recorded several classical works by Bach , Mozart , Shostakovich , and others for the series. The three albums Music for 18 Musicians , Octet/Music for

2436-419: A substantial advance of $ 30,000 and, most significantly, it set a new benchmark for recording contracts by stipulating that the trio would have complete creative control over the recording and packaging of their music. Soon after, Grossman and Mogull signed a publishing deal that gave Witmark one of its most lucrative clients, Bob Dylan . Grossman bought out Dylan's previous contract with Leeds Music and signed

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2552-491: A successful production partnership with noted British studio Hammer Films . Hyman's purchase of Jack L. Warner's controlling share of the Warner group for US$ 32 million stunned the film world—Warner Records executive Joe Smith later quipped that it was ... as if the Pasadena Star-News bought The New York Times . As ludicrous as that." The newly merged group was renamed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts (often referred to in

2668-600: A writer for Melody Maker magazine, Steve Lake first joined the ECM-staff in 1978. While working predominantly for the writing department he now has also produced more than 40 records which are more in the experimental areas of jazz like ones of Evan Parker , Roscoe Mitchell , Hal Russell , Robin Williamson , Joe Maneri or Mat Maneri . Furthermore, he published the book Horizons Touched: The Music of ECM (2007) with music critic/novelist Paul Griffiths and made contributions to

2784-855: Is a suite of choral settings of Old Testament texts, recorded in Salisbury Cathedral . The label has also released unique works that fit into no obvious genre at all (like the records of composer Meredith Monk). In 2002 and 2004, ECM released a series of compilation CDs titled :rarum . Twenty of the label's artists were asked to compile a single CD of their work. (Garbarek's and Jarrett's compilations are double CDs.) Artists who contributed to this series are Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Bill Frisell, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Terje Rypdal, Bobo Stenson, Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, Egberto Gismonti, Jack DeJohnette, John Surman, John Abercrombie, Carla Bley, Paul Motian, Tomasz Stańko, Eberhard Weber, Arild Andersen, Jon Christensen. After working as

2900-407: Is also a documentary by Peter Guyer and Norbert Wiedmer called Sounds and Silence (2010) which portraits exemplary the daily work of Manfred Eicher with various musicians including Arvo Pärt, Nik Bärtsch , Anouar Brahem , Dino Saluzzi and Anja Lechner , Jan Garbarek and Kim Kashkashian or Gianluigi Trovesi and Gianni Coscia . The soundtrack with tracks from the recording sessions seen in

3016-730: Is an Estonian composer. Tüür was born in Kärdla on the Estonian island of Hiiumaa . He studied flute and percussion at the Tallinn Music School from 1976 to 1980 and composition with Jaan Rääts at the Tallinn Academy of Music and privately with Lepo Sumera from 1980 to 1984. From 1979 to 1984 he headed the rock group In Spe , which quickly became one of the most popular in Estonia . Tüür left In Spe to concentrate on composition, and with

3132-469: Is co-credited with the band on the album). The group and their concert sound engineer Dan Healy then took over production of the album themselves, taking the unusual step of intermixing studio material with multitrack recordings of their concerts. Anthem of the Sun proved to be the least successful of The Grateful Dead's 1960s albums—it sold poorly, the extended sessions put the band more than $ 100,000 in debt to

3248-403: Is his opus Oxymoron . Tüür developed a vector based voice leading technique. The vectors are sequences of intervals , expressed as numbers. He compares this compositional method with a source code , a germ that grows, or a gene that mutates. Starting point of the composition process is an abstract drawing, that visualizes the music. Tüür received numerous national awards. He

3364-481: Is member of the Estonian Composers' Union . Tüür's early work is polystylistic . Influencing styles were Rock , Post- Romantic , Minimalism , Gregorian Chant . His music is characterized by expressive, energetic, organic amalgamation of opposite styles: tonality vs. atonality ; repetitive rhythm vs. complex rhythm; meditation vs. explosive power; intellectual vs. emotional. The first pure example

3480-674: Is reflected in the design of the booklet of Mnemosyne (ECM NewSeries 1700) by Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble —the successor of its highly successful album Officium (ECM 1525). It includes stills from The Seventh Seal (1957) by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman . In 1986, director Jan Horne shot the 60-minute documentary Bare Stillheten about Eicher and the label in Munich, Oslo, and Tokyo for television with Garbarek, Terje Rypdal , Jon Christensen , Arild Andersen , John Surman , Eberhard Weber , and others participating. There

3596-641: Is the record Scardanelli (ECM 1761) with texts and music from Harald Bergmann 's film of the same name from 2000, which reflects the work of Hölderlin in his last years. In the title role, it features Austrian actor Walter Schmidinger who's reading the poems and texts on this record taken from the movie. In fall 2012, ECM released a record called Turmgedichte (ECM New Series 2285) by actor/voice actor/vocalist Christian Reiner also with poems by Hölderlin. Furthermore, ECM has many projects and albums dedicated to people involved with motion pictures. For example, Italian piano player Stefano Battaglia pays tribute to

