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Record Label Profiles
Philology Records
Ken Dryden
Ken has collected jazz for over three decades and been a jazz journalist since 1988.Publicity is a stumbling block for many independent labels, while European labels like Philology have an added burden. "Many major jazz magazines tend to favor labels that advertise with them, even when my artists like Phil Woods and Lee Konitz are well known to their readers. Yet they overlooked many of Woods' and Konitz' CDs for my label, even their four recorded meetings together! Fortunately, that is not the case in Japan, where Philology is well known. One European distributor refused my records because they didn't like the graphics. That's just dumb!"
"I'm highly satisfied with the very hard work done over the years. I'm planning more sessions with Lee Konitz, including Nino Rota's music, new originals by Lee, Burt Bacharach, each of them quartets with pianists Paolo Birro, Piero Pratesi, Antonio Zambrini and Alessandro Lanzoni. So far, I've done over 40 records with Lee, over 30 with Phil, around 40 with Franco D'Andrea, 64 with Renato Sellani. It's been a privilege to work with all of them."
The producer is also expanding his musical horizons. "I've launched a 'Revelation' series that is dedicated to new discoveries. It started off with the Bill Evans-influenced pianist Alessandro Lanzoni. But I'm also looking for international talent, both old and new, among them guitarist Lew Woodall [a 65-year-old Virginia resident], Canadian pianist Miles Black, Brazilian guitarist/vocalist Rogerio Tavares and many more."
