How do you run a record label?
with guests Martin Archer (Discus Music) and Pete Woodman (Jazz in Britain)
Northern Line artists The Exu’s album is avaible from Discus Music
Friday 4th July 1-2pm on ZOOM
Sign up on EventBrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/jazz-north-forum-running-a-record-label-tickets-1412231074159
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to run a record label? Record labels are brands or companies responsible for producing, promoting and distributing the recordings of their signed or associated acts. They can be big or small, major or independent.
Join our forum with guests Martin Archer from Discus Music and Pete Woodman from Jazz in Britain to hear about the journeys that led to running a label and their approaches to releasing music. As always, our forums are a safe space to reflect, share ideas and ask questions.
Martin Archer
Saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, band-leader and label owner Martin Archer has made a virtue of doing things differently. From early beginnings in music forty years ago, he has built his label Discus into a catalog that is as fine in quality as it is eclectic in taste and content. Based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire and far from London Jazz Central HQ, his career trajectory offers novel solutions to the problems facing the creative artist, from collaborations with the great Julie Tippetts and Geraldine Monk to his own bands like sax quartet Hornweb and ensembles such as Bass Tone Trap and studio-based collages like English Commonflowers (Discus, 2003).
“Multi-instrumentalist Archer has built a formidable catalogue that is genre-defying in similar ways to contemporaries ECM, Hubro, Sofa, Hat Hut, et al: ostensibly a ‘jazz label’ ”
Discus Music
https://discusmusic.bandcamp.com/
Discus Music was founded in 1994 by Martin Archer and Mick Beck, and was initially the CD imprint for releases by their own many and various projects. In recent years, the label has opened up to include works by a wide range of artists. Limited in its scope only by the imagination of the musicians, the sounds to be found on the label vary between electronic rock music, free jazz, extended songform, improvised music, and other releases which simply cannot be categorised.
USA commentator Darren Bergstein wrote: “Multi-instrumentalist Archer has built a formidable catalogue that is genre-defying in similar ways to contemporaries ECM, Hubro, Sofa, Hat Hut, et al: ostensibly a ‘jazz label’ (which takes the very meaning of the word ‘jazz’ to heretofore unconsidered heights of stylistic fancy), Discus has long transcended such literal trappings which means that Archer uses it as a conduit to release whatever sonic muse he, and that of his fellow artists, begs to pursue. This has resulted in a broad and consistently marvellous array of work that bridges the divide between compositional rigor and improvisational abandon, whipping elements of each into a heady, ultimately bracing and wholly satisfying, stew.”
Pete Woodman
A lifelong jazz fan, Pete started taking photographs at jazz gigs in around 2003 and, as a result, got to know a number of musicians and promoters. He became an official photographer for both the Manchester and Marsden Jazz Festivals, eventually joining the Marsden committee in 2013. Pete has been a director at Jazz in Britain since early 2023 and also acts as an adviser on jazz at the Harwich Festival.
After retiring from work as a Facilities and Contract Manager, Pete was approached by his friend John Thurlow to ask if he would like to help with some design work at his record label Jazz In Britain, which releases archive recordings of British modern jazz from the 1960s onwards. Pete was soon so busy with work for Jazz in Britain that he stood down from his role as a Director at Marsden in order to focus on design and production at Jazz In Britain.
Jazz in Britain
Jazz In Britain is a not-for-profit organisation run entirely by volunteers. Our aim is to collect, curate, preserve, celebrate and promote the legacy of British jazz and British jazz musicians.
The British Jazz Sound Archive is incorporated within Jazz In Britain. The archive collects, curates and preserves off-air and other recordings of British jazz performances.
Jazz In Britain publishes books on British jazz and British jazz musicians and releases rare or lost recordings and out-of-print albums.
Jazz In Britain always works in partnership with the musicians, or their families, when releasing an album or publishing a book and calls upon an ever-growing network of like-minded individuals who contribute recordings, photographs, other ephemera or text to book or album projects. Since 2019 Jazz In Britain has issued over 40 albums in various formats as well as publishing 7 books on a variety of topics. In 2024 they created the Jazz Now imprint as a vehicle for newly recorded music and will be releasing their fourth album in summer 2025.
Jazz In Britain sells via retailers around the world, and on Amazon, but its main outlet is its Bandcamp page: www.jazzinbritain.co.uk