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3712-542: The Billboard Hot 100 . It was nominally performed by Warner contract actor Edd Byrnes , who played the wisecracking hipster character Gerald Lloyd "Kookie" Kookson III on Warner's TV detective series 77 Sunset Strip . The story behind the recording illustrates the sharp practices often employed by major recording companies. Actress and singer Connie Stevens (who appeared in the Warner TV series Hawaiian Eye ) spoke on

3828-638: The Best Comedy Performance–Spoken Word category, and Newhart himself won Best New Artist , the first time in Grammy history that a comedy album had won Album of the Year, and the only time a comedian has won Best New Artist. Interviewed for the official Warner Bros Records history in 2008, Newhart recalled that at the time he signed with the label he was totally unknown outside Chicago, he was still working full-time as an accountant, and he had done only

3944-551: The Columbia label, reverted to Warner Bros. Warner Bros. sold Brunswick a second time (along with Brunswick's back catalog up to 1931) in 1941, this time along with the old Brunswick pressing plants Warner owned, to Decca Records (which formed its American operations in 1934) in exchange for a financial interest in Decca. The heavy loss it incurred in the Brunswick deal kept the studio out of

4060-490: The Compo Company . This was the origin of Warner Music Canada. In November 1966 the entire Warner group was taken over by and merged with Seven Arts Productions , a New York-based company owned by Eliot Hyman . Seven Arts specialized in syndicating old movies and cartoons to TV, and had independently produced a number of significant feature films for other studios, including Stanley Kubrick 's Lolita , as well as forging

4176-464: The Hilliard Ensemble singing Gregorian chant , early polyphony and Renaissance works. Garbarek's work with guitarist Ralph Towner continued, and has been influenced by 20th century chamber music as much as by jazz-oriented material. John Potter , formerly of the Hilliard Ensemble, recorded works by John Dowland with jazz saxophonist John Surman and others, and Surman's Proverbs and Songs

4292-449: The Hilliard Ensemble , Thomas Zehetmair , Carolin Widmann , Till Fellner , Herbert Henck, Alexei Lubimov , András Keller , Miklós Perényi , John Holloway , John Potter or most recently Patricia Kopatchinskaja . On many releases, the orientations towards jazz and classical music of ECM are combined: For example, Garbarek's Officium (1994) features him playing saxophone solos over

4408-734: The Sex Pistols . At the end of the silent movie period, Warner Bros. Pictures decided to expand into publishing and recording so that it could access low-cost music content for its films. In 1928, the studio acquired several smaller music publishing firms which included M. Witmark & Sons , Harms Inc., and a partial interest in New World Music Corp., and merged them to form the Music Publishers Holding Company. This new group controlled valuable copyrights on standards by George and Ira Gershwin and Jerome Kern , and

4524-719: The Warner Music Group , it is headquartered in Los Angeles , California . It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the American film studio Warner Bros. Artists who have recorded for Warner Records include Madonna , Prince , Linkin Park , Zach Bryan , Van Halen , Kylie Minogue , ZZ Top , Gorillaz , Bette Midler , Grateful Dead , Jane's Addiction , Duran Duran , Fleetwood Mac , Rod Stewart , Funkadelic , James Taylor , Red Hot Chili Peppers , Mac Miller , R.E.M. , Bob James , David Sanborn , and

4640-427: The world music genre by artists including Steve Tibbetts , Stephan Micus , Codona , Anouar Brahem , L. Shankar , Jon Hassell , and Naná Vasconcelos . Manfred Eicher continues to take an active interest in the music released by ECM, acting as producer of the vast majority of its recordings, although Steve Lake, Thomas Stoewsand, Robert Hurwitz, Lee Townsend, Hans Wendl and Sun Chung have also produced discs for

4756-541: The 1961 movie of the same name . Later that year an album by John Abercrombie was released with four allusions towards Hitchcock movies including the name of the title track taken from 39 Steps . On her 2018 album Descansado: Songs for Films (ECM 2567) English singer Norma Winstone pays tribute to composers like Nino Rota , Michel Legrand , William Walton , Bernard Herrmann , and Ennio Morricone - all strongly connected to movies - by rearranging their pieces. The connection with motion pictures spans further and

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4872-545: The 20th century, surpassing both " Yesterday " by the Beatles and " Stand by Me " by Ben E. King . The group's 1968 Greatest Hits album was also a major hit, reaching No. 4 on the US album chart. In 1968, Mason Williams ' instrumental composition " Classical Gas " reached No. 2 on the Billboard chart, selling more than a million copies, and Williams won three Grammys that year. Another notable Warner release from this period

