name	Elektra Records
image name	Elektralogo.png
president	Mike Caren
parent	Warner Music Group
founded	1950
founder	Jac HolzmanPaul Rickolt
status
president	Mike Caren
distributor	Atlantic Records Group(In the US)WEA International Inc.(Outside the US)Rhino Records (re-issues)
genre	Various
country	United States
url	}}

Elektra Records (Elektra Entertainment Group Inc.) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009. Elektra is currently celebrating its 60th anniversary.

History

Beginnings

Elektra was formed in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt in Holzman's St. John's College dorm room. Each invested $300. The usual spelling of the Greek mythological Pleiad Electra was changed. Holzman famously explained, “I gave her the ‘K’ that I lacked”. He found the 'C' in the original name "too soft" but liked the "solid bite" of the letter 'K', citing its use in the Kodak name.

The first Elektra LP, ''New Songs'' (EKLP 1 released March 1951), was a collection of Lieder and similar 'art' songs which sold few copies. During the Fifties and early Sixties the label concentrated on folk music recordings, releasing a number of best-selling albums by Theodore Bikel, Ed McCurdy, Oscar Brand, Judy Collins and protest singers such as Phil Ochs and Tom Paxton. Holzman also recorded Josh White, who was without a record deal as a result of McCarthyite blacklisting.

In 1964, Elektra launched Nonesuch Records. This classical budget label was the best-selling budget classical label of the era. Other labels followed suit by starting their own budget series, but Nonesuch remained the most popular and Jac Holzman states in his book that profits from the budget classical label made it possible for Elektra to experiment with their pop releases by the mid-Sixties.

In 1965, Elektra began a short-lived joint venture with Survey Music called Bounty Records which was Elektra's first foray into pop music. The most notable signing for Bounty was the Paul Butterfield Band who was moved over to Elektra when Bounty folded.

Elektra's entrance into pop gained the label considerable prestige on the music scene by being one of the first labels to sign up leading acts from the new wave of American psychedelic rock of 1966–67. The label’s most important signings were the Chicago-based Paul Butterfield Blues Band (with Mike Bloomfield), the Los Angeles bands Love and The Doors, and the Detroit bands The Stooges and MC5. Another of Elektra's LA signings was Tim Buckley, father-to-be of Jeff Buckley.

Also in 1967, Elektra launched its influential Nonesuch Explorer Series, one of the first collections of what is now referred to as world music. Excerpts from several Nonesuch Explorer recordings were later included on the two Voyager Golden Discs which were sent into deep space in 1977 aboard the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space probes.

The Asylum Records merger

Elektra, along with its Nonesuch Records subsidiary, was acquired by Kinney National Company in 1970. Soon afterwards Kinney consolidated their label holdings under the Warner Communications umbrella. Holzman remained in charge of Elektra until 1972, when it merged with Asylum Records to become Elektra/Asylum Records; Asylum's founder, David Geffen, would head the newly combined label. Holzman, in the meantime, was appointed senior vice president and chief technologist for Warner — ushering the company into home video and the first interactive cable system. Holzman also went on to start Discovery Records. In 1975, Geffen stepped down due to health problems. He would be replaced by Joe Smith, who later went on to become CEO of Capitol Records.

Joe Smith, under whose leadership resulted in the biggest market share and gross revenues Elektra Asylum was to have, inherited the A&R; services of Chuck Plotkin, famed later for producing many of Bruce Springsteen's greatest records, followed up by George Daly, who is credited as bringing in seminal New Wave band The Cars, setting Elektra, again, on another artist direction.

Although the company was technically listed as “Elektra/Asylum Records” on the label credits, as the years went on the company began to unofficially call itself ''Elektra Records'' again (with Asylum operating as a subsidiary label.) In 1982, Elektra launched a jazz subsidiary called Elektra/Musician. The following year, Bob Krasnow became president and CEO of Elektra; under his leadership, the label would reach its commercial peak throughout the rest of the 1980s and early to mid 1990s.

