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Rhythm And Blues Records: Small But Perfectly Formed
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The Middlesex-based UK label now boasts some 300 plus soul, rhythm & blues, rock and jazz titles on CD and vinyl and, as one might expect, the r&b section gives a pretty comprehensive account reaching back to the 1930s.
"My friends class it as a hobby but I spend around 40-50 hours a week on it," Duckett tells me. "As a fan, I produce things that I'd be happy to buy myself. I thought, if I like it, then other people probably will do too. A discussion with someone in the business alerted me to the fact that the copyright elapses 50 years after a broadcast date of broadcast, so everything I release is in the public domain. However, I do try and get copies of my releases to the artists if they are interested."
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"Well, it was back in the '50s." Duckett says, "Initially, it was investigating my mother's collection of 78s, ranging from Perez Prado to Frank Sinatra. The first actual piece of jazz, I heard was Danny Kaye's version of 'Minnie the Moocher' Much later on, I got interested in the roots of '60s pop and rock music. I like to think of myself as a bit of a musicologist.
Like many of hisand mygeneration, Duckett's introduction to rhythm and blues came with the "blues boom" in the late '60s, when he heard what was perhaps the best of the British blues groups, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac. It was, however, somewhat later that his explorations into the music really began, when he started buying compilations of "jump" music. In fact, his entry into blues and jazz says something about the eclectic nature of the catalogue he has compiled.
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"I was never really interested in British jazz as a young man," Duckett admits. "I used to go down to Ronnie Scott's in the '80s and didn't pay much attention to the British support acts. I suppose my interest came later, as I did more research. I have to say I really do love the detective work that goes into researching people like Johnny Burch and Harry South."
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How Duckett came by the tapes is one of those serendipitous stories that bless the jazz scene now and again. "I drink in the French House in Soho," he says, "and, by happy coincidence, Harry's daughter Annabel works there. She has given me her father's entire tape archive. Sadly, it's currently gathering dust in my attic but I'm hoping to pass it onto to an institution that might appreciate it."
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Record Label Profile
Duncan Heining
United Kingdom
London
Blue Note
Chess
Island
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frank sinatra
Danny Kaye
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Fleetwood mac
Ronnie Scott
Johnny Burch
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Georgie Fame
Simon Spillett
Michael Garrick
Rendell-Carr Quintet
Jimmy Witherspoon
Joe Harriott
Spontaneous Music Ensemble
Ray Charles
Rhythm and Blues Records
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