4988-528: The Ertegun brothers and Wexler between them 66,000 shares of Warner Bros.' common stock. On June 1, 1968, Billboard announced that Warner Bros. Records' star comedy performer Bill Cosby had turned down a five-year, US$ 3.5 million contract renewal offer, and would leave the label in August of that year to record for his own Tetragrammaton Records label. Just over one month later (July 13) Billboard reported on

5104-461: The US (said rights previously being held by Laurie Records ). Clark soon scored a No. 1 US hit with " Downtown ". Warner also released other Pye artists in the US market such as the Kinks. Another significant development in the label's history came in 1966 when Ostin hired young independent producer Lenny Waronker as an A&R manager, beginning a strong and enduring mentor/protegé relationship between

5220-451: The US and selling more than eight million copies, and their debut Warner Bros. album It's Everly Time reached No. 9 on the album chart. In late 1959, Warner Bros signed a virtually unknown Chicago-based comedian, Bob Newhart , marking the beginning of the label's continuing involvement with comedy. Newhart provided the label's next major commercial breakthrough — in May 1960, three months after

5336-484: The Warner family of labels were The Jimi Hendrix Experience 's Are You Experienced , Van Morrison 's Astral Weeks , The Grateful Dead 's Anthem of the Sun , The Doobie Brothers ' Toulouse Street , Tiny Tim 's God Bless Tiny Tim , and Joni Mitchell 's Clouds , which set off a trend of musicians creating the artwork for their own record sleeves. In 1973, when Frank Sinatra emerged from retirement with his comeback album, Thrasher shot candid photographs for

5452-561: The Warner group in the years ahead– National Periodical Publications (which included DC Comics and All American Comics ), the Ashley-Famous talent agency, and Panavision . In the summer of 1969, Atlantic Records agreed to assist Warner Bros. Records in establishing overseas divisions, but when Warner executive Phil Rose arrived in Australia to begin setting up a subsidiary there, he discovered that just one week earlier Atlantic had signed

5568-604: The advent of perestroika soon found an audience in the west. The Helsinki Philharmonic , the Hilliard Ensemble , the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra are among those who have commissioned works from him. His Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, entitled '"Illuminatio"', was premiered by violist Lars Anders Tomter and South Jutland Symphony Orchestra in October 2008. Since 1985, Tüür

5684-514: The album would be released, he was amazed to be told that the label was rushing all available copies to Minneapolis, because radio DJs there had broken it, and it had become so popular that a local newspaper was even printing the times that tracks would be played on air. He recalled that the success of the album almost instantly kick-started his career, and that he was soon being deluged with appearance offers, including The Ed Sullivan Show . A few months later, when Newhart met Conkling and Jack Warner at

5800-518: The band presented Warner Bros. with a planned live double album that they wanted to call Skull Fuck , but Ostin handled the matter diplomatically. Rather than refusing point-blank to release it, he reminded The Grateful Dead that they were heavily in debt to Warner's and would not see any royalties until this had been repaid; he also pointed out that the provocative title would inevitably hurt sales because major retailers like Sears would refuse to stock it. Realizing that this would reduce their income,

5916-454: The band voluntarily changed the title to Grateful Dead, known generally as Skull and Roses . Some of Warner Bros.' biggest commercial successes during this period were with " Sunshine Pop " acts. Harpers Bizarre scored a No. 13 Billboard hit in April 1967 with their version of Simon & Garfunkel 's " The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) ", and a month later The Association scored

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6032-476: The band was ultimately signed by Atlantic Records , they eventually became part of the Warner Bros. catalogue after Atlantic was purchased by Warner Bros. Records. In 1967, Warner Bros. took over Valiant Records , which added hit-making harmony pop group The Association to the Warner roster. This acquisition proved to be another huge money-maker for Warner Bros.; The Association scored a string of major hits in

6148-440: The books Sleeves of Desire: a Cover Story (1996), Windfall Light: The Visual Language of ECM (2010) and ECM - A Cultural Archaeology (2012). On November 14, 2017, ECM announced in a press release that its entire catalog would be made available for streaming on all major music streaming platforms (Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify, Deezer, Tidal and Qobuz). Previously, ECM recordings had never been available for streaming, save for

6264-445: The company, subsequently becoming president of MCA Records . Mo Ostin was appointed president of Warner Bros. Records with Joe Smith as executive vice-president. In 1970, the 'Seven Arts' name was dropped and the WB shield became the Warner Bros. Records logo again. Erkki-Sven T%C3%BC%C3%BCr Erkki-Sven Tüür ( Estonian pronunciation: [tyːr] ; born 16 October 1959)

6380-419: The company. Over the next thirty years, Wickham became one of Warner's most influential A&R managers, signing such notable acts as Emmylou Harris , Buck Owens , and Norwegian pop trio a-ha . During this formative period, Warner Bros. made several other notable new signings including Randy Newman and Van Dyke Parks . Newman would not make his commercial breakthrough until the mid-1970s but he achieved

