Nimbus Records was founded in 1978 by entrepreneur Tom Albach with the intention to record the music of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, Horace Tapscott and members of the Union of God's Musicians and Artists Ascension (UGMAA). UGMAA and the Arkestra were founded by Los Angeles-based jazz pianist Tapscott in 1961, and the Arkestra itself went unrecorded for almost 20 years.
Nimbus was based in Los Angeles until 1985/87 when Tom Albach moved to Amsterdam in the Netherlands and started recording European artists. The label name changed to Nimbus West around 1984, and this incarnation of the label still exists today.