ALL THAT JAZZ: Walter Yetnikoff and Mo...

ALL THAT JAZZ: Walter Yetnikoff and Mo Ostin may have sunk a few jump shots in their day, but there’s only one record exec who’s won four NBA championships, three NCAA titles and scored nearly 34,000 lifetime NBA points. That, of course, is Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who has signed a three-year contract with MCA Records to found his own jazz label. Called Cranberry Records, the label will give Abdul-Jabbar the opportunity to sign at least two new jazz acts each year as well as oversee re-issues of a host of jazz and blues records now in MCA’s catalogue.

“My primary focus is to find new talent as well as perhaps attract established artists that might be interested in joining the label,” Abdul-Jabbar explained, calling from the locker room at Madison Square Garden, where he was preparing to play the Knicks. “I’ll be doing a lot of my own A&R; work--listening to tapes and seeing artists in person, whenever I have the opportunity.

“We have pretty modest aims for now. I don’t have to go out and burn down the music industry. We’d just like to be respectable.”

Abdul-Jabbar, a longtime jazz connoisseur and collector, said he also plans to continue his involvement in promoting jazz shows, booking his new acts in festivals both here and abroad. “Obviously, jazz hasn’t done so well in America over the past years, but in the rest of the world, particularly Europe, Japan and South America, jazz is incredibly popular. I think the problem in America has been a mixture of indifference, racism and economics. Jazz has always lived in the shadows here.

“I’d like to do something that might begin to change that. Somewhere out there, there’s probably another Branford Marsalis or Stanley Jordan who hasn’t been discovered yet, so I’m hoping we can find them and bring that music to light.”