In the epoch when jazz and the blues were becoming America’s fastest-rising, most forward-looking musical genres, Edison Records produced far fewer jazz or blues titles than competitors like Columbia and Okeh. Although the phonograph is one of Thomas Edison’s most famous inventions, when it came to the actual music that he personally selected for release on his record label’s cylinders and flat discs in the early 20th century, he wasn’t as innovative as the medium itself.
