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BELL RECORDS |
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BOGALUSA RECORDS |
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Hammer Musik and Ingo Kleinhammer have for some time been pursuing the expansion of their label activities with special priority on Black Music from America and Jamaica.
Together with Jim Bateman the BOGALUSA Label has been founded in New Orleans. Part of this label are the BOGALUSA Songs and Lusa publishing companies. New Orleans has been criminally ignored by the majors although social conditions and the variety of Live Music provide a large reservoir of talent in all musical directions.
To date, only Universal has been active in Rap. It is intended that BOGALUSA Records will be active in all areas of Black Music. First signing was John Ellison, who carries on the Soul tradition and who some time ago recorded the Superhit “Some Kind Of Wonderful” as leadsinger of the band Soul Brother Six , one of the few Soulbands to accompany themselves instrumentally. ( As opposed to bands such as the Temptations). In addition to John Ellison, a Live album of the John Handy Quartet Reunion Concert – “Live At Yoshi´s” – has also been released. Both releases claimed positive reactions. In the meantime, the artist roster has been extended and the activities have widened to Los Angeles and KINGSTON, Jamaica. Curtis Womack, alias Binky, shows that he has inherited all the Soul of the Womack family and will carry on their success. As a young artist he has without doubt developed his own style. Both his uncles Cecil (Womack & Womack) and Bobby Womack are very pleased with this development. Bobby couldn’t resist the chance to record two duets with his nephew, including the song “Crazy About You” which is the title track for Curtis´s new CD-Album to be released in March 2003. At the same time, the first single “I Can’t Stop The Rain From Falling” will also be released with Remixes from Mike Dippon. Another product from L.A. is an album from R&B legend Fugi who had his greatest success so far with “Rather Be A Blind Man” which he wrote for Etta James. This song sold 8 million copies ! Fugi wrote this song as a young man in prison and it has been covered since by many R&B greats. A decisive factor for BOGALUSA Records was the meeting between DJ Flava and Ingo Kleinhammer who has a long family connection to Jamaica which goes back to 1972.
Up till now this connection had only yielded a few Reggae Copyrights for Hammer Musik.
D J Flava, aka Kemar Mcgregor, was until recently one of the most important Radio DJ´s in Jamaica and had made a name through sporadic music productions and an unusually intensive co-operation with top Jamaican artists. After long discussions, Flava and Kleinhammer decided to work closely together with a priority of offering artists fair deals.
Until now artists had been compensated with flat payments and had to sign the necessary receipts. BOGALUSA , however, requires that all performers are given fair artist and publishing contracts to sign. KINGSTON Songs was founded to take care of the publishing side.
The Reggae Now logo was designed to give all the Reggae releases on the Label an individual identity and will appear on all Reggae music.
Anthony B. is currently one of the most important Reggae Artists in Jamaica and the fact that he has not released an album for some time increases the expectations for the brand new album “Smoke Free”. First single taken from this album was “Champaign / Vacation” which was released on 12” Vinyl and sold 10,000 copies in three weeks in Jamaica and the Caribbean and a Gold record (25,000) is very probable. A 7” vinyl version is currently being prepared in Jamaica and substantial copies have already been ordered. The 12” vinyl includes a large poster (DIN A1 size) which has already found great acceptance in Jamaica and by tourists there. The 12” vinyl and CD single are being released in Germany at present and distribution there is handled by Zomba who have been especially successful in the Reggae area.
At the end of February the first volume of a special compilation series titled “Reggae Now” will be released. All new, unreleased tracks featuring Jamaica’s top Artists. The intro is performed by a so-called caller, made famous through film appearances, which gives this compilation a special musical form. Artists such as Sizzla, Anthony B, General B, Curtis & Bobby Womack (with a Ragga version of “Crazy About You” ) , Mighty Diamonds, George Nooks, Thriller U and Harry Toddler and others complete this unusual compilation. In May the new Album CD from Sizzla, another top star in the Reggae scene, is being released. All CD Albums will also be available on vinyl which is still very important in this music genre. In Jamaica a 7” vinyl single from Sizzla “The Girls Dem / Vision “ has been released, selling in one week more than 6,000 copies. Both tracks are taken from the forthcoming Sizzla album “Vision”. |
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BOULEVARD |
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Borda, Luis & Zaida Saiace |
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Koono |
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Hirte, Marc |
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Hufeisen, Hans-Jürgen |
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Caudel, Stephen with Tim Panting |
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Darko, George |
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Colalaila |
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Dziuk, Danny |
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Graf-Martinez, Gerhard |
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Hope, John |
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Handy, John |
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Koita, Oumar |
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Leiss, Volker |
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Masao |
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Natale, Carmine |
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Vocaleros |
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Winter, Kitty |
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Titi Winterstein Quintett |
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Music Ensemble Of Benares |
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Boulevard Records is a label of Hammer Musik GmbH, one of the leading independent publishers in Germany. The label was founded in 1985 for two reasons:
First it was a platform for master rights which Hammer Musik obtained for European territories and could successfully exploit, without needing the majors, in order to finance experimental projects for the label. In the last years the label really developed the shape it was intended for. The range of repertoire goes form world music to New Age, Jazz and neighbouring forms of music. Most of the projects have a high standard in their category and often containing a crossover potential. The aim is to reach new styles and not remaining in a minority status. Music is there to entertain people and not to rest in niches. The success in Germany as well as in some other European countries proves that the concept worked out. In the recent two years the Boulevard label has spread its success to overseas territories namely South East Asia, South America and Canada proving the initial concept.
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HAMMER MUSIK |
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KINGSTON RECORDS |
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KINGSTON WORLD |
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THIRD VENTURE |
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