Dial Records

Dial Records was an American record company and label that specialized first in bebop jazz and then in contemporary classical music. It was founded in 1946 by Ross Russell. Notable artists who recorded for Dial include Charlie Parker, who signed an exclusive one-year recording contract with Russell on 26 February 1946, as well as Miles Davis, Max Roach, and Milt Jackson. Dial Records initially pressed its music for the Tempo Music Shop of Hollywood, California, but soon relocated to New York City.

In the summer of 1949, Ross Russell announced a change of focus, with the label turning to the release of classical music by contemporary composers. The first release in this new series was Béla Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. This series, titled the Library of Contemporary Classics, was inspired when Russell obtained the master tape of a recording of Arnold Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1 from Blue Star Records in Paris, in lieu of payment for a number of Dial jazz masters… More