Spivey Records was a specialist 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...

 record label founded by blues singer Victoria Spivey

Victoria Spivey

Victoria Spivey was an American blues singer and songwriter. She is best known for her recordings of "Dope Head Blues" and "Organ Grinder Blues", and Spivey variously worked with her sister, Addie "Sweet Pease" Spivey, and with Bob Dylan, Lonnie Johnson, Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Clarence...

 and jazz historian Len Kunstadt

Len Kunstadt

Leonard Kunstadt was a scholar of jazz and blues music, and a record label manager.Len Kunstadt was born and raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn. He was the son of Morris Kunstadt, a violinist and chess master, and Sophie Sherry Kunstadt, a writer and assistant to band leader Edwin Franko Goldman. ...

 in 1961. Spivey Records released a series of blues and jazz albums between 1961 and 1985.

History of Spivey Records

The label recorded a wide variety of blues musicians who were friends of Spivey and Kunstadt, including Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters

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

, Otis Spann

Otis Spann

Otis Spann was an American blues musician, who many consider the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist.-Career:Born in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, Spann became known for his distinct piano style....

, Big Joe Williams

Big Joe Williams

Joseph Lee Williams , billed throughout his career as Big Joe Williams, was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar...

, Lonnie Johnson

Lonnie Johnson

Alonzo "Lonnie" Johnson was an American blues and jazz singer/guitarist and songwriter who pioneered the role of jazz guitar and is recognized as the first to play single-string guitar solos...

, Memphis Slim

Memphis Slim

Memphis Slim was an American blues pianist, singer, and composer. He led a series of bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues, included saxophones, bass, drums, and piano. A song he first cut in 1947, "Every Day I Have the Blues", has become a blues standard, recorded by many other...

, and Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....

. Kunstadt had a rough and ready approach to recording. He was known to walk thru the session and shout "More mistakes!"

On March 2, 1962, Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

 contributed harmonica and backing vocals to a recording session featuring Big Joe Williams

Big Joe Williams

Joseph Lee Williams , billed throughout his career as Big Joe Williams, was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar...

. These tracks appeared on Spivey LP 1004, Three Kings And The Queen. (This was not Dylan's first recording session. He had already recorded his eponymous first album Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan (album)

Bob Dylan is the debut album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in March 1962 on Columbia Records. It features two original compositions, the rest being old folk standards, and was produced by Columbia's legendary talent scout John H...

 for Columbia Records

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

. That album was released on March 19, 1962.)

In recognition of her entrepreneurial achievements with Spivey Records, Spivey was awarded the "BMI

Broadcast Music Incorporated

Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...

 Commendation of Excellence" in 1970.

The label became dormant after the death of Len Kunstadt in 1996.

In 2007, Len Kunstadt's niece, Lisa Weiner, announced the revival of the label on the Spivey Records website. It was announced that audio engineer Doug Pomeroy had remastered the original tapes recorded between 1961 and 1986, and that Spivey LP1001 through Spivey LP1016 would be reissued on CD in 2008. Queries on the notice board of Spivey Records website indicate that as of October 2011, no reissued CDs are currently available.

Albums released by Spivey Records

• Buddy Tate Invites You "To Dig" A Basket Of Blues (1962) (Spivey LP 1001)

Buddy Tate Band; Hannah Sylvester

Hannah Sylvester

Hannah Sylvester was an African American blues singer who performed in the classic female blues style that was popular during the 1920s. She was billed as "Harlem's Mae West"....

; Lucille Hegamin; Victoria Spivey

• Victoria Spivey And Her Blues (1962) (Spivey LP 1002)

Victoria Spivey

• Chicago Blues: A Bonanza All Star Blues LP (1962) (Spivey LP 1003)

Big Willie Dixon

Willie Dixon

William James "Willie" Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. A Grammy Award winner who was proficient on both the Upright bass and the guitar, as well as his own singing voice, Dixon is arguably best known as one of the most prolific songwriters...

; Sunnyland Slim; John Henry Barbee; Homesick James; St Louis Jimmy; Washboard Sam; Cocoa (Aka "Koko") Taylor

Koko Taylor

Koko Taylor sometimes spelled KoKo Taylor was an American Chicago blues musician, popularly known as the "Queen of the Blues." She was known primarily for her rough, powerful vocals and traditional blues stylings....

