Chaikin Records, owned and operated by drummer Brian Chase, is dedicated to the intersection of musical language in its diversity. A particular emphasis is placed on rock, jazz, classical, and sound art, and the ways in which they overlap. Focusing further within these broad circles, championed are the communities of the avant-garde: musicians and music scenes happening at the forefront of the ever evolving dialogue of creative discourse and expression.

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The word ‘Chaikin' is Brian's familial surname before it was changed to ‘Chase' by his paternal grandfather. Brian's grandfather, Sidney Chaikin, came over to the USA from Kiev in the early 1920's as a result of the increasing unrest and antisemitism in that area during that time. Growing up in Brooklyn, Sidney Chaikin was an adept musician. He played the concertina (similar to an accordion but with buttons instead of a piano keyboard) and went to the Manhattan School of Music studying in their classical violin program as a concertinist. After serving in WWll he came back to NYC and started a career as an entertainer playing the concertina and leading pop-jazz bands (his previous classical music contacts were gone since returning from the war). It was in the late '40s that he started to use the stage name Ray Chase, and in the early '50s he changed his name legally from Chaikin to Chase.

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Chaikin Records logo design by Keti Kartvelli

Chaikin Records graphic and website design by Kevin Bud Jones

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