Verve Forecast Records
Encyclopedia
Verve Forecast Records is a record label specializing in cutting-edge material which was founded in 1967 by Verve Records
and since been revived twice.
Verve Forecast was founded by Verve executive Jerry Schoenbaum as an outgrowth of Verve Folkways Records, founded in 1964 in association with Folkways Records
owner Moe Asch. Originally a folk music label, Verve Forecast challenged standard record industry practice by developing long term careers instead of generating hit records.
Verve Forecast attracted a new generation of talent which included The Blues Project, Richie Havens
, Tim Hardin
, Janis Ian
, Laura Nyro
, Jim and Jean
, Friend and Lover
, The Hombres
and Bob Lind
. Established folk music artists included Odetta
, Dave Van Ronk
and The New Lost City Ramblers along with blues artists John Lee Hooker
, Lightnin' Hopkins
, Leadbelly
and James Cotton
.
The label fell victim to corporate shuffles in the early 1970s around the time Verve parent MGM Records
was sold to PolyGram
(at that point, the original catalog of Verve Forecast was incorporated into that of Polydor Records
).
Verve Forecast was first revived for smooth jazz
releases in the 1990s, with artists such as Chris Botti
, Jeff Lorber
, and Will Downing
recording for the label. The revived label also fell to corporate restructuring when PolyGram was merged into Universal Music Group
in the late 1990s; the imprint was deactivated with its smooth jazz
artists being transferred to GRP Records
.
Verve Forecast was then revived in 2004 to handle the Verve Music Group's non-jazz talent, replacing the revived Blue Thumb Records
.
Today's artist roster includes Aqualung
, Avant
, Sunshine Anderson
, Beast, Blues Traveler
, Brazilian Girls
, The Bridges
, Jessie Baylin
, Elizabeth & The Catapult
, Elvis Costello
, Jamie Cullum
, Dion
, John Fogerty
, Jackie Greene
, Guillemots
, Daryl Hall
, Jesse Harris
, Ledisi
, Rhett Miller
, Ollabelle
, Susan Tedeschi
, Teddy Thompson
, Kate Walsh
, Lucy Woodward
, Lizz Wright
and Yoav. Some of these artists recorded for other Universal-owned labels in the past, including Avant (MCA
and Geffen
) and Blues Traveler (A&M
).
Verve Records
Verve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records and Norgran Records , and material which had been licensed to Mercury previously.-Jazz and folk origins:The Verve...
and since been revived twice.
Verve Forecast was founded by Verve executive Jerry Schoenbaum as an outgrowth of Verve Folkways Records, founded in 1964 in association with Folkways Records
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...
owner Moe Asch. Originally a folk music label, Verve Forecast challenged standard record industry practice by developing long term careers instead of generating hit records.
Verve Forecast attracted a new generation of talent which included The Blues Project, Richie Havens
Richie Havens
Richard P. "Richie" Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...
, Tim Hardin
Tim Hardin
James Timothy "Tim" Hardin was an American folk musician and composer. He wrote the Top 40 hits "If I Were a Carpenter", covered by, among others, Joan Baez, Bobby Darin, Johnny Cash, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, and Robert Plant, and "Reason to Believe", covered by many, including Rod Stewart, as well...
, Janis Ian
Janis Ian
Janis Ian is an American songwriter, singer, musician, columnist, and science fiction author. Ian first entered the folk music scene while still a teenager in the mid-sixties; most active musically in that decade and the 1970s, she has continued recording into the 21st century...
, Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist. She achieved considerable critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums Eli and the Thirteenth Confession and New York Tendaberry, and had commercial success with artists such as Barbra Streisand and The 5th...
, Jim and Jean
Jim and Jean
Jim and Jean, composed of Jim Glover and Jean Ray were an American folk music duo, who performed and recorded music from the early to the late 1960s....
, Friend and Lover
Friend and Lover
Friend and Lover were an American folk-singing duo composed of husband-and-wife team, Jim and Cathy Post. They are best known for their hit single "Reach Out of the Darkness", which reached number 10 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in the summer of 1968....
, The Hombres
The Hombres
The Hombres were a Memphis, Tennessee, band best known for the 1967 single "Let It Out ".Formed in 1966, The Hombres comprised Gary Wayne McEwen on guitar, B.B. Cunningham on lead vocals and electric organ, Jerry Lee Masters on bass and John Will Hunter on drums...
and Bob Lind
Bob Lind
Bob Lind is an American folk music singer-songwriter who reached the height of his success during the 1960s...
. Established folk music artists included Odetta
Odetta
Odetta Holmes, known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals...
, Dave Van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....
and The New Lost City Ramblers along with blues artists John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...
