associated_acts death_place death_date birth_place background birth_date article_title name occupation
miles sonny rollins , modern jazz quartet , flip wilson davis , herbie mann , stan getz , los angeles , us 25 may 1988 new york city , us non_performing_personnel 18 september 1924 monte kay
 monte kay music producer , club manager , television producer
monte kay

monte kay -lrb- september 18 , 1924 -- may 25 , 1988 -rrb- was an american musicians ' agent and record producer .
on the new york jazz scene in the late 1940s and 1950s , he acted as a talent scout and as the musical director of several night clubs .
according to some accounts , during those years he would sometimes introduce himself as a fair-skinned afro-american .
as the artistic director of the royal roost -lrb- a jazz venue on 52nd street -rrb- he succeeded in persuading the owner , ralph watkins , to hire miles davis ' nonet - sometimes called the '' `` tuba band '' '' - with which davis was pursuing a project that later was to be called `` birth of the cool '' , and which started the cool jazz movement .
kay befriended davis and , during his later marriage to singer/actress diahann carroll , was for a time miles ' neighbor .
in 1949 he founded the jazz club birdland -lrb- later , he would also open another jazz club , le downbeat in chicago -rrb- .
during the 1950s , kay produced several musicians , including herbie mann , stan getz , sonny rollins and the modern jazz quartet .
in the same period he married -lrb- 1956 -- 1963 -rrb- singer/actress diahann carroll .
their daughter , suzanne kay bamford , is a journalist and television author .
in 1963 , kay became the manager of the comedian flip wilson .
the two formed the record label little david records , which featured comedy albums by wilson , george carlin and others .
kay was executive producer of the tv show `` the flip wilson show '' .
kay died of heart failure in los angeles .
