Clef Records
~ Label
Annotation
Shortly after the firsts historical JATP performances (which he sold to Moe Asch, then to Disc Company of America), Norman Granz created Clef (his first label) as to control the release of the subsequent JATP tapes.
Clef began its life under a distribution agreement with Mercury (and as Mercury jazz label shortly after the Keynote/Mercury merger). Though, Granz retained the rights on both the tapes and trademark, which led him to "restart" Clef as an independent (and self-distributed) label in 1953, after the Mercury deal ended (*).
With Clef growing success, and Granz ambitions to release more artists, part of the roster was shifted to his new Norgran label (both Clef and Norgran dedicating to modern jazz), more traditional jazz artists being signed on his Down Home label and jazz-pop artists on Verve.
Eventually, Granz unified all his activities in 1956 under Verve and discontinued Clef.
Nowadays, after many tribulations (MGM, Polygram) Clef vault belong to Universal through their Verve Music Group.
Many Clef records are historical (most notably the JATP and Bird tapes), and the label was instrumental in both jazz history and Granz ascension.
(*) For this reason, a number of resources (including Wikipedia) erroneously state that Clef was created in 1953.
Catalog number schemes:
- 12" LPs: "MGC 600" and "MGC 700" series
- 10" LPs: "MG VOL. X", "MGC 100" "MGC 500"
- 78/45 rpm: "Clef 8900", "Clef 89000", "Clef 89100" (then handled by Verve), "Clef 11000"