, Lightnin' Hopkins
Lightnin' Hopkins
Sam John Hopkins better known as Lightnin’ Hopkins, was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist, from Houston, Texas...
, Leadbelly
Leadbelly
Huddie William Ledbetter was an iconic American folk and blues musician, notable for his strong vocals, his virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the songbook of folk standards he introduced....
and James Cotton
James Cotton
James Cotton is an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who has performed and recorded with many of the great blues artists of his time as well as with his own band.-Career:...
.
The label fell victim to corporate shuffles in the early 1970s around the time Verve parent MGM Records
MGM Records
MGM Records was a record label started by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946, for the purpose of releasing soundtrack albums of their musical films. Later it became a pop label, lasting into the 1970s...
was sold to PolyGram
PolyGram
PolyGram was the name of the major label recording company started by Philips from as a holding company for its music interests in 1945. In 1999 it was sold to Seagram and merged into Universal Music Group.-Hollandsche Decca Distributie , 1929-1950:...
(at that point, the original catalog of Verve Forecast was incorporated into that of Polydor Records
Polydor Records
Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...
).
Verve Forecast was first revived for smooth jazz
Smooth jazz
Smooth jazz is a genre of music that grew out of jazz fusion and is influenced by R&B, funk, rock, and pop music styles ....
releases in the 1990s, with artists such as Chris Botti
Chris Botti
Christopher Stephen "Chris" Botti , is an American trumpeter and composer. In 2007, Botti was nominated for two Grammy Awards including Best Pop Instrumental Album. On December 4, 2009, he was nominated for three more Grammy Awards including Best Pop Instrumental Album and Best Long Form Music Video...
, Jeff Lorber
Jeff Lorber
Jeff Lorber is an American Grammy Award-nominated keyboardist, composer, and record producer.After leading his own group, The Jeff Lorber Fusion, he went on to pioneer the smooth jazz genre....
, and Will Downing
Will Downing
Will Downing , is an American singer-songwriter and producer. Downing is known in the contemporary jazz and R&B music genres for his rich baritone vocals, and his interpretations of R&B and pop classics that stretch back to the early 1980s...
recording for the label. The revived label also fell to corporate restructuring when PolyGram was merged into Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
in the late 1990s; the imprint was deactivated with its smooth 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...
artists being transferred to GRP Records
GRP Records
GRP Records is an American jazz record company, owned by Universal Music Group and operates through its Verve Music Group. The company's name has had different meanings. In its early days, it stood for "Grusin/Rosen Productions," after the founders...
.
Verve Forecast was then revived in 2004 to handle the Verve Music Group's non-jazz talent, replacing the revived Blue Thumb Records
Blue Thumb Records
Blue Thumb Records was an American record label founded in 1968 by Bob Krasnow, along with former A&M Records executives Tommy LiPuma and Don Graham. Krasnow had been in the record business for a number of years, working as a promotion man for King Records and also working for Buddah/Kama Sutra...
.
Today's artist roster includes Aqualung
Aqualung (musician)
Matthew "Matt" Hales , better known as Aqualung, is an English singer and songwriter best known in the UK for his song "Strange and Beautiful", which was featured on a television advertisement for the new Volkswagen New Beetle during the summer of 2002 and went on to become a Top 10 hit in the UK...
, Avant
Avant
Myron Avant , better known as Avant is an American R&B singer-songwriter. He is best known for hits such as "Separated" , "My First Love," which one version features KeKe Wyatt, and "Read Your Mind"...
, Sunshine Anderson
Sunshine Anderson
Sunshine Anderson is a female American R&B and soul singer and songwriter.-Beginnings:Anderson was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and later moved to Charlotte as a child and became friends with Narisha Foxx...
, Beast, Blues Traveler
Blues Traveler
Blues Traveler is a rock band, formed in Princeton, New Jersey in 1987. The band has been influenced by a variety of genres, including blues-rock, psychedelic rock, folk rock, soul, and Southern rock...
, Brazilian Girls
Brazilian Girls
Brazilian Girls was a band from New York City known for their eclectic blend of electronic dance music with musical styles as diverse as tango, chanson, house, reggae and lounge. None of the members are actually from Brazil and the only female in the band is Sabina Sciubba. Other members include...
, The Bridges
The Bridges (band)
The Bridges is an American folk rock band that formed in Oxford, Alabama in 2005 consisting of cousins and siblings Brittany Painter , Natalie Byrd , Stacey Byrd , Issaca Byrd , and Jeremy Byrd...
, Jessie Baylin
Jessie Baylin
Jessie Baylin is a Nashville based singer/songwriter born April 4, 1984, in Gillette, New Jersey. Her debut album You was produced by Grammy Award winner Jesse Harris and is distributed only through iTunes....
