Nimbus West Records

The short version

Tom Albach started the label, first called Nimbus, in 1978 after hearing tapes of Horace Tapscott's Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. The band had not made a record in its sixteen years. Albach's rule was to put up the money and let the musicians do what they wanted. Time limits were never mentioned. The "West" was added in the 1990s after a British label of the same name objected.

Horace Tapscott at the piano, Los Angeles, 1986. Photo by David Becker, Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The records

• Flight 17 and The Call. The Arkestra, recorded in April 1978 at United Western Recorders in Los Angeles. Flight 17 on Bandcamp. The Call on Bandcamp.
• Live at I.U.C.C. A double album from 1979, taken from concerts at a church in south central Los Angeles. Listen on Bandcamp.
• Tapscott solo. From 1982 to 1985 Albach recorded Tapscott solo at the Lobero Theatre, often between 2 and 4 a.m. He considered it his best work.

Watch

Our short on how Nimbus started: "A Fan Started a Record Label on a Handshake". And the full documentary on Tapscott and the Arkestra:

Where to start

Start with The Call or Live at I.U.C.C. for the full Arkestra. Go to the solo piano records after.

Why it is rare

First pressings were 500 or 1,000 copies, and many took twenty years or more to sell out. Albach said the label was "financially, a disaster." That is why the original LPs are hard to find. Much of the catalog is on the label's Bandcamp.

Sources

• Analog Planet: Horace Tapscott, Tom Albach and the Story of Nimbus West Records
• Analog Planet, Part 2
• Nimbus West Records: About

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