6496-545: The concert, Warner A&R manager Joe Smith took the stage and announced, "I just want to say what an honor it is to be able to introduce the Grateful Dead and its music to the world," which prompted a cynical Jerry Garcia to quip in reply, "I just want to say what an honor it is for the Grateful Dead to introduce Warner Bros. Records to the world." Also in 1967, Warner/Reprise established its Canadian operation Warner Reprise Canada Ltd., replacing its distribution deal with

6612-453: The cover and also devised the album title Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back , which was widely used to promote Sinatra's return to recording and touring. Besides his work on album covers, Thrasher art-directed many of Warner Bros.' ads and posters from 1964 to 1979. In 1964, Warner Bros. successfully negotiated with French label Disques Vogue and Warner Bros.' British distributor Pye Records for the rights to distribute Petula Clark 's recordings in

6728-439: The creative salon that centered on Waronker at Warner Bros. and which, with Ostin's continuing support, became the catalyst for Warner Records' subsequent success as a rock music label. Initially, Waronker looked after the acts that Warner Bros. took over when they bought Autumn Records for $ 10,000, but during the year he also avidly pursued rising Los Angeles band The Buffalo Springfield . Although (much to his and Ostin's chagrin)

6844-418: The financial year 1961–62 in the black for the first time since its founding. In August 1963, Warner Bros. made a "rescue takeover" of Frank Sinatra 's ailing Reprise Records as part of a deal to acquire Sinatra's services as a recording artist and as an actor for Warner Bros. Pictures. The total deal was valued at around US$ 10 million, and it gave Sinatra a one-third share in the combined record company and

6960-403: The historically oriented content of the exhibition, it was accompanied with a concert series of current artists of the label, which included François Couturier , Enrico Rava , Meredith Monk , András Schiff , Evan Parker , Gidon Kremer or Tomasz Stańko . Some of these artists have a long relationship with the label—even if their 'home' is ECM or New Series . Additionally, Eicher curated

7076-471: The hit record, rather than Hunter's latest Warner movie. In 1958, the studio signed Hunter as its first artist to its newly formed record division, although his subsequent recordings for the label failed to duplicate his success with Dot. Warner Bros. agreed to buy Imperial Records in 1956 and, although the deal fell apart, it marked the breaking of a psychological barrier: "If the company was willing to buy another label, why not start its own?" To establish

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7192-426: The hits by Sinatra and his daughter Nancy , and the label also secured the US distribution rights to the recordings of the Kinks and Jimi Hendrix . Most importantly for the future of the company, the merger brought Reprise manager Mo Ostin into the Warner fold and "his ultimate value to Warner Bros. would dwarf Sinatra's." Ostin's business and musical instincts, and his rapport with artists were to prove crucial to

7308-457: The industry standard of the day. The duo were fielding offers from all the major labels as their Cadence contract wound up, but Warners eventually won out because the brothers harboured ambitions to branch out into film, and the label's connection to the movie studio provided the perfect opportunity. Luckily, the Everlys' first Warner Bros. single " Cathy's Clown " was a smash hit, climbing to No. 1 in

7424-415: The introduction of television in the late 1940s. Legal changes also had a major impact on their business—lawsuits brought by major stars had effectively overthrown the old studio contract system by the late 1940s and, beginning in 1949, anti-trust suits brought by the U.S. government forced the five major studios to divest their cinema chains. In 1956, Harry Warner and Albert Warner sold their interest in

7540-427: The label afforded them, proved significant in building Warner Bros.' reputation and credibility. Bob Krasnow , who briefly headed Warner Bros.' short-lived 'black' label Loma Records, later commented that The Grateful Dead "...were really the springboard. People said, 'Wow, if they'll sign The Dead, they must be going in the right direction.'" Although not widely known to the general public at that time, Van Dyke Parks

7656-498: The label's creation was the music career of Warner Bros. actor Tab Hunter . Although Hunter was signed to an exclusive acting contract with the studio, it did not prevent him from signing a recording contract, which he did with Dot Records , owned at the time by Paramount Pictures . Hunter scored several hits for Dot, including the US No. 1 single , " Young Love " (1957) and, to Warner Bros.' chagrin, reporters were primarily asking about

7772-499: The label's dream run with comedy LPs into the late 1960s, releasing a string of highly successful albums on Warner Bros. over the next six years, alongside his groundbreaking career as a TV actor. The label's fortunes had finally turned around by 1962 thanks to the Everly Brothers , Newhart , folk stars Peter, Paul & Mary , jazz and pop crossover hit Joanie Sommers and comedian Allan Sherman , and Warner Bros. Records ended

7888-530: The label, and Warner Bros. executive Joe Smith later described it as "the most unreasonable project with which we have ever involved ourselves." The Grateful Dead's relationship with Warner Bros. Records was stretched even further by the making of their third album Aoxomoxoa (1969), which also took around seven months to record and cost $ 180,000, almost twice as much as its predecessor. It sold poorly and took almost thirty years to be accredited with gold-record status. There were further difficulties in 1971 when

