1989

A LOVE STORY

Arbors Records was founded by Rachel and Mat Domber in 1989 to record and preserve the classic styles of jazz. 

Mat, an avid jazz fan and record collector since his pre-teens, along with the couple’s collective love of the music, led to first recording their friend, the outstanding reedman, singer and composer, Rick Fay, who had been in the music business for over 40 years, mostly as a performer at the Disney parks in California and Florida, but had never previously recorded.

Since the release of this epic recording, Rick Fay’s Hot Five: Live at Lone Pine, in 1990, Arbors Records has issued almost 450 CDs, featuring a venerable who’s who in jazz such as Ruby Braff, Dick Hyman, Kenny Davern, Bob Wilber, Harry Allen, Dan Barrett, Bob Haggart, Dave Frishberg, Rebecca Kilgore, Johnny Varro, Warren Vache, George Masso, Bucky Pizzarelli, Bobby Gordon, Jackie Coon, Nicki Parrott, Ed Metz, Adrian Cunningham, Diego Figueiredo and Jon-Erik Kellso to name only a few. 

New recording projects are still in production.

The label embraces traditional jazz and contemporary classic jazz and the swing styles of the ’30s, ’40s, ’50s and beyond. But regardless of style, all of the recordings have in common a love of melody, improvisation and swing.

Arbors Records’ website describes the rich history of recordings available. Although some will be out of print, most are available on your favorite streaming platforms and our new Spotify channel.

Music Video Distributors (MVD) is its exclusive distributor in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Rachel Domber - President/Executive Producer

Brian Wittman - Vice President/Producer