Elektra Entertainment Group

In 1989, the company officially changed its name to Elektra Entertainment. During this time, Elektra developed a relationship with the UK-based label 4AD, becoming the North American distributor for 4AD acts such as the Pixies, The Breeders, Frank Black and The Amps. This eventually led to Elektra's sister label Warner Bros. Records to sign an exclusive American distribution deal for nearly all 4AD releases from 1992 to 1998.

Like its sister labels, Elektra's fortunes began to wane in the mid-1990s, in part because of a series of bitter corporate battles between senior Warner label executives which seriously damaged the collective reputation of the group. Unhappy with major structural changes enacted by then Warner Music Group chairman Robert Morgado, Bob Krasnow abruptly resigned in July 1994, and others soon followed—the highly respected Warner Bros CEO Mo Ostin decided not to renew his contract and left in December 1994, and Ostin's friend and protege Lenny Waronker left early the next year. Krasnow was replaced by Sylvia Rhone and during the year the label was renamed ''Elektra Entertainment Group''.

In September 1994 another damaging controversy erupted when top heavy metal band Metallica filed suit against Elektra to terminate their contract and gain ownership of their master recordings. The group based its claim on a section of the California Labor Code that allows employees to be released from a personal services contract after seven years. By this time Metallica had been with the label for more than a decade and had racked up sales of over 40 million records, but they were still operating under the terms of their original 1984 contract, which provided a relatively low 14% royalty rate. The group also claimed that they were taking the action because Robert Morgado had refused to honor a new deal they had worked out with Bob Krasnow shortly before he quit the label. Elektra responded by counter-suing the group, but in December ''New York'' magazine reported rumours that then Warner Music US chairman Doug Morris had offered the group a lucrative new deal in exchange for dropping the suit which was reported to be even more generous than the earlier Krasnow deal. In January the group and Elektra jointly announced that they had settled the suit, and although a non-disclosure agreement kept the terms secret, media sources claimed that "a significant increase in royalty payments to the band as well as a renegotiation of the group's recording contract were key factors in Metallica and Elektra coming to terms."

Despite having a large stable of noted acts, as the 1990s drew to a close, Elektra began to see a slump in revenue, while noticeably underperforming on the charts. It also developed a bit of a sullen reputation in the industry for not properly promoting many of its releases, thus earning the nickname "Neglektra" by many of its acts and was easily lagging behind its sister labels Warner Bros. Records and Atlantic Records.

Atlantic absorption

In February 2004, Warner Music Group was sold by Time Warner to a group of private investors made up of Thomas Lee Partners, Bain & Company, and Edgar Bronfman Jr. (who assumed CEO duties).

Looking for ways to save money, the new owners of WMG decided to merge Elektra and Atlantic Records. Because it was the lesser performing label of the two, 40% of Elektra's operations were put into the new venture, while a commanding 60% of Atlantic's went in. Subsequently, the new company was called "Atlantic Records Group" with Elektra breaking off into a subsidiary which became dormant until the label was revived in 2009 (though longtime time Elektra artists such as Tracy Chapman, Björk, and Yolanda Adams continued to have releases on the label while newer signees such as Jason Mraz and Jet were transferred to Atlantic).

Elektra's catalog continues to be released/reissued by Rhino Records, which released a 5-CD box set various-artists compilation titled ''Forever Changing: the Golden Age of Elektra Records 1963-1973'' in November, 2006.

Revival

Atlantic Records Group announced the revival of Elektra Records as an independent entity within Warner Music on June 1, 2009. The revived label is headed up by two new co-Presidents: Mike Caren, Exec. VP of A&R; for Atlantic Records, and John Janick, founder and President of prominent indie label Fueled by Ramen. The revived label uses a modified version of the circa-1970s Elektra logo.

The first release of the new label was the original soundtrack of the HBO show ''True Blood'', and the first album released was Charlotte Gainsbourg's ''IRM''. The label is now home to artists such as Uffie, Little Boots, Justice, Cee-Lo Green, and Bruno Mars.

