All about Touché Music...

We, that is, Laila and Charles Gavatin, have taken a great interest in jazz music since the '50s. In the early '80s we would listen to pianist Knud Jørgensen - a Dane by birth - and his companion, double bass player Bengt Hanson, as often as the chance occurred and our ordinary professions didn't place any obstacles in the way. In March 1983 the duo - well known as Knud & Bengt - had many gigs at the restaurant Maxim in Stockholm. One night Laila said: "A pianist of world class is playing only for us - no one else seems to care. Why don't we produce an album with this duo?" So we gathered information on how to proceed with the 'project', engaged an experienced technician, recorded for three nights, produced the LP 'Knud & Bengt at Maxim' and arranged for its release in 1983 on a well-known label in Stockholm.

Gradually we became aware of the fact that far too many musicians had to seek economic assistance from society to survive. It was sad for us to learn that even some of the most talented musicians were at the edge of poverty. They didn't have enough jobs and were many times poorly paid. In addition to that they were often paid in 'black' currency which meant social insecurity. Unfortunately we couldn't do much about it at that time, except for arranging jazz sessions now and then with various groups. In 1990, however, with a jazz session at hand, Laila suggested that we should start a foundation for jazz music and give a scholarship to Knud. And so it was. Laila and Charles Gavatin's Foundation for Jazz Music was established and Knud received the first scholarship. So Knud, an incarnation of a jazz musician, was the very person who inspired us to establish the foundation. We considered him as a brilliant musician, unjustly underrated, without enough means and thus deserving more attention and encouragement.

After having turned to a record company to release our first productions, we decided to have a company of our own to achieve better control of future productions. So in 1995 Touché Music was founded. The cooperation between Touché Music and the foundation implies that the foundation is a determining factor for the activities of Touché Music. This means not only to promote jazz music as such. It's also about encouraging jazz musicians and jazz artists in their ambitions to continue performing their music and thus maintain and develop it further.

So far the listeners, including the reviewers, have received Touché Music's productions very well. Here are a few quotations:
- "... a label which seems to choose its artists with a finely-tuned ear for quality from a group that gets no aid from media hype..." "Both high class jazz and superior sound engineering are achieved to full measure on the two recordings..."
- "... the small, selective label Touché ..."
- "Touché Music continues its ambitions to produce exciting jazz".
- "...the small but active company Touché." "The small company Touché Music continues its high class productions and gives us emotionally-charged music to love".
- "The idealists behind the jazz label Touché continue with a new successful production". "A new gem from the couple Laila and Charles Gavatin's jazz-idealistic record company Touché Music."
- "Touché Music is a very interesting label for jazz music".

Touché Music has planned to continue producing at least another four CDs each year to come. We will, of course, continue to maintain - and hopefully even enhance - our ambitions of offering our present and prospective customers CDs diligently produced, including superior jazz music performed by excellent musicians and artists, high-class sound, informative booklets with attractive layout and a high quality of printing. Our ambitions are due to our aim to strive primarily for the benefits of the musicians and artists. Should you appreciate their way of performing and buy their albums too, then it will not only serve as an encouragement to them but also improve Touché Music's possibilities to keep on supporting the music as well as the musicians and the artists.

Yours swingcerely,
Touché Music AB
Laila and Charles Gavatin

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