American label specializing in compilations of rare 78 rpm recordings of country blues musicians made in the 1920s. As of 2015 also issuing new recordings by current artists.
Founded by Nick Perls in 1967 as Belzona Records, the first five releases (L 1001 up to L 1005) were issued under that name. Renamed Yazoo in 1968, with the first five releases reissued under that new name (the original pressing of L 1006 used both label names).
In 1968, the address was 390 East 8th Street, New York, New York 10009 and Releases L-1001 to L-1010 were available. This address corresponds widely with the black label design.
Later, the address was 9 West 20th St. New York, N.Y. 10011, then 54 King Street, New York, N.Y. 10014, mostly corresponding with the red label design. Blue and purple labels were also used in this period. Next was 245 Waverly Place, New York, NY 10014 (mostly red labels) and the final Newton, NJ address indicates 1987 or later (the Shanachie era), releases with multicolored labels.
The Belzona/Yazoo label-design (an art deco peacock) has been adapted from the 1927 Black Patti label.
Original parent companies were Yazoo Records Inc. and Yazoo Records Corp. Yazoo was acquired by Shanachie Records Corp. in 1987, who kept the Yazoo name and also began using the label/company names Yazoo Records and Yazoo Video. In 2015, they also began to issue new recordings by contemporary artists.