PERFORMANCE MUSIC
When Life magazine ran a major article in August 1938 about the history and roots of swing, Ted Wallerstein, soon to become the first president of Columbia Records under its new parent CBS, had an idea: Why not reissue some of the records referred to in the Life story? Wallerstein moved to Columbia in late 1938, and he asked Avakian to research the masters and assemble a series of 78-rpm albums for $25 a week in pay. The 20-year-old Avakian became the first "authoritative" person to review the short history of jazz up to 1940 and nominate a fundamental canon of indispensable classics that could be heard by a wide audience. His selections included the Armstrong Hot Fives and Sevens, the now familiar Beiderbecke and Smith classics, and basic Fletcher Henderson and Ellington collections. In the process, he also became the first producer to discover and issue unreleased alternate takes. His choices would influence the basic writing about jazz at a critical time when the music was beginning to be seriously written about.
In 1951, Avakian expanded these albums to the LP format to create the famous four-volume Louis Armstrong Story and other LPs. Once in general circulation, they would remain in print until the advent of the CD and have an immense impact for generations to come as new listeners came to jazz.
After the war in 1946, Avakian accepted Wallerstein's invitation to join the Columbia production staff. He would remain there until early 1958, during which time he achieved the milestones that continue to define his career-the Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy/Fats Waller sessions, Ellington At Newport in 1956, the Dave Brubeck quartet sessions with Paul Desmond, LPs by Buck Clayton, Eddie Condon, J. J. Johnson & Kai Winding, Errol Garner, Mahalia Jackson, and other notable projects.
He also signed Miles Davis, which also brought John Coltrane to Columbia in his prime.
In the summer of 1955, Avakian issued the first and perhaps best LP sampler ever, I Like Jazz, a capsule jazz history, intelligently annotated, that sold for only $1 and served as a powerful marketing tool showcasing the Columbia catalog. As chief of Columbia's pop album and international divisions and through a combination of influential reissues and new sessions, he made Columbia the most powerful force in jazz among the majors.
In 1959 he moved to Warner Bros., where two of his closest former Columbia colleagues, Jim Conkling and Hal Cook, were laying the foundations that would make the label a power in the industry. Avakian joined Warner with a mandate to build a strong pop catalog for the new label, an assignment that cut his activity in jazz to virtually nothing, although he did manage to sign drummer Chico Hamilton.
When Conkling's contract was up in 1962, Avakian was offered the presidency of WB Records. But a desire to remain close to production and to stay as far away from Los Angeles as possible led him to accept a position at RCA Victor, where he was brought in to improve the company's sagging pop album sales.
Avakian found few jazz artists available to RCA. But Paul Desmond was still with the Brubeck quartet but a free agent for recording purposes. Avakian signed him and turned out a series of extraordinary albums. He also turned to trumpeter Al Hint, a solid if commercial name on the edge of the jazz world. Then Avakian signed Sonny Rollins, and the contract produced, among other things, The Bridge and a pairing of Rollins and Coleman Hawkins.
By the end of 1963, Avakian decided he would never work for a large company again, and left recording almost entirely except for occasional associations with small jazz labels such as Chiaroscuro Records and independent productions for Columbia and Atlantic. He managed Charles Lloyd, and then Keith Jarrett, who joined Lloyd in February 1966 when the group played an East Third Avenue club called Slug's, where Lee Morgan was later stabbed to death by his wife.
In recent years, he has responded to invitations from Columbia Legacy to return to reissues, but with an important difference: now the reissues he produced and expanded (Armstrong Plays Handy) or to which he contributed annotations (Miles Davis And Gil Evans: The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings, Miles Davis & John Coltrane: The Complete Columbia Recordings) involve many of the classic sessions he initiated during Columbia's golden age in the '50s.
As Columbia's one bona fide living legend executive, Avakian's knowledge of the company's archives is as deep as it is detailed and personal. He personifies a glorious period in the first two decades of the company's modern history and, along with Mitch Miller, stands as its most illustrious living contributor.