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| HatHut Records | |
|---|---|
| Name | HatHut Records |
| Founded | 1975 |
| Founder | Werner X. Uehlinger |
| Status | Active |
| Genre | Jazz, Contemporary classical, Free improvisation |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Location | Basel |
HatHut Records
HatHut Records is a Swiss independent record label founded in 1975 by Werner X. Uehlinger in Basel that specializes in avant-garde jazz, contemporary classical, and free improvisation. The label has documented performances and compositions by leading figures such as Ornette Coleman, Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, Steve Lacy, and Albert Ayler, and collaborated with institutions including the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Zurich Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, Ravenna Festival, and Berkeley Art Museum. HatHut’s catalogue intersects with collections held by the Library of Congress, British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, European Jazz Network, and various university archives.
HatHut Records was established in Basel by Werner X. Uehlinger following contacts with musicians active in the European and American avant-garde scenes such as Sun Ra, Paul Bley, Bill Dixon, Don Cherry, and Roscoe Mitchell. Early projects involved live recordings from venues like The Kitchen, Vermont Summer Festival, Tanglewood, and Montreux Jazz Festival as well as studio sessions in collaboration with engineers tied to Swiss Radio and Television, BBC Radio 3, ORF Radiokulturhaus, and Rai Radio3. The label expanded through the 1980s and 1990s alongside festivals and institutions including European Broadcasting Union, International Society for Contemporary Music, Bang on a Can Festival, and Frankfurter Wertheim. Partnerships with producers and curators such as Manfred Eicher, John Zorn, Pierre Boulez, Giacinto Scelsi, and Louis Andriessen influenced repertoire and commissioning activity.
HatHut has operated multiple imprints and sublabels to present distinct catalogues: early LPs and CDs under the main HatHut imprint, the hat ART series emphasizing modern jazz and free improvisation featuring artists like Dewey Redman, Pharoah Sanders, Andrew Hill, and Joe Henderson, the hatOLOGY series focusing on historic and archival material including names such as Eric Dolphy, Monk, Duke Ellington, and Miles Davis, and the hat NOW series for contemporary commissions involving composers like Elliott Carter, Luciano Berio, György Ligeti, and Iannis Xenakis. Distribution and licensing arrangements linked hat labels with companies such as ECM Records, Blue Note Records, Nonesuch Records, Black Saint/Soul Note, DIW Records, and FMP.
HatHut’s roster and releases document a wide range of performers and composers: Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, Steve Lacy, Ornette Coleman, Paul Bley, Derek Bailey, John Zorn, Roscoe Mitchell, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Irène Schweizer, Han Bennink, Peter Brötzmann, Sunny Murray, Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Misha Mengelberg, Marilyn Crispell, Fred Frith, Tim Berne, Craig Taborn, Gerry Hemingway, Eddie Harris, Sam Rivers, Joe McPhee, Lester Bowie, Muhal Richard Abrams, Andrew Cyrille, Denis Charles, Reggie Workman, Arild Andersen, Miłosz Magin, Morton Feldman, John Cage, and La Monte Young. Notable releases include live documented albums, studio commissions, and multi-disc archival sets capturing performances at venues like Knitting Factory, Village Vanguard, Birdland, Blue Note Tokyo, and Royal Albert Hall.
HatHut’s catalogue spans free jazz, avant-garde composition, electroacoustic works, and contemporary chamber music, featuring stylistic intersections comparable to movements around Free Improvisation, Third Stream, Serialism, Minimalism, and Fluxus. Recordings showcase approaches linked with figures such as Ornette Coleman (harmolodics), Anthony Braxton (conceptual composition numbering), Cecil Taylor (percussive piano idiom), John Cage (chance operations), Morton Feldman (quiet dynamics), and Iannis Xenakis (stochastic processes). Collaborations and commissions engaged composers and ensembles associated with Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta, Mivos Quartet, Arditti Quartet, Auloksi Ensemble, and soloists aligned with the International Contemporary Ensemble.
HatHut’s releases circulated through independent distributors and specialist retailers such as Rough Trade, Tower Records, Discogs, Harmonia Mundi, and Import CDs while receiving critical attention in publications including DownBeat, The Wire, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, JazzTimes, AllMusic, The Village Voice, Le Monde, and Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Academic commentary and reviews appeared in journals like Jazz Perspectives, Contemporary Music Review, MR, Tempo, Cambridge Opera Journal, and papers presented at conferences hosted by International Association for Jazz Education and Society for Music Theory.
HatHut has undertaken archival projects reissuing historic sessions, often curating box sets and critical editions akin to projects by Blue Note, Impulse! Records, Verve Records, and ECM. Archival curators worked with estates and trusts of artists such as Eric Dolphy Estate, Albert Ayler Estate, Sun Ra Arkestra, Cecil Taylor Estate, and institutions like Smithsonian Institution to recover tapes, scores, and concert recordings. Reissue programs included remastering by engineers associated with Abbey Road Studios, Sterling Sound, and Concord Music Group, with liner-note essays by scholars affiliated with Juilliard School, Berklee College of Music, Yale School of Music, University of California, Berkeley, and Goldsmiths, University of London.
HatHut’s long-term impact is evident in pedagogy, scholarship, and performance practice across institutions such as New England Conservatory, Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, Sibelius Academy, and Conservatoire de Paris. The label influenced collectors, archivists, and curators at festivals including Berlin Jazz Festival, Montréal Jazz Festival, London Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, and Venice Biennale Musica. Musicians citing HatHut releases include Ethan Iverson, Maria Schneider, Vijay Iyer, Tomasz Stanko, Chris Potter, and John McLaughlin, while researchers have referenced HatHut catalogues in dissertations at Columbia University, Harvard University, University of Oxford, Princeton University, and University of California, Los Angeles.
Category:Swiss record labels Category:Jazz record labels Category:Contemporary classical music labels