Norman Granz

Norman Granz's interest in jazz began at the age of 19. In 1942, he organized concerts at the Trouville club in Los Angeles, where he met Billie Holiday. After supervising the film "Jammin' The Blues" (1944) with Lester Young, Norman Granz organized the first Jazz At The Philharmonic (JATP) concerts in the Los Angeles auditorium. These concerts were an opportunity for musicians of all stripes to get to know each other or to meet again, and to hold long jam sessions. Granz bridges the widening gap between the classical and modern generations, on the bangs of the journalistic criticism that often sharpens this divide. JATP tours take place all over the world, ensuring that many musicians suffering from the aftermath of the Second World War can play in good conditions. Coleman Hawkins joined in 1946 with Roy Eldridge, and in 1948 Ella Fitzgerald became one of the pillars of JATP, along with Charlie Parker and Lester Young. In 1949, Fats Navarro, and Oscar Peterson, who accompanies Ella Fitzgerald with his trio. Thelonious Monk, Nat King Cole, Meade Lux Lewis, Duke Ellington, Bud Powell, Cannonball Adderley, Stan Getz, Ben Webster, Don Byas, Gerry Mulligan, Coltrane, Howard Mc Ghee, Dizzy Gillespie, etc., were all in good company. Norman Granz takes advantage of the concerts he organizes to set up his own labels (Clef , Verve), in order to record his musicians, particularly during European tours. He was keen to promote the repertoire of the great classical composers: George Gerswhin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern. In 1960, he moved to Switzerland, from where he ran operations. It wasn't until he moved to Los Angeles in 1973 that he founded the Pablo label, which catalogs most of the concerts he has organized.

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