8004-516: The label, the company hired former Columbia Records president James B. Conkling; its founding directors of A&R were Harris Ashburn, George Avakian , and Bob Prince . Conkling was an able administrator with extensive experience in the industry—he had been instrumental in launching the LP format at Columbia and had played a key role in establishing the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences

8120-521: The label. The typical ECM session is just three days: two days to record, one day to mix . Many of the albums have been recorded with Jan Erik Kongshaug (of Talent Studios and later Rainbow Studios) in Oslo, Norway, as sound engineer; other engineers have included Martin Wieland (who recorded Jarrett's "The Köln Concert"), James Farber, Stefano Amerio and, on classical recordings, Peter Laenger. The ECM New Series

8236-480: The late 1960s, and their 1967 hit " Never My Love " went on to become the second-most-played song on American radio and TV in the 20th century. During the year, the label also took its first tentative step into the burgeoning rock market when they signed leading San Francisco psychedelic rock group The Grateful Dead . Warner Bros. threw the band a release party at Fugazi Hall in San Francisco's North Beach . During

8352-404: The mainstream audience, and Warner Bros. took an early (though largely unsuccessful) lead in recording stereo LPs that targeted the new " hi-fi " market. The catalogue in this period included: Some albums featured jokey or self-deprecating titles such as: Almost all were commercial failures; and the only charting album in Warner Bros.' first two years was Warren Barker's 'soundtrack' album for

8468-489: The matter. Ben Kalmenson, a Warner Bros. company director and close aide to Jack Warner , summoned the label's directors to a meeting in New York and explicitly told them that both he and Warner wanted the deal and that they expected them to vote in favor of it. Despite these misgivings, the purchase ultimately proved very beneficial to the Warner group. Reprise flourished in the late 1960s thanks to Sinatra's famous comeback and

8584-470: The most expensive 'pop' albums ever made up to that time. It sold very poorly despite rave critical reviews, so publicist Stan Cornyn (who had helped the label to sign The Grateful Dead) wrote an infamous tongue-in-cheek advertisement to promote it. The ad cheekily declared that the label had "lost $ 35,509 on 'the album of the year' (dammit)," suggested that those who had purchased the album had probably worn their copies out by playing it over and over, and made

8700-559: The movie was as well as the documentary also released on ECM called Music for the Film - Sounds and Silence (ECM 2250). A documentary about reed player Charles Lloyd called Arrows Into Infinity (ECM 5052), directed by his wife Dorothy Darr together with Jeffery Morse, was released in July 2014. Another project from 2014 shows moving images by Prashant Bhargava with music by Vijay Iyer called Radhe Radhe: Rites of Holi (ECM 5507). In 2018 followed

8816-403: The new division was soon earning solid profits of up to US$ 2 million every year. In 1930, Music Publishers Holding Company (MPHC) paid US$ 28 million to acquire Brunswick Records (which included Vocalion ), whose roster included Duke Ellington , Red Nichols , Nick Lucas , Al Jolson , Earl Burtnett , Ethel Waters , Abe Lyman , Leroy Carr , Tampa Red and Memphis Minnie , and soon after

8932-437: The offer that listeners could send these supposedly worn-out copies back to Warner Bros., who would exchange it for two new copies, including one "to educate a friend with." Incensed by the tactic, Parks accused Cornyn of trying to kill his career. Cornyn encountered similar problems with Joni Mitchell—he penned an advertisement that was meant to convey the message that Mitchell was yet to achieve significant market penetration, but

9048-554: The opportunity to use the company's cars, which were idle at night, he founded a successful car hire operation, which he later merged with the Kinney parking garage company. Ross took the company public in 1962, and from this base it expanded rapidly between 1966 and 1968, merging with National Cleaning Services in 1966 to form the Kinney National Company, and then acquiring a string of companies that would prove of enormous value to

9164-515: The physical recordings (CD & vinyl records) still constitute the "preferred mediums". In fall 2012, the Munich museum Haus der Kunst opened an exhibition about the work of the label called ECM – A Cultural Archaeology . It pointed out the early jazz-focused years until the mid-1980s, before the New Series was initiated. In close relation with Eicher and ECM, the exhibition was created by art curator Okwui Enwezor and Markus Müller. To complement

9280-454: The piece Eight Hymns in memoriam Andrei Tarkovsky by composer Stevan Kovacs Tickmayer which can be found on Gidon Kremer 's 2010 Hymns and Prayers (ECM NewSeries 2161) or 3rd Piece by Jan Garbarek on his solo record All Those Born with Wings (ECM 1324). In Spring 2013 ECM released the record La notte by Ketil Bjørnstad which took its inspiration from Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni ; its title and cover were taken from

9396-468: The previous year. However, Conkling had decidedly middle-of-the-road musical tastes (he was married to Donna King of vocal trio the King Sisters ), and was thus rather out of step with emerging trends in the industry, especially the fast-growing market for rock'n'roll music. Warner Bros. Records opened for business on March 19, 1958. Its early album releases (1958–1960) were aimed at the upscale end of

