American, operating out of Chicago; an independent Soul / Funk concern, formed by Murray Schwartz in tandem with Warner Bros. A full-page advert in 'Billboard' of the 27th of January 1973 announced the new label's advent; after saying that 'Kwanza' means 'Number One' in Swahili it gave the names of the company's owners as Schwartz, Ruth Bowen and Zack Glickman. Kwanza concentrated on singles, the first of which was issued the same month in the States; it was followed by eight more over the course of the next year-and-a-half. The company made a belated appearance in Britain in the summer of 1974, via WEA, as reported in 'Music Week' of the 17th of August. The article described its arrival as a 'Major move into the Black Music market' for WEA UK, but in the event Kwanza's British releases were restricted to a solitary batch of three singles, all of which came out on the 23rd of August. The singles, which were numbered in the K-19500s, appear to have been selected from Kwanza's best-selling American records, but they didn't sell well enough in Britain to threaten the Charts here. Kwanza issued no more records either here or in America after that point. It received no more mentions in 'Music Week' or 'Billboard', and doesn't seem to have lasted into 1975.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.