Founded in October 1968 by Jim Simpson, the man who launched Black Sabbath, Big Bear Records signed several acts to EMI Harvest, Parlophone, RCA and B&C Records.
Simpson also created Henry’s Blueshouse, one of the first progressive music clubs outside London, held in a Birmingham pub. Under the motto Tuesdays Is Bluesdays, it hosted American bluesmen like Arthur Big Boy Crudup and Champion Jack Dupree, alongside emerging British acts such as Status Quo, Rory Gallagher and Thin Lizzy, full list here.
Earth, originally booked at Henry’s as support to Ten Years After, were taken on by Simpson for management and renamed Black Sabbath, eventually signed to Vertigo after fourteen rejections from major labels.
The week Big Bear lost Sabbath, Paranoid was at number 2 and the two albums sat at numbers 16 and 1. Faced with the prospect of developing bands only to lose them to London management at the moment of success, Simpson chose a new challenge: The Blues.
After a test run with a UK/European tour for Toronto’s King Biscuit Boy, Big Bear committed to bringing significant but lesser-known American bluesmen over to tour and record. Early recordings, leased to Polydor, Action and Caroline Records, featured artists such as Lightnin’ Slim, Homesick James, Snooky Pryor and Oakland Johnny Mars.
Big Bear then signed with Transatlantic Records for UK distribution, and built an international network through 32 years of attendance at Midem in Cannes. The roster grew from blues artists like Cousin Joe, Eddie Taylor and Willie Mabon, full list here, to jazz, highlighted by Clark Terry’s Big Bad Band at Carnegie Hall.
Proudly independent, Big Bear has always followed one rule: the music has to be good, Real Music, Properly Played. This led to excursions into soul and funk with Roy Gee and Muscles, and into punk with The Quads, whose 1979 hit There Must Be Thousands was named John Peel’s favourite single of the decade and included in his famous box-set.
Under the Big Bear Music banner, the company also continued to tour its artists and organise events. The most significant was the Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival, launched in 1985, which has since delivered over 6,500 performances to 2.8 million people. Headliners have included Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, BB King and The Blues Brothers Band, selected list here.
Beyond Birmingham, Big Bear has organised events across the globe, from The Marbella Jazz Festival and The Arctic Border Blues Festival in Norway and the Soviet Union, to the National Jazz Festival across 21 UK cities, full list here.
Since 1987, Big Bear has also run The British Jazz Awards, known as the Jazz Oscars, with up to 5,000 voters across 17 categories. The most prestigious event in the British jazz calendar, it gained international recognition when Miles Davis won the Getzen Fairweather Award and Nina Simone flew to Birmingham to collect her Platinum Record for My Baby Just Cares For Me.
Since 1987, Big Bear has published The Jazz Rag, a bi-monthly magazine now past 160 editions, featuring leading British jazz writers, top musicians, and American journalist Scott Yanow.
Big Bear Music’s artist agency, initially set up to promote its own label acts, has grown into a broader roster of artists it continues to represent today.Lady Sings The Blues is a two-hour show tracing Billie Holiday’s repertoire chronologically through the 30s, 40s and 50s. Fronted by the remarkable Val Wiseman, among the finest female British jazz singers ever, and backed by an all-star seven-piece band modelled on Billie’s early recording groups, it comes as close as possible to the real thing. The show has now been on the road for 31 years: just five more than Lady Day herself.
King Pleasure & The Biscuit Boys formed in a Darlaston milk bar, a group of non-musicians inspired by Bill Haley who each picked up an instrument and learned to play. Spotted by Jim Simpson at a band contest, he renamed them on New Year’s Eve 1987. Thirty-one years, 6,500 gigs, 76 TV appearances and 10 Big Bear albums later, they remain one of the finest swing bands on the planet, and loyally Birmingham-based.
Tipitina hail from Leyland, Lancashire, but their spiritual home is New Orleans. Fronted by the gospel-soaked voice of Debbie Jones and the powerhouse piano of Justin Randall, they deliver a potent gumbo of James Booker, Professor Longhair and Dr John, with two Big Bear albums out and a third in the works.
The Whiskey Brothers deliver authentic 1930s Mississippi juke joint blues, from Kings Heath, Birmingham, and are currently working on their second Big Bear album.
Kenny Baker’s Dozen were arguably the best-known and best-loved of all British big bands, despite only two public appearances. The trumpet legend had starred with leading British bands and The Benny Goodman Orchestra, but the Dozen were best known for their weekly live BBC broadcasts from the Paris Studio. Persuaded by Simpson to finally take the band on the road, they launched with a six-night season at Ronnie Scott’s in Birmingham, recorded live for Big Bear, before touring the UK and Europe.
Big Bear has also produced a string of memorable live shows. Drummin’ Man celebrates the legendary Gene Krupa, from his Benny Goodman days through his own big band and small combos, featuring Birmingham drummer Pete York of Spencer Davis Group fame (Keep On Runnin’, I’m A Man) and a handpicked seven-piece band.
Beiderbecke and All That Jazz paired playwright Alan Plater, of The Beiderbecke Tapes fame, telling his own stories to a captivated all-star band, who then played. Simple, effective, and by all accounts an evening that flew by.
Big Bear has long had a passion for photography. A catalogue of some 2,500 black-and-white negatives has already yielded six exhibitions in the UK and Spain, with only 150 digitised so far.Leading Dutch photographer Merlin Daleman, twice winner of the Silver Camera Award for Best Documentary Photographer in Holland, is resident photographer at Big Bear events, with work featured in major exhibitions including extended displays at Birmingham New Street Station.
