Dave Stapleton - Man On A Mission
Friday, April 30, 2010
Not content with releasing his latest album Between The Lines, pianist Dave Stapleton has spent the last two years developing his own record label Edition into a force to be reckoned with.
He tells Robert Shore about the way he sees the UK jazz scene today.
As we enter the second decade of the 21st century, where exactly would you place the centre of the UK jazz scene? London, so rich in get-ahead DIY collectives and Noughties Mercury Prize nominations? Manchester? Leeds even? Or might it just be Cardiff, despite there being, as Dave Stapleton says, only “one decent jazz venue” there?
The reason you might plump for the Welsh capital is that it is home to Edition Records, the boutique jazz label pianist-composer-arranger Stapleton set up with photographer Tim Dickeson in early 2008 and that has quickly established itself at the top of the record company pile thanks to the quality of its artist roster – Troyka, Phronesis, Curios, Mark Lockheart – and sharp production values. An Edition disc is guaranteed not only to sound great but to look great too – not something you can say about the output of many labels these days.
“Slowly it’s built to the point where loads of musicians are now contacting us, which is fantastic. The label’s profile is growing,” enthuses Stapleton. Not just in Britain, either. Downbeat has just been in touch to say they want to do a feature, and an article about the Edition phenomenon has just been published in a Greek magazine. Stapleton is properly proud of this publicity but unable to decipher what the Greek journalist has actually written: “I’ve no idea what they say – I hope it’s good!”
This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #141 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE copy of Dewey Redman's classic 'The Struggle Continues'.