Jac Holzman's Elektra Story - Episode 2

Paul Gambaccini continues to chart the history of Elektra Records, 60 years after it was founded by Jac Holzman (10 October 1950). The series features interviews with Jac Holzman and many of his artists: Theodore Bikel, Oscar Brand, Judy Collins, Ray Manzarek and John Densmore (The Doors), David Gates (Bread), Tom Paxton, Joshua Rifkin, Jean Ritchie, Tom Rush and Carly Simon; plus Elektra executives Danny Fields and Clive Selwood, engineer/producer Bruce Botnick and sessionman at the time John Sebastian. In part two, Jac Holzman recalls the new direction his label took from the mid-60s. Elektra had gained a reputation as the home of acoustic folk singers but, from 1965, they were joined by new artists creating a rockier sound with electric instruments and the programme features music by Koerner, Ray and Glover, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Love and the Doors. Catering for two gaps in the market, the successful Elektra series of stereo sound effects records and the company's budget classical label Nonesuch provided the seed money to develop this new direction. The surprise novelty hit for Nonesuch was the Baroque Beatles Book - a selection of Lennon-McCartney songs arranged by Joshua Rifkin in the Baroque style. Jac Holzman and his artists also discuss the orchestral experiments heard on the landmark albums produced during the years 1966 to 1968: In My Life and Wildflowers by Judy Collins, Forever Changes by Love, Goodbye and Hello by Tim Buckley and The Circle Game by Tom Rush.