AUM Fidelity - History / Overview

History / Overview

Founder Steven Joerg is a native of Chicago, and has stated that in high school he was heavily influenced by the DIY aesthetic of punk rock, especially labels such as SST Records. Moving to New York City immediately after graduating college, Joerg initially worked for Bar/None Records. He became a manager of the indie rock label Homestead Records in 1992, where he signed and promoted albums by Babe the Blue Ox, Tara Key, Sleepyhead, Soul-Junk, and others. After releasing a well-received album by free jazz drummer William Hooker, Joerg convinced a reluctant Homestead to sign notable jazz musician David S. Ware and his Quartet. Their first release on the label, Cryptology, received a lead review in Rolling Stone.

Joerg left Homestead in December 1996 and founded AUM Fidelity in Brooklyn in January 1997. His aim of the new label was to focus primarily on some of the modern era's masters of jazz. He liquidated his life savings, sold half his record collection, and took out a loan to finance the endeavor. The label derived its name partially from the Charles Mingus album Mingus Ah Um, but is fundamentally from "AUM, the mantra of mantras, representing the soundless sound of the universe, the original tone and source of all creation. Not low fidelity or high fidelity, but AUM Fidelity." The label officially launched in September 1997 with the release of David S. Ware's Wisdom of Uncertainty, and William Parker's Sunrise in the Tone World.

The label continues to be based in Brooklyn, New York, and as of 2012 has released over 70 albums which have been acclaimed around the world. In addition to Ware and Parker, the artists who have recorded for the label include Joe Morris, Whit Dickey, Other Dimensions In Music, Test, Matthew Shipp, Mat Maneri, Hamid Drake, Rob Brown, Daniel Carter, Roy Campbell, Cooper-Moore, Chad Taylor, Roy Nathanson, Kidd Jordan, Eri Yamamoto, Gerald Cleaver, Craig Taborn, Bill Dixon, Jim Hobbs, The Fully Celebrated, Darius Jones, Little Women, Mike Pride, and others. AUM Fidelity began distributing Joe Morris' Riti label when it was born anew in 2002, and in 2003 co-launched the CaseQuarter label, which is devoted to sacred and spiritual music of the American south.

AUM Fidelity has from its inception been active in supporting the New York City downtown jazz scene. Joerg has volunteered at the Vision Festival since 1996, and produced Vision One, a two-disc benefit compilation of material recorded at the festival. Joerg was asked by musician and artist John Zorn to curate his avant-garde locale The Stone for June 16-30, 2011, which featured performances by many of the label's artists, including its then most recent signing, alto saxophonist/composer Darius Jones. In January 2009, the label was instrumental in finding a kidney donor for David S. Ware. Since recovering, Ware has released four new albums with the label.