Gennett Records

Please use this only as company name for releases that state "Gennett Records" in small font at label bottoms. Please use Gennett as the label. Gennett Records was an American record label, founded in Richmond, Indiana, USA by the Starr Piano Company, and released its first records in October 1917. Gennett is best remembered for the early jazz talent recorded on the label, including sessions by Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke, King Oliver's band with young Louis Armstrong, Hoagy Carmichael and many others. Gennett also recorded early blues artists such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, and Big Bill Broonzy, and early country music performers such as Vernon Dalhart, Bradley Kincaid, Ernest Stoneman and Gene Autry. The Gennett Company was hit severely by the Great Depression in 1930, and massively cut back on record recording and production until it was halted all together in 1934. In 1935 the Starr Piano Company sold some Gennett masters, and the Gennett trademark to Decca Records.