   verve records is an american jazz and adult music record label now owned by universal music group. it was founded by norman granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, clef records (founded in 1946) and norgran records (founded in 1953), and material which had been licensed to mercury previously. ==history== ===jazz and folk origins=== verve was created just as the twelve-inch long playing album became the industry standard, its ten-inch counterpart for the most part discontinued. granz, the manager at the time of ella fitzgerald, had signed the singer away from decca records and inaugurated the jazz 4000 series with fitzgerald's first album release on verve, ella fitzgerald sings the cole porter songbook. indeed, granz created the label in part for the very purpose of a new series of recordings by fitzgerald, among those the famed songbooks commenced with the porter set and lasting for an additional seven volumes through 1964. the verve catalog grew throughout the 1950s and 1960s to boast an impressive roster of major figures in jazz, apart from fitzgerald also eventually including bill evans, stan getz, billie holiday, oscar peterson, ben webster, and lester young. it also recognized the potential of comedy albums, producing spike jones' first lp, dinner music for people who aren't very hungry, in 1956 and several best-selling albums featuring live performances by shelley berman beginning in 1960. granz sold verve to mgm in 1961 for $3 million. creed taylor was appointed as producer, and adopted a more commercial approach, cancelling several contracts. taylor brought the bossa nova to america with the stan getz/charlie byrd lp jazz samba as well as getz/gilberto and walter wanderley lp rain forest . several arrangers of note worked for the verve label too in the 1960s, including claus ogerman and oliver nelson. claus ogerman, by his own admission in gene lees' jazzletter publication, arranged some 60-70 albums for verve under creed taylor's direction from 1963-1967. in 1964, taylor supervised the creation of a folk music subsidiary named verve folkways (later renamed [[verve forecast r
American_record_labels Companies_based_in_California Companies_based_in_Los_Angeles_County,_California Companies_based_in_Santa_Monica,_California Jazz_record_labels Labels_distributed_by_Universal_Music_Group Re-established_companies Record_labels_established_in_1956 Santa_Monica,_California Verve_Music_Group_labels Vivendi_subsidiaries