ESP Records Label Founder Dies

Bernard Stollman ~ 85 ~ Founder of American Jazz, Folk and Underground Rock record label ESP-Disk. ESP was an odd label orginally set up by Stollman to release records in Esperanto, an artificially created language which still has thousands of hobbyist followers. Realizing that this was not exactly a large audience base Stollman was persuaded to branch out into other music focusing on an eccentric collection of avant garde folk (The Holy Modal Rounders, Old Time Custard Suckers), Free Jazz (Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman, Pharaoh Sanders, Sun Ra) re-releases of other jazz (Billie Holliday, Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Paul Bley) underground Rock (The Fugs, Godz, Pearls Before Swine, Jayne County), spoken word (William Bouroughs, Timothy Leary) world music and assorted weirdness (Charles Manson, Yma Sumac) . The label suspended recordings in the 1970's although the existing catalog has always been kept in print. ESP recorded a number of artists who other wise might have been forgotten and kept their work in print. On the down side Stollman was notorious for not paying royalties to his artists.

THE GODZ ~ PROMO CLIP;


THE GODZ ~ "CANDY'S GOING BAD";


JAYNE COUNTY ~ "ARE YOU MAN ENOUGH TO BE A WOMAN?"


THE FUGS ~ "KILL FOR PEACE";


THE FUGS ~ "BOOBS-A-LOT";


THE HOLY MODAL ROUNDERS ~ "BOUND TO LOOSE";


ALBERT AYLER ~ "SUMMERTIME";


SUN RA ARKESTRA ~ "SHADOW WORLD";


ORNETTE COLEMAN ~ "ROMA";