Soon after the Bihari brothers started leasing jukeboxes in black neighborhoods of Los Angeles in the early 1940s, they realized they had a problem. While their business had a solid distribution network of stores, bars and restaurants, they could not find enough records to play in their machines.

In 1945 they came up with a solution. Jules, Saul and Joe Bihari created Modern Music Records.

Using the same manufacturing space and distribution network that they used to service and deliver jukeboxes, the brothers built Modern Records (to which the name was shortened in 1948) into a force among labels that recorded black music. Along with Chess, Specialty and other relatively small labels, Modern recorded, pressed and distributed some of the most influential blues and rhythm and blues records of the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s.

All three brothers helped Modern find new artists. But Joe, who was the last surviving sibling when he died on Nov. 28 at 88, made the search his specialty, scouring juke joints and radio stations across the country, especially the South, to find promising new acts. In its early years, Modern, which also bought master recordings from other small labels, released some of the first widely distributed recordings of blues legends including Elmore James, John Lee Hooker, Etta James and Johnny (Guitar) Watson.

Most notably, the company helped make B. B. King a star.

Joe Bihari first recorded Mr. King in Memphis in 1951. Modern had recently severed ties with Sam Phillips, whose Sun Records studio in Memphis they had sometimes used, so Mr. Bihari created a makeshift studio at the local black Y.M.C.A. The session included one of the Biharis’ best talent scouts on piano, a young musician named Ike Turner. The first record released from that session became Mr. King’s first hit, his version of “3 O’Clock Blues.”