Circle Records is a United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 based record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 specializing in jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

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Circle Records was founded in January of 1946

1946 in music

- Events :*January 6 – A somewhat revised and streamlined revival of Kern and Hammerstein's Show Boat opens on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Theatre, the same theatre at which the original production played back in 1927. This production features newly designed sets and costumes, new, more extended...

 by Rudi Blesh

Rudi Blesh

Rudi Blesh was an American jazz critic and enthusiast....

 and Harriet Janis. They heard great jazz drummer

Drummer

A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...

 Warren "Baby" Dodds

Baby Dodds

Warren "Baby" Dodds was a jazz drummer born in New Orleans, Louisiana."Baby" Dodds was the younger brother of clarinetist Johnny Dodds. He is regarded as one of the very best jazz drummers of the pre-big band era, and one of the most important early jazz drummers...

 playing inventive solos while in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 with Bunk Johnson

Bunk Johnson

Willie Gary "Bunk" Johnson was a prominent early New Orleans jazz trumpet player in the early years of the 20th century who enjoyed a revived career in the 1940s....

's band. Blesh said that he previously hated drum solos, but was mesmerized by what Dodds played. He and Janis said that there ought to be recordings of this, but regretted that it was probably far too esoteric for any record label to issue—then decided to start their own label. The name "Circle" was suggested by fellow audience member Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...

, who said "Records are circles, and besides, no one can call you square

Square (slang)

Square used as slang may mean many things when referring to a person or in common language.In referring to a person, the word originally meant someone who was honest, traditional and loyal. An agreement that is equitable on all sides is a "square deal"...

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Blesh and Janis continued the label until late 1952, after which it was inactive for a number of years until the mid 1960s when it was bought out by GHB/Jazzology Records

Jazzology Records

Jazzology Records is a United States based record label specializing in traditional jazz.Jazzology was founded in 1949 by George H. Buck, who still runs it, now under the auspices of the George H. Buck, Jr. Foundation, dedicated to the preservation great jazz recordings...

 owner George H. Buck, who reissued Circle material on LP and later compact disc

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

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In San Francisco

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

, there was an unrelated record pressing plant called "Circle Record Company." When the owners of the pressing plant decided to start a record label, they couldn't use the Circle name because this label had the name already. So the label was called Fantasy Records

Fantasy Records

Fantasy Records is a United States-based record label that was founded by Max and Sol Weiss in 1949 in San Francisco, California. They had previously operated a record-pressing plant called Circle Record Company before forming the Fantasy label...

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