Candid Records
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Candid Records was founded as a subsidiary of Archie Bleyer's Cadence label in New York City in 1960. The jazz writer and civil rights activist, Nat Hentoff worked as the labels A&R director, aiming to create a representative catalog of the jazz of the day.
Although there are classic dates led by Clark Terry and Coleman Hawkins with Pee Wee Russell, it is mainly recordings of the emergent avant-garde and recordings celebrating the Civil Rights movement that stand out. Recordings by Cecil Taylor and Steve Lacy belong to the first group, and those by Charles Mingus and Max Roach belong to the second, although there is not a strict differentiation. In particular, Roach's "We Insist: Freedom Now" suite is a classic political statement.
The label lasted only a short time, however, and recording ceased during 1961. The catalog passed into the hands of the popular singer Andy Williams, who reissued some of the catalog on his Barnaby label. In 1988, the British record producer, Alan Bates, purchased the catalog outright, and reissued it all, as well as items which had not previously appeared. Bates also launched a new recording program, which continues to the present time. Stacey Kent, the American expatriate singer based in London, is among those to have recorded for the revitalised label; as are Clare Teal, who has since moved to Sony with the biggest ever recording-deal by a British jazz singer, and singer-pianist Jamie Cullum – whose debut album (funded by a student loan) was taken on by the label – and eventually saw him land a million pound record deal with Verve.
Bates' wife, Nieves Pascua-Bates, is further expanding the operations of Candid Records, particularly in the Asia-Pacific, by setting up a subsidiary in the Philippines. The two most successful recording artists of the fledgling Pacific jazz label, Candid Records Philippines, are the Filipino-British singer-songwriter, Mishka Adams, and the guitarist-composer, Johnny Alegre with his jazz supergroup, the Johnny Alegre Affinity. Their respective albums were launched to critical acclaim in London's famed PizzaExpress Jazz Club in September 2005.
