The label that is the subject of this articl is a label I found myself spinning a lot at clubs, Jazzman Records.

Gerald "the Jazzman" Short began his reissue label in 1998. He started out as a collector/seller of rare funk and jazz since the early 90s and found that the best way to build his collection was to travel to America and dig for the vinyl from its original source. Soon Gerald was finding records that none of the record dealers in London had. And Gerald found that if a record was both rare and the performance on the record was good, then the value of record would be quite high. He decided that this would be a great chance to reissue some of this music that was incredibly rare and actually quite brilliant.

The first 7" that Jazzman released was Kathleen Emery's "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child." Gerald acquired this record by trading for it with a record dealer in Boston called Boston Bob. After finding out no one else had this record in London and after spinning this record to a great response in Munich, he should release it so that other people could enjoy it. It wasn't until "the Jazzman" had ten or so releases under this belt that he started putting out CDs. This gave him a chance to get his rare nuggets to a larger audience as well as provide a lot of information about the tracks.

This had led the Jazzman label to put out some compilations that share a breedth of knowledge on the original artists. Gerald has painstakenly gone to great lengths to meet the original musicians and interview them for the sleeve notes. In fact some artists have taken as many as five years to get in contact with.

But the most popular 7" that Gerald has released has to be Letta Mbulu's "What Is Wrong With Groovin." This track has been championed by Gilles Peterson and many other DJs.

For more information on Jazzman Records go their website at www.jazzmanrecords.co.uk >>