George Avakian

George Mesrop Avakian (March 15, 1919 – November 22, 2017) was an American record producer, artist manager, writer, educator and executive. Best known for his work from 1939 to the early 1960s at Decca Records, Columbia Records, World Pacific Records, Warner Bros. Records, and RCA Records, he was a major force in the expansion and development of the U.S. recording industry. Avakian functioned as an independent producer and manager from the 1960s to the early 2000s and worked with artists such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Dave Brubeck, Eddie Condon, Keith Jarrett, Erroll Garner, Buck Clayton, Sonny Rollins, Paul Desmond, Edith Piaf, Bob Newhart, Johnny Mathis, John Cage, Alan Hovhaness, Ravi Shankar, and many other notable jazz musicians and composers.

Biography Early life and career Avakian was born in 1919 in Armavir, Russia, to Armenian parents, Mesrop and Manoushak Avakian; the family moved to the United States in July 1923 as first cabin class passengers on the S/S Argentina, sailing from Trieste to New York. His younger brother was the photographer and filmmaker Aram Avakian (1926–1987). George Avakian became a jazz fan in his early teens through listening to the radio at night; his first loves were Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, Fats Waller, the Casa Loma Orchestra, and Benny Goodman, among others. He managed to meet and interview Goodman for the Horace Mann School Record during his senior year. This is when he began amassing his enormous collection of Jazz recordings. He also began writing letters to such companies as Decca and the American Record Corporation (ARC). ARC had acquired the catalogs of the bankrupt OKeh and Brunswick Records labels, both of which had recorded jazz extensively in the 1920s. Avakian began writing letters lobbying them to reissue those recordings.

While Avakian was still at Yale University, Decca Records Jack Kapp responded to his unrelenting letters, hiring him to produce his first recording, Chicago Jazz (1940), featuring musicians such as guitarist Eddie Condon, trumpeter Jimmy McPartland, and drummer George Wettling. This became known as the first "jazz album". 2011 – Added to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Jazz Wall of Fame as a Living Legend Giant of Jazz 2011 – "The Louie" Award, Louis Armstrong House Museum 2010 – National Endowment for the Arts AB Spellman Jazz Advocacy Award. The nations highest honor in Jazz for his work as a Producer, Manager, Critic, Jazz Historian and Educator. 2009 – The Trustees Lifetime Achievement Award (Grammy) from the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences for contributions to the music industry worldwide. 2008 – France awarded the rank of Commandeur des Arts et Lettres in recognition of his significant contributions to the arts 2006 – Europe's prestigious jazz award, the Django d'Or 2006 – The W.C. Handy Heritage Master & Legend Award 2005 – The Armenian Professional Society, Professional of the Year 2003 – Man of the Year Award, The Sidney Bechet Society 2000 – A Lifetime Achievement award from Down Beat magazine 1998 – The Benny Carter Award from the American Federation of Jazz Societies 1996 – Grammy Award for "Best Album Notes - Miles Davis & Gil Evans - The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings" 1990 – The Order of Lenin, the Soviet Union's highest state order. 1984 – Knighthood from the Knights of Malta 1981 – President's Citation, New Jersey Jazz Society 1966-1967 - President of NARAS 1957 - Founding officer of NARAS (Recording Academy)