Jim West: Jazzin' Justin Time's 40th & Best Industry Advice - Part One

In the Zen

By Kerilie McDowall
©2024 Kerilie McDowall - All Rights Reserved.

Image by Daniel Gagné courtesy of Radio Quebec,1986.

In the Zen asked, "When does a music producer get labelled serious?"

Answer: When your record label keeps fostering the best music talent for over four decades, hitting the mark for a standing “Bravo!" ovation.

Add to the mix the celebrating and finalizing of an inspirational milestone 40th special label anniversary, and indeed this confirms a "serious" accomplishment.

It's no secret that the industry and press accolades have been flowing in with comments like, "Oh my gosh," after a tally estimate of over 600 wonderful Justin Time Records albums released with Montreal, Canada's Jim West, at the helm as CEO-producer.

The label has been history-making with sensational Canadian and international music talent and the excitement is abuzz with their latest artist roster. The Canadian label is brimming over with exceptionally gifted jazz, gospel, and blues artists.

To celebrate, the label has crafted a compilation, 40 Years of Justin Time Records (Justin Time, 2023), featuring forty essential listens from Justin Time Records Inc. tracks from the years of its diverse history and ranging forward to the label's current star Canadian and American artists.

Owner of Canada's Justin Time Records, the multi-award-winning West, has been bringing stellar wonderful top performers from the Canadian music scene to the global stage since 1983 for almost half a century, and that's some heavyweight "cred."

As no stranger to the music industry, West began his career in the '70s as a roadie for Mahogany Rush.

Asked about his start, West says, "Mahogany Rush was the group that I worked for. I was basically one of the roadies and then the road manager for a while. I've kept in touch with Frank Marino the guitarist, songwriter, and leader of the group. He's been a very good friend and of course a super talent."

Photo by Louis-Marie Philidor courtesy of Duke Eatmon.

Flashing it forward to 1983, the producer founded Justin Time Records after being inspired at a jazz club in Montreal by the celebrated jazz legend, pianist, and composer/arranger Oliver Jones. Forty years ago, Canada's treasured pianist-composer Oliver Jones was the first chosen to perform on the first inaugural Justin Time Records release with the producer-owner West.

"The first show as a producer that I saw was the Oliver Jones trio playing this little club in Montreal called Biddle's Jazz and Ribs. And the house was packed, it was a wonderful thing to see. Everyone enjoyed the show and all different age groups, I might add. Because of that, I said, ‘This is great, we should make a record out of this.’

Now, bear in mind that I had been involved in from the early 70s going on the road with a group. So I had that experience, and then I went into retail and helped set up a large record retailer in Montreal. And then I went into a distribution company in Montreal that sold albums to all the other record retailers.

So I had this other experience that led me to say, ‘Well, you know, it can't be that difficult making a record.’ (Laughs.) Little did I know," says the producer West.

Past Blast: Oliver Jones Live at Justin Time Records’ 25th Anniversary Concert 2008

"I started in the distribution business because I had a distributor in Montreal that closed their doors, and they asked me to stay on to close them down officially. And when I did, my severance pay was records, LPs, record racks, etc. So I set up a warehouse and started distributing records."

West has not looked back. In the Zen discovered that the producer with a giving heart has been compassionately and more quietly involved with local Montreal charity work on his community hockey team, assisting two hospitals in fundraising for sick children.

West has been enjoying career-related travel working with Canada's top jazz, blues, and gospel artists and he is grateful for the wonderful experiences with his numerous (over 600+) recordings. He has been supportive of jazz/blues/gospel's greatest artists as a producer for almost half a century.

Both Jim West, CM, and Oliver Jones, OC, QC, now have been honoured by the Order of Canada, Canada's highest honour to its most notably gifted citizens.

Justin Time Records became a hub home to many exciting and elite performers including the multi-award-winning late legendary pianist great eight-time Grammy winner Oscar Peterson, multi-award Grammy and JUNO winner and best-selling 15 million + star jazz pianist/vocalist Diana Krall, prestigious Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award winner and accomplished Order of Canada member, vocalist Ranee Lee, multi-JUNO Award-winning composer Christine Jensen, the multi-award-winning Dr. Trevor W. Payne, CM, Director of the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir, and lists of others.

Included are other shining bright stars like Kenny Wheeler, Sonny Greenwich, Paul Bley, Kenny Werner, John Stetch, Carol Welsman, Brandi Disterheft, Lorraine Klaasen, David Murray, Halie Loren, and many hundreds more Canadian and internationally known artists.

