Norman Granz
Subtitle: the man who used jazz for justice
By: Tad Hershorn ; foreword by Oscar Peterson
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Berkeley
Language: eng
Number of pages: 470
ISBN-13: 9780520267824
Subjects: Impresarios; Songs and music; History and criticism; African American musicians; Jazz musicians; Civil rights movements; Music; Jazz; Biography
Description: "Any book on my life would start with my basic philosophy of fighting racial prejudice. I loved jazz, and jazz was my way of doing that," Norman Granz told Tad Hershorn during the final interviews given for this book. Granz, who died in 2001, was iconoclastic, independent, immensely influential, often thoroughly unpleasant--and one of jazz's true giants. Granz played an essential part in bringing jazz to audiences around the world, defying racial and social prejudice as he did so, and demanding that African-American performers be treated equally everywhere they toured. In this definitive biography, Hershorn recounts Granz's story: creator of the legendary jam session concerts known as Jazz at the Philharmonic; founder of the Verve record label; pioneer of live recordings and worldwide jazz concert tours; manager and recording producer for numerous stars, including Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson [Publisher description].
Notes: "Roth Family Foundation music in America imprint"--Prelim. p.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 437-448) and index.
Table of contents: title: "All I wanted was my freedom"; title: "A marvelous crucible"; title: Cole train; title: "The opener"; title: Let freedom swing; title: Norman Granz versus; title: Mambo jambo; title: Enter Ella and Oscar; title: The continental; title: "I feel most at home in the studio"; title: Starry nights; title: "That tall old man standing next to Ella Fitzgerald"; title: The jazz hurricane; title: "The lost generation"; title: Duke, Prez, and Billie; title: Joie de Verve; title: Across the sea; title: "Musicians don't want to jam"; title: Picasso on the beach; title: "One more once"; title: Takin' it on out, for good; title: "Somewhere there's music."