Elektra Records artists

Notes

References

Jac Holzman and Gavan Daws. ''Follow the Music: The Life and High Times of Elektra Records in the Great Years of American Pop Culture''. First Media Books (1998). ISBN 0966122119.

Mick Houghton. ''Becoming Elektra''. Jawbone Press (2010). ISBN 978-1-906002-29-9.

External links

The Elektra Story from BSN Pubs

Elektra discography to 1973

60th Anniversary Web page

Category:American record labels Category:Record labels established in 1950 Category:Warner Music labels Category:Atlantic Records Category:IFPI members

af:Elektra Records cs:Elektra Records da:Elektra Records de:Elektra Records es:Elektra Records fr:Elektra Records ko:엘렉트라 레코드 it:Elektra Records he:אלקטרה רקורדס ka:Elektra Records hu:Elektra Records nl:Elektra Records ja:エレクトラ・レコード no:Elektra Records nn:Elektra Records pl:Elektra Records pt:Elektra Records ru:Elektra Records fi:Elektra Records sv:Elektra Records uk:Elektra Records

#REDIRECTBruno Mars

Jac Holzman (born September 15, 1931) was the founder, chief executive officer and head of both Elektra Records and Nonesuch Records.

Biography

He founded Elektra Records in his St. John's College dorm room in 1950 and Nonesuch Records in 1964. He signed such acts as The Doors, Queen (US only), Love, Carly Simon, The Stooges, Harry Chapin, and Bread to Elektra and discovered folk singer Judy Collins. In 1970 he merged his music interests with Warner Communications (WCI) and continued his association with the labels he created for three additional years. While a part of the Warner Music Group, Holzman helped to establish both the WEA Distributing Corp (Warner-Elektra-Atlantic Distributing Corp) and WEA International.

In 1973, Holzman was appointed senior vice president and chief technologist for WCI. Holzman guided the company into home video and the first interactive cable television system, QUBE. Until 1972, he was a director of Pioneer Electronics Japan, helping that company, and Warner, adopt the compact disc and Laserdisc. Holzman was a member of the board of Atari, one of the first videogame companies, which was acquired by WCI in 1976.

In 1979 Holzman became the nexus between ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith and John Lack of Warner Cable. He persuaded Lack to meet with Nesmith who had been nursing an idea for a program he called PopClips. Holzman thought that Nesmith's notion of building a TV structure around that idea made real sense.

In 1982, following the death of President and founder Robert Gottschalk, Holzman took charge of Panavision, a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Communications and turned that financially troubled company around.

In 1986 he formed FirstMedia, an investment firm which acquired Cinema Products Corporation, the maker of the Oscar winning Steadicam camera stabilization system.

In 1991, through FirstMedia, Holzman acquired the Discovery, Trend and Musicraft jazz labels from the estate of Albert Marx, which was also acquired by Warner Music Group in 1993.

After Edgar Bronfman, Jr. and a group of investors acquired Warner Music Group from Time Warner Inc. in 2004, Bronfman brought Holzman back to WMG, reuniting him with the company that he had helped to found with Ahmet Ertegun and Mo Ostin. Although Holzman's work at Warner Music covers a range from mentoring executives and future planning, his first project was the creation of an on-line label, Cordless Recordings, introduced in late 2005. Cordless gives bands space to hone their art and grow without the expectations and cash outlays associated with a major label.

In 2008 Holzman received the NARAS Grammy Trustees Award.

On December 15, 2010, it was announced that Holzman will be awarded the Ahmet Ertegun Award (along with Specialty Records founder Art Rupe) by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Holzman is the father of Adam Holzman, a jazz-rock keyboardist who has played with Miles Davis, Jaclyn Easton, writer and Internet entrepreneur, and Marin Sander-Holzman, editor and filmmaker.

Jac Holzman was inducted into the non-performer category of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday, March 14, 2011.

References

External links

Word 152 - 2010-10-21 - David Hepworth talks to Jac Holzman, on Elektra's 60th. RSS feed

Who is Jac Holzman?