West has been working closely with the Nettwerk Music Group in recent years, deferring more of the details of his industry work to them as he approaches retirement.

The producer West imparts important insight, jazz stories, and valuable music industry tips in the following interview with writer and jazz guitarist/filmmaker Kerilie McDowall. Fascinated and inspired by West's work, McDowall invited him to chat by phone for an interview.

In the Zen: Jim it is a pleasure to meet you, and what a phenomenal career you have had. Let's focus on where it started first. It is common knowledge that Oliver Jones and his swinging piano sounds helped spark Justin Time Records in the beginning. How did "Blues for Helene," become your first track for your special 40th Anniversary Collection Justin Time Records compilation?

Jim West : There were so many originals to choose from. I wanted something that Oliver wrote that was bluesy, and swings, and we have it all in that tune. Being the first artist signed to the label he deserves the first spot.

I got started with recording the Oliver Jones trio, and then, subsequently, Oliver would recommend somebody and say, 'You know, there is this great, great vocalist, by the name of Ranee Lee.' Then Oliver of course, played organ in the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir which was founded and directed by Trevor Payne. I did a deal with Trevor and we recorded 10 or 12 albums... It was great.

ITZ: Those are fantastic artist choices, who was your favourite mentor initially?

JW: I would have to say that it was Matthias Winckelmann (1941-2022) owner of Enja Records from Munich, Germany, who passed on recently. If my memory serves me right, we met in 1984/5 and it was Matthias who helped launch the careers of a number of the artists on our label through a reciprocal licensing deal we had. One of those [as I had mentioned] was the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir founded and directed by Dr. Trevor W. Payne CM. We ended up doing three tours of Europe with a group of 50+ singers. That was quite the undertaking.

ITZ: That sounds transcendental, and Enja has been strong, you and Winckelmann must have bounced ideas off one another as you produced those talented artists. As we discuss Justin Time Records' anniversary and the accompanying release, everyone wants to know a little about your secret.

Somehow, despite being in the smaller ever changing Canadian music market, you have released over 600 albums and kept it going for over four decades. Did Matthias and other mentors or colleagues inspire you and pass along wisdom, and was your work largely self-driven or did you enjoy collaborating often with others?

JW: It's a big world out there and you need to market your productions not just within Canada but in other major music markets around the globe: Germany, France, Italy, the UK, Japan, and others. Our productions were often self-driven, but we almost always had a consensus around the table before proceeding. Often, we knew the audience would be limited, but if this was an important artist in our community we would charge ahead.

ITZ: So you fly out to the studios and you oversee things is that basically what you do?

JW: Depends on what the session is. When I recorded someone like Oscar Peterson and Dave Young, I was not going to say a word. You know, they're two great players and what am I going to contribute?

I remember I may have mentioned this to you before. Orrin Keepnews was a producer of many of the Milestone Records recordings and he produced a lot of sessions over the years. I remember reading a quote from him, saying, 'What do I do as a producer? I create a great atmosphere and let them do what they do.'

And that's what I tried to do over the years. Just create an atmosphere, make it fun, make it light, and make everybody comfortable. And then they'd perform. And it was simple like that.

ITZ: You have won several prestigious awards, tell us about that, for example, the Order of Canada.

JW: Receiving the Order of Canada, was a shock, in many ways, in both shape and form. And it felt just so good, you know. It's a feeling of accomplishment, not by what you've done, but by what other people feel you've done and contributed. So that felt great to me. Many of my musician friends, like Oliver Jones, Ranee Lee, and Trevor Payne, on and on and on that I know, received the Order of Canada. And I just felt great to receive that.

ITZ: You have also won many other honours. In 2001 you were awarded as Producer of the Year by the National Jazz Awards. In 2004 it was the Canadian Music Week's Hall of Fame. In 2016, The Festival International de Jazz de Montréal presented you with The Bruce Lundvall Award, an award given to a recipient in the media or music industry who has made a significant contribution to the development of jazz. In 2018 you were presented with the Canadian Independent Music Association's (CIMA) Industry Builder Award.

There were even other awards. And you have never talked much about it, but it has been extensive. Over the years, it is estimated that your artists received approximately 14 JUNO Awards with numerous nominations from their Justin Time Records releases. There were other awards. Which stood out to you?

