Tommy LiPuma

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Tommy LiPuma (born July 5, 1936 in Cleveland , Ohio , † March 13, 2017 in New York City ) was an American music producer specializing in jazz and rhythm and blues . He has worked with Barbra Streisand , Miles Davis , Al Jarreau , Natalie Cole , Diana Krall and Paul McCartney , among others , and was awarded five Grammys .

life and work

LiPuma began to work as a professional musician ( saxophone ) and in 1960 as an employee in music promotion at MS Distributors in Cleveland. A year later he moved to Liberty Records, where he worked in the same capacity in Los Angeles and New York. There he also worked as a producer for Randy Newman , among others . In 1965 he moved to the newly founded company A&M Records , where he had his first success with Guantanamera from the Sand Pipers , which was also awarded a gold record .

In 1969 he founded Blue Thumb Records with Bob Krasnow (now also with the Verve Music Group in the world music and blues division), where he produced, among others, Ike and Tina Turner , the Pointer Sisters , the Crusaders and Barbra Streisand , whose title The Way We Were from the 1973 film of the same name went platinum .

From 1974 he was employed by Warner Brothers , where Al Jarreau , George Benson , Antônio Carlos Jobim , Claus Ogerman were among the artists he produced. In 1978 he briefly returned to A&M as head of the newly founded Horizon label and then became Vice President of Warner Brothers in the field of jazz and progressive music . Here, too, he worked as a producer and talent scout. He has produced Randy Crawford , Miles Davis ( Tutu 1986), Patti Austin , Bob James , George Benson, Earl Klugh , David Sanborn , Joe Sample , Rickie Lee Jones and the Yellowjackets , among others . George Benson 's album Breezin ', which he produced , received a Grammy Award in 1976, as did the release This Masquerade .

In 1990 LiPuma became vice president of Elektra Records, where he worked again with Krasnow, producing Natalie Cole , Anita Baker , David Sanborn and Wayne Shorter . In 1994 he became chairman of GRP Recording Company (which traded as The Verve Music Group after the merger with Verve Records from 1999 ), where he reactivated the sub-labels Blue Thumb and Impulse Records. He has been nominated 33 times for a Grammy and won it five times, including 1991 for Unforgettable by Natalie Cole (in which she sings in a duet with recordings of her father Nat King Cole ), with which he was co-producer. 29 of the albums he produced achieved gold or platinum status. At Verve he produced Diana Krall , whose album When I Look In Your Eyes (2000) won two Grammy Awards and a platinum record. LiPuma also produced Paul McCartney's album Kisses on the Bottom (2012). In 2004 he handed over the day-to-day business of Verve to Ron Goldstein and dedicated himself as Chairman Emeritus of Verve Musicgroup to work more in the studio.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Lars Brandle: Tommy LiPuma, Grammy-Winning Producer & Record Exec, Dies at 80th Billboard , March 14, 2017, accessed on March 14, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME LiPuma, Tommy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American music producer (jazz, rhythm and blues)
DATE OF BIRTH July 5, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Cleveland , Ohio
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 2017
Place of death New York City