Label Guide: Calla

Calla Records was a small New York city soul label, founded and run by Nate McCalla in 1965. McCalla was an associate and bodyguard for Morris Levy who headed Roulette Records. The label's first album release, J.J. Jackson's "But It's Alright", was distributed by Cameo-Parkway and became an instant hit. For the next few albums, Calla Records became part of the Roulette group of labels but handled its own distribution for many releases.

From 1975 on, after a couple years of inactivity, Calla was briefly distributed by the obscure Shakat Records before CBS took over distribution for the albums. CBS also reissued several of the older Calla albums on its Epic subsidiary in the late 1970s.

Calla Records was closed when Nate McCalla suddenly disappeared to Europe. In 1980 he turned up again, in a rented house in Fort Lauderdale, dead of a gunshot wound to the back of his head, sitting in a lounge chair in front of a switched-on television. This execution-style murder was never resolved.