A Granz Old Time: Verve/UMe Honors 'The Founder' On New Box Set

On December 7, Verve/UMe will release The Founder, a 4-CD box set in honor of Norman Granz's centennial earlier this year (August 6, 1918). The collection will also be available as a digital download and on streaming services. The set includes 44 tracks, some appearing on CD for the first time ever. It presents a chronological overview of the first two decades of the jazz impresario's impressive career by way of recordings of the musicians he recorded. The booklet includes new liner notes by Tad Hershorn, author of Norman Granz: The Man Who Used Jazz For Justice which contextualize the recordings within and shed light on the man's life and art.

A passionate jazz impresario and crusader for social justice, Norman Granz launched, promoted and popularized the careers of some of the genre's greatest artists. Granz's career took off with his Jazz At The Philharmonic concert series, which brought acts from clubs across the country to one of the biggest stages in America. The series helped bring the music to a broader audience and bridged the generational and racial divides that separated music at the time.

His devotion to jazz and justice was also exemplified in his work at prominent record labels. Granz created a solid jazz repertoire for Mercury Records before founding the Clef, Norgran and Verve labels. It's on those imprints that the careers many of the most important and influential jazz acts took off, from Coleman Hawkins and Johnny Hodges to Ella Fitzgerald and Ben Webster.

With incendiary performances from the likes of Hawkins with Charlie Parker and Lester Young, Nat "King" Cole with Les Paul and Illinois Jacquet, Dexter Gordon, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz, and Dizzy Gillespie, The Founder shows the lasting impact of Granz's career and the role he played in the work of a veritable who's-who of modern jazz.

You can find pre-order links and a full track listing below!

The Founder (Verve/UMe, 2018) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Disc 1: Mercury/Clef (1942-1948)