PRESS RELEASE
September 22, 2005
ARMENIAN PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY
CONTACT: Peggy Pailian
Tel: 818-685-9946
[email protected]
GEORGE AVAKIAN HONORED AT ARMENIAN PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY’S
47TH ANNUAL PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR AWARD
& SCHOLARSHIP BANQUET
Who is George Avakian?
George Avakian can best be described as a passionate jazz enthusiast
and 20th Century’s greatest producer of jazz music. His credits
include the all-time best-selling albums by Duke Ellington, Benny
Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, and Sonny
Rollins. His million-seller singles are extraordinarily eclectic;
they feature France’s Edith Piaf, Mexico’s Trio Los Panchos,
Nashville’s Everly Brothers, and polka king Frank Yankovic. At
Columbia Records, he began as a part-time researcher and rose to the
position of manager of the International and Popular Album
Departments; he helped found Warner Brothers Records, and at RCA he
was Director of Popular Artists & Repertoire. He remains the only
person to have held top executive positions at all three of the
largest American record companies. Mr. Avakian is a Founder and
President-Emeritus of the National Academy of Recording Arts &
Sciences.
George Avakian was born in Armavir, Armenia in 1919. In 1923,
following the Armenian Genocide, his family immigrated to the United
States and settled on the East Coast. Young George spent a lot of
time listening to music on the radio. As a young teenager he heard
Benny Goodman’s compositions and fell in love with jazz. He was
fascinated with that unique, and at the time not so popular, brand of
music. Later, as the editor of his high school’s
newsletter, he decided to interview Benny Goodman as a way to meet his
idol. This life changing experience validated his devotion to jazz
and the rest is jazz history.
George Avakian’s significant contributions to the jazz industry began
in 1937 while he was attending Yale University and where he met
Marshall Stearns, an early jazz scholar and collector of an extensive
collection of early jazz albums. It is important to note that during
this period the record industry was in its infancy and only a scant
few jazz singles were available to the public. Avakian’s vision was
to compile these scattered singles into a collection. He proposed the
idea to Decca Records and in 1939, he producedthe very first American
jazz album called `Chicago Jazz’.
While still a student at Yale, Decca’s competitor, Columbia Records,
which at the time was a very small company with a total staff of 16 in
all departments, offered Mr. Avakian a part-time position researching
Americanjazz artists and their compositions. This led to the
reissuing of undocumentedmusic under the label of `Hot Jazz Classics,’
making him the pre-eminent authority on the history of jazz.
Concurrent with his work at Columbia, he wrote a weekly jazz column
for Tempo Magazine, helping to set standards for jazz literacy and
appreciation.
After graduating from Yale, Avakian was drafted into the army and
served at Pearl Harbor during WWII. After five years in the military,
he returned home in 1946, needing to plan for the future. He had
already received an offer by the president of Columbia Records; he
also knew that he was expected to work in his family’s oriental carpet
business. His father, quite aware of his passion for music, offered
him a little time off to `go and play’ since he had `earned it’ by
fighting in the Big War. George did not hesitate, began at Columbia
the following Monday, and later became Manager of the International
and Popular Album Departments.
In 1948, with postwar emerging technologies in communication and
electronics, George Avakian played a pivotal role in the invention of
the Long Playing (LP) record. The release of his first 100 LPs made
the single record obsolete as the industry’s major music medium, and
elevated his division into the largest income-producing unit in the
company.
In addition to his contributions to jazz, Mr. Avakian also recorded
every type of music, from rock & roll to Broadway shows and opera.
His many talent discoveries include singer Johnny Mathis,
arranger-conductor Michel Legrand, comedian Bob Newhart, and
pianist-composer Keith Jarrett. He also brought international record
stardom to, Erroll Garner and Mahalia Jackson.
In 1961, Avakian was a key figure in establishing the first
Soviet-American cultural exchange program; the following year, he
recorded Benny Goodman’s USSR tour. He is the only producer to have
recorded American jazz musicians in the former Soviet Union. He also
produced the first joint concert by American and Soviet musicians, in
1990, at the Village Gate Theatre in New York. In 1990, he became the
only American citizen ever to receive the Order of Lenin, the highest
decoration in the Soviet Union.
George Avakian’s devotion to the researching, preservation and
dissemination of American music has earned him a knighthood in the
Knights of Malta (l984). His wife, violinist Anahid Ajemian, received
the same honor in the same year. Among his many honors, the American
Federation of Jazz Societies presented him with the 1998 Benny Carter
Award, “in deep appreciation for his tremendous contribution to jazz.”
In 1999, he received Japan’s `His Master’s Voice’ Award, and in 2000,
he received Down Beat Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Among
countless worldwide radio and television interviews are the
unprecedented eight-part BBC-Radio series, “George Avakian: The Myth
Maker,’ in which the veteran producer reminisced about his career. In
2003, in an interview at WNYC Radio, Sara Fishko talked about
Avakian’s adventures in the early days of jazz recording and called
him the `Ambassador of American Music’. In 2005, The Wall Street
Journal declared that his pioneering work created the canon which
enabled newcomers to jazz music to learn about, hear and appreciate
the great performances in the early history of what was at thattime a
virtually undocumented music. As author of the first series of
annotations of jazz albums, he set standards for explanatory album
notes that are still emulated. In recent years, more than half a
century after discovering Louis Armstrong’ s music in the archives of
Columbia Records, Avakian continued to research original jazz
compositions and came upon seven previously unknown Armstrong works at
the Library of Congress, which he later produced on CD. Additionally,
Avakian has been invited to work on Columbia’s Golden Age reissuesof
Jazz Classics of the 1950’s.
When asked what the essence of his job as a producer has been, Avakian
responded, `the job of a producer is to present the artist in a
waythat best serves the artist, the record company and the public.
That is, to bring everybody together in the best possible
circumstances and satisfy all three interests.’
The Armenian Professional Society will be honoring music industry
producer George Avakian with the Professional of the Year Award at its
47th Annual Professional of the Year Banquet, Saturday, November 5,
2005 at Los Angeles Music Center – Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. For
information regarding the event, contact the APS (email:
[email protected] or voicemail: 818-685-9946).
APS is a non-profit organization established in 1958 for the purpose
of fostering fellowship among Armenian professionals and providing
annual grants and scholarships to universities in Armenia & Karabagh,
and to graduate students in the United States. Each year APS
recognizes an individual who has provided outstanding service to the
Armenian community or an Armenian who has excelled in his or her field
with the Professional of the Year Award. Past recipients include:
George Deukmejian, Governor State of California; Armand Arabian,
Supreme Court Justice State of California; Elizabeth Dole,
PublicServant; Jerry Tarkanian, Basketball Coach; Mark J. & Paul J.
Geragos, Attorneys.