9512-488: The price of records from 75 to 35 cents. In December 1931, Warner Bros. offloaded Brunswick to the American Record Corporation (ARC) for a fraction of its former value, in a lease arrangement which did not include Brunswick's pressing plants. Technically, Warner maintained actual ownership of Brunswick, which with the sale of ARC to CBS in 1939 and their decision to discontinue Brunswick in favor of reviving

9628-578: The profits from Warner/Reprise, W7 purchased Atlantic Records for $ 17.5 million, including the label's valuable archive, its growing roster of new artists, and the services of its three renowned executives Jerry Wexler , Nesuhi Ertegun and Ahmet Ertegun . However, the purchase again caused rancor among the Warner/Reprise management, who were upset that their hard-won profits had been co-opted to buy Atlantic, and that Atlantic's executives were made large shareholders in Warner-Seven Arts—the deal gave

9744-442: The record business booming – sales had topped US$ 500 million by 1958 – Semnenko argued that it was foolish for Warner Bros. to make deals with other companies to release its soundtracks when, for less than the cost of one motion picture, they could establish their own label, creating a new income stream that could continue indefinitely and provide an additional means of exploiting and promoting its contract actors. Another impetus for

9860-423: The record business for almost 20 years, and during this period it licensed its film music to other companies for release as soundtrack albums. Warner Bros. returned to the record business on March 19, 1958, with the establishment of its own recording division, Warner Bros. Records. By this time, the established Hollywood studios were reeling from multiple challenges to their former dominance—the most notable being

9976-488: The record division under Maitland. The Billboard article also noted the enormous growth and vital significance of W7's music operations, which were by then providing most of Warner-Seven Arts' revenue—during the first nine months of that fiscal year, the recording and publishing divisions generated 74% of the corporation's total profit, with the publishing division alone accounting for over US$ 2 million of ASCAP 's collections from music users. In 1969, Warner Bros.-Seven Arts

10092-502: The right. Below the shield in white Rockwell font, it read "VITAPHONIC HIGH FIDELITY;" this 45 label was used for two years, 1958 – 1960. This initial 45 label was soon replaced by a new, all-red label with the WB shield logo at 9 o'clock and a number of different-colored arrows (blue, chartreuse, and yellow) surrounding and pointing away from the center hole. The first hit was the novelty record " Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb) ", with words and music by Irving Taylor, which reached No. 4 on

10208-500: The sale to Warner Bros., the label signed rising radio and recording stars Bing Crosby , Mills Brothers , and Boswell Sisters . Unfortunately for Warner Bros., the dual impact of the Great Depression and the introduction of broadcast radio greatly harmed the recording industry—sales crashed, dropping by around 90% from more than 100 million records in 1927 to fewer than 10 million by 1932 and major companies were forced to halve

10324-604: The song's chorus, but although her record contract entitled her to a five-percent royalty rate, the label arbitrarily defined her contribution to be a favor to Byrnes, and assigned her just 1% royalty on the song, despite the fact that, as she soon discovered, her name was being prominently displayed on the single's label. Warner Bros. also charged her for a share of the recording costs, which was to be recouped from her drastically reduced royalty. When Stevens scored her own hit single with " Sixteen Reasons " in 1960, Warner Bros. refused to allow her to perform it on Hawaiian Eye because it

10440-498: The studio and the board was joined by new members who favored a renewed expansion into the music business—Charles Allen of the investment bank Charles Allen & Company, Serge Semenenko of the First National Bank of Boston and investor David Baird. Semenenko in particular had a strong professional interest in the entertainment business and he began to push Jack Warner on the issue of setting up an 'in-house' record label. With

10556-407: The studio's hit series 77 Sunset Strip , which reached No. 3 in 1959. Tab Hunter's " Jealous Heart " (WB 5008), which reached No. 62, was Warner Bros.' only charting single during its first year. Early Warner Bros. singles had distinctive pink labels, with the WB logo at the top center and "WARNER" in white Hellenic font to the left of the WB shield and "BROS." in the same color and style font to

10672-505: The success of "Cathy's Clown", Newhart's debut album The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart unexpectedly shot straight to No. 1 in the US, staying at the top for fourteen weeks, charting for more than two years and selling more than 600,000 copies. Capping this commercial success, Newhart scored historic wins in three major categories at the 1961 Grammy Awards — he won Album of the Year for Button-Down Mind , his quickly released follow-up album, The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back (1960) won

10788-528: The success of the Warner labels over the next two decades. In 1964, Warner Bros. launched Loma Records , which was meant to focus on R&B acts. The label, run by former King Records promotion man Bob Krasnow , would release over 100 singles and five albums, but saw only limited success and was wound down in 1968. An important addition to the Warner Bros. staff in this period was Ed Thrasher , who moved from Columbia Records in 1964 to become Warner/Reprise's head art director. Among his design credits for

