Very principal
Who, please, is Swingin’ Gate Records?
Swingin’ Gates is me, Robert Merker. And who am I? A question that my shrink still cannot answer – after 23 years with 3 sessions per week, 3312 in total. I did the math, counting 52 weeks per year minus 4 for vacations and whatnot. Anyway, I am what common folks would call an audiophile. I think this is a misnomer. I definitely prefer being labeled as a vinylophile music lover. (That also sounds a bit less nerdy than audiophile.)
Anyway. It was not my intention to produce a record—all I wanted was sit, watch and listen at a recording session. Then, I didn’t want to have the recording mastered. Then I only wanted a lacquer to play on my turntable. Then, I did not want my own record label—I just wanted to get rid of the 1000 LPs that were pressed of Soulful Journey. Then I definitely did not want to produce a second LP; the first one was plenty enough. And I certainly did not want a website where I have to present myself and explain my idea.
But as Forrest Gump said so wisely: Life is like a box of chocolate. You never know what your going to get. So be prepared for everything. Even your own record label.
And why do you call your label Swingin’ and not Swinging Gates?
A/ Because …ginggat… is very difficult to pronounce, B/ because any word with two consecutive Gs looks weird, and C/ because the designer liked the apostroph as our logo shows.
And why in the first place do you call your label Swingin’ Gates?
Some time ago I stumbled across a book with the very promising title American Slang – Thousands of Definitions, first edition, 1960, i.e. barely sixty years old. And in this book I stumbled across the musical term Swinging Gate with the following definition An adroitly playing swing musician involved and in rapport with the piece being played and the rest of the performers.
I liked that idea. Because it’s pretty much my definition of how jazz musicians should play together. (I interpreted swing in the sense of Duke Ellington’s It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).
But what I really loved is the wonderful expression adroitly. Honestly, have you ever used this really old school term? (Or did you even had to look it up in the dictionary—like me?)
Now you know exactely who Swingin’ Gate Records is, where the funny name comes from and why it is written with an apostroph. There’s just one thing you don’t know yet…
Okay, so please tell me what’s so special about Swingin’ Gates?
For us, LPs and their production are not a business (at least not one we founded to make money), but a passion. And like everything I (and you hopefully too) do passionately, I also want to do it properly. And to do it properly, it helps if I have a set of orientation marks that I never ever want to lose out of sight and that are absolutely positively not negotiable—because they are the foundation that allows me to do things I like also as good as possible.
(I admit, that was a bit wordy and complicated to understand. But the most basic principles often are surprisingly complex.)
So here is our credo, or, as we call it: our seven principles.