Eremite Records is an independent American jazz record label founded in 1995 by Michael Ehlers, with early involvement from music writer
Byron Coley.[1][2] Ehlers was a student of
Archie Shepp's at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst.[3] After college, he began producing concerts in the Amherst area, and Eremite evolved from those events.[2][3] The label name came from an alternate title to the
Thelonious Monk tune "
Reflections": "Portrait of an Eremite".[4] The label's logo, designed by
Savage Pencil,[5] is an image of a robed
Joe McPhee playing soprano saxophone.[4] Eremite organized a concert series in Western Massachusetts that ran through 2008 and produced roughly 100 concerts, including five Fire in the Valley festivals.[6][7] From 1998–2018, Eremite managed a touring organization that arranged hundreds of concerts across North America for its artists.[7]
Eremite Records' early activities emphasized music by first and second generation musicians working in the American and international free jazz traditions, including drummers
Denis Charles,
Sunny Murray, and
Juma Sultan, saxophonists
Fred Anderson,
Peter Brötzmann,
Kidd Jordan,
Sabir Mateen, and
Jemeel Moondoc, trumpeter
Raphe Malik, and bassists
Alan Silva and
William Parker.[7][8] Starting in 2002, Eremite collaborated with Peter Brötzmann to revive Brötzmann's personal imprint Brö Records.[9] After relocating from Western Massachusetts in 2009,[2] Eremite began collaborating with a younger generation of musicians, including multi-instrumentalist
Joshua Abrams and guitarist
Jeff Parker.[8] In 2021, Ehlers began working with the Black Editions Group, Los Angeles, on Black Editions Archive, an imprint focused on previously unreleased works by
Milford Graves.[10][11]
Concerning his involvement with Eremite, Sunny Murray stated the following:
"This music has not established many real connoisseurs, men with quality and taste, so we get a lot of meatheads that are in control of the business... When a guy comes up, we're suspicious... we've... dealt with so many Frankensteins that we want to make sure this guy is not a Frankenstein... Michael's not a Frankenstein—Michael Ehlers, Eremite Records—he'll take a chance. And that's what made this business work, guys that took chances."[20]
^Roe, Tom (2002). "Generation Ecstasy: New York's Free Jazz Continuum". In The Wire (ed.). Undercurrents: The Hidden Wiring of Modern Music. Continuum. p. 252.
^
abcPreece, Ian (2020). Listening to the Wind: Encounters with 21st Century Independent Record Labels. Omnibus Press.
^
abIannapollo, Robert (July 9, 2005).
"Eremite Records". All About Jazz. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
^Captain of the Deep (liner notes). Denis Charles IVtet. Eremite Records. 1998. MTE09.{{
cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (
link)
^Jenkins, Todd S. (2004). "Fire in the Valley Festival". Free Jazz and Free Improvisation: An Encyclopedia. Greenwood. p. 147.
^Weiss, Jason (2012). Always in Trouble: An Oral History of ESP-Disk, the Most Outrageous Record Label in America. Wesleyan University Press. pp. 258–259.