10904-405: The tag-line "Joni Mitchell is 90% Virgin" reportedly reduced Mitchell to tears, and Cornyn had to withdraw it from publication. Warner Bros. also struggled with their flagship rock act, The Grateful Dead who, like Peter, Paul and Mary , had negotiated complete artistic control over the recording and packaging of their music. Their debut album had been recorded in just four days, and although it

11020-560: The then-unknown singer-songwriter to Witmark for an advance of $ 5000. Two years later in 1963, Peter, Paul & Mary scored two consecutive Top 10 hits with Dylan songs, launching Dylan's career, and this was followed by many more hits by artists covering Dylan's songs, alongside the growing commercial success of Dylan himself. Grossman benefited enormously from both deals, because he took a 25% commission as Dylan's manager, and he structured Dylan's publishing deal so that he received 50% of Witmark's share of Dylan's publishing income —a tactic that

11136-416: The trade press by the abbreviation it adopted for its new logo, "W7"). Although Warner Bros. Pictures was faltering, the purchase coincided with a period of tremendous growth in the music industry, and Warner-Reprise was now on its way to becoming a major player in the industry. Hyman's investment banker Alan Hirshfeld, of Charles Allen and Company, urged him to expand the company's record holdings, and arranged

11252-407: The two. Waronker, the son of Liberty Records founder Simon Waronker , had previously worked as an assistant to Liberty producer Snuff Garrett . Later he worked with the small San Francisco label Autumn Records , founded by disc jockeys Tom Donahue , Bobby Mitchell , and Sylvester Stewart (who would soon become famous as a musician under his stage name Sly Stone). Waronker had been hired as

11368-435: The verge of signing with Atlantic Records , but before the deal could be completed they were poached by Warner Bros. Artie Mogull (who worked for one of Warner Bros.' publishing companies, Witmark Music) had introduced their manager Albert Grossman to Herman Starr, and as a result the group signed a recording and publishing deal with Warner Bros. Grossman's deal for the group broke new ground for recording artists — it included

11484-488: The work of another countryman and film composer Krzysztof Komeda who is widely known for the scores of several films by Roman Polanski but was also a jazz pianist. Polanski also contributed a preface for the booklet of Litania . The album Dans la Nuit (ECM 1805) by French woodwind player Louis Sclavis , who also was active as a film composer, is a new score for Charles Vanel 's 1930 silent movie Dans la nuit (film) . The French pianist François Couturier dedicated

11600-657: The work of director Pier Paolo Pasolini on his 2007 Re: Pasolini (ECM 1998-99). Its cover pictures a still from Pasolini's 1964 The Gospel According to St. Matthew . In 2022 a recording of texts by the Italian film maker called Pier Paolo Pasolini: Land der Arbeit (ECM 2768) spoken in German by Reiner was released. Polish jazz trumpeter Tomasz Stańko recorded in 1994 Matka Joanna (ECM 1544) as an homage to Polish film director Jerzy Kawalerowicz 's movie Matka Joanna od Aniołów (1961). Three years later on his 1997 Litania: Music of Krzysztof Komeda (ECM 1636) Stańko honors

11716-549: The years and led on the one hand into the contribution of several stills from Godard's movies for covers like Morimur (ECM NewSeries 1765) by Christoph Poppen , Asturiana - Songs from Spain and Argentinia (ECM NewSeries 1975) by Kim Kashkashian or the 2011 Live at Birdland (ECM 2162) by Lee Konitz / Brad Mehldau / Charlie Haden / Paul Motian . On the other hand, Eicher took over the musical direction of many of Godard's films like Germany Year 90 Nine Zero , Hélas pour moi , JLG or For Ever Mozart . Besides these Eicher

11832-493: The years, many other works by contemporary composers such as Valentyn Sylvestrov , Tigran Mansurian , Erkki-Sven Tüür , Heinz Holliger , Giya Kancheli , György Kurtág , or Heiner Goebbels as well as the soundtracks of several works by the filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard have been issued on the ECM New Series label. Interpreters who released records in classical genres include Kim Kashkashian , András Schiff , Gidon Kremer ,

11948-431: Was Astral Weeks , the second solo album by Van Morrison (his first was on Bang ), who signed with the label in 1968. Although it sold relatively poorly on its first release (and did not reach gold record status until 2001), it has been widely acclaimed by musicians and critics worldwide, has featured on many "Best Albums of All Time" lists, and has remained in release almost continuously since 1968. During 1968, using

12064-480: Was a figure of high repute on the L.A. music scene thanks to his work as a session musician and songwriter (notably with the Byrds and Harper's Bizarre ), and especially because of his renowned collaboration with Brian Wilson on the legendary unreleased Beach Boys album Smile . In 1967, Lenny Waronker produced Parks' Warner debut album Song Cycle , which reportedly cost more than $ 35,000 to record, making it one of