JW: They all stand out —they are all special! A few years ago when they had the Jazz Report Awards, we received many of those. Another great one, of course, was the Montreal Jazz Festival. I got to receive the Bruce Lundvall Award, which was really a lot of fun. And they give it out every couple of years to somebody in the industry who has made an impact. It's usually in the course of the jazz festival. The awards all go to artists and they have this one award that goes to somebody who's contributed in another way. And that was very special to me.

I am very happy for any of our artists that have received a JUNO Award. It's a culmination of all their great work—often years of blood, sweat, and tears —and to be recognized for it amongst your peers is a wonderful feeling.

ITZ: How many projects do you take on a year and what aspects of marketing have contributed to your success?

JW: Project-wise we take on a lot fewer now than we used to. I would say 8-10 a year at this point. Tried and true touring is always an excellent way to promote oneself and of course, the latest project that is available. I think that you have to hit the basics: radio, press, basically all media and today social media is of course most important.

ITZ: What are record producers like yourself looking for when considering recording a brand new artist?

JW: You need to have the goods i.e., the talent. You need to know your audience and who you are catering to and be willing to work at fan development and all that this entails. You need to be willing to put the work in.

It's a whole new world now for us when they are talking about newer artists or new releases because things are approached so differently now than they were a few years back.

When we used to do album launches, we would do big album launches and rent out a club and have food and drink for everybody. That's not done anymore, and singles come out. And there's a number of singles, even in the jazz world, you know, you cut two or three singles first and then put the record out. So it feels a lot different.

There's no age group per se. Probably a majority of our signings on the label were jazz folks from an older generation, not young players, but that never really entered my mind. I just look for something good, unique, and fun to do; just with some direction, some ability to take that, what we record, and market it somehow and try and figure out those things in advance and say, 'What can we do with this?' Even though I haven't even heard it yet? What was the deal with this group of artists? Are they playing together and touring? In a group? How many gigs do they play? Where are they, you know that type of thing? And it just all adds up to yes or no at the very end.

Photo credit: James St. Laurent.

What I enjoy most about working with musicians is what they come up with; the ability for them to generally work with many improvisers. If you look at the World Saxophone Quartet or David Murray, they can just latch on to it and just take something into the stratosphere. And I really enjoyed that. It's fresh, and it's new.

I enjoy the standards as well don't get me wrong, but it's really beautiful to hear something in a different approach, a different way of doing things. And I mentioned those artists because I know them fairly well. And we did probably 20 Records between the World Sax Quartet and David Murray. They're just so good. It's just amazing to be in the studio, and listening to them play. It's just extremely special. An artist like Billy Bang... we did some beautiful recordings of Billy and they are just very special.

ITZ: It's easy to feel sorry for touring artists who are travelling in a different city each day of their tour, an impossibly exhausting endeavour. Being an artist is indeed work. Do some of your artists like to stay close to the studio without touring?

JW: I think most of them would like to tour. It isn't that easy to tour and break even these days in the jazz genre so you have to be very careful where you spend your money (perhaps an air BnB for four instead of four hotel rooms as an example).

ITZ: The market has changed as the times have changed and the recording formats have evolved, too. How have you managed to keep up with the markets and technologies over the decades as they transition, evolve, and change? Did you have an organized strategy for that, or was it intuition and self-education-derived?

JW: Well quite honestly, we never led the market in any way... I've never owned a studio. I don't want to own a studio. It's major, you have to really be in that business and do it full-time. No, I rented studios, and I did a lot of things in New York and a lot of things in Montreal, a few things in Toronto and Vancouver. So when you move [around like that], it didn't pay for me to have my own studio.

We simply followed the best we could and changed with the times. From albums and cassettes to CDs to digital and back to some vinyl. The channels of distribution have changed. Perhaps being in the jazz world where the change was a little slower to take effect was helpful to us.

Well, I guess it's going to sound crazy, but it was a little easier years ago, to make $1 at the business because you sold physical goods; be it an album, a cassette, or whatever. Record companies would make a little bit more money, the artists would make good money too.

Today we're dealing in the digital world. And a lot of that is micro-payments from around the world, which is still good, don't get me wrong. But there are a lot of complaints about what's paid out and what isn't. I mean, we're not going to change the world at Justin Time Records I can tell you. But there are a few major corporations that lead the way. And we just follow suit, I can't change that.

