Gil Scott-Heron

Mainstream Records was an American record label, which released jazz, rock music, and soundtracks during the 1970s. It was founded in 1964 by Bob Shad, and in its early history reissued material from Commodore Records and Time Records in addition to some new jazz material. The label released Big... Brother & the Holding Company's first material in 1967, as well as The Amboy Dukes' first albums, whose guitarist, Ted Nugent, would become a successful solo artist in the 1970s. Mainstream acted as the distributing label for Bob Thiele's Flying Dutchman Records and continued issuing soundtracks and new jazz material through to 1978, when it ceased. Shad died in 1985, and his daughter, Tamara Shad, licensed its back catalogue for reissues. In 1991 it was resurrected in order to reissue much of its holdings on compact disc and, in 1993, it was purchased by Sony subsidiary Legacy Records.
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Strata-East Records is an American record label specialising in jazz which was founded in 1971 by Stanley Cowell and Charles Tolliver. The label released over 60 albums in the 1970s. Many of the label's releases, however obscure, are hailed as fine examples of 1970s Post-Bop, Spiritual Jazz, and... Afro-Jazz. Gil Scott-Heron recorded his 1974 album Winter in America with Brian Jackson for Strata-East. "The Bottle" featured on the album, was a popular single. This album stands as one of the label's most well-known recordings. Bill Lee, father of Spike Lee, was involved in numerous releases. On the Madlib album Yesterdays Universe, there is a tribute song to Strata-East, entitled "Two for Strata-East".
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TVT Records was an American record label founded by Steve Gottlieb, who initially launched the label from his New York City apartment in 1985 with the release of Television's Greatest Hits. It was an album featuring theme songs from various TV shows; hence the label's acronym, TVT . The album... proved so successful that a total of eight volumes would ultimately be released. TVT then turned its attention to signing new acts of various genres. The label had offices in New York, Berlin, and London. The label's publishing arm, TVT Music Publishing, also had success making the top-ten list of Billboard Magazine's Publishers Air Play Chart for each quarter of 2006. A sub-label, TVT Soundtrax, released albums for films, TV shows, and theater productions. They included Mortal Kombat, Blade, Miss Congeniality, Starsky & Hutch, and Buffy The Vampire Slayer, among others. In 1992, TVT purchased Chicago-based Wax Trax! Records, another independent label that had been successful in the 1980s with the then-new industrial music genre. Wax Trax is credited for helping to bring industrial music to the forefront. Wax Trax! would continue to run for several years after being purchased by TVT, but would subsequently be folded into its parent. TVT Records also operated TVT Distribution, an independent distribution company. The distribution arm distributed all TVT Records releases as well as other indie labels, which included Vagrant, OverCore, Rap Hustlers, Quannum, Battle Axe, and others. The label was Billboard Magazine's #1 Independent Label for five consecutive years . TVT lost a ruling when a Florida judge ruled that Miami-based Slip N Slide Records was allowed release material from rapper Pitbull that was recorded before the artist signed with TVT Records. It was seeking to block the releases of the recordings. The New York-based debtor filed for Chapter 11 on February 19 after Slip-N-Slide Records Inc. was awarded a $9.12 million judgment in a lawsuit brought against TVT in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida for tortious, or intentional, interference with advantageous business relationships. The record label asked the court to reduce the judgment, which the court did, in November, to $4.58 million. However, TVT was still not able to pay the amount awarded to Slip-N-Slide, court papers said. The court stayed the judgment until December 7, but in January Slip-N-Slide received a writ of garnishment in Florida and froze TVT's Bank of America bank accounts in Florida. [1] On February 19, 2008, Gottlieb, who was TVT's president, reported "This is not the end of TVT."[2] Then the company sold its assets in an auction that was held on June 12, 2008, in New York, NY. The winning bid was put by The Orchard.
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Folk music includes both traditional music and the genre that evolved from it during the 20th century folk revival. The term originated in the 19th... century but is often applied to music that is older than that. Certain types of folk music are also called world music. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. One meaning often given is that of old songs, with no known composers; another is music that has been transmitted and evolved by a process of oral transmission or performed by custom over a long period of time. Starting in the mid-20th century a new form of popular folk music evolved from traditional folk music. This process and period is called the folk revival and reached a zenith in the 1960s. The most common name for this new form of music is also "folk music", but is often called "contemporary folk music" or "folk revival music" to make the distinction. This type of folk music also includes fusion genres such as folk rock, folk metal, electric folk, and others.
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Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the... United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll is characterized by specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues chord progression is the most common. The blue notes that, for expressive purposes are sung or played flattened or gradually bent in relation to the pitch of the major scale, are also an important part of the sound. The blues genre is based on the blues form but possesses other characteristics such as specific lyrics, bass lines and instruments. Blues can be subdivided into several subgenres ranging from country to urban blues that were more or less popular during different periods of the 20th century. Best known are the Delta, Piedmont, Jump and Chicago blues styles.
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