In late 1985, MCA Records offered basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar his own jazz imprint, Cranberry Records. Unfortunately, the label never got off the ground. What follows is a documentation of the label’s short life as told through primary sources:
Billboard, December 28, 1985, p. 71
Billboard, February 15, 1986, p. 56
Billboard, February 22, 1986, p. 52
Billboard, March 22, 1986, p. 60
Rolling Stone, April 10, 1986, p. 17
Billboard, March 21, 1987, p. 31
Down Beat, April 1987, p. 13
Billboard, April 4, 1987, p. 33
Billboard, May 16, 1987, p. 66
Billboard, July 4, 1987, p. 31
Billboard, March 5, 1988, p. 59
Ben Sidran interviews Kareem Abdul-Jabbar about jazz. Conversation about Cranberry begins about 6 minutes in:
KAREEM ABDUL JABBAR TALKING JAZZ
