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Ember Records was a British independent record label established by Jeffrey Kruger. ==1950s to 1960s== In the late 1950s, the eccentric avid jazz fan Jeffrey Kruger, owner of the famous Flamingo Jazz Club, was looking for a new challenge. At the time, the British music industry was largely dominated by four major record companies (EMI, Decca, Pye and Philips) who, thanks to the lack of a national popular music radio station, found it easy to dominate the airwaves by buying slots on Radio Luxembourg. Therefore, the only way independent record labels could achieve success was by concentrating on specialist genres. Kruger realised that considerable success could be gained if, rather than focusing on one specific musical genre, he instead focused on a plethora of them. Releases under the jazz, pop, R&B, beat, soul, rockabilly, and other genres followed and Kruger started to establish Ember as a major independent force in the UK. As Kruger explained: The first major achievement and breakthrough for the label came when Kruger realised the British music fan's thirst for American music, and though the five major labels dominated the best licensing deals the US had to offer, some hot American independents did not yet have a presence. Kruger flew out to the US and did deals with, amongst others, 20th Century Fox (a major coup for an independent at the time), Sam Phillips, Harry Simeone Chorale’s ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ label and Syd Nathan, boss of King and Federal Records in Ohio. As Kruger recalled: Becoming the first British label to set up its own distribution and pressing facilities helped Ember cement their place in the industry. By 1963, Ember had built up a roster of UK artists such as Matt Monro, the Dale Sisters, Grant Tracy and the Sunsets, and the duo John Shakespeare and Ken Hawker (recording as Carter, Lewis & the Southerners). The next big break came when composer, producer and arranger John Barry left EMI to join Kruger. During his time with Ember, he scored hits with pioneering folk duo Chad Stuart & Jeremy Clyde and ‘Christine’ by ‘Miss X’ (Joyce Blair).〔http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/john-barry-composer-and-songwriter-who-won-five-oscars-and-scored-11-of-the-james-bond-films-2200089.html〕 As the decade wore on, the label continued to release records from across the musical spectrum, from film and TV themes such as the Liars (which established a young Nyree Dawn Porter) through to the noted soul 45s for which the label became renowned. These featured acts such as The Casinos, the Checkmates and Lou Lawton, Stax hitmakers the Bar-Kays, King Curtis and the Pac-keys. On the recommendation of John Abbey, who set up the subsidiary soul label Speciality where some of those previous releases first appeared, Kruger gave a debut to the man who would go on to become Ember’s biggest hit: Glen Campbell. Despite a considerable investment from Kruger however, they, initially at least, struggled to achieve success. It was around this time that the label became the first British independent label to have three of its singles at the top of the American charts. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ember Records (UK label)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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