[Dixielandjazz] Legendary Record Producer George Avakian Receives The Django d ¹ Or Award in Paris.

[Steve Barbone]

Legendary Record Producer George Avakian Received The Django d¹Or Award The
Most Prestigious Jazz Honor In Europe. Below is what Avakian had to say
about it:

Cheers,
Steve Barbone



"The ceremony took place Thursday, Nov. 30th, at 7 PM at the Pavillon
Baltard, 12 Avenue Victor Hugo Paris, France.  Apart from the usual reasons
that everyone repeats (produced first jazz album, first annotated reissue
album program, etc. etc.) they have cited what I consider an even bigger
contribution to the music business, which was the creation in the 1950s at
Columbia of the widest-ranging and most successful popular album catalog the
industry had ever seen.  It soon resulted in the displacement by 12-inch pop
LPs of the three-minute single as the main source of income for record
labels worldwide, while also elevating jazz through treating it as an
integral part of a pop album catalog rather than a specialty.  That¹s when
people started calling me the Father of the LP, and later. Grandfather of
the CD.  (Well, as long as I don¹t get blamed for all the downloading that¹s
followed -  !!!) "

"Europeans were particularly aware of this in the mid-fifties, when the
brand new Philips label, which had no artists to begin with except the
Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, become a major label overnight through
the impact of Frank Sinatra and Doris Day as the two most popular singing
film stars of the time as well as a select all-star jazz roster.  As
Director of the International Department, I was initially considered out of
my mind to drop EMI, the biggest company in the world, in favor of a
start-up Dutch label ­ but the conservative management at EMI hated LP, and
the energetic, well-financed young Philips team jumped at the chance to
promote neglected artists who were already known in Europe (Armstrong,
Ellington), or were just beginning to tour the continent (Miles, Brubeck,
Garner, Sarah Vaughn, Tony Bennett)."

"Well, that¹s more than enough (as usual).  Thank you for the support, as
always."  

George (Avakian)