Blast from the Past Seeks Next Big Thing

http://www.digitalmusicforum.com/west/speakers09.shtml

''Becoming Elektra'', Elektra’s early years by Mick Houghton

Follow the Music - Holzman & Daws (ISBN 0-9661221-1-9) (paperback, ISBN 0-9661221-0-0).

Sound Opinions March 2011 interview with Holzman

Category:American music industry executives Category:St. John's College (United States) alumni Category:American record producers Category:Nonesuch Records Category:Living people Category:1931 births Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees

name	Lenny Kaye
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
alias	Lenny Kaye Connection
birth date	December 27, 1946
origin	New York, United States
instrument	Guitar, Bass, vocals
genre	Rock, protopunk
occupation	Musician, songwriter, record producer, music journalist
years active	1974–present
label	Giorno Poetry Systems,Arista, Columbia
associated acts	Patti Smith, R.E.M.
website	LennyKaye.com }}

Lenny Kaye (born December 27, 1946) is an American guitarist, composer and writer who is best known as a member of the Patti Smith Group.

Early life

Lenny was born on December 27, 1946, in the Washington Heights area of upper Manhattan, New York, along the Hudson River in the shadow of the George Washington Bridge. Growing up in Queens and Brooklyn, Lenny originally began playing accordion, but by the end of the 1950s, had dropped the instrument in favor of collecting records. His family moved to North Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1960 where Lenny attended high school, and later, college, graduating Rutgers in 1967. Though he majored in American History, his true avocation was musical, and it was there that he first began playing in bands, on a college mixer and fraternity circuit later immortalized in ''National Lampoon's Animal House''. His first gig, with the Vandals ("Bringing down the house with your kind of music"), was at Alpha Sigma Phi on November 7, 1964.

Career

As musician, writer, and record producer, Lenny Kaye has been intimately involved with an array of artists and bands. He has been a guitarist for poet-rocker Patti Smith since her band's inception more than thirty years ago, and is the co-author of ''Waylon, The Life Story of Waylon Jennings''. He has worked in the studio with such artists as R.E.M., Suzanne Vega, Jim Carroll, Soul Asylum, Kristen Hersh and Allen Ginsberg, as well as his own solo muse. His seminal anthology of sixties' garage-rock, ''Nuggets'', has long been regarded as defining a genre. ''You Call It Madness: The Sensuous Song of the Croon, an impressionistic study of the romantic singers of the 1930s'', was published by Villard/Random House in 2004.

His uncle, songwriter Larry Kusik ("A Time For Us" from ''Romeo and Juliet''; "Speak Softly Love" from ''The Godfather'') took note of his lengthening hair and musical commitment, and asked him to sing on a song he'd recently penned with Ritchie Adams, once of the Fireflies ("You Were Mine"). It was the fall of 1965, and folk-protest was in the air, Lenny soon found himself in Associated Recording Studios on Times Square, recording "Crazy Like A Fox", along with its flip side, "Shock Me". The resultant 45, issued under the name of Link Cromwell, was leased to Hollywood Records, a division of Starday Records located in Nashville, Tennessee, and released in March 1966. It garnered a Newcomer Pick of the Week from Cashbox ("A rhythmic bluesy folk-rocker with a pulsating beat") and was issued in England as well as Australia; but failed to move in the charts. Though hardly a smash, it did give Lenny a sense of himself as a musician, and inspired him to continue performing and playing. His group at the time, The Zoo, worked a college circuit ranging from New York to Pennsylvania; this early experience has been captured on a live album issued by Norton Records, Live 1966.

Moving back to the city, Lenny began writing reviews for Jazz and Pop magazine; branching out to such nascent rock publications as ''Fusion'', ''Crawdaddy'' and ''Rolling Stone''. He became the music editor of ''Cavalier'', a men's magazine that at the time was also publishing the early short stories of Stephen King, and would write a monthly column for them until 1975; and the New York correspondent for the British weekly, ''Disc''. As a free-lance writer, he would write for a wide range of periodicals, including ''Melody Maker'', ''Creem'', and edit such publications as ''Rock Scene'' and ''Hit Parader'' throughout the seventies.

