Bob Weinstock
Encyclopedia
Bob Weinstock was an American
record producer
best known for his label
Prestige Records
, established in 1949, which was responsible for many significant jazz recordings during his more than two decades operating the firm.
, on the Upper West Side
, Weinstock started a business selling jazz records through advertisements in the pages of Record Changer magazine from his family's apartment, with the support of his father and uncle. He couldn't play or read music, but he had an ear that enabled him to pick up the nuances of jazz. He later rented some space in the Jazz Record Center on 47th Street
. Bebop
drummer
Kenny Clarke
was among those who visited his store, promising that when Weinstock opened a record label "he would get all the jazz greats to record" for him, and introducing him to artists including Thelonious Monk
.
quintet. He formed Prestige Records later that year, with a logo that represented the surfeit of saxophonists he had been recording and releasing. With assistance from his father and much traveling across the United States by bus, Weinstock was able to promote his company and gain air play and sales for jukeboxes for his releases from artists including Stan Getz
, Annie Ross
and Sonny Stitt
. One of his early, and much-needed, financial successes was a release of "Moody's Mood for Love
" recorded by King Pleasure
, which become a nationwide hit in 1952. In 1953, Charlie Parker
recorded for Prestige using the pseudonym "Charlie Chan" to skirt contractual issues.
Weinstock was known for having artists record with almost no rehearsal time, recording large quantities of music from the jazz groups in New York City for Prestige and later its Bluesville, Moodsville, Par, Swingville and Tru-Sound imprints. He would have musicians record on one take, insisting that the additional takes were less spontaneous and that recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder
did not need extra takes to adjust balance, and would reuse tapes if he thought that another take was needed. This left very few alternative versions of Prestige recordings. John Lewis
and his Modern Jazz Quartet
were one of the few able to overcome Weinstock's no-rehearsal practice, for the 1955 release of Concorde
and for the 1956 album Django
. Sonny Rollins
and John Coltrane
recorded the album Tenor Madness
in 1956, with a saxophone
duet that marked the only known recording of the two artists together.
Columbia Records
had signed a recording deal with Miles Davis
in 1955, but Davis still owed Prestige Records four albums in addition to Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet
, recorded in November 1955 after Davis had already started recording for Columbia. Weinstock had the Miles Davis Quintet
record without retakes for two full days at Van Gelder's original recording studio in Hackensack, New Jersey
, one in May and one in October 1956, building up a mass of material that was ultimately used to create four separate albums titled Cookin' with The Miles Davis Quintet
, Relaxin' with The Miles Davis Quintet
, Workin' with The Miles Davis Quintet
and Steamin' with The Miles Davis Quintet
. These were released over several years, and all achieved critical success. In his autobiography, Davis described the "great music we made at both those sessions" and said that he was "real proud of it", but that he was glad to have fulfilled his obligations to Prestige and was "ready to move on".
Within a few years of the label's establishment, Weinstock was hiring A&R scouts to bring in and develop talent, and had started the transition to soul jazz
with artists such as Charles Earland
, Richard "Groove" Holmes
and Willis Jackson. Over the years, Weinstock oversaw releases from such artists as Gene Ammons
, John Coltrane
, Eric Dolphy
, Red Garland
, Coleman Hawkins
, Thelonious Monk
, Sonny Rollins
and Annie Ross
. With as many as 75 recording sessions a year in the 1950s, Prestige released more than 1,000 recordings during Weinstock's 23 years of ownership.
In the mid-1960s, Weinstock relocated Prestige's head office to Bergenfield, New Jersey
, just a few miles from his home in Tenafly, New Jersey. He would often prefer to have meetings in his home, feeling that he had more privacy there than at the office.
and relocated to Florida. He became a stock and commodities investor, and made a brief comeback to the music industry with a record label he formed in the 1990s.
, Weinstock died at age 77 in a hospice in Boca Raton
on January 14, 2006, due to complications of diabetes. He was survived by his sons, James Weinstock, North Lauderdale, Florida, Bruce Weinstock, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Philip Weinstock, Pompano Beach, Florida; and his ex-wife of 37 years, Joan Weinstock, Sunrise, Florida.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
best known for his 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,...
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...
, established in 1949, which was responsible for many significant jazz recordings during his more than two decades operating the firm.
Early life
As an 8-year-old, Weinstock bought "armfuls of records" by jazz artists at 9 cents each, opening up "a new world of music" for him. As a teenager growing up in ManhattanManhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, on the Upper West Side
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...
, Weinstock started a business selling jazz records through advertisements in the pages of Record Changer magazine from his family's apartment, with the support of his father and uncle. He couldn't play or read music, but he had an ear that enabled him to pick up the nuances of jazz. He later rented some space in the Jazz Record Center on 47th Street
47th Street (Manhattan)
47th Street is an east-west running street between First Avenue and the West Side Highway in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Traffic runs one way along the street, from east to west, starting at the United Nations Headquarters....
. Bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
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...
Kenny Clarke
Kenny Clarke
Kenny Clarke , born Kenneth Spearman Clarke, nicknamed "Klook" and later known as Liaqat Ali Salaam, was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming...
was among those who visited his store, promising that when Weinstock opened a record label "he would get all the jazz greats to record" for him, and introducing him to artists including Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
.
Prestige Records
Weinstock created a label called New Jazz in January 1949, with its first release a recording by the Lennie TristanoLennie Tristano
Leonard Joseph Tristano was a jazz pianist, composer and teacher of jazz improvisation. He performed in the cool jazz, bebop, post bop and avant-garde jazz genres. He remains a somewhat overlooked figure in jazz history, but his enormous originality and dazzling work as an improviser have long...
quintet. He formed Prestige Records later that year, with a logo that represented the surfeit of saxophonists he had been recording and releasing. With assistance from his father and much traveling across the United States by bus, Weinstock was able to promote his company and gain air play and sales for jukeboxes for his releases from artists including Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
, Annie Ross
Annie Ross
Annie Ross is an English jazz singer, and actress, best known as a member of the trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.-Early years:...
and Sonny Stitt
Sonny Stitt
Edward "Sonny" Stitt was an American jazz saxophonist of the bebop/hard bop idiom. He was also one of the best-documented saxophonists of his generation, recording over 100 albums in his lifetime...
. One of his early, and much-needed, financial successes was a release of "Moody's Mood for Love
Moody's Mood for Love
"Moody's Mood for Love" is jazz saxophonist James Moody's 1949 instrumental solo based on Jimmy McHugh's 1935 song "I'm in the Mood for Love" with lyrics later added by Eddie Jefferson.-History:...
" recorded by King Pleasure
King Pleasure
King Pleasure was a jazz vocalist and an early master of vocalese, where a singer sings words to a famous instrumental solo....
, which become a nationwide hit in 1952. In 1953, Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
recorded for Prestige using the pseudonym "Charlie Chan" to skirt contractual issues.
Weinstock was known for having artists record with almost no rehearsal time, recording large quantities of music from the jazz groups in New York City for Prestige and later its Bluesville, Moodsville, Par, Swingville and Tru-Sound imprints. He would have musicians record on one take, insisting that the additional takes were less spontaneous and that recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder
Rudy Van Gelder
Rudy Van Gelder is an American recording engineer specializing in jazz.Often regarded as one of the most important recording engineers in music history, Van Gelder has recorded several thousand jazz sessions, including many widely recognized as classics, in a career spanning more than half a century...
did not need extra takes to adjust balance, and would reuse tapes if he thought that another take was needed. This left very few alternative versions of Prestige recordings. John Lewis
John Lewis (pianist)
John Aaron Lewis was an American jazz pianist and composer best known as the musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet.- Early life:...
and his Modern Jazz Quartet
Modern Jazz Quartet
The Modern Jazz Quartet was established in 1952 by Milt Jackson , John Lewis , Percy Heath , and Kenny Clarke . Connie Kay replaced Clarke in 1955...
were one of the few able to overcome Weinstock's no-rehearsal practice, for the 1955 release of Concorde
Concorde (album)
Concorde is an album by The Modern Jazz Quartet. First released in 1955 as an LP. Recorded in New York, New York on July 2, 1955. Originally released on Prestige . Includes liner notes by Ira Gitler. The album was reissued in 2008 as part of the Rudy Van Gelder Remasters collection.This Album is...
and for the 1956 album Django
Django (Modern Jazz Quartet album)
Django is an album by The Modern Jazz Quartet, first released on LP in 1956. The actual sessions for the LP took place in June 1953, December 1954, and January 1955, and were first released on two different ten-inch discs...
. Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
and John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
recorded the album Tenor Madness
Tenor Madness
Tenor Madness is a jazz album by Sonny Rollins. It is most notable for its title track, the only known recording featuring both Rollins and John Coltrane.-History:...
in 1956, with a saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
duet that marked the only known recording of the two artists together.
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...
had signed a recording deal with Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
in 1955, but Davis still owed Prestige Records four albums in addition to Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet
Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet
-Personnel:*Miles Davis — trumpet*John Coltrane — tenor saxophone*Red Garland — piano*Paul Chambers — bass*Philly Joe Jones — drums-See also:Albums recorded by the same personnel:* Cookin * Round About Midnight * Relaxin...
, recorded in November 1955 after Davis had already started recording for Columbia. Weinstock had the Miles Davis Quintet
Miles Davis Quintet
The Miles Davis Quintet was an American jazz band from 1955 to early 1969 led by Miles Davis. The quintet underwent frequent personnel changes toward its metamorphosis into a different ensemble in 1969...
record without retakes for two full days at Van Gelder's original recording studio in Hackensack, New Jersey
Hackensack, New Jersey
Hackensack is a city in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States and the county seat of Bergen County. Although informally called Hackensack, it was officially named New Barbadoes Township until 1921. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 43,010....
