Black Lion Records was founded in 1968 by Alan Bates, initially based out of England. The label had two series of releases – one for British jazz musicians and one for international musicians – published under the two imprints, Black Lion and Freedom. For a limited time, the label was distributed by Polydor but was then acquired and marketed by DA Music in Germany since the early 80s.
The current Black Lion catalog consists of the Original Black Lion Recordings, approximately 170 recordings, the Black Lion Vault releases, previously unavailable and obtained from the original tapes and then re-mastered around 2010, and the Jazz Greats – 24 Bit Re-Mastered series of the most popular original Black Lion issues, released since 2002.