12180-548: Was also the head behind the music of Xavier Koller 's Reise der Hoffnung , Sandra Nettelbeck 's Mostly Martha and the Oscar-nominated documentary War Photographer by Christian Frei . Additionally Godard has released a collection of short films on the label with Anne-Marie Miéville called Four Short Films (ECM 5001). Apart from her own work Greek composer Eleni Karaindrou wrote scores for stage and for movies, which include Ulysses' Gaze (1995), Eternity and

12296-586: Was because the Warner board was reluctant to write off the additional $ 2 million the label was owed in outstanding receivables and inventory. After a restructure, Conkling was obliged to report to Herman Starr; he rejected a buyout offer by Conkling and a group of other record company employees but agreed to keep the label running in exchange for heavy cost-cutting—the staff was reduced from 100 to 30 and Conkling voluntarily cut his own pay from $ 1000 to $ 500. Warner Bros. now turned to rock'n'roll acts in hopes of advancing its sales but their first signing, Bill Haley ,

12412-449: Was booked for a two-week residency as the opening act, beginning February 12, 1960, and Newhart freely admitted to being "terrified" on his first night. He quickly realised that he had only enough material for one side of an album, but by the time Warner A&R manager George Avakian arrived for the recording, Newhart had hastily written enough new material to fill both sides of an LP. When Newhart contacted Warners in April to find out when

12528-540: Was by then past his prime and failed to score any hits. The label was more fortunate with its next signing, the Everly Brothers , whom Warner Bros. secured after the end of their previous contract with Cadence Records . Herman Starr effectively gambled the future of the company by approving what was reputed to be the first million-dollar contract in music history, which guaranteed the Everly Brothers $ 525,000 against an escalating royalty rate of up to 7 percent, well above

12644-432: Was created in 1984 to document Western classical works. It has released works by composers from the early ( Thomas Tallis , Carlo Gesualdo , Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina ) to the contemporary ( John Cage , Elliott Carter , Steve Reich and John Adams ). The series was initiated for Arvo Pärt 's record debut Tabula Rasa , which Eicher recorded and produced in 1977, 1983, and 1984. Since then Pärt and Eicher have built

12760-511: Was displayed in Seoul, Korea, from September until November 2013. Under the Gertrude Stein quote Think of your Ears as Eyes , the exhibition took a wider view on the label's history than the one in Munich. Again, it was accompanied by a concert series, including Kim Kashkashian , András Schiff, Myung-whun Chung , Heinz Holliger , Norma Winstone , Ralph Towner and Yeahwon Shin . The label has

12876-472: Was later emulated by other leading artist managers such as David Geffen . Meanwhile, the label enjoyed further major success with comedy recordings. Comedian Allan Sherman (who had been signed on the personal recommendation of George Burns ), issued his first Warner LP My Son, the Folk Singer in 1962. The album, which satirized the folk boom, became a major hit, selling over a million copies, and winning

12992-514: Was merely a pretext, and that the studio effectively scapegoated Conkling for the label's earlier failures, pointing to the fact that Conkling's successor had been selected well before Conkling was terminated. Conkling resigned in the fall of that year, and was replaced by Mike Maitland, another former Capitol Records executive. Around the same time, Joe Smith was appointed as head of promotions. Warner Bros. made another prescient signing in folk group Peter, Paul & Mary . The trio had been on

13108-649: Was not a major hit, it cracked the US Top 50 album chart and sold steadily, eventually going gold in 1971. For their second album, The Grateful Dead took a far more experimental approach, embarking on a marathon series of recording sessions lasting seven months, from September 1967 to March 1968. They started the album with David Hassinger , who had produced their first album, but he quit the project in frustration in December 1967 while they were recording in New York City (although he

13224-400: Was not published by MPHC, and they also prevented her from singing it on The Ed Sullivan Show , thereby robbing her of nationwide promotion (and a $ 5000 appearance fee). With only two hits to its credit in two years, the label was in serious financial trouble by 1960, having lost at least US$ 3 million and music historian Fredric Dannen reports that the only reason it was not closed down

13340-475: Was reportedly unimpressed by Hendrix's now-famous performance. During his visit he met Andy Wickham , who had come to Monterey as an assistant to festival promoter Lou Adler . Wickham had worked as a commercial artist in London , followed by a stint with Andrew Loog Oldham 's Immediate Records before moving to Los Angeles to work for Adler's Dunhill label. Ostin initially hired Wickham as Warner's "house hippie" on

13456-521: Was taken over by the Kinney National Company , headed by New York businessman Steve J. Ross , who would successfully lead the Warner group of companies until his death in 1992. The US$ 400 million deal created a new conglomerate that combined the Warner film, television, recording, and music publishing divisions with Kinney's multi-faceted holdings. Ross had founded the company in the late 1950s while working in his family's funeral business—seeing

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