Onyx Records
Onyx Records, Inc., was a small, independent American record label based in Manhattan, New York, co-founded on July 15, 1971, by Joe Fields (1929–2017) and Don Schlitten (born 1932) and managed by Gentry McCreary (born 1941). Its address was at 160 West 71st Street on the Upper West Side. History. Onyx flourished from its founding through 1978, re-issuing recordings, including those of Art Tatum, Hot Lips Page, Don Byas, and Charlie Parker. Its initial releases were selections from the Jerry Newman Collection "(né" Jerome Robert Newman; 1918–1970), who, in 1941, recorded live performances at clubs in  Harlem while a student at Columbia University. The name "Onyx" was the namesake of four jazz clubs – all named the Onyx Club – all, at different times, on West 52nd Street in Manhattan, but notably, the club that ran from 1942 to 1949 at the vanguard of bebop. Onyx Records received acclaim from Dan Morgenstern for its release of radio broadcast transcriptions from KFBI Wichita featuring the Jay McShann Band with Charlie Parker. Corporate background. Onyx Records was founded as a New York corporation on July 15, 1971, under the name of Avatar Productions, Inc. The name was changed to Onyx  Records, Inc., in 1973. Onyx was owned equally by Joe Fields and Don Schlitten. Onyx was in the business of securing rights in "classic" jazz master recordings and manufacturing and distributing phono records derived from such master recordings. Selected discography. Newman's collection. Newman, while a student at Columbia in 1941, lugged his acetate disc recording machine — a portable Wilcox-Gay Recordio "disc cutter" — to jazz clubs in Harlem, including Minton's Playhouse on 118th Street and Clark Monroe’s Uptown House on 134th Street, both of which were incubators of jazz of the day. Newman's collection became the  backbone for Onyx Recording, Inc. Re-release of broadcast transcriptions of KFBI radio, Wichita. The Jay McShann Band recorded two sessions – one on November 30, 1940, and one on December 2, 1940 — at the studio of KFBI radio, Wichita, for broadcast transcriptions. The band members were: Charlie Parker. A compilation album, "Charlie Parker – First Recordings!" (ORI 221), which included the KFBI sessions of November 30, 1940, and December 2, 1940, plus an AFRS #582 broadcast from the Savoy Ballroom on February 12, 1945 – released in 1974 – won a Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Soloist in 1975. The 1945  session featured Cootie Williams and his Orchestra: