François Zalacain

Who is François Zalacain?

François Zalacain is a record producer and the founder of Sunnyside Records. Sunnyside Records took the top spot in the 2011 DownBeat Critics Poll.

A girl in a sailor dress skips rope. She's pretty, she's free, she's having fun. She's the logo for Sunnyside Records. Founder Francois Zalacain's friend Chris Coffey discovered her on a rubber stamp in a Greenwich Village shop in 1980. “It says everything we want to say. Music is about bouncing, dancing. And my wife liked it.”

With no binding contracts, no specific mission, and an acceptance of any jazz style, Sunnyside is a relaxed independent label. We simply release music that we like, from a flirtatious disc of boleros from Spanish singer Martirio, to an eloquent disc from pianist Laurent Coq. We also license albums from European labels that otherwise would not be available in the United States.

Zalacain started the company in 1982 after a career at IBM. He met pianist Harold Danko one night at the Village Vanguard and a friendship ensued. When Danko had the idea to make a duo disc with bassist Rufus Reid, Zalacain rented Penthouse Recordings studio overlooking the East river and recorded the album. Soon after he recorded Kirk Lightsey playing solo piano. A Lee Konitz album followed, and without meaning to, Zalacain had established a record label. Two decades later, hundreds of CDs make up Sunnyside's catalog.