George Avakian
George Avakian ( born March 15, 1919 in Armavir ) is an American music producer of jazz and popular music. He is of Armenian descent. He is mainly known for his work for Columbia Records, where he produced many albums by Miles Davis.
Avakian was born in the former USSR in an Armenian family. He is the brother of photographer and filmmaker Aram Avakian ( 1926-1987 ). He studied at Yale, but was next to an avid jazz record collector and jazz fan and was still a student in charge of the first reissues ( reprints ) by Columbia Records in 1940, where he some previously unreleased recordings from the Hot Five and Hot Seven period of Louis Armstrong discovered. He was the first producer who discovered alternate takes and published. Later he produced Armstrong at Columbia also own ( " Louis Armstrong plays WCHandy "). At Columbia he brought, inter alia, Dave Brubeck out great and took Miles Davis and his quintet ( with John Coltrane ) 1955 by Prestige ( eg " Miles Ahead ," " Sketches of Spain "). Avakian was from 1946 to early 1957, employed by Columbia at the height of his career, with overall responsibility for the "Popular Music and International Division ." In 1957 he went to Pacific Jazz by Richard Bock. From 1959 he was produced at Warner Brothers, where he should build the pop division under his former boss at Columbia Jim Conkling and 1960/61, " Bill Haley and the Comets ". In 1962 he organized the USSR tour of Benny Goodman. In the same year he went to RCA Victor, where he produced Paul Desmond and the re- active Sonny Rollins ( "The Bridge" ). In 1963, he decided never to work in a larger record company firmly again and managed, among other things the Charles Lloyd Quartet, and from 1970 to 1974 whose former pianist Keith Jarrett. After he retired from the music business and bred racehorses. However, he also participated again in the reissue series " Columbia Legacy" his old record company.
2000 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Down Beat ( which is especially present for important contributions to the promotion of jazz, the first John Hammond received ).
With " Chicago Jazz" 1940 ( Decca 121, with Eddie Condon, Pee Wee Russell), it was followed by the Jazz in New Orleans and New York, he produced the first jazz album in the modern sense and was instrumental in the establishment of the long-playing record. In the same year, 1940, he launched the " Hot Jazz Classics" series at Columbia, the first reissue series in jazz. He also revitalized the live recordings of jazz concerts, such as the Louis Armstrong tour 1955 in Europe or Duke Ellington concert in Newport in 1956, which gave a new boost his career. Avakian also produced one of the first LP Sampler "I love jazz " in 1955, then sold for a dollar.
Avakian is married to the violinist ( professor at the Juilliard School of Music) Anahid Ajemian. In 2010 he received the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship.