George T. Simon

George T. Simon ( George Thomas Simon, born May 9, 1912 in New York City; † 13 February 2001 ) was an American jazz - author who has been dealing with the Big Band story.

Simon came from a wealthy family. His father was a hatter, his older brother Richard Simon was one of the founders of the New York publishing house Simon & Schuster, and Carly Simon is his niece. Simon studied until 1934 at Harvard University, where he had his own band, and was, from 1935, music critic and co-editor at Metronome, whose editor, he was from 1939 to 1955. During this time he became one of the most influential critics of the swing era, thanks to his many contacts had an intimate insider knowledge of the bands. He also supported new trends such as bebop, whose influential advocate Barry Ulanov he brought to Metronome - Simon itself, however, remained the swing facing. Later, he was inter alia Jazz critic for the New York Herald Tribune ( 1961-64 ) and the New York Post (1980 /1). In addition, he has worked in the 1950s much for television (eg Timex Allstar Jazz Shows 1957/8 ). He became known for his monographs on the marriage of big bands, including The Big Bands 1967, the 1968 ASCAP Deems Taylor Award - received. 1956/7 he was associated with the record company Jazztone Records, and he was a consultant, among other things worked for RCA Victor, Capitol, Columbia and Warner. Initial experience in the record industry he had from 1939 as producer of the Metronome All -Star Sessions (most recently 1953). 1961 to 1972 he was Executive Director of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences " ( NARAS ), which hosts the Grammies, and from 1958 to 1976 in the same capacity for the New York branch. For one of his many liner notes he received a Grammy in 1978 ( Bing Crosby - a legendary performer, RCA Victor ). Simon was in the Festival Advisory Board of the New York jazz. Having already suffered a prolonged period of Parkinson's disease, he died in New York of pneumonia.

Simon learned in his youth piano and took drum lessons with Gene Krupa and Bill West. As a jazz drummer, he was an early member (1937 ) of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, about which he wrote in 1974 a standard work. He was a friend of Glenn Miller, took part in the first recordings of the band, and was also during the war in Miller's band, but remained in the United States as the Army Air Force band went to England ( 1944/5 he was, inter alia, producer and writer of NBC Radio Show For the Record ). He also wrote texts, inter alia, for Duke Ellington, which he sometimes used the pseudonym Buck Pincus.

Publications

  • Doc Watson starts a band. New York, 1940
  • Ralph Flanagan: The band leader. New York, 1950
  • The feeling of jazz. Simon and Schuster, 1961
  • The Big Bands. Simon and Schuster, 1967, 4th edition: Schirmer Books, 1981, ISBN 0028724305 The golden era of big bands. Hannibal, courtyards, 2004, ISBN 3-85445-243-8
  • Glenn Miller. His life - his music. Hannibal, Vienna, 1987, ISBN 3-85445-031-1; Knaur, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-426-02412-8
Metronome All-Stars Grammy Award Clark Terry Integrated Authority File
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