Bernard Stollman, founder of the iconic NYC indie jazz record label, ESP-Disk, has died at age 85 after a prolonged battle with colon cancer that spread to his spine.
According to Billboard, ESP-Disk, which Stollman started in 1963, was founded on the idea that "the artists alone decide what you will hear on their ESP-Disk," a maxim that was printed on every release.
The artistic freedom that the label allowed appealed to myriad free jazz musicians like C-lite favorites Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman, Henry Grimes, Paul Bley and Albert Ayler.
The label started with the intent of releasing Esperanto-based music, which contributed to the label's name. At the end of that year, Ayler would record for the label and release the company's second-ever release, Spiritual Unity, which is considered to be a classic.
In an interview spanning his career, Stollman discussed Ayler and Coleman recording at the label:
"These things moved me. I had a broad but limited orientation to all art forms so I didn't look at the music as commerce ... but I didn't have any reference other than my gut feelings. I wasn't concerned about whether anyone else would like it, [ESP-Disk] was the most supreme self-indulgence. I felt if it moves me it might move other people."
Along with the label's most famous releases, the ESP-Disk print was also responsible for outsider and underground records by the Fugs, Tim Leary, Pearls Before Swing, William S. Burroughs and Cromagnon.
Stollman will be fondly remembered for his contributions to the genre.
Catch up with some of the label mates below.
