Äva Records
- Founded
- 1961
- Headquarters
- United States
In this article
Key facts
• Name — Äva Records
• Founded — 1961
• Founder — Fred Astaire, Elmer Bernstein, Jackie Mills, Tommy Wolf
• Defunct — 1965
• Status — Defunct
• Distributor — MGM Records
• Genre — Jazz, pop, soundtracks
• Country — U.S.
• Location — Los Angeles, California
Äva Records was a short-lived American record company and label founded in 1961 by Fred Astaire, Elmer Bernstein, Jackie Mills, and Tommy Wolf. The original name was Choreo Records, but it was changed in 1962 to Äva Records, after Astaire's daughter, to avoid a conflict with Choreo Records in Dallas, Texas. Astaire was president, Mills vice-president.
Mills was the producer for jazz albums that included Victor Feldman, Muggsy Spanier, and Ben Tucker.
In June 1964, Astaire sold his 62% stock interests. Hermes Pan, a shareholder, sold his stock to Glen Costin, a realtor in Texas, and Costin became the label's president.
From September 1961 to August 1964, the labels were distributed by MGM Records. Äva folded in March 1965, with Astaire owning the masters. Mills was president when it folded. The label's catalogue included Elmer Bernstein, Herbie Steward, Pete Jolly, John Neel, and The Charades.
According to Billboard, Costin sold Äva to Charles Jourdan, acting as a representative of a European syndicate.
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- United States
Named but not plotted · 1
Äva Records is associated with United States.
Country
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Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Äva Records, revision 1294272802 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record.
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Gardner, Mark. The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, vol. 1. Grove's Dictionaries Inc. 94. 2002. 1561592846.
- 2."Ava Folds; Mills Joins M-T Records", Billboard, Marcy 27, 1965, p. 40
- 3.ÄVA: US Label and Company Sleeve 1963–1965, edited by Franz Zeleny, Austria, posted at (online blog & label database) (accessed 3 June 2013)
- 4."Ava Sold to European Group,", Billboard, May 15, 1965, p. 4
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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