The Jazz Label Series: Black Saint

From 1984 to 1989 Black Saint won the Down Beat critics poll for "Best Label” and and was considered the Blue Note of the period. Not bad for a relatively small label based in Tribiano in Italy. Black Saint was established in 1975 by Giacomo Pelliciotti with the idea of recording avant-garde jazz musicians. By 1977 Black Saint was in serious trouble, they had only released 13 titles, but had already gone through three or four owners. It was eventually sold to school teacher and jazz collector Giovanni Bonandrini, who with his son Flavio, ran the company until 2008. During that period, Black Saint established itself as a label whose mark and reputation guaranteed jazz fans music that would break boundaries. The label specialised in avant garde jazz in the free jazz tradition. Its releases included many of the finest jazz performers of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.