Morris Levy
Morris Levy ( Moishe Levy, born August 27, 1927 in New York City; † 21 May 1990 in Ghent, New York) was active in the American music and entertainment industry and was particularly known for his contributions to the jazz club Birdland and participation in record companies such as Roulette Records.
Biography
After serving in the Navy Levy was interested in the New York entertainment scene and bought some night clubs in Manhattan. Among them was the later world-famous jazz club " Birdland", which began on December 15, 1949 and originally at No. 1678 Broadway, was located north of West 52nd Street in Manhattan. That same year, Levy took over the " Birdland " by Joseph " Joe the Wop " Catalano. During that time, Levy had to look at the live performances that the interpreted and copyrighted pieces were registered and paid at the Performing Rights Society. He learned a lot about copyright issues and the value of copyrights. With this knowledge, he founded his first music publisher Patricia Music and prompted the band leader George Shearing, writing for the Birdland jazz club, a signature song. The result was the now classic " Lullaby of Birdland" - of course published by Patricia Music.
In the " Birdland" all important interpreters of jazz and rhythm and blues occurred, causing the club more attractive won the audience and became the most important source of income of Levy. As a disc jockey Alan Freed in September 1954 his "Rock ' n' Roll Party " presented for the first time in the New York radio station WINS, Levy was again on the spot and let copyright the term " Rock ' n' Roll". Levy served also referred to as promoter organized by Alan Freed rock ' n ' roll shows at New York's Paramount Theatre ( Brooklyn ).
When in December 1956, the already famous record label boss George Goldner approached Levy to obtain financing for the newly formed record label, Roulette Records, Levy took this opportunity to act as a co-founder. Along with Joe Kolsky and Phil Khals they helped the financially weak Goldner at the foundation. Now Levy had the ideal opportunity to enforce the illegal business practices of copyright registration, even though he had done no own intellectual contribution to the creation of a work. Examples include " Why Do Fools Fall In Love", which the singer Frankie Lymon had written alone, " Ya -Ya " by Lee Dorsey, " My Boy Lollipop " by Millie and "California Sun" by the Rivieras. According to the BMI for Morris Levy 339 compositions have been registered, but it is very doubtful whether he had made contributions to the intellectual development of these compositions. The number of tracks reaches the magnitude of professional writers of that time, whose activities were limited to composing.
George Goldner had in March 1957 to sell more labels need of money, she earned Levy, and became one of the wealthiest and most powerful people of the disk drive business in New York. In once belonged to a variety of board presses, duplication companies for tapes and a record store chain.
Beginning of the year 1973 led Levy a much-publicized trial of John Lennon, because this would have allegedly pirated a text passage from Chuck Berry's "You Can not Catch Me" adapted for the Beatles hit " Come Together". The out of court settlement dated October 12, 1973 stipulated that Lennon should take three songs from the music catalog Levy for his next LP. In 1979, Levy emerged as the main funder of the specialized rap label Sugar Hill Records, the first Top 40 rap single, " Rapper's Delight" published the Sugar Hill Gang in November 1979.
Levy, were the connections to the Mafia rumored sold in 1989 for more than 55 million U.S. dollars, the label Roulette Records and its publishing rights to a consortium EMI / Rhino Records.
In May 1988, Levy was accused of extortion and sentenced to $ 200,000 fine and 10 years in prison, but died on May 21, 1990, before he had to begin his sentence.