What are the best "indie" labels and records of the '50s and '60s?

Ignoring the bigger indies that achieved mainstream success or sold themselves to majors in the '60s or '70s (Motown, Stax, Sun, Philles, Elektra, Virgin, Verve, Atlantic, Studio One etc.), what are some of the best independent labels or independently released records of the '50s and '60s?

I'm thinking of artist run labels like Takoma, El Saturn, Gate 5, or Saravah, regional labels that didn't find much mainstream success like International Artists, or the hundreds of tiny labels whose 45s appear on compilations, weird stuff like ESP-Disk, and one-off private pressing stuff as well. Which are your favorites, and which records released by these labels or directly by artists are your favorites?

Basically I'm interested in that period when records started to become a big business, but the DIY boom of the '70s hadn't yet started.

Joe Meek's Triumph records. what are some others from the uk?

Candid
Debut

(not from the UK, just answering original question)

Vee-Jay

good call on candid & debut

top 5 non-fahey takoma:
- homegas s/t
- floating house band
- robbie basho - seal of the blue lotus
- mike auldridge - blues & bluegrass
- phil yost - bent city

top 8 ESP discs:
- pearls before swine - balaklava
- godz 2
- alan silva - skillfullness
- frank wright - your prayer
- paul bley trio - closer
- sonny simmons - staying on the watch
- har-you percussion group
- fugs first album

there are good country 45s on K-ARK, favorites:
- larry heberlin 'deeper than the summer sun'
- eddie noack 'dolores'

yazzo records, pioneers of blues reissues:
- v/a mississippi moaners
- robert wilkins - the original rolling stone'
- v/a east coast blues
- v/a guitar wizards
- mississippi john hurt - 1928
- henry thomas double LP

county records, pioneers of pre-war country reissues:
- v/a a fiddler's convention in mtn city tennessee (include two absolutely essential clarence ashley tracks among other goodies)
- the roane county ramblers 'complete recordings' (incredible hard-driving string band)
- v/a hell broke loose in georgia (great selection of north-georgia fiddle records)
- two volumes of mississippi string bands

adelphi was started in 1969, but the best material they released came later on, in my opinion.

i buy almost any 45s on labels like specialty, sun, chess...

that should read 'yazoo' not 'yazzo' eek.

oops i didn't see the disclaimer about labels that were then bought up by majors -- sorry!

nah, you get the spirit. I'm not going to be mr thread police, just trying to make it less "what's the best stax record" and more "what's the best wannabe stax also-ran record on some tiny obscure label".

do Folkways count? or Folk Legacy?

Classic folkways titles for me --
- Sounds of the Junkyard
- reelizations one and two by barton smith
- frogs of north america
- the world music theater of jon appleton
- the anthology of american folk music, volumes 1-3
- huge swathes of the ethnic folkways library -- dances of greece, psalms sung in the cameroons, the indonesia box, the three volumes of swahili music, tribal music of australia..
- elizabeth cotten
- dock boggs
- clarence ashley
and on and on

wow, I thought yazoo was an actual '20s blues label. didn't realize it was a later reissue label. interesting.

folkways obv a biggie too
xp

arhoolie, folklyric and the other labels in that family have a deep and worthwhile discography imo. the folklyric label did a great service by reissuing tons of ethnic music from 78rpm records to LPs. many many volumes of tex-mex music, cajun music, hawaiian music; they were in the game early on reissuing eastern european fiddle records as well.

Harry Smith anthology possibly the most influential independently released record of the era?

well, nm that's dumb

only makes sense in my bizarro world where you ignore Sun, etc

oops, folklyric did not start until the seventies. but their parent company, arhoolie was founded in 1969.

wait, way earlier than 69. i hate it when discographies list things out of chronological order.

I can't find any info on when Harry Bertoia released his first Sonambient record. might have been '70s

yeah, wiki says arhoolie started in 1960. didn't realize they were that old.

Original Sound is interesting (Music Machine, Bongo Rock).

Milford Graves and Don Pullen self-released their duo records Live At Yale University and Nommo in the late 60s. The former (with a hand-painted cover) goes for thousands of dollars now. Neither has ever been reissued on CD (for that matter, neither were Graves' 70s self-releases).

cool, never heard of those. the cover art is great. http://www.donpullen.de/disco/jpg/nommo.jpg

can't forget Delmark!

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H4sr2Uwjz0Y/UCdyMeDpdnI/AAAAAAAABeE/rF6GUy9iqY4/s320/Saturn+1.jpg

One of the hand-painted editions:

http://www.donpullen.de/disco/jpg/yale4.jpg

(xp)

oh you mean each cover was individually painted? nice!

some more cool covers

http://www.corporeal.com/images/issue_4.jpg http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/53942179/Blind+Joe+Death.jpg

BYG Actuel just squeaks into the time period

Some great Debut sleeves:
http://www.birkajazz.com/graphics2/mingusDebutEP.jpghttp://www.birkajazz.com/graphics2/mingusStringsKeys.jpg

BYG Actuel just squeaks into the time period

True...for some reason, I thought BYG was a French major. I think it's because they reissued a few things (like some of the Savoy avant-garde records).

Original Sound is interesting (Music Machine, Bongo Rock).

They also did the Oldies But Goodies series, of course, and had a good soul group called Dyke and the Blazers. Would also mention Double Shot, who had Brenton Wood and the Count Five.

True...for some reason, I thought BYG was a French major.

yeah, they do have that vibe. maybe because the graphic design seems kind of high-end?

King/Starday/Federal for 'billy and r 'n' b

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4b/KingHillbillyLogo.jpg

wow, I didn't know one of the BYG guys went on to start Celluloid

Savoy for Johnny Otis

A UK label is the longest running indie of them all I believe: Topic Records. Started off with union sponsorship in the 30s releasing workers songs and things like that. Boom period was probably the mid-60s through to the 70s with stuff like Martin Carthy, Shirley Collins, June Tabor, Dick Gaughan, Nic Jones, Anne Briggs, The Watersons etc.

Still going today btw

ha, I just saw this list on that VU thread http://www.spin.com/articles/best-100-albums-1960s-sixties-alternative-list

it's surprisingly good for spin

for garage etc there's orlyn and ikon

Would Fania and Tico count as mainstream success stories?

no, good call

I don't know orlyn & ikon. That ikon comp looks interesting, but I can't find much info on orlyn. Any recommendations?

Then add Alegre and Panart to the list too.

i don't think there is an orlyn comp but there is a bunch of the best tracks compiled on various 60s garage comps.. the best ones i'm aware of are outspoken blues, graf zepplin, half pint & the fifths, noblemen, bondsmen, last knight, monteras

Vertigo from the UK? just about sneaks in at the end of the 60s

and Charisma too

was going to mention topic, so... in the same general area: trailer/leader and transatlantic.

http://www.soul-source.co.uk/soulforum/uploads/monthly_07_2011/post-5677-0-79670700-1310503075_thumb.jpg

http://www.dcsoulrecordings.com/