Don Schlitten profile

American jazz record producer.

Schlitten founded the label Signal Records in 1955 alongside Harold Goldberg and Jules Colomby. His credits for Signal included work with Duke Jordan, Gigi Gryce, and Red Rodney. Signal was sold to Savoy Records in the late 1950s, and after this Schlitten worked as a freelance producer through the 1960s, including at Prestige Records. He and Joe Fields co-founded Cobblestone Records in 1972, producing Sonny Stitt and the Newport Jazz Festival 1972 releases from the label. He and Fields also worked together at Muse Records and Onyx Records.

Fields and Schlitten ceased working together in the mid-1970s; Fields continued at Muse, and Schlitten founded Xanadu Records, where he produced Barry Harris, Al Cohn, Charles McPherson, and many others. He also oversaw the reissue of many early bebop sessions.

Aside from production work, Schlitten had extensive credits as a writer of liner notes and a photographer.