Notable artists who recorded for Dial include Charlie Parker, who signed an exclusive one-year recording contract with Russell on 26 February 1946,[1] as well as Miles Davis, Max Roach, and Milt Jackson.

In the summer of 1949, Ross Russell announced a change of focus, with the label turning to the release of classical music by contemporary composers.

[2] This series, titled the Library of Contemporary Classics, was inspired when Russell obtained the master tape of a recording of Arnold Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No.

1 from Blue Star Records in Paris, in lieu of payment for a number of Dial jazz masters for European distribution.

[3] Russell's interests shifted focus again in 1953, when he made field recordings of calypso music in the British, French, and Netherlands West Indies.