THE MILESTONE PROFILES
SERIES
Legendary jazz producer Orrin Keepnews started
his career in the jazz music industry as a writer. A graduate
of Columbia University in NYC, he wrote for the publication
The Record Changer, writing the first national profile of
then little-known pianist and composer Thelonious Monk.
After launching the Riverside record label as a means of
reissuing older out-of-print jazz titles, Keepnews ended
up signing Monk to the fledgling label and producing his
first recording there. He also worked with pianist Bill
Evans, another Riverside artist, and others. The label eventually
folded in the early 1960s, and in 1966 Keepnews was back
with a new label—Milestone Records.
Milestone sought to record serious, straight
ahead jazz artists at a time when there was intense pressure
from most major labels for jazz artists to experiment with
fusion and electronics. While fusion was an exciting new
idea that seemed to offer a new lease on life for many jazz
musicians, there were certainly those who never really considered
themselves to be anything but mainstream jazz musicians.
Milestone gave a home to many of these artists, including
the five who are featured in the Milestone Profiles series:
Jimmy Smith, McCoy Tyner, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson,
and Jimmy Scott.
Keepnews sold the label to Fantasy Records
in 1972. Fantasy had also picked up the Riverside Records
catalog, resulting in one of the richest caatalogs of mainstream
jazz recordings around. The recent acquisition of Fantasy
by Concord Records marks the consolidation of an amazing
group of labels into one of the biggest jazz labels around
today. In celebration of Milestone’s 40th anniversary
this year, Concord has issued these Milestones Profiles,
each containing a bonus disk that includes an extra track
by each featured artist as well additional tracks by artists
like Flora Purim, Jim Hall, Ron Carter, and Hank Crawford.
Each disc is remastered and sells for $11.98.
