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“Any book on my life would start with my basic philosophy of fighting racial prejudice. I loved jazz, and jazz was my way of doing that,” Norman Granz told Tad Hershorn during the final interviews given for this book. Granz, who died in 2001, was iconoclastic, independent, immensely influential, often thoroughly unpleasant—and one of jazz’s true giants. Granz played an essential part in bringing jazz to audiences around the world, defying racial and social prejudice as he did so, and demanding that African-American performers be treated equally everywhere they toured. In this definitive biography, Hershorn recounts Granz’s story: creator of the legendary jam session concerts known as Jazz at the Philharmonic; founder of the Verve record label; pioneer of live recordings and worldwide jazz concert tours; manager and recording producer for numerous stars, including Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson.
Price: $34.95
Pages: 488
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Publication Date:
17 October 2011
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9780520267824
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
"Most accounts of Granz are given over to his humanitarian triumphs, but this book from the Rutgers archivist Hershorn adds a close examination of the recordings Granz made at his Verve label, many of which have engendered controversy ever since. . . . While the Granz discography may be more padded than jazz historians would like, at least the dross is mitigated by gems like his work with Oscar Peterson (who provides the book’s foreword) and his glorious run with Ella Fitzgerald. And even the dross had a few kickin’ solos mixed in with the sometimes inchoate jams."
Tad Hershorn is an archivist at the Institute for Jazz Studies at Rutgers University.
List of Illustrations
Foreword by Oscar Peterson
Prologue: “I Made Things Work”
1 “All I Wanted Was My Freedom”
2 “A Marvelous Crucible”
3 Cole Train
4 “The Opener”
5 Let Freedom Swing
6 Norman Granz versus . . .
7 Mambo Jambo
8 Enter Ella and Oscar
9 The Continental
10 “I Feel Most at Home in the Studio”
11 Starry Nights
12 “That Tall Old Man Standing Next to Ella Fitzgerald”
13 The Jazz Hurricane
14 “The Lost Generation”
15 Duke, Prez, and Billie
16 Joie de Verve
17 Across the Sea
18 “Musicians Don’t Want to Jam”
19 Picasso on the Beach
20 “One More Once”
21 Takin’ It on Out—for Good
22 “Somewhere There’s Music”
Epilogue: “My Career, Such As It Is . . .”
Acknowledgments
Chronology
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Foreword by Oscar Peterson
Prologue: “I Made Things Work”
1 “All I Wanted Was My Freedom”
2 “A Marvelous Crucible”
3 Cole Train
4 “The Opener”
5 Let Freedom Swing
6 Norman Granz versus . . .
7 Mambo Jambo
8 Enter Ella and Oscar
9 The Continental
10 “I Feel Most at Home in the Studio”
11 Starry Nights
12 “That Tall Old Man Standing Next to Ella Fitzgerald”
13 The Jazz Hurricane
14 “The Lost Generation”
15 Duke, Prez, and Billie
16 Joie de Verve
17 Across the Sea
18 “Musicians Don’t Want to Jam”
19 Picasso on the Beach
20 “One More Once”
21 Takin’ It on Out—for Good
22 “Somewhere There’s Music”
Epilogue: “My Career, Such As It Is . . .”
Acknowledgments
Chronology
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index