Muse Records was an American 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,...

 which released 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...

 and blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 music.

Muse was founded in the early 1970s by Joe Fields

Joe Fields (producer)

Joe Fields is an American producer and record executive, active mainly in jazz music.Fields worked for Prestige Records as an executive in the 1960s. He and producer Don Schlitten cofounded Cobblestone Records, a subsidiary of Buddah Records, in 1972, and soon after founded Muse Records and its...

, who had previously worked as an executive for Prestige Records

Prestige Records

Prestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...

 in the 1960s. Muse also had a sister label, Onyx Records, which operated until 1978, when Fields and collaborator Don Schlitten

Don Schlitten

Don Schlitten was an American jazz record producer.Schlitten founded the label Signal Records in 1955 alongside Harold Goldberg and Jules Colomby. His credits for Signal included work with Duke Jordan, Gigi Gryce, and Red Rodney. Signal was sold to Savoy Records in the late 1950s, and after this...

 ended their professional relationship.

From 1972 until its sale in 1996 to 32 Jazz (a label owned by producer Joel Dorn

Joel Dorn

Joel Dorn was an American jazz and R&B music producer and record label entrepreneur. He worked at Atlantic Records, and later founded the 32 Jazz, Label M, and Hyena Records labels...

 and musician/lawyer Robert Miller), Muse issued modern jazz recordings. Artists like Tiny Grimes

Tiny Grimes

Lloyd "Tiny" Grimes was an American jazz and R&B guitarist. He was a member of the Art Tatum Trio from 1943 to 1944, was a backing musician on recording sessions, and later led his own bands, including a recording session with Charlie Parker...

, Houston Person

Houston Person

Houston Person is an American jazz tenor saxophonist and record producer. Although he has performed in the hard bop and swing genres, he is most experienced in and best known for his work in soul jazz. Person is also known for his distinctive sassy sound and his expressive style of playing...

, Willis Jackson, Hank Jones

Hank Jones

Henry "Hank" Jones was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts honored him with the NEA Jazz Masters Award...

 and players working in a slightly later idioms like Lester Bowie

Lester Bowie

Lester Bowie was an American jazz trumpet player and composer. He was a member of the AACM, and cofounded the Art Ensemble of Chicago.-Biography:...

 and Joe Chambers

Joe Chambers

Joe Chambers is an American jazz drummer, pianist, vibraphonist and composer. He attended the Philadelphia Conservatory for one year. In the 1960s and 70s Chambers gigged with many high-profile artists such as Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, Lou Donaldson, Chick Corea, Freddie Hubbard, Jimmy Giuffre...

 recorded for the label. Blues musicians like Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters

McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...

 also featured in the catalogue.

Fields sold the Muse imprint in the 1995 and founded HighNote Records

HighNote Records

HighNote Records is an American record label based in New York City, specializing in jazz music.HighNote was founded by Joe Fields, who worked for Prestige Records as an executive in the 1960s and founded Muse Records in the 1970s. He co-founded HighNote and its sister label, Savant Records, in...

 and Savant Records; many Muse artists later recorded for these labels as well. Some Muse sessions were re-released by the short-lived 32 Jazz

32 Jazz

-Discography:...

label, sometimes in a repackaged form.