Bob Weinstock

Bob Weinstock founded and operated Prestige Records, the aptly named independent U.S. label that was among the premier chroniclers of postwar New York City jazz culture. In sharp contrast to its primary rival Blue Note, Prestige celebrated spontaneity and improvisation, ignoring mainstream conventions to release pivotal sessions in the careers of immortals including Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, and John Coltrane. Born in New York in 1929, Weinstock was a lifelong jazz fan. With the aid and encouragement of his father Sol, he launched his own mail-order music business while in his teens, promoting his services via advertisements in Record Changer magazine. Eventually Weinstock rented his own retail space inside the Jazz Record Center's 47th Street location, and by his late teens was a regular at the Midtown club the Royal Roost, befriending myriad local musicians who steered his tastes away from traditional swing to cutting-edge bebop sensibilities. The 20-year-old Weinstock founded New Jazz Records in early 1949, debuting with a Lennie Tristano Quintet session that generated Lee Konitz's classic "Subconscious-Lee." Rave reviews in Down Beat and Metronome helped secure national distribution deals, and Weinstock never looked back. As saxophonists quickly began to dominate the label's catalog, he launched the Prestige subsidiary, complete with a distinctive saxophone logo; in short time Prestige became Weinstock's dominant imprint, in 1952 scoring its first major chart success with the King Pleasure smash "Moody's Mood for Love." At Prestige's peak Weinstock recorded an average of 75 sessions per year, typically setting up sessions with little or no rehearsal time. While the label's output suffered in some respects, there's no doubt the approach captures an uncommon...