Another label where there's precious little information to go on. (Don't confuse it with the New York-based Baby Grande hip-hop label - note the extra 'e').  Judging by the liner notes on several Baby Grand releases, the label was based in Hollywood, California and was tied in with the Bowman Recording and Production Company (located at 1019 North Cole Avenue, Los Angeles, 90038).  This is just pure speculation on my part, but the label may have had some sort of ties to the infamous Tiger Lily imprint.  I'd point out that the two labels released material by some of the same artists, including Clydie King and C.M. Lord. 

Looking at the label's release dates, Baby Grand was only in business for about two years - 1977 through 1979 (I stumbled on a December 1977 Billboard ad for the label). It started out releasing lots of disco, jazz, and funk material, but towards the end of its existence moved into more eclectic musical genres including a couple of non-secular LPs. 

Like most tax scam labels, there are large gaps and inconsistencies in the Baby Grand catalog. Among those inconsistencies, the same material was seemingly issued under different names (e.g. C.M. Lord's "A Fat Chance" was seeming also released under the title "High Steppin'").  Several albums were released at least twice with different cover art ("Carry On" and "Clydie King"), a couple of different albums share the same release number (Zweebop's "Love So Strong" and "Zweebop") and then there's a mysterious change in the firm's catalog nomenclature.  Most of the catalog starts out with the sequence SE-10xx, but there are several releases that reflect a SE-20xx numbering sequence. 

There doesn't seem to be a complete discography out there so I've cobbled together what I could find which appears to reflect about a third of the catalog. That estimate of size is based on the catalog release numbers. There could be many more releases, or it could be that there were fewer releases with some of the catalog numbers nothing more than 'ghost' entries. 

For what it's worth, the handful of Baby Grand artists I've tracked down have been singularly unwilling to talk about the label.  That said, looking at Baby Grand liner notes and the catalog of releases and you'll see the same names repeated time after time across multiple  roles including producers, arrangers, performers, etc.  Among the repeating case are Stephen Deutsch, Marcus Duke, Ron Fair and Paul Zaza.  That leads me to speculate that Baby Grand may have simply been taking advantage of a talented group of L.A.-based sessions players, using a relatively small number of people to churn out a fairly extensive catalog in a short period.

Also worth mentioning, a couple of the Baby Grand family of releases were issued under the Pelican imprint. Pelican seems to have 

been a legitimate early 1970s label that found a niche releasing cast albums and radio shows featuring 1930s and 1940s film and music stars such as The Andrews Sisters, Judy Garland, Hal Gordon and Gloria Swanson. The label apparently went dormant for a couple of years, but as reflected by a change in catalog number sequence (starting with a SE-2xxx series of numbers), the label seems to have been reactivated in the mid-1970s once again focusing on old movie soundtracks, children stories, with occasional forays into more contemporary sounds (Bill of Faire, Hal Gordon, Electric Pong Orchestra, etc. ). This is nothing more than another guess on my part, but I wonder if Pelican was actually the precursor label with Baby Grand being the tax scam offshoot ... 

I haven't heard the vast majority of these releases, but the couple I have checked out have been pretty forgettable funk and adult 

contemporary jazz. Lots and lots of the latter which doesn't do a great deal for my ears - Shelby Conti, Bill Fanfair, Nothin Sirus, the late Joe Romano, Paul Zaza, Zweebop, etc. 'Course that's just my opinion. What I don't particularly care for may strike a more favorable chord with you. 

On a related note, the label sported some of the dullest album art known to mankind - much of it black and white (which was probably 

cheaper to print than color images). That's not to say there isn't a market for these albums. As you'd expect, the Baby Grand catalog is fairly rare and not exactly given away by most dealers. In fact at least a couple of these ("Terea" and "Black Rain") routinely sell for $500 or more. As far as I can tell, nothing from Baby Grant has been reissued, but that's probably only a matter of time. 

