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Given Richmond’s close proximity to Chicago and the construction of a Gennett recording studio in New York City, Gennett Records had easy access to the legendary musicians who helped define early jazz music. Henry Gennett, who became President of the Starr Piano Company in 1903, was a risk-taker. His entrepreneurial spirit guided the Company as the recording division welcomed many rising jazz stars to the Gennett studios.

In the 1920s, many conservatives criticized jazz as being uncultured, but the Gennett label would record practically any musician, regardless of race, who might produce a profitable record. As a result, Gennett Records offered the very first issued recordings of a host of jazz innovators including Louis Armstrong, Joe “King” Oliver (and his Creole Jazz Band), Duke Ellington, the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, Bix Beiderbecke, Earl Hines, and Hoagy Carmichael. Other important jazz artists who recorded for the label include Jelly Roll Morton, Mary Lou Williams, Sidney Bechet, Johnny and Baby Dodds, Fletcher Henderson, Muggsy Spanier, Red Nichols, Artie Shaw, Miff Mole, Jimmy Durante, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Fats Waller, Freddie Keppard, Jimmy Noone, and Coleman Hawkins. Regional jazz artists to record for the label included Hitch’s Happy Harmonists, Zack Whyte, Syd Valentine, the Miami Lucky Seven, The Syncopating Five, and Marion McKay’s Orchestra. Richmond earned the renown of being the “cradle of Recorded Jazz” due to Gennett Records.

Beyond the emergence of jazz, the 1920s witnessed the popularization of another unique American style of popular music—the blues. Gennett Records released numerous blues sides. Most of these issues were part of Gennett’s “race” catalog. In the 1920s, records that were marketed to African-American audiences were known as race records, and as race records began to sell in increasing numbers, many larger labels jumped on the bandwagon in order to capitalize on the trend. Smaller labels like Gennett helped prove that demand existed for the blues and other styles of music rooted in African-American culture.

Some of the most notable blues musicians to record for the Gennett label include Jaybird Coleman, Roosevelt Sykes, Viola McCoy, Johnny Watson (Daddy Stove Pipe), Long Cleve Reed, Charles Davenport, Tommie Bradley, Scrapper Blackwell, the Mississippi Sheiks, Sleepy John Estes, and Cryin’ Sam Collins. A performer known as “Georgia Tom” also made several blues records for Gennett, but many people know “Georgia Tom” as Thomas A. Dorsey, the recognized father of modern gospel music.

Gennett recorded sides at $40 apiece for the Paramount label in 1929, when Paramount’s new studio was under construction. These sessions captured two of the eminent names in blues history—Blind Lemon Jefferson and Charley Patton. Charley Patton was from the famous Dockery Plantation in Mississippi and influenced blues legendaries like Robert Johnson and Howlin’ Wolf. Blind Lemon Jefferson was a Texas bluesman and sold more blues records during the 1920s than nearly any other blues musician of the period.

As the catalog of recordings expanded, the Gennetts introduced new subsidiary labels to encompass this wide variety of musical styles and also to increase distribution to new markets. The Champion label, initiated in 1925, was created to supply rural and chain-store markets. The red Champion label featured many re-releases of records originally issued on the Gennett label, often using a pseudonym for the artist or group to avoid paying the musicians’ royalties. Fred Gennett, head of the recording division, helped establish the Black Patti label in 1927 to capitalize on the popularity of Gennett’s race records. Black Patti records featured black artists like Blind James Beck and Mozelle Anderson. Only 55 Black Patti recordings were ever released. Several Black Patti recordings were also reissued on other Gennett labels, using artist pseudonyms like the Champion reissues. Other subsidiary labels included Silvertone, Superior, Supertone, Challenge, Conqueror, Bell, and Buddy. Many of these other subsidiary labels were recorded and pressed by Gennett for companies like Sears, Roebuck and Co.

Gennett began to release old-time country music in earnest in 1925. Like the blues, old-time country was more noticeably emerging as commercial music during the 1920s and was specifically marketed to a rural audience through the chain stores and mail order catalogs that featured Gennett’s Champion label, among other Gennett subsidiary labels. Gene Autry is the most well-recognized early country performer to record for the label and is most remembered for his reputation as the “Singing Cowboy,” but when Autry recorded for Gennett, he frequently emulated Jimmie Rodgers’ “blue yodel” style. Other important old-time musicians who recorded for the label include Doc Roberts, the Tweedy Brothers, Bradley Kincaid, Uncle Dave Macon, Da Costa Woltz’s Southern Broadcasters, Ernest Stoneman, and many more. Gennett would release old-time country music until 1934, when the company discontinued the Champion label. Over 320 old-time country recordings were released between 1925 and 1934.

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