From:   "Jean-Marc Pezet" 
Date:  Mon Sep 8, 2003  8:02 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You: Jules Bihari
 
JULES BIHARI (By Dik de Heer) 

Born 8 September 1913, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 
Died 17 November 1984, Los Angeles, California 

Jules Bihari was the eldest of the four Bihari Brothers (Jules, Saul, Joe and
Lester), who are best known for founding Modern Records, one of the top
independent blues and R&B labels of the '40s and '50s.
 
Bihari grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in a large Jewish family of Hungarian
descent. He later moved to Los Angeles - as did his brothers - in 1941, and got
a job servicing and operating jukeboxes in black neighbourhoods. 

Bihari noticed a distinct lack of proper funding and distribution for the blues
records his customers wanted to hear, but which were often hard to locate and
stock. Enlisting his brothers Joe and Saul as partners, Bihari set up the
independent Modern label in 1945; he himself served as vice president, A&R, and
frequent session producer. Helped by their keen ear for talent, the Bihari
Brothers soon built Modern into a blues (and, later, R&B) powerhouse; their
recording stable included the likes of Hadda Brooks (their first signing), a
young B.B. King, Elmore James, John Lee Hooker, Etta James, Lightnin' Hopkins,
Lowell Fulson, and more. Despite bringing such a wealth of talent to the world,
the Bihari story had its shady side : many label owners of their era claimed a
share of songwriting royalties by giving themselves writing credit on material
they had no role in shaping, and the Biharis were no different (Jules'
pseudonym Jules Taub appears on many Modern and RPM tracks). 

Lester Bihari was enrolled as a talent scout in the Memphis area, 
bringing Ike Turner to the label and introducing his brothers to producer Sam
Phillips ; a relationship which led, indirectly, to the signing of the
company's greatest money-spinner, B.B. King. 

Modern spun off a number of subsidiary labels over the '50s, including the RPM,
Flair, Kent, Riviera, and the budget imprint Crown, which increasingly consumed
the brothers' time from about 1957 on, and unfortunately put out quite a bit of
shoddy product. Modern went under in the mid-'60s, but the brothers regrouped
under the Kent imprint, which survived into the '70s; during this era, Jules
Bihari also started his own Big Town label, and served as executive producer on
several of comedian Rudy Ray Moore's films. After Saul Bihari's death in 1975,
the brothers effectively stopped recording new material. 

Jules Bihari passed away in 1984, and around the same time, the family's
holdings were acquired by the British label Ace, who embarked upon an extensive
reissue programme. 

Some examples of compilations: 

- Long Gone Daddies : Original 50s Rockabillly & Rock 'n' Roll from the Modern
Label (Ace 768, released in 2000). Highly recommended. 
- The Modern Records Story (Ace 784). Most oof the Modern/RPM hits. 
- There are six volumes of "Modern Vocal Grooups" : Ace 698, 723, 741,764, 783,
817. More info on the Ace website (http://www.acerecords.co.uk). 

More on the history of the Modern label: 
http://www.bsnpubs.com/modern/modernstory.html