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Interview: George Avakian (Part 5)
Columbia's first 12-inch jazz LP was George Avakian's idea. In 1950, when company president Ted Wallerstein played George a test pressing of Benny Goodman's band live in 1938, George knew instantly what he was listening to: Goodman's famed Carnegie Hall concert, which had been languishing in a closet and had never been released in its entirety. ...
Interview: George Avakian (Part 4)
By the mid-1950s, George Avakian was a record-industry rainmaker. As head of Columbia's Pop Album Department, George had enormous power. When he decided to sign talent, there was no question about whether the artist had the chops or stamina. Both were a given, since George had sized up both carefully in advance. The only question that ...
Interview: George Avakian (Part 3)
If you were a record producer in the late 1940s, you pretty much had to invent the job. At the dawn of the LP era, there were no rules, no models and no mentors. As George Avakian discovered at Columbia Records, new ways to package pop and jazz music for long-playing albums had to be developed. ...
Interview: George Avakian (Part 2)
In 1938, recordings by the latest swing bands were plentiful. The three major record companies that dominated the market (RCA, Columbia and Decca) saw to that. But earlier releases from the 1920s and 1930s that were recorded by companies that had gone bust were out of print. And other than a magazine or two, there were ...
Interview: George Avakian (Part 1)
Today is George Avakian's birthday. For more than 70 years, George has shaped how jazz was recorded and regarded. As a pop and jazz LP producer starting in the mid-1940s, George was a visionary at a time when several recording technologies and formats were emerging and competing. In the first decade of the LP era, his ...
Jazz a Special Focus of APAP 2010
Jazz plays a featured role in the run-down of APAP 2010 programs and events, thanks to our partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts' NEA Jazz Masters Program and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Those in the business of making and presenting jazz have witnessed many changes, challenges and opportunities in recent years--all of which will ...
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