If you've got information on the label of some of missing releases, drop me a line at: RDTEN1@aol.com

Thanks to Takayuki Fujikawa for images SE-1001, SE-1002, SE-1007, SE-1043, SE-1062 (alternative cover), SE-1066., and SE-2081.   You can check out his Baby Grand website at:  http://www.geocities.jp/tfgroove/BabyG1 

Thanks to Mark Andrews for providing images for SE-1016 (alternative) and SE-1027.  Here's Mark's interesting email on stumbling across a bunch of Baby Grand LPs at a flea market - wish we were all as lucky:

I recently bought 9 baby grand records last week while I was in Atlanta, Georgia at a flea market. All were sealed and in mint condition, having no idea what I was buying at the time finding your article really helped me out. Enjoyed the read and also love the history behind these records.  I saw up to 20 or more of the Baby Grand line up at the flea market but only picked up 9 of them, again because I had no idea about the label and I'm still kicking myself for not getting them all.  I want to give you a picture of Owen Thomas- Above & Below the Line  SE- 1027, front and back shot.  I also want to give you a front and back picture of the alternative cover of the Summit album SE-1015.  I hope these will help you out.  the ones i found were Terea, Summit, Party hats, Owen Thomas, le Payback ( saw 5 more sealed copies there), Carry on, Contact, Cigar Band, and Atomic Cafe.  Again love your site and thanks for all the information on these records.

Mark Andrews, November 2010

I worked at Baby Grand Records 1976-1977.   It was developed as a tax write-off for a wealthy businessman who lived in Roswell, Georgia. All the Baby Grand employees knew it (including an employee who is now a senior executive with Sony Music). When they told me what the deal was, I left the label. I felt bad for the musicians we signed. The plan was to produce as many albums we could as quickly as possible, with no plans to distribute them, so the owner would get a big tax write-off, tell his friends he owned a record label in Hollywood, and get the social perks of being a "record company executive."  I was on one of the Almost Famous band's album covers, but didn't see it on your website. The reason someone found a bunch of Baby Grand records at a flea market in Georgia is probably because the owner got rid of them! 

December 2010

WOW!  Thank you for your interesting history about the record label. I am a serious record collector and today I found the BLACK RAIN ; {2} ZAZA se1033's ; ZWEEBOP ; and WELLINGTON STRINGS on the Pelican label albums. I bought them because I have never heard of any of the artists, it just looked "cool".. so I bought them for $1 each!!! STILL SEALED except for BLACKRAIN and it is nm condition!! I bought these at a tradelot in Marion, North Carolina.  I searched Google and found your site for the information. THANK YOU!!
Gary Arnold, November 2011

First off; I do know a lot about the tax shelter record thing. This same thing happened to me once before... the shorthand on that; I live in LA and have since 1971 - between '71 and around '78 I actively pursued a career as a recording artist... that meant taking around my demos and leaving reel to reel 1/4 inch copies with A&R guys, publishers and music attorneys... Flash forward to 1981/82 - a very good friend of mine (she would be the best man at my wedding in '86) was in a used record store in LA and saw a record being sold for 10 cents and liked the cover and dropped a dime - It was called "Almost Famous" and was on Baby Grand Records - after bringing it home to listen to it she called me and said there's this guy who sounds like you - In fact it was me... someone had pressed one of my drop off tapes from 1977... 7 or 8 songs in all - the only problem was that the songs were credited to other people... I had some connection to the LA Times and got someone to write a story about it... it took about 6 months of leg work by the writer but he found out about the folks involved with Baby Grand Records. By the time the article had been vetted by the LA Times lawyers it almost ended up looking like a hit piece on the idiot songwriter who didn't properly "protect" his songs. But the writers original research into the story had dug up a name of someone involved with Baby Grand that I had known and liked back in '77 - by '82 he had become a well respected record executive at RCA... his name is Ron Fair. I called Ron and here's the gist of what he told me back then in '82; (from your writings... this will not come as a surprise to you and nor is it a MYTH). Okay the US tax loophole was such that (say for instance) a doctor in Texas making 150Gs a year could pay a company (Baby Grand Records) based in Atlanta $20,000 to make an album. Baby Grand would send some of that $20,000 to their LA producer guy (In many cases Ron Fair). He would spend the money in a real studio paying his musician and songwriting friends to make an album and send it back to Atlanta. In Atlanta BG Records would press about 10,000 copies and send them all back to the doctor in Texas who would keep the albums in his garage to prove to the IRS that he had backed this music project that had failed to sell. The tax loophole was that you could write off 5 times your losses. So by putting up $20,000 you could write off $100,000 in taxes. Ron Fair said he made a number of records that everyone was paid and it for the most part no one was getting screwed. However - Baby Grand had other producers in LA who were not as honest as Ron. They would obtain a tape from a music attorney for a pittance - maybe 1$,500. Change the names of artists and musicians and then just send it off to Atlanta, pocketing most of the $20,000 themselves. It's been a while so the numbers are a bit hazy but I seem to remember something like 50 or so Baby Grand records were produced and about half of them were legitimately put together (many by Ron) and the others were pure thievery ... by the likes of a fellow named Joe Long and another partner... Okay - so I have to look around my house for that article in the calendar section of the LA Times from 1982... I will pass it along to you if and when I find it.