, Elizabeth & The Catapult
Elizabeth & The Catapult
Elizabeth & The Catapult is a Brooklyn-based artist, consisting of singer-songwriter Elizabeth Ziman. She best known for her 2009 album Taller Children, produced by Mike Mogis and released on Verve Forecast.-History:...
, Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
, Jamie Cullum
Jamie Cullum
Jamie Cullum is an English pop and jazz-pop singer-songwriter. Though he is primarily a vocalist/pianist he also accompanies himself on other instruments including guitar and drums. Since April 2010, he has been presenting a weekly jazz show on BBC Radio 2, broadcast on Tuesdays from 19:00.- Early...
, Dion
Dion DiMucci
Dion Francis DiMucci , better known as Dion, is an American singer-songwriter whose work has incorporated elements of doo-wop, pop oldies music, rock and R&B styles....
, John Fogerty
John Fogerty
John Cameron Fogerty is an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his time with the swamp rock/roots rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival and as a #1 solo recording artist. Fogerty has a rare distinction of being named on Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 Greatest...
, Jackie Greene
Jackie Greene
Jackie Greene is an American singer-songwriter and musician.-Career:Greene was born Chris Nelson in Salinas, California, and developed an interest in music at an early age, starting with the piano. At 14, he began to play guitar and within a short time, was able to sit in with local bar bands. As...
, Guillemots
Guillemots (band)
Guillemots are a BRIT Award nominated indie rock band formed in November 2004 by Fyfe Dangerfield. The band consists of 4 members: Fyfe Dangerfield, MC Lord Magrão, Aristazabal Hawkes & Greig Stewart. Although formed in Birmingham and now based in London, the band's members have been compiled from...
, Daryl Hall
Daryl Hall
Daryl Hall is an American rock, R&B and soul singer, keyboardist, guitarist, songwriter and producer, best known as the co-founder and lead vocalist of Hall & Oates . Hall scored several Billboard chart hits in the 1970s and early 1980s, and is regarded as one of the best blue eyed soul singers...
, Jesse Harris
Jesse Harris
Jesse Harris is a Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter. He has collaborated with several musical artists including Norah Jones, Melody Gardot, Madeleine Peyroux, Nikki Yanofsky, and Lizz Wright.-Early life and education:...
, Ledisi
Ledisi
Ledisi Anibade Young is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Her first name means "to bring forth" or "to come here" in Yoruba. Ledisi is known for her jazz influenced vocals. In 1995, Ledisi formed the group known as Anibade. After unsuccessfully trying to get the group signed to a major...
, Rhett Miller
Rhett Miller
Stewart Ransom Miller II , better-known as Rhett Miller is the lead singer of the alternative country band Old 97's and a successful solo musician. He graduated from St. Mark's School of Texas, a private boys' school in Dallas in 1989 and briefly attended Sarah Lawrence College on a creative...
, Ollabelle
Ollabelle
Ollabelle is a New York based folk music group named after the influential Appalachian songwriter Ola Belle Reed. The group is composed of five singing multi-instrumentalists hailing from disparate parts of the United States, Canada and Australia.-History:...
, Susan Tedeschi
Susan Tedeschi
Susan Tedeschi is an American blues and soul musician, who has received multiple Grammy Award nominations, and is well-known for her singing voice, guitar playing, stage presence, and marriage to blues guitarist Derek Trucks...
, Teddy Thompson
Teddy Thompson
Teddy Thompson is a British folk and rock musician. He is the son of folk-rock musicians Richard and Linda Thompson and brother of singer Kamila Thompson...
, Kate Walsh
Kate Walsh (singer)
Kate Walsh is an English singer from Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex.A graduate of the Brighton Institute of Modern Music, her first album was Clocktower Park , released in 2003 by Kitchenware Records. The album was named for a meeting place in her home town. In 2007, she released her second album, Tim's...
, Lucy Woodward
Lucy Woodward
Lucy Woodward is an American pop/jazz singer and composer.Woodward was born in England, and moved with her family to Amsterdam when she was three. At the age of five, her parents split up and she relocated to the Bronx with her mother...
, Lizz Wright
Lizz Wright
Lizz Wright is an American jazz/R&B singer and composer.Wright was born in the small town of Hahira in the US state of Georgia; one of three children and the daughter of a minister and the musical director of their Church. She started singing gospel music and playing piano in church as a child,...
and Yoav. Some of these artists recorded for other Universal-owned labels in the past, including Avant (MCA
MCA Records
MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part. MCA Records was absorbed by Geffen Records in 2003...
and Geffen
Geffen Records
Geffen Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operated as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-Beginnings:...
) and Blues Traveler (A&M
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
).