‘King of Them All: The Story of King Records’ Doc Tells Improbable Tale of Scrappy Cincinnati Label That Birthed Rock n’ Roll

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is successful Cleveland. But arsenic immoderate Cincinnatian volition archer you, it was astir built astir 4 hours down the roadworthy successful the Queen City — astatine which point, if they’re existent euphony nerds, they volition besides explicate to you wherefore their location municipality is the existent birthplace of stone n’ roll. If you’re not aware, conscionable inquire filmmaker/musician Yemi Oyediran, who has poured astir a decennary of blood, sweat and tears into the caller documentary King of Them All: The Story of King Records.

The 75-minute movie that debuted connected PBS connected Oct. 10 — and which tin present beryllium streamed connected PBS.org and the PBS app — is a heavy dive into the communicative of the scrappy statement founded by Syd Nathan successful Cincinnati successful 1943, arsenic a spot to grounds “hillbilly” state and occidental players specified arsenic Cowboy Copas and the Delmore Brothers, earlier it stumbled into past arsenic the birthplace of rock, arsenic good arsenic funk.

Using a substance of modern and archival interviews and footage, and period-appropriate rotoscope animated bits, Oyediran describes however Nathan’s one-stop signaling store and printing works would interruption barriers by bringing unneurotic Black and achromatic musicians successful the studio. King Records would yet grow to merchandise jazz, blues and R&B albums and singles by the likes of James Brown, Otis Williams, Hank Ballard and Little Willie John.

Oyediran, who was calved successful New York and spent his puerility successful Nigeria — where helium unwittingly got his archetypal sensation of King euphony via his grandmother’s bootleg copies of singles from the affiliated statement Federal Records — says he’s not the lone 1 making the lawsuit for Cincinnati to beryllium fixed its props arsenic the birthplace for rock. “I bash deliberation Cincinnati deserves that recognition — and it’s not conscionable maine saying that, it’s Vince Gill and Christian McBride, who hold with that,” helium says of the state and jazz legends (respectively) who look successful the film.

He describes speaking to McBride astir the interaction King had connected his ain music, and however the nine-time Grammy-winning jazz composer and performer proved that helium tin “go deep” connected the King catalog successful the aforesaid mode Gill tin spell connected for hours astir each the state acts you’re astir apt ne'er heard of who recorded for the label. “He knows each the licks and each the King records by heart,” Oyediran says of Gill, who appears successful the movie alongside Afghan Whigs bassist/co-Founder and Cincinnati autochthonal John Curley and different salient locals, including erstwhile quality anchor (and begetter of George) Nick Clooney.

In the film, erstwhile Warner Records VP Seymour Stein recalls statement laminitis Nathan being “larger than beingness successful each way,” saying his brag was similar cipher he’d ever met before… oregon since. Ninth people drop-out Nathan is described arsenic a benignant of Mad Libs representation of an aged schoolhouse euphony man: dense acceptable and possessed of a a gruff voice, his look framed by oversized glasses and an ever-present abdominous cigar and, due to the fact that helium was blind, a “scary” fig down the instrumentality according to Stein, who interned astatine King arsenic a precocious schoolhouse pupil successful 1957-1958 earlier taking a gig determination from 1961-1963.

After moving successful a pawn store and arsenic a wrestling promoter, Nathan opened a photography store successful downtown Cincinnati that yet turned into Syd’s Record Shop aft a lawsuit dropped disconnected immoderate jukeboxes helium was looking to get escaped of. Aided by section AM powerhouse presumption WLW’s “Midwestern Hayride” show, which brought a batch of state acts to town, Nathan got to cognize a fig of musicians erstwhile they stopped by the store to flip done records looking for songs they mightiness record.

Because wartime rationing made it hard to find shellac to property LPs, Nathan decided to unfastened his ain pressing plant, which led to the label’s archetypal pressing, 1946’s “Filipino Baby” by Cowboy Copas. After gathering an accompanying recordin...