; Evans Spencer

• Three Kings And The Queen (1962) (Spivey LP 1004)

Roosevelt Sykes

Roosevelt Sykes

Roosevelt Sykes was an American blues musician, also known as "The Honeydripper". He was a successful and prolific cigar-chomping blues piano player, whose rollicking thundering boogie-woogie was highly influential.-Career:Born in Elmar, Arkansas, Sykes grew up near Helena but at age 15, went on...

; Lonnie Johnson; Big Joe Williams

Big Joe Williams

Joseph Lee Williams , billed throughout his career as Big Joe Williams, was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar...

 (with Bob Dylan); Victoria Spivey

• Missippi Mr Shortstuff (1964) (Spivey LP 1005)

Big Joe Williams

• The Queen And Her Knights (1965) (Spivey LP 1006)

Victoria Spivey; Memphis Slim

Memphis Slim

Memphis Slim was an American blues pianist, singer, and composer. He led a series of bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues, included saxophones, bass, drums, and piano. A song he first cut in 1947, "Every Day I Have the Blues", has become a blues standard, recorded by many other...

; Little Brother Montgomery

Little Brother Montgomery

Eurreal Wilford "Little Brother" Montgomery was an American jazz, boogie-woogie and blues pianist and singer....

; Lonnie Johnson

Lonnie Johnson

Alonzo "Lonnie" Johnson was an American blues and jazz singer/guitarist and songwriter who pioneered the role of jazz guitar and is recognized as the first to play single-string guitar solos...

• Louis Metcalf At The Ali Baba (1966) (Spivey LP 1007)

Louis Metcalf; Sonny White; Jerome Patterson; Al Matthews; Struttin' Sam; Victoria Spivey

• The Bluesmen Of The Muddy Waters Chicago Blues Band (1966) (Spivey LP 1008)

Otis Spann

Otis Spann

Otis Spann was an American blues musician, who many consider the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist.-Career:Born in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, Spann became known for his distinct piano style....

; George Smith; Luther Johnson

Luther Johnson (Guitar Junior)

Luther Johnson is an American Chicago blues singer and guitarist, who performs under the name Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson....

; Sammy Lawhorn

Sammy Lawhorn

Sammy David Lawhorn was an American Chicago blues guitarist. He is best known for his membership of Muddy Waters band, although his guitar work accompanied many other blues musicians including Otis Spann, Willie Cobbs, Eddie Boyd, Roy Brown, Big Mama Thornton, John Lee Hooker, James Cotton, and...

; Francis Clay

• Encore For The Chicago Blues (1968) (Spivey LP 1009)

Muddy Waters Bluesmen; Harvey Hill; Koko Taylor

Koko Taylor

Koko Taylor sometimes spelled KoKo Taylor was an American Chicago blues musician, popularly known as the "Queen of the Blues." She was known primarily for her rough, powerful vocals and traditional blues stylings....

; Memphis Slim; Babe Stovall; Big Joe Williams; Oliver Brown; J. B. Lenoir

J. B. Lenoir

J. B. Lenoir /ləˈnɔːr/ was an African American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter, active in the 1950s and 1960s Chicago blues scene....

; Washboard Sam's Band; Victoria Spivey; Willie Dixon

Willie Dixon

William James "Willie" Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. A Grammy Award winner who was proficient on both the Upright bass and the guitar, as well as his own singing voice, Dixon is arguably best known as one of the most prolific songwriters...

; John Hammond

John P. Hammond

John Paul Hammond is an American blues singer and guitarist. The son of record producer John H. Hammond, he is sometimes referred to as "John Hammond, Jr.".-Background:...

; John Henry Barbee; Viola Wells; Homesick James; Roosevelt Sykes

• The Bluesmen Of The Muddy Waters Blues Band, Volume 2 (1968) (Spivey LP 1010)

Otis Spann

Otis Spann

Otis Spann was an American blues musician, who many consider the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist.-Career:Born in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, Spann became known for his distinct piano style....

; Lucille Spann; Luther Johnson

Luther Johnson (Guitar Junior)

Luther Johnson is an American Chicago blues singer and guitarist, who performs under the name Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson....

; Sammy Lawhorn

Sammy Lawhorn

Sammy David Lawhorn was an American Chicago blues guitarist. He is best known for his membership of Muddy Waters band, although his guitar work accompanied many other blues musicians including Otis Spann, Willie Cobbs, Eddie Boyd, Roy Brown, Big Mama Thornton, John Lee Hooker, James Cotton, and...

