Impulse! Records is a United States based jazzrecord label, originally launched in the early 1960s by Creed Taylor as a subsidiary of ABC-Paramount Records in New York City. Most Impulse albums were produced by Bob Thiele who joined the company after Taylor left to head Verve Records.
Impulse! releases are known for their distictive design, dominated by black and orange on the sleeve spine and record label. The company is perhaps best known as a free jazz label, releasing works by Albert Ayler, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and others. Impulse! is also known for its recordings by more mainstream musicians too. At one time or another during the sixtiesColeman Hawkins, Milt Jackson and Shirley Scott all recorded for the label. New recordings on the label ceased during the 1970s.
More recently, the name has been revived for short periods, only to fall dormant again. The catalog is now controlled by the Universal conglomerate.
Although it's been mostly forgotten today, ImpulseRecords was one of the most influential labels in jazz.
Ownership of Impulse has shifted through the corporate mergers of the 1990s, but the label's sounds are still on the cutting edge.
From 1961 through 1976, ImpulseRecords wore its signature colors proudly and raised its exclamation point high, producing albums with hinged, brightly hued covers that opened wide, attracting generations of listeners into an exciting and far-ranging world of improvised music.
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