Ace Records’ Boplicity label was one of the earliest entries into the jazz reissues market in the mid-1980s. The short release schedule covered classic modern jazz from the 50s and 60s, taking in music originally released by Blue Note, Riverside, Prestige and various smaller independents. We are now re-launching the label as home for our small but distinct catalogue of 1950s and 1960s modern jazz. Featuring bonus tracks wherever possible, each release will strive for the highest quality in sound reproduction, using fresh transfers of the original master tapes.

Our first batch of releases comprises albums recorded by Dexter Gordon, Carl Perkins, Curtis Counce and Buddy Collette for Dootsie William’s Dootone label. A fixture of the Los Angeles scene since the early 1930s, Williams set up his label in the late 40s to take advantage of the nascent vocal group scene. Dootone scored a big hit in 1954 with ‘Earth Angel’ by the Penguins, which allowed him to indulge his passion for jazz.

Pianist Carl Perkins’ playing on Dexter Gordon’s “Dexter Blows Hot & Cool” set so impressed Dootsie Williams that he also recorded him in a trio setting for the album “Introducing Carl Perkins”. Perkins had first recorded for Savoy in the late 40s and at the time Williams cut him he was just establishing himself as an important player and composer. Over the next couple of years, as a founder member of the Curtis Counce Group, he helped define the very best of West Coast hard bop. Numbers such as ‘Carl’s Blues’ and ‘Groove Yard’ signalled the arrival of a great composer, but just as he was gaining this success he died at the age of 28 from a drug overdose. A fantastic mix of bop classics, standards and original compositions, his Dootone album was his only outing as a leader. A wonderful window into what could have been. 

By Dean Rudland