While King Records started with white country and western acts, Syd Nathan embraced what author Peter Guralnick called “musically integrationist policies” and wasted no time adding Black rhythm and blues-based acts to his roster. It was at this location that he would build up one of the most successful, influential and innovative record companies of the post-war years. In 1944, Nathan moved his still mostly aspirational operation to 1540 Brewster Avenue. The records didn’t sell, but Nathan was committed. In 1943, he recorded up-and coming country stars Grandpa Jones and Merle Travis at a small studio in Dayton. Through his country music customers, some of whom were musicians employed at local radio station WLW, Nathan was inspired to make records himself. When he began selling hillbilly and country records, the store attracted white customers with the same Southern roots as the Black community. At his store on Central Avenue, Nathan initially catered to the Black residents of the neighborhood, stocking blues, jazz, and gospel records. In 1938, Nathan was still finding his way as a business man when he decided to try his hand at selling records.
Syd Nathan – King Records founder at the height of his successīorn in 1903, Syd Nathan was cursed since childhood with bad health, including failing eyesight and asthma, but he never let his physical shortcomings hold him back, and he pursued potential business opportunities relentlessly. A loud, shrewd and sometimes crude businessman whose coarseness was leveled by his sense of humor, Nathan could inspire frustration and fury, love and loyalty, all seemingly in equal parts. A native of Cincinnati, Nathan was a true character: all at once abrasive and abusive, charismatic and charming. Started in 1943, King Records was the creation of one man, Syd Nathan. I have one such moment in mind, one brief recording session that changed popular music forever.Ī son of the deep South, James Brown perhaps doesn’t seem like an obvious choice to be included in a blog dedicated to Ohio history, but through King Records, an independent record company based in Cincinnati, James Brown will forever be a part of Ohio’s rich musical history. Now, to most people, a single recording session might not feel like the stuff of history, but I feel that even to be there for just a moment, to get only the briefest of glimpses, I would still count it as an amazing experience, and yes, a true history making moment. As a fan of rhythm and blues and a bit of a fanatic when it comes to soul music, I couldn’t help but wonder what that must’ve been like, being in that recording studio, watching a genius of modern American music at the height of his creative powers. Of course, being a very young girl at the time, the patron couldn’t remember much about her experience, but the story nonetheless fired my imagination.
As a little girl, she could see employees working in the King record pressing plant, and on one occasion, was invited in to watch as James Brown was recording with his band in the studio. She was telling us about growing up during the 1960s in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Evanston, near where King Records was located on Brewster Avenue.
Several years ago, a colleague and I were talking to a patron in the Archives Library of the Ohio History Center. James Brown’s album Cold Sweat released on King Records In 1967 James Brown Makes History at King Records in Cincinnati By Matt Benz