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- Ace Records -
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Johnny Vincent -
ACE RECORDS - Ace Records, Jackson, Mississippi, founded in 1955 by Johnny Vincent (1925 to 2000), was the most successful Mississippi-based
label of the 1950s and 1960s.
Ace’s extensive catalog of
blues, rhythm and blues, pop, rock, and soul included records by Mississippi blues artists Arthur Crudup, Sam Myers, King Edward, Pat Brown, and Willie Clayton, as well as hit singles by Louisiana singers Jimmy Clanton, Frankie Ford, Huey ''Piano''
Smith, and Earl King. Ace was based for many years on this block of West Capitol Street in Jackson.
JOHNNY VINCENT - born John Vincent Imbraguglio (later modified to Imbragulio) on October 3, 1925, became fascinated with the blues via the jukebox at his parents' restaurant in Laurel. After serving in the Merchant Marine he started his own jukebox business in Laurel, and in 1947 became a sales representative for a New Orleans record distributor.
In the late 1940s Vincent purchased Griffin Distributing Company in Jackson and operated both Griffin and a retail business, the Record Shop, at 241 North Farish Street.
Vincent started the Champion label in the early 1950s, issuing blues singles by Arthur ''Big Boy'' Crudup of Forest and Jackson musicians Joe Dyson and Bernard ''Bunny'' Williams. In 1953 Vincent signed on as a talent scout for Los Angeles-based
Specialty Records.
His most notable production for Specialty was ''The Things I Used to Do'', recorded in New Orleans by Guitar Slim, aka Eddie Jones, a native of Greenwood.
Featuring Ray Charles on piano, the song was one of the biggest
rhythm and blues hits of the 1950s. During his tenure with Specialty Vincent also supervised sessions by John Lee Hooker, Kenzie Moore, and others.
In 1955 Vincent started Ace, named after the Ace Combs brand. The label's first hit, ''Those Lonely, Lonely Nights'' by New Orleans bluesman Earl King, was recorded at Trumpet Records' Diamond Recording Studio at 309 North Farish Street. Ace became the first important regional label for New Orleans music, scoring national hits by Louisiana artists Huey Smith and the Clowns, ''Don't You Just
Know It'', Frankie Ford's ''Sea Cruise'', and Jimmy Clanton, a ''teen idol'' whose ''Just A Dream'' topped the rhythm and blues
charts in 1960.
Among the Ace artists who recorded either at the New Orleans studio of Cosimo Matassa or here in Jackson
in the 1950s and 1960s were Sam Myers, Joe Tex, Bobby Marchan, James Booker, Charles Brown, Joe Dyson, Lee Dorsey, Rufus McKay, Scotty McKay, Big Boy Myles, Tim Whitsett, and Mac Rebennack, later known as ''Dr. John''.
In 1962 Vincent signed a potentially lucrative distribution deal with Vee-Jay Records of Chicago, but that label's bankruptcy in 1966 was catastrophic for Ace. In the 1970s Vincent revamped Ace, making new recordings as well as repackaging old hits, but
had only limited success. He turned to various other enterprises, including a restaurant, but returned to the
record business with full force in the early 1990s, as he reoriented Ace to the contemporary soul-blues market with a roster that included Mississippi-born singers Cicero Blake, Robert ''The Duke'' Tillman, J. T. Watkins, Pat Brown, and Willie Clayton.
The latter pair had success with the duet ''Equal Opportunity''. In 1997 Vincent
sold Ace to the British firm Music Collection International but started a new label, Avanti, and continued to
record soul-blues artists. Vincent died on February 4, 2000 on heart failure.