Morris Levy

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Morris Levy (Moishe Levy; born August 27, 1927 in New York ; † May 21, 1990 in Ghent (New York) ) was active in the American music and entertainment industry and was best known for his services to the jazz club Birdland and participation in record companies such as Roulette Records .

biography

After serving in the Navy, Levy became interested in the New York entertainment scene and bought a few nightclubs in Manhattan . Among them was the later world-famous jazz club "Birdland", which began on December 15, 1949 and was originally located at No. 1678 Broadway, north of West 52nd Street in Manhattan. In the same year Levy took over the "Birdland" from Joseph "Joe the Wop" Catalano. During that time, Levy had to make sure that the interpreted and copyrighted pieces were registered and paid for with the Performing Rights Society when performing live. In the process, he learned a lot about copyright issues and the value of copyrights . With this knowledge he founded his first music publisher Patricia Music and induced the band leader George Shearing to write a signature song for the Birdland Jazzclub. The result was the now classic " Lullaby of Birdland " - of course published by Patricia Music.

All the important interpreters of jazz and rhythm and blues performed in "Birdland" , which made the club more and more attractive to the public and became Levy's most important source of income. When disc jockey Alan Freed presented his "Rock 'n' Roll Party" for the first time on New York radio station WINS in September 1954, Levy was there again and had the expression " Rock 'n' Roll " protected by copyright. Levy subsequently also acted as a promoter of the rock 'n' roll shows organized by Alan Freed at New York's Paramount Theater (Brooklyn).

When the already famous record label boss George Goldner approached Levy in December 1956 in order to obtain funding for the newly founded record label Roulette Records , Levy seized the opportunity to act as co-founder. Together with Joe Kolsky and Phil Khals, they helped the financially weak Goldner found the company. Now Levy had the ideal opportunity to enforce the illegal business practice of copyright registration, even though he had not made any intellectual contribution to the creation of a work. Examples include " Why Do Fools Fall In Love ", written by singer Frankie Lymon alone, "Ya-Ya" by Lee Dorsey , " My Boy Lollipop " by Millie and "California Sun" by the Rivieras . According to the BMI , 339 compositions are registered for Morris Levy, but it is very questionable whether he made any intellectual contributions to the creation of these compositions. The number of titles reached the order of magnitude of professional authors of the time, whose activity was limited to composing.

In March 1957, George Goldner had to sell more labels out of financial difficulties, Levy bought them and became one of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the record business in New York. He soon owned a large number of record presses, tape duplicators, and a chain of record stores.

At the beginning of 1973 Levy led a widely acclaimed lawsuit against John Lennon for allegedly illegally adapting a text passage from Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me" for the Beatles hit " Come Together " . The out-of-court settlement of October 12, 1973 stipulated that Lennon should take over three songs from Levy's music catalog for his next LP. In 1979 Levy emerged as the main financier of the rap- specializing label Sugar Hill Records, which in November 1979 released the Sugarhill Gang 's first top 40 rap single, "Rapper's Delight" .

Levy, who was said to have ties to the Mafia, sold the Roulette Records label and its publishing rights to a consortium EMI / Rhino Records in 1989 for more than 55 million US dollars .

In May 1988, Levy was charged with extortion and fined $ 200,000 and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but died on May 21, 1990 before serving his sentence.

swell

  1. ↑ the song was written in 1952 (music: George Shearing , text: George David Weiss ). The title refers to Charlie "Bird" Parker , after whom the Birdland Jazz Club was named. The song was adopted by a total of 41 performers, including Duke Ellington (live at Carnegie Hall on November 14, 1952).
  2. ^ History.com: Alan Freed launches rhythm and blues show. ( Memento of the original from February 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. July 11, 1951 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.history.com
  3. ↑ known in the specialist world as "cut-in". The less powerful - and sometimes ignorant - composers had to watch helplessly as record bosses, managers or producers registered as co-composers.
  4. ↑ BMI entry for Morris Levy  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / repertoire.bmi.com  
  5. ↑ Levy owned the publishing rights to this: Music publishing was Big Seven, Inc., which he owned.
  6. ↑ "Here come old flat-top" was taken over literally
  7. ↑ Lennon was, however, to process only prepared two songs from Levy's catalog so that the notice published in February 1975 LP Rock 'n' Roll only "You Can not Catch Me" and "Ya-Ya" contained
  8. ↑ Levy was an associate of the Genovese family : Fredric Dannen: Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business. Helter Skelter, London 2003, ISBN 1900924544 , p. 33.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Levy, Morris
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American producer
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH New York , USA
DATE OF DEATH May 21, 1990
Place of death Ghent (New York) , USA