Norman Granz
Norman Granz (* 6. August 1918 in Los Angeles , † 22. November 2001 in Geneva ) was an American jazz - impresario and - producer .
Live and act
After attending the University of California , Granz first worked as a film editor in the Metro Goldwyn Mayer studios and in 1944 supervised the production of the short film Jammin 'the Blues by Gjon Mili , with which he also made the music film Improvisation in 1950 . On July 2, 1944, he held a first concert in the Philharmonic Auditorium of Los Angeles with jazz musicians who initially performed in small groups and then came together on stage for a jam session . From this, Granz developed a whole series of Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts. After initial success in Los Angeles , he expanded the concerts in 1946 to tours, which were initially held in the USA and then worldwide until the end of the 1960s.
In 1944/45 and between 1948 and 1951 he worked as a record producer for various labels . His record series The Jazz Scene became important because of its experimental character and the previously unusual recordings of jazz concerts on sound carriers. In 1946 he founded the first independent record company ( Clef Records ) for classical jazz, then in 1953 the Norgran label for modern jazz ; here recordings by Lester Young and Dizzy Gillespie , but also by Slim Gaillard ( Groove Juice: The Norman Granz Recordings + More ) appeared. He also founded the Down Home label for traditional jazz by Kid Ory and Red Allen . As early as 1951, he bought back the rights to his productions (such as those of Charlie Parker , Clifford Brown or Sarah Vaughan from Mercury Records ) and merged them in 1956 under the Verve Records label , where he initially produced important recordings with Ella Fitzgerald in particular , including all of her famous song books , song collections by famous composers such as Cole Porter , Duke Ellington or Harold Arlen .
In 1957 he relocated his activities to Europe, settled in Switzerland in 1960 and sold his label to MGM in 1961. The position of Granz took Creed Taylor . Granz now devoted himself increasingly to the management of Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson and, in part, Duke Ellington as well as Jazz at the Philharmonic .
In 1973, after production at Verve had come to a standstill, he founded Pablo Records as a new label. In particular with jam session-like concerts by his artists at the Montreux Jazz Festival or with the recordings made there, he prepared the renaissance of swing and bebop .
Granz repeatedly stated that he had three goals: to produce music without racial discrimination, to deliver good products to the audience and to earn money with it. Although not a musician, he makes very important contributions to modern jazz. Norman Granz was the great mentor of the German concert promoter Fritz Rau .
literature
- Jim Haskins: Ella Fitzgerald - First Lady Of Jazz , Munich, Heyne, 1994
- Tad Hershorn: Norman Granz - The Man Who Used Jazz for Justice . 2011, ISBN 9780520267824
Web links
- Obituary for JazzEcho
- Obituary in The Independent
- Obituary in The Guardian
- Obituary in The Telegraph
- Stuart Nicholson : Verve Records and the man who made jazz the sound of America (2013) in The Guardian
swell
- ↑ https://www.discogs.com/label/5041-Verve-Records
- ↑ https://jazztimes.com/features/ella-fitzgerald-norman-granz-she-was-his-star/
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Granz, Norman |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American Jazz - impresario and producer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 6, 1918 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | los Angeles |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 22, 2001 |
| Place of death | Geneva |