US label. For company credits see Milestone Records, Inc..
Label Code: LC 1189 / LC 01189
Launched in 1966 by Orrin Keepnews & Dick Katz. As at his earlier company, Riverside Records, producer Keepnews had little trouble attracting top-flight jazz artists to his Milestone label. Within a few years of it's founding, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Gary Bartz and McCoy Tyner all joined the Milestone family. In 1970, Milestone switched distribution to Audiofidelity Enterprises, Inc. with Keepnews remaining as head of the label. Keepnews and Milestone moved from New York to Berkeley around November 1972 to become a part of Fantasy, Inc., where he soon launched the successful solo recording career of Brazilian vocalist Flora Purim and worked with a wide array of artists in his capacity as Director of Jazz A&R. On December 2, 1972, it was announced that Fantasy had purchased the rights to the Milestone catalog and that they would take over production, packaging and distribution immediately. Although Keepnews departed the company in the early Eighties, Milestone remained active into the 2000s.
Chronology
Pre-Fantasy Milestone releases may carry one of four possible addresses of the company on rear sleeves.
A tentative address chronology is as follows:
1966 117 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016
1967–1968 22 West 48th Street, New York, N.Y. 10036 (from September 2, 1967 onwards)
1968–1970 119 West 57th Street, New York, N.Y. 10019
1971–1972 221 West 57th Street, New York, N.Y. 10019
Sold / Marketed in Germany by Bellaphon Records
