Music Week reports that Candid, the label that catapulted Jamie Cullum to wider prominence, has been sold by owners Alan and Nieves Bates. New owners are Exceleration Music helmed by Glen Barros soon to depart big US indie Concord Music Group. Barros told trade paper Variety: ''I find it very fitting that I begin this second act of my career the same way that I started the first one… with a great jazz label.”

Candid was established in 1960, and gems in the catalogue include We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite as well as key Stacey Kent, Jacqui Dankworth and Clare Teal releases. Alan Bates' Black Lion Productions bought the label and a new phase began in the 1990s.