Norman Granz

American impresario, jazz label founder and producer.
Born August 6, 1918, in Los Angeles, California, USA, of Ukrainian-Jewish ancestry, died November 22, 2001, in Geneva, Switzerland, aged 83.

His series of jazz concerts began at the Los Angeles Philharmonic on July 2, 1944, a benefit concert for Hispanic youths jailed in the "zoot suit" riots in the city. Monthly concerts followed, establishing what became known as Jazz At The Philharmonic (JATP). Tours followed in the US and Canada from 1946 (continuing until 1957, the last was the eighteenth US tour, though JATP briefly resumed a decade later), in Japan during 1953 with 20 concerts and Europe from 1952, continuing with European concerts during the next decade. Granz insisted on non-segregated audiences, dropped certain bookings because venues resisted, and was responsible for the first racially integrated concerts in some American cities. Some concerts were recorded and first distributed under the Norman Granz Presents Jazz At The Philharmonic banner, others were unofficially recorded.

In June 1947, he established Clef Records (initially within Mercury as head of their jazz department, though Granz retained the rights to his JATP recordings), and in spring 1954, Norgran Records after his links to Mercury ended, which he ran alongside Down Home Records, a label for early jazz. On Christmas Eve 1955, he announced, he was fusing his label activities into Verve Records, and quickly began the Ella Fitzgerald Songbook series, now releasing about 150 LPs a year during this period. He sold Verve to MGM for $2.5 million in 1960. In 1973, he established his last label, Pablo Records, the albums on Pablo were initially only available by mail-order; he sold this label to Fantasy, Inc. in 1987.

Granz moved to Switzerland around 1959 continuing to manage Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson, plus Duke Ellington during the sixties, and organized concerts in Europe. On November 1, 1999, Granz received a "Lifetime Achievement Award” from Jazz at Lincoln Center.