Norman Granz hit the nail on the head when he defined his label as “the sound of America”. Admittedly, it was last century. And granted, it mainly just stuck to jazz. But even today, with a catalogue including Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Bill Evans, Lester Young, Stan Getz, Oscar Peterson and countless others, Verve represents one of the most important musical ventures of the twentieth century.

It’s a story worth telling; “At Verve said Norman Granz, my accountant would ask me ‘Why are you releasing a Roy Eldridge record? Or Ben Webster? They don’t sell!’ and I kept telling him ‘Listen, these are important musicians and whether they sell or not, they have to be recorded and that’s what Verve is for. Case closed!” Even today, it’s hardly debateable as to whether the label formed by Granz in 1956 is important or not. Alongside Blue Note, Impulse! and ECM, Verve is one of those labels that cannot be ignored in the history of jazz. Unlike its illustrious competitors, Verve’s artistic and aesthetic direction is rather indefinable but this didn’t prevent Norman Granz and his successors from releasing masterpieces by the greatest artists: Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Lester Young, Stan Getz, Jimmy Smith, Wes Montgomery, Bill Evans and Billie Holiday. In this respect, Verve was hardly a talent scout but more like the jazz version of Hollywood Boulevard's walk of fame....

 

 

Read more