; Little Sonny Wimberley; S.P. Leary; Paul Oscher; Pee Wee Madison; Willie Smith

• Victoria Spivey Presents The All Star Blues World Of Spivey Records In Stereo (1970) (Spivey LP 1011)

Roosevelt Sykes

Roosevelt Sykes

Roosevelt Sykes was an American blues musician, also known as "The Honeydripper". He was a successful and prolific cigar-chomping blues piano player, whose rollicking thundering boogie-woogie was highly influential.-Career:Born in Elmar, Arkansas, Sykes grew up near Helena but at age 15, went on...

; John Hammond

John P. Hammond

John Paul Hammond is an American blues singer and guitarist. The son of record producer John H. Hammond, he is sometimes referred to as "John Hammond, Jr.".-Background:...

; Victoria Spivey; Smokey Hogg; Washboard Doc; Smokey Hogg; Willie Dixon

Willie Dixon

William James "Willie" Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. A Grammy Award winner who was proficient on both the Upright bass and the guitar, as well as his own singing voice, Dixon is arguably best known as one of the most prolific songwriters...

; Sunnyland Slim; Marie Dixon; Johnny Shines

Johnny Shines

Johnny Shines was an American blues singer and guitarist. According to the music journalist Tony Russell, "Shines was that rare being, a blues artist who overcame age and rustiness to make music that stood up beside the work of his youth...

• Spivey's Blues Parade (1970) (Spivey LP 1012)

Spivey's Blues Paraders: Bill Dicey, John Hammond, Bob Malenky, Roosevelt Sykes & Washboard Doc: Benny Jefferson; Pat Blackman; Sugar Blue

Sugar Blue

Sugar Blue is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician, who plays the harmonica. He is probably best known for playing on The Rolling Stones' single, "Miss You"....

 & His Harmonica; Sippie Wallace; Billie Mitchell; Walter "Shakey" Horton, Sunnyland Slim & Johnny Shines; Victoria Spivey, Lonnie Johnson, Little Brother Montgomery & Sonny Greer; Carolina Rose; Sonny Boy Williamson

Sonny Boy Williamson II

Willie "Sonny Boy" Williamson was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, from Mississippi. He is acknowledged as one of the most charismatic and influential blues musicians, with considerable prowess on the harmonica and highly creative songwriting skills...

; Nita Washington; Washboard Bill; Little Sonny Parker; Delsey Maccay, Horton & Sunnyland Slim; Papa Comb & His Ukelele Mama; Lonnie Johnson

Lonnie Johnson

Alonzo "Lonnie" Johnson was an American blues and jazz singer/guitarist and songwriter who pioneered the role of jazz guitar and is recognized as the first to play single-string guitar solos...

• The Everlasting Blues vs. Otis Spann (1969) (Spivey LP 1013)

Otis Spann

Otis Spann

Otis Spann was an American blues musician, who many consider the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist.-Career:Born in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, Spann became known for his distinct piano style....

; Johnny Young

Johnny Young

Johnny Young is an Australian singer, composer, record producer, disc jockey, television producer and host. Originally from Netherlands, his family settled in Perth, Western Australia in the early 1950s...

; Luther Johnson

Luther Johnson (Guitar Junior)

Luther Johnson is an American Chicago blues singer and guitarist, who performs under the name Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson....

; Peter Malick; S.P. Leary

• Three Kings And The Queen, Volume Two (1970) (Spivey LP 1014)

Memphis Slim

Memphis Slim

Memphis Slim was an American blues pianist, singer, and composer. He led a series of bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues, included saxophones, bass, drums, and piano. A song he first cut in 1947, "Every Day I Have the Blues", has become a blues standard, recorded by many other...

; Lonnie Johnson; Roosevelt Sykes

Roosevelt Sykes

Roosevelt Sykes was an American blues musician, also known as "The Honeydripper". He was a successful and prolific cigar-chomping blues piano player, whose rollicking thundering boogie-woogie was highly influential.-Career:Born in Elmar, Arkansas, Sykes grew up near Helena but at age 15, went on...

; Victoria Spivey

Victoria Spivey

Victoria Spivey was an American blues singer and songwriter. She is best known for her recordings of "Dope Head Blues" and "Organ Grinder Blues", and Spivey variously worked with her sister, Addie "Sweet Pease" Spivey, and with Bob Dylan, Lonnie Johnson, Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Clarence...

, Big Joe Williams

Big Joe Williams

Joseph Lee Williams , billed throughout his career as Big Joe Williams, was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar...

 and Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

; Big Joe Williams

Big Joe Williams

Joseph Lee Williams , billed throughout his career as Big Joe Williams, was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar...