There have been some cases where the recordings were ridiculously expensive. And none of us would ever see a cent from that. We've recorded a number of records in the past where I knew we wouldn't sell more than 10 copies. To be quite honest with you, I just knew it, but certain artists had to be documented in some way, shape, or form. And I'm glad we did them.

I have a lot of great memories. Each one of those recordings is like a child. It's like one of your own kids. I think of it that way in my mind. And you think about the approach and what was done and you care for that record afterward, you want to make sure it's given its special place in the world. That's important to me. Most, I would say, 99% of the recordings we did mean something to me.

ITZ: Your label is representative of jazz as the tradition and the new, from flashes to the past to the modern. The return of vinyl is again in fashion, and the sound is so warm. Why did you like the idea of throwing a label celebration for your 40th-anniversary compilation?

JW: Well, we used to do launch parties years ago for an album release and we haven't done one in a while. This was a way to bring everyone together from the current roster and have a big party over five nights.

In fact, it wasn't just the current roster. Oliver Jones attended and Ranee Lee performed. What a treat that was.

Past Blast: Violinist Billy Bang Performs at Justin Time Records’ 25th Anniversary Concert, 2008

ITZ: That sounds divine, what a celebration that must have been. For the 40th anniversary release, how did you choose 40 tracks from 40 artists for each out of a total of 6000+?

JW: Well yes, we did celebrate our 40th anniversary this year. And our general manager, Nancy Marley and I were thinking about what we could do to celebrate that fact. And so the first thing you can do is put a compilation together. Which we did. And that was a lot. It was a lot of work, as you're looking at 600 recordings, basically, over 6000 songs, and trying to whittle it down to 40 songs. So you have to think of it that way.

It is difficult as it has to flow, as well. You select the 40 artists and then go through their catalogue. Don't forget Oliver Jones has about 22 albums to choose from, which became a little more difficult than choosing a Diane Krall song with only one album on our label.

ITZ: Honestly it must have been tough choosing from 600 releases. You could do 14 more additional albums with 40 tracks each of other artists if you felt like it... Was this put together by yourself as the producer, or did you consult with anyone for feedback or thoughts?

JW: I had fun doing that and often consulted with our longtime general manager, Nancy Marley. I'm sure we missed somebody out, but I had to keep it at 40 because that was the number. And so anyway, that was done. And we went through it a few times.

Courtesy of Justin Time Records.

It also has to not just be 40 songs, but it has to follow suit to some degree and you can't have six up tempos in a row and five ballads all in a row. You think about what's vocal, what's non-vocal, instrumentation, big band, little band, all those different things. And so that has to come into play when you're compiling it.

That compilation recording was fun, but we also wanted to do a live component. We did and we spoke to the owner of the Upstairs Jazz Club in Montreal, and we said that we'd like to spread this out over five nights and do two bands per night. We did, and we had 10 groups play. And it was a great opportunity to showcase some of the newer acts that we had signed.

But we also had Oliver Jones who came and was in the audience. He's retired now. So he doesn't play anymore at all, but he was there and showed up. And Ranee Lee sang and she wouldn't get off the stage. She sang for a couple of hours straight. So it was a lot of fun. Really a lot of fun.

ITZ: You must have many interesting stories historically, as your roster of artists is extensive. Some of the favorites on your Justin Time Records label's 40th-anniversary release include multi-award-winning pianists like Oscar Peterson, Diana Krall, and John Stetch, who we should discuss. A jazz hero comes to mind. Many musicians refer to him as, "OP." What are your thoughts on working with the late jazz icon, pianist Oscar Peterson, and how did that originally come about?

Cover photo image: Nancy Marley, Jim West, CM, Diana Krall, OC, OBC, Jean-Pierre Leduc, Nadine Campbell. Courtesy of Justin Time Records.

Continued… Subscribe to In the Zen to read the latest articles and the upcoming “Jim West: Jazzin' Justin Time's 40th & Best Industry Advice,” - Part Two & Three.

More about the author Canadian jazz guitarist/13x award-winning TV movie Director/jazz radio host, and jazz writer (DownBeat 2016-2020) Kerilie McDowall is available online at In the Zen blog and the Canadian Online Guitar Lessons website on beehiiv. Enjoy McDowall's jazz and creative music interviews, stories, and seasonal lifestyle articles, and learn more about her music, and creative and music services. Want to read more? Subscribe to Kerilie’s interviews and articles here. CONTACT Kerilie McDowall here.

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