Roulette Records, Inc.
Roulette Records, Inc., founded 1957: jazz artists and albums on the label.
Roulette Records was an American record company and label founded in 1957 by George Goldner, Joe Kolsky, Morris Levy, Morris Gurlek and Phil Kahl, with creative control given to producers and songwriters Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore. Levy was appointed director. The label had known ties to New York City mobsters. Levy ran the label with an iron fist. In 1958 Roost Records was purchased. Goldner subsequently bowed out of his partnership interest in Roulette and, to cover his gambling debts, sold his record labels Tico, Rama, Gee and—years later—End and Gone to Levy, who grouped them into Roulette. Peretti and Creatore later left Roulette and worked as freelance producers for RCA Victor throughout the 1960s. They co-founded Avco Records in 1969. In 1971 Roulette took over the catalog of Jubilee Records.
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Artists on Roulette Records, Inc.
Dinah Washington
1924–1963 · American singer (1924-1963)
Joe Williams
1918–1999 · American jazz singer (1918–1999)
John Dankworth
1927–2010 · British musician (1927-2010)
Louie Bellson
1924–2009 · American jazz drummer (1924–2009)
Bobby Watson
b. 1953 · American saxophonist and composer
Willie Bobo
1934–1983 · American jazz percussionist (1934–1983)
Joe Newman
1922–1992 · American musician (1922–1992)
Label profile
US record label.
Label Code: LC 0332 / LC 00332
Roulette was a record label formed by Morris Levy, George Goldner, Joe Kolsky and Phil Khals in New York in 1957, with producers Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore as its A&R men. Goldner sold his part of the label to Levy one year later along with his own Rama, Tico Records, Gone Records, End and Gee labels. Roulette had a large jazz roster (built up by recording jazz musicians who frequented Levy's Birdland jazz club), which was further expanded in 1958 through the purchase of Roost Records.
Pop chart success came with Buddy Knox, Jimmie Rodgers (2), The Playmates and Jimmy Bowen in the late 1950s along with best-selling LPs by Count Basie and Pearl Bailey. Success continued in the 1960s with Joey Dee and The Starlighters, The Essex, Al Caiola and Tommy James and The Shondells. In the late 1960s, Roulette also released a number of now very collectible psych-rock records. By the late 1970s, the label was in limbo and released only some reissues and compilations.
After severe legal problems (Levy was convicted for extortion), Levy sold the label in 1989 to an / consortium, which began a series of Roulette-branded reissue CDs. The Roule
Profile from Discogs (CC0)