oncord Records have bought the Vee-Jay catalogue for an undisclosed sum, it's been reported in the States. Some 5,000 master recordings are included in the acquisition, quite a lot of it jazz, including albums by Wynton Kelly as well as much R&B and blues. Kelly recorded his first album Kelly Great for Vee-Jay in 1959 five days before recording ‘Freddie Freeloader’ on Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue. Betty Everett’s ‘The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss)’, was one of the label's biggest hits among many others. Founded in Gary, Indiana in 1953 by Vivian [the V in the label name] Carter and James [the J] C. Bracket, one of the first black-owned labels in the States, the company released recordings by the Beatles when Capitol passed, but despite success with these went bankrupt in 1966. Wayne Shorter's early work was on Vee-Jay and last year this was reissued in a Proper box.