Richard Goldman, November 2012

Thanks to Dutch music hound Mancarli Janssen for straightening out some of the discography sequences and providing photos for: 

- Owen Thomas "Above and Below the Line" (alternative cover)

- Bryan Banks "New York City Blues" LP

- Warbux "Warbux" LP

- alternative cover of "Avalanche" LP

- Robert Farnon "Live"

His insight into this label is enough to shame me.

One last word about sales.  I only own a few of these LPs.  The ones I have for sale will have a set price (e.g. $75) and say 'for sale' as opposed to an estimated value range (e.g.  est. $50 - $75).  By the way, don't ask me where you can find the other titles.  I don't know and if I did, I would probably have purchased them myself.

Postscript (November 2025)

It had been eight years since I'd updated this site.  Time flies when you have a family and a life.  Anyhow, I've added several releases and album cover photos to the website, though there are still lots of gaps and mysteries.  I also noticed that prices for some of these LP (e.g. Black Rain, Terea, Street Feet) have exploded.  And yes, there are now reissues of several Baby Grande LPs.  The German Everland label has released several Baby Grand LPs.  No idea if they are authorized releases.  Hum.  Do you need approval to release a tax scam LP?

Price

est.  $150 - $175

est. $25 - $50

est. $100 - $150

for sale $50.00

est. $50 - $75

est. $25 - $50

est. $25 - $50

$180.00

est. $100 - $150

est. $60.00

unknown

unknown

est. $100 - $150

est. $100 - $150

for sale $80.00

for sale $75.00

for sale $75.00

SOLD $80.00

est. $80.00

est. $25 - $50

est. $25 - $50

SOLD  $40.00

unknown

SOLD $80.00

est. $80.00  - $100.00

SOLD $100.00

est.$350 - $400

est. $25 - $50

$40.00

unknown

est. $200 - $250

est. $200 - $250

est. $25 - $50

est. $800 - $1,200

est. $350 - $375

for sale $50.00

for sale $50.00

est. $25 - $50

unknown

SOLD  $50.00

est. $200 - $300

for sale $150.00

est. $25 - $50

est. $25 - $50

est. $25 - $50

unknown

for sale $40.00

est. $75.00

est. $75.00

unknown

unknown

est. $25 - $50

unknown

est. $25 - $50

for sale  $75.00

unknown

unknown

unknown

unknown

est. $300 - $400

est $500

est. $25 - $50

unknown

unknown

unknown

unknown

for sale $60.00

est.  $60.00

est. $25 - $50

est. $300 - $400

est. $300 - $400

$80.00

est. $25 - $50

unknown

for sale $40.00

for sale $80.00

est. $25 - $50

est. $25 - $50

est.  $25 - $50

unknown

for sale $350.00

unknown

for sale $50.00

est. $50 - $75

for sale $40.00

unknown

unknown

est. $200 - $300

for sale $30.00

  est. $50,00- $75.00

est. value $100.00

est. $25 - $50

unknown

disco

est. $100.00

unknown

est. $25 - $50

est. $25 - $50

unknown