Joe Mares, Jr.

Founder of Southland Records and amateur jazz clarinetist, born August 20, 1908 in New Orleans, Louisiana. His regular job was running his family's fur and hide business in the French Quarter of New Orleans. A lover of the traditional style of New Orleans jazz, impressed with the many fine musicians still playing in the city, he would invite musicians to regular jam sessions in a back room of the business. Mares first arranged recording sessions that he sold to other labels in the 1940s, then decided to start his own label, Southland Records, in 1948. Younger brother of Paul Mares.