okehgaz

'The History of Okeh Records: 1918 to 1970' is the end result of a project which has taken me over twenty years to complete. It began life as a series of articles which i had planned for a fanzine that i published during the late 80's, 'The Drifter'', but the mag folded before I had the series complete and the rough drafts were put to one side and forgotten about. A number of years later i reactivated them and put together the first draft of the book. At that time it was very much a 'cut and paste, prit-stik and photo copy' effort which was, for a number of reasons,once again put to one side and allowed to spend a few years at the bottom of a draw before i finally decided to finish the project off a couple of years ago, eventually completing it towards the end of 2013. Even then it sat on the laptop for six months before i took the plunge and had the book printed. 'The History of Okeh' covers the history of the label from it's first world war roots, through the issue of Okeh's early 'race' records until its final release and, on the way, touches on everything in between, including jazz, r&b, doo-wop, rock & roll and the blues. I hope that it will be of interest not only to devotees of the label but also to those who have an interest in the development of black music in general during the period that the label existed. I am, first and foremost, a fan and collector of the labels music in all its many forms and, as corny as it sounds, the book is my way of paying the label back, in a very small way, for all the joy it has given me over the years. Professionaly printed, self published book on the legendary Okeh label. A4 size, Colour soft cover, 102 B&W inner pages. £7.99 plus P&P. For further details please e-mail me at gary@evans2634.freeserve.co.uk Many thanks, Gary