Bethlehem Records

[JSngry]

it was also on an American LP reissue, which is how I got it. Only, mine had a square cover.

 

[optatio]

ZYX Music GmbH u. Co KG, Benzstraße 1, 35799 Merenberg, Germany, has marketed and distributed a selection from the Bethlehem Catalog in the nineties:

[Teasing the Korean]

I'm going through a bunch of LPs of my Dad's.  Many of these had been in my brother's basement.  Among them is Squeeze Me by Sallie Blair, on Bethlehem.  I will have to clean this and give it spin.  

[Rabshakeh]

I have a weird Bethlehem fetish. I don’t actually own any, but something about the design and music is really alluring. I enjoy a record 10% more if it is on Bethlehem.

[Big Beat Steve]

51 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

I have a weird Bethlehem fetish. I don’t actually own any, but something about the design and music is really alluring. I enjoy a record 10% more if it is on Bethlehem.

Why not? I am sure there are zillions who feel exactly that way about enjoyment when it comes to Blue Note (owning them included, of course). So your feelings counterbalance these a wee bit ...  

As for their design, yes they do have "house style" going for them - but the Affinity reissues from the 80s did NOT help any in that respect. Neither did those on other reissue labels fomr the 70s/80s. So given the leess than widespread availability of Bethlehems, you often had (and sometimes still have?) to settle for these reissues on an "it's only about the music" premise.

[Pim]

Always nice to hear Rouse without Monk (but of course also WITH Monk) 

[romualdo]

18 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

I have a weird Bethlehem fetish. I don’t actually own any, but something about the design and music is really alluring. I enjoy a record 10% more if it is on Bethlehem.

I hear you re the music & the unique cover art work - I ended up getting (157 CDs) almost the entire catalogue when Japanese Solid did a complete label CD release round 10 years ago.

It was released in 5 batches of approximately 30 between 2012 & 2014 plus there were a number of bonus CDs available only in Japan (a friend there was able to source them for me after I sent her my collected coupons that came with the standard CDs)

https://www.discogs.com/label/732399-Bethlehem-Album-Collection-1000

So, I'd say I've got the Bethlehem fetish too

 

[Big Beat Steve]

17 hours ago, Pim said:

Always nice to hear Rouse without Monk (but of course also WITH Monk) 

Case in point re- my earlier post ...

I've got this one on the below Affinity reissue. Can't say it's bad but can't say either that the cover "artwork" is on a level with the original (and it definitely is one of the better Affinity jobs).

[colinmce]

a favorite that I haven't seen mentioned yet is Milt Hinton's East Coast Jazz/5. No. 8 in that series by Hal McKusick is also a classic. Despite all the fine modern and mainstream jazz the label did I still think it's probably safe to say the Chris Connor and Mel Torme albums are the catalogue's crown jewels. I never really did get along very well with the 3 Mingus albums. They're fine but I always find them curiously muted in comparison to his other work in the 50s.