; Roosevelt Sykes and John Hammond

John P. Hammond

John Paul Hammond is an American blues singer and guitarist. The son of record producer John H. Hammond, he is sometimes referred to as "John Hammond, Jr.".-Background:...

; Victoria Spivey and Bob Dylan.

• Spivey's Blues Cavalcade (1970) (Spivey LP 1015)

Bill Dicey's High Street Blues Band; Larry Johnson

Larry Johnson (musician)

Larry Johnson is an American electric blues singer and guitarist.-Life and career:Johnson's father was a preacher who traveled extensively. This led to Johnson being exposed to blues records by Blind Boy Fuller, who inspired Johnson to learn the rudiments of guitar playing...

; Brooklyn Blues Busters; Danny Russo; Washboard Bill; Ted Stilles; Homesick James

Homesick James

Homesick James was an American blues musician. He most notably played slide guitar, and recorded covers of "Stones In My Passway" and "Homesick"...

; Mark Ross & John Brenner; John Hammond; Johnny Shines

Johnny Shines

Johnny Shines was an American blues singer and guitarist. According to the music journalist Tony Russell, "Shines was that rare being, a blues artist who overcame age and rustiness to make music that stood up beside the work of his youth...

, Big Walter Horton and Sunshine Slim; Bukka White

Bukka White

Booker T. Washington White , better known as Bukka White, was an American Delta blues guitarist and singer. "Bukka" was not a nickname, but a phonetic misspelling of White's given name Booker, by his second record label .-Biography:Born between Aberdeen and Houston, Mississippi, White was the...

; Bill Dicey and Sugar Blue

Sugar Blue

Sugar Blue is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician, who plays the harmonica. He is probably best known for playing on The Rolling Stones' single, "Miss You"....

; Ralph Rush;
Harvey Hill; Ted Stilles; Louisiana Red

Louisiana Red

Louisiana Red is an African American blues guitarist, harmonica player, and singer, who has recorded more than 50 albums...

; Victoria Spivey

Victoria Spivey

Victoria Spivey was an American blues singer and songwriter. She is best known for her recordings of "Dope Head Blues" and "Organ Grinder Blues", and Spivey variously worked with her sister, Addie "Sweet Pease" Spivey, and with Bob Dylan, Lonnie Johnson, Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Clarence...

.

• The All Star Blues World Of Maestro Willie Dixon
  Willie Dixon
  William James "Willie" Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. A Grammy Award winner who was proficient on both the Upright bass and the guitar, as well as his own singing voice, Dixon is arguably best known as one of the most prolific songwriters...
  
   and his Chicago Blues Band (1973) (Spivey LP 1016)

Willie Dixon Band; Buster Benton

Buster Benton

Buster Benton was an American blues guitarist and singer, who played guitar in Willie Dixon's Blues All-Stars, and is best known for his solo rendition of the Dixon-penned song "Spider in My Stew." He was tenacious and in the latter part of his lengthy career, despite the amputation of parts of...

; Lafayette Leake; Larry Johnson; Carey Bell

Carey Bell

Carey Bell was an American blues musician, who played the harmonica in the Chicago blues style. Bell played harmonica and bass for other blues musicians during the late 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s before embarking on a solo career...

; Larry Johnson; Victoria Spivey.

• I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter (1978) (Spivey LP 1020) Big Joe Turner
  Big Joe Turner
  Big Joe Turner was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to the songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." Although he came to his greatest fame in the 1950s with his pioneering rock and roll recordings, particularly "Shake, Rattle and...
  
  Lloyd Glenn, Brenda Bell, Robert Ross, Bill Dicey, Washboard Doc
• "New York Really Has The Blues" Victoria Spivey, Paul Oscher, Sugar Blue, Washboard Doc, Charles "Honeyboy" Otis, Smokey Hogg, The Dicey Ross Band featuring Bill Dicey and Robert Ross
• "What Is The Blues" (1977) (Spivey LP 1022) Eunice Davis and the Spivey Low-Down Blues Privacy Invaders with Bill Dicey, Robert Ross, Jonathan Dreschler, Georges Morales, Andy Story, Washboard Doc
• "Victoria Spivey and her Danny Boy" (1977) (Spivey LP 1023) Victoria Spivey with Danny Russo plus Lefty Dizz and Larry Johnson

External links

• Spivey Records — Official Spivey Records website
• Victoria Spivey Archives, including papers of Spivey Records, 1960-1976, Emory University Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library.
• Illustrated Spivey Records discography Stefan Wirz

• Spivey Records List on Jean Michel Borello discographical website