American; a Jazz label. Pablo was started in 1973 by Norman Grantz, former head of Verve Records. He recruited several ex-Verve artists for his new label, including Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie. Pablo was primarily an album label; it tended to go for records of jam-sessions. By the early '80s Grantz was suffering from indifferent health, as a result of which the company issued records less frequently; it was sold to Fantasy Records in 1987. Manufacturing and distribution in Britain were by Polydor / Phonogram, which explains the injection-moulded labels. Singles were numbered in a 2018-000 series; again, typical of the Polydor group of that era. There were only four of them. A fifth single on a short-lived Disco-orientated offshoot, 'Pablo Today' (q.v.).
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.