Oblivion Records is an independent American record label that focuses on under recorded blues and jazz musicians. The company was originally based in Huntington, New York and the WKCR-FM studios at Columbia University in New York City, with a post office box (Box X) in Roslyn Heights, New York from 1972–1976.[1] It now operates out of Los Angeles. After almost 50 years, Oblivion announced a new release in November 2021.[2]
History
The company was formed based on a casual conversation between Long Island, New Yorkhippierecord shop co-owner,[3] musician,[4] and blues scholar[5]Tom Pomposello, and college student, former musician, and amateur recording engineer Fred Seibert, when Pomposello was musing about the best way to record and release his band's music. Seibert suggested a major label was a thing of the past and the way of the future was that Pomposello should record himself. The two quickly formed a partnership.[6]
Seibert hosted a Columbia University, WKCR-FM radio show,[7][8] and had recorded Pomposello when he accompanied legendary country blues artist Mississippi Fred McDowell at The Gaslight Cafe in November 1971.[9] They agreed that the tapes were a commercial offering that could be used to launch the label. Pomposello suggested the tongue-in-cheek name Oblivion, cadged from an obscure Leo Kottke album, mistakenly believing the name to be a satire.[10]
Seibert's interest was jazz, and by the end of 1972 the first jazz session was recorded, pointing the company towards the future. Marc Cohen (who eventually changed his last name and primary instrument) was a former Columbia student and mainstream jazz alto saxophone player[13] who came to WKCR with a trio and his saxophone plugged into an Echoplex and amplifier.[14] Seibert heard kinship with Miles Davis', Tony Williams', and John McLaughlin's electronic experiments, and with the addition of guitarist John Abercrombie recorded one of the earliest "electronic jazz" records, soon to be known as jazz fusion. The album (five stars from Down Beat Magazine) was named "Friends" (Copland felt it was a collective effort), with a cover by a Columbia University based "outsider" Sam Steinberg,[15][16] it was Oblivion's third release.[17]
Pomposello's blues scholarship was increasing[18][19] and one area of particular interest was the state of the form in the immediate New York City metropolitan area, Oblivion's home territory. Never a deep hotbed of traditional blues (Chicago, Illinois was the Northern U.S. center of the music), nevertheless New York had a reliable output over the postwar years by such artists as Elmore James, Wilbert Harrison, and Buster Brown. When guitarist & vocalist Charles Walker visited WKCR, Pomposello made it his mission to record him over a year's time with various configurations of a dozen local players. Blues from the Apple came out in 1974[20] and fittingly credited to "Charles Walker & the New York City Blues Band."[21]
Joe Lee Wilson was a mainstream jazz vocalist who was making his name in Manhattan's loft scene of the 1970s. He recorded a highly buzzed session at WKCR in 1972, which Oblivion launched as Livin' High Off Nickels and Dimes, a New York jazz radio sensation in the autumn of 1974.[22]
Oblivion's last album was its inspiration. Honest Tom Pomposello[23] was an album of Americana "roots music", spanning from the expected blues, to folk and R&B, utilizing nine musicians recorded over two years.[24]
With only two mildly reliably commercial records, Fred McDowell's Live in New York and Joe Lee Wilson's Livin' High Off Nickels and Dimes, Oblivion found it could no longer be sustained off the passions and industry ignorance of its founders, the saga of many independent labels with inadequate capitalization. The company ceased initial operations in 1976.
Activities in the digital era
Dick Pennington left company operations after Blues from the Apple, Tom Pomposello passed away after a car accident in 1999, Fred Seibert went on to work in television, becoming a leading independent animation producer and a pioneer in digital video.
In 2001, Seibert –having led MTV Networks' internet division[25] and founding trailblazing video programmer Next New Networks[26]– revived Oblivion's catalog, first in downloads and eventually in streaming audio on all global platforms. The company's activities are chronicled on a Tumblr blog.[27] Its latest release will drop in early 2022.[28]
