George T. Simon

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George T. Simon ( George Thomas Simon ; born May 9, 1912 in New York City ; † February 13, 2001 ibid) was an American jazz author who dealt in particular with the history of big bands .

Live and act

Simon came from a wealthy family. His father was a hat maker, his older brother Richard Simon was a co-founder of the New York publishing house Simon & Schuster , and Carly Simon is his niece. Simon studied at Harvard University until 1934 , where he had his own band, and was from 1935 music critic and co-editor at Metronome , of which he was editor from 1939 to 1955. During this time he became one of the most influential critics of the swing era, who thanks to his many contacts had an intimate inside knowledge of the bands.

He also supported new currents such as bebop, whose influential advocate Barry Ulanov he brought to Metronome - Simon himself, however, remained focused on swing. Later he was a jazz critic for the New York Herald Tribune (1961–64) and the New York Post (1980/1). He also worked a lot for television in the 1950s (e.g. Timex Allstar Jazz Shows 1957/8). He became known for his monographs on the wedding of big bands, including The Big Bands in 1967, which received the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award in 1968. In 1956/7 he was associated with the record company Jazztone Records and worked as a consultant for RCA Victor, Capitol, Columbia and Warner, among others. He had his first experiences in the record industry as early as 1939 as a producer of the Metronome All-Star Sessions (most recently in 1953). From 1961 to 1972 he was Executive Director of the “ National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences ” (NARAS), which hosts the Grammies, and from 1958 to 1976 in the same function for its New York branch. For one of his many liner notes he received a Grammy in 1978 ( Bing Crosby - a legendary performer, RCA Victor). Simon was on the Advisory Board of the New York Jazz Festival. After suffering from Parkinson's disease for a long time , he died of pneumonia in New York.

Simon learned the piano in his youth and took drum lessons from Gene Krupa and Bill West. As a jazz drummer he was an early member (1937) of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, on which he wrote a standard work in 1974. He was friends with Glenn Miller , took part in the first recordings of the band and was also in Miller's band during the war, but stayed in the USA when the Army Airforce Band went to England (1944/5 he was a producer and writer for NBC, among others Radio Show For the Record ). He also wrote texts for Duke Ellington , among others , sometimes using the pseudonym Buck Pincus.

Publications

  • Doc Watson starts a band. New York, 1940.
  • Ralph Flanagan: The Bandleader. New York, 1950.
  • The feeling of jazz. Simon and Schuster, 1961.
  • The big bands. Simon and Schuster, 1967, 4th edition: Schirmer Books, 1981, ISBN 0028724305 .
  • The Sinatra Report. 1965 Billboard.
  • Simon says: The sights and sounds of the Swing Era 1935-1955. Arlington House, 1971.
  • Glenn Miller and his Orchestra. Thomas Crowell, New York 1974.
  • The Big Bands Song Book. Thomas Crowell, New York 1975.
  • The Best of the Music Makers. Doubleday, New York 1979.
  • The Big Bands Trivia Quiz Book. Barnes and Noble Books, 1985.

swell

  1. ↑ He also used this to make many swing bands accessible to US soldiers via the V-discs during the war, when there was otherwise a recording freeze. This included Clark Terry's first recording.
  2. ↑ Crosby himself chose him for the liner notes.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Simon, George T.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Simon, George Thomas (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz writer
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 2001
Place of death New York City