, one in May and one in October 1956, building up a mass of material that was ultimately used to create four separate albums titled Cookin' with The Miles Davis Quintet
Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet
Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet is an album recorded in 1956 by the Miles Davis Quintet. Two sessions 11 May 1956 and 26 October in the same year resulted in four albums—this one, Relaxin' with The Miles Davis Quintet, Steamin' with The Miles Davis Quintet and Workin' with The Miles Davis...
, Relaxin' with The Miles Davis Quintet
Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet
Relaxin' with The Miles Davis Quintet is an album recorded in 1956 by Miles Davis. Two sessions on 11 May 1956 and 26 October in the same year resulted in four albums—this one, Steamin' with The Miles Davis Quintet, Workin' with The Miles Davis Quintet and Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet...
, Workin' with The Miles Davis Quintet
Workin' with the Miles Davis Quintet
Workin' with the Miles Davis Quintet is an album recorded in 1956 by Miles Davis. Two sessions on 11 May 1956 and 26 October in the same year resulted in four albums—this one, Relaxin' with The Miles Davis Quintet, Steamin' with The Miles Davis Quintet and Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet...
and Steamin' with The Miles Davis Quintet
Steamin' with the Miles Davis Quintet
Steamin' with the Miles Davis Quintet is an album recorded in 1956 by Miles Davis. Two sessions on May 11, 1956 and October 26 in the same year resulted in four albums—this one, Relaxin' with The Miles Davis Quintet, Workin' with The Miles Davis Quintet and Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet...
. These were released over several years, and all achieved critical success. In his autobiography, Davis described the "great music we made at both those sessions" and said that he was "real proud of it", but that he was glad to have fulfilled his obligations to Prestige and was "ready to move on".
Within a few years of the label's establishment, Weinstock was hiring A&R scouts to bring in and develop talent, and had started the transition to soul jazz
Soul jazz
Soul jazz is a development of jazz incorporating strong influences from blues, soul, gospel and rhythm and blues in music for small groups, often an organ trio featuring a Hammond organ.- Overview :Soul jazz is often associated with hard bop. Mark C...
with artists such as Charles Earland
Charles Earland
Charles Earland was an American jazz composer, organist, and saxophonist in the soul jazz idiom.-Biography:...
, Richard "Groove" Holmes
Richard Holmes (organist)
Richard Arnold "Groove" Holmes was an American jazz organist who performed in the hard bop and soul jazz genre...
and Willis Jackson. Over the years, Weinstock oversaw releases from such artists as Gene Ammons
Gene Ammons
Eugene "Jug" Ammons also known as "The Boss," was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, and the son of boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons.-Biography:...
, John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
, Eric Dolphy
Eric Dolphy
Eric Allan Dolphy was an American jazz alto saxophonist, flutist, and bass clarinetist. On a few occasions he also played the clarinet and baritone saxophone. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain prominence in the 1960s...
, Red Garland
Red Garland
William "Red" Garland was an American hard bop jazz pianist whose block chord style, in part originated by Milt Buckner, influenced many forthcoming pianists in the jazz idiom.-Beginnings:...
, Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn"...
, Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
, Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
and Annie Ross
Annie Ross
Annie Ross is an English jazz singer, and actress, best known as a member of the trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.-Early years:...
. With as many as 75 recording sessions a year in the 1950s, Prestige released more than 1,000 recordings during Weinstock's 23 years of ownership.
In the mid-1960s, Weinstock relocated Prestige's head office to Bergenfield, New Jersey
Bergenfield, New Jersey
Bergenfield is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 26,764.Bergenfield was formed on the basis of a referendum held on June 25, 1894, from portions of Englewood Township and Palisades Township at the height of the...
, just a few miles from his home in Tenafly, New Jersey. He would often prefer to have meetings in his home, feeling that he had more privacy there than at the office.
Sale to Fantasy
In 1972, Weinstock sold Prestige to Fantasy RecordsFantasy 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...
and relocated to Florida. He became a stock and commodities investor, and made a brief comeback to the music industry with a record label he formed in the 1990s.
Death
A resident of Deerfield Beach, FloridaDeerfield Beach, Florida
Deerfield Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida, USA. The city is named for the numerous deer that once roamed the area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 75,018...
, Weinstock died at age 77 in a hospice in Boca Raton
Boca Raton, Florida
Boca Raton is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, USA, incorporated in May 1925. In the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 74,764; the 2006 population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 86,396. However, the majority of the people under the postal address of Boca Raton, about...
on January 14, 2006, due to complications of diabetes. He was survived by his sons, James Weinstock, North Lauderdale, Florida, Bruce Weinstock, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Philip Weinstock, Pompano Beach, Florida; and his ex-wife of 37 years, Joan Weinstock, Sunrise, Florida.