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
Verve/UME celebrate the career of a jazz impresario for the ages. As founder of the Clef, Norgran and Verve labels, Granz helped bring jazz to the masses and launched the careers of many of the genre's brightest stars. The 4-CD set includes 44 tracks, some appearing on CD for the first time ever. The booklet includes new liner notes by Tad Hershorn, author of Norman Granz: The Man Who Used Jazz For Justice. On the discs, you'll find incendiary performances by the likes of Coleman Hawkins
In 1949, Teresa Brewer – born Theresa Breuer in Toledo, Ohio – released a 45 on the London label with the A-side “Copenhagen.” But the A-side, performed with the Dixieland All-Stars, failed to launch Brewer to stardom. That honor went to the flip – Stephen Weiss and Bernie Baum’s “Music! Music! Music!,” and soon, everyone was singing along to Brewer’s plea to “put another nickel in/In the nickelodeon.” The perky Brewer returned to the million-selling chart-topper numerous times throughout her
When Frank Sinatra met Count Basie, it was far from a clash of the titans. No, the “historic musical first” that occurred between the grooves of Reprise 1008 in 1962 was more like a perfect union. Both were Jersey boys, with Basie’s formative years spent south of Hoboken, in Red Bank, New Jersey. The men were unusually simpatico, similar in their enormous respect for musicians. Though Basie titled a 1959 album Chairman of the Board, the title was later bestowed upon Sinatra. When Basie put