While working at Village Oldies on Bleecker Street in New York, he met poet-singer Patti Smith. On February 10, 1971, he backed her at a reading at St. Mark's Church on E. 10th St. When they resumed performance in November 1973, their artistic efforts bore fruit as one of the major rock bands of the 1970s. Lenny produced Patti's debut single ("Hey Joe / Piss Factory"), and performed as part of her Group throughout the decade, as reflected in four Arista albums: ''Horses'' (1975), ''Radio Ethiopia'' (1976), ''Easter'' (1978) and ''Wave'' (1979).

Following the Patti Smith Group's final performance in September 1979, Lenny joined the Jim Carroll Band, as well as fronting his own Lenny Kaye Connection. He co-produced Suzanne Vega's first two albums, including her 1987 hit single, "Luka", which was nominated for a Grammy as Record of the Year. He has been nominated three times for Grammy awards in the liner notes category for boxed sets on the sixties folk revival (Bleecker and MacDougal), white blues (Crossroads), and progressive rock (Elektrock); and has co-authored a comprehensive hall of fame with David Dalton (Rock 100).

In 1995, he reunited with Patti Smith and has been a part of her band since, creating five studio albums, a retrospective, and celebrating the thirtieth anniversary release of their landmark debut album, ''Horses''.

In 2010, Kaye contributed a solo recording for ''Daddy Rockin' Strong: A Tribute to Nolan Strong and the Diablos'' (The Wind/Norton Records). Kaye recorded a version of "I Wanna Know," a 1950s R&B; ballad. He appears on and wrote one song for The Fleshtones 2011 album ''Brooklyn Sound Solution'' (Yep Roc). Also, he appeared on 'Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter' and 'Blue' on R.E.M.'s 2011 album Collapse into Now, an album that Smith also contributed to, also on 'Blue' and another song, 'Discoverer'.

Discography

Lenny Kaye Connection

''I've Got a Right'' (1984)

''Daddy Rockin Strong: A Tribute to Nolan Strong & The Diablos'' (The Wind / Norton Records, 2010, TWR002 LP)

track: ''I Wanna Know''

''Child Bride'' b/w The ''The Tracks of My Tears'' (Mer Records 1980 Z270-B)

See also

List of guitarists

''Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968''

References

External links

Official website

Category:1946 births Category:People from Manhattan Category:American rock guitarists Category:American rock songwriters Category:American record producers Category:American music journalists Category:Living people Category:Musicians from New York City Category:Patti Smith Group members Category:Science fiction fans Category:The Minus 5 members

cs:Lenny Kaye da:Lenny Kaye de:Lenny Kaye es:Lenny Kaye fr:Lenny Kaye it:Lenny Kaye pl:Lenny Kaye

name	Laza Morgan
background	solo_singer
birth name	Otiyah Morgan
born	Springfield, Massachusetts
origin	United States
instrument	Vocals
genre	R&B;, Reggae fusion, Reggae
occupation	Singer-songwriter
years active	2010 - present
label	Atlantic/ Elektra Records
associated acts	Flo Rida, Dead Mau5, Alexandra Burke, Mavado, The Teddy Bears
website	}}

Laza Morgan (born in Springfield, Massachusetts as Otiyah Morgan) is a Jamaican American reggae singer and rapper. He is best known for his single "This Girl" which was featured on Disney's Step Up 3D. Laza was also a featured artist on Alexandra Burke's hit single "Start Without You" in 2010 and appeared in the music video.

He later dropped his mixed tape June 7 of 2011, after releasing his new hit single "One by One" Ft. Jamaican Singer Mavado. More recently Laza had dropped two viral music videos on youtube for his singles "Ballerina" and "Ya Sey Mi" with his production team Family Affair Productions.

Laza is the son of reggae legend Denroy Morgan and a former member of the popular Jamaican group LMS.

External links

Laza Morgan Official website

Laza Morgan on Myspace

Laza Morgan on Twitter

Category:Reggae fusion artists