Los Angeles & West Coast

Keen Records was founded in April 1957 by two brothers, John and Alex Siamas. John ran a business manufacturing parts for the aircraft industry; he loved music but...

Big Town Records was set up by Bob Geddins in Oakland, California, in 1945. He established a base on the corner of 7th and Center Streets and also...

The Emotions were an all-girl group formed in Chicago in 1968, consisting of three sisters Sheila Hutchinson, Wanda Hutchinson and Jeanette Hawes. They had started out as a...

Below is a list of the record companies that issued Race Records between 1927 and 1942. Not all companies used the term Race Records, not all companies created...

Lew Chudd was born Louis Cudnofsky in 1911 in Toronto, Canada. He was the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia. The family moved to the USA when he...

Philo Records was founded by two brothers, Eddie and Leo Mesner, in 1945 on America’s West Coast in the city of Los Angeles. The label’s first release was...

Arthur Goldberg was born on September 5th 1917 in Greensburg, in the state of Pennsylvania. He became aware of the power of Black music from listening to the...

Below is a list of the record companies that issued Race Records between 1923 and 1924. Not all companies used the term Race Records, not all companies created...

Modern Music Records was set up in Los Angeles in 1945 by the Bihari brothers, whose parents Edward Bihari and Esther Taub were Jewish immigrants from Hungary. The...

Natalie Cole, Nat King Cole’s daughter, was born in Los Angeles in 1950. She made her first commercial recordings in 1975 in Chicago at Curtom Studios, Paragon Studios...