Born Eugene Nabatoff in Brooklyn, New York and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin at 18, Gene began his radio career in San Francisco, before relocating to Los Angeles in the 1940s.
A jazz buff, Gene Norman soon became Los Angeles’ leading disc jockey via stints on various local stations, including KLAC. Turning impresario, he initiated a series of jazz concerts throughout the Southland across two decades, including dates featuring Benny Goodman, Peggy Lee and Erroll Garner. His Blues Jubilee programs at the Shrine Auditorium in the early 1950s attracted some of the first integrated audiences in the United States.
Norman also introduced the Snader Telescriptions, a prototype MTV-styled concept documenting recording personalities of the era, on NBC-TV. He hosted the first ever televised jazz concert on KTLA, as well as ‘The Gene Norman Show’ and ‘Campus Club’ on KHJ.
While a DJ at KFWB, Norman organized jazz concerts at venues like the Shrine, the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, and the Hollywood Bowl with artists like Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie and Shorty Rogers under the aegis of ‘Gene Norman Presents.’ These shows were recorded and released on Decca, Capitol and Modern Records, presaging Norman’s later career as a record label owner.
In 1954, Gene opened the Crescendo nightclub on the Sunset Strip which featured an adjunctal venue, the Interlude, upstairs. There he presented virtually every record and cabaret star of the era, including Ella Fitzgerald, Bob Newhart, Johnny Mathis, Stan Kenton, Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass, Lenny Bruce, Don Rickles, Rusty Warren, Mort Sahl, Woody Allen and Louis Armstrong.
Norman continued to put on big concerts, and produced a series of live albums and studio recordings based around his promotions. His own record imprint, GNP Crescendo, was therefore a natural next step, and indeed the label became the focus of the rest of his life. He served as one of the directors of the RIAA, and was elected into the Hall of Fame of the American Association of Independent Music in 1991.
Norman’s jazz recordings formed the base of what was to evolve into a vast and varied catalog, including acts such as The Seeds, Joe & Eddie, Queen Ida (who garnered a Grammy for the label), Wrecking Crew regular Billy Strange, Bing Crosby, Gary Richrath and many original film and television soundtracks. The label operated out of offices on the Sunset Strip for more than five decades, moving to less hectic quarters in later years.
Gene Norman passed away peacefully at his home in Hollywood, California on November 2nd 2015. He was 93. Up until his death, Norman remained a force in the label’s direction, consulting with musician/producer/director son Neil, to whom his legacy now passes.
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Gene Norman, a music promoter, nightclub owner and record producer who helped bring some of the most renowned jazz artists of midcentury to the West Coast and, through his independent record label, to the world, died on November 2 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 93.
His son, Neil, confirmed the death.
Mr. Norman, who began his professional life as a disc jockey and was for more than half a century an influential presence on the American jazz scene, was perhaps best known for founding the label GNP Crescendo, begun in 1954 and still in business. (Its initials stand for “Gene Norman Presents”; Crescendo was the name of the nightclub Mr. Norman opened in Los Angeles the same year.)
Artists recorded by GNP over the years include Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Max Roach, George Shearing and Art Tatum, as well as the bluesmen Jack Dupree and Memphis Slim; the garage-rock band the Seeds; Bing Crosby, Dick Dale and Tito Puente; the Creole accordionist Queen Ida, who won a Grammy Award for her 1982 recording on the label, “Queen Ida and the Bon Temps Zydeco Band on Tour”; and even Orson Welles, who released a spoken-word album, “I Know What It Is to Be Young (But You Don’t Know What It Is to Be Old).”
More recently, GNP has also been known for releasing television and motion picture soundtracks, with a particular emphasis on science fiction.
Mr. Norman was born Eugene Nabatoff in Brooklyn on Jan. 30, 1922, and as a youth became enthralled by visits to New York’s jazz clubs. After studying at the University of Michigan, he graduated at 18 from the University of Wisconsin.
Changing his surname at the start of his broadcasting career, he worked as a disc jockey in San Francisco before moving to Los Angeles in the 1940s.
There he plied his trade at a series of radio stations, among them KLAC and KFWB, giving particular airplay to jazz. He began producing live concerts on local stages — including those of the Shrine Auditorium and the Hollywood Bowl — featuring artists like Benny Goodman, Erroll Garner and Peggy Lee. He also hosted jazz programs on local television.
At the Crescendo, which he opened on the Sunset Strip, Mr. Norman presented musicians including Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Johnny Mathis and Herb Alpert. He also booked some of the era’s foremost comedians, among them Lenny Bruce, Shelley Berman, Mort Sahl, Bob Newhart, Don Rickles and Woody Allen. Mr. Norman sold the club in the 1960s.
Mr. Norman’s wife, June Bright, a fashion model and actress, died in 1975. Besides his son, Neil, the current president of GNP Crescendo, his survivors include a granddaughter and two great-grandchildren.
As passionate as Mr. Norman was about jazz, he had a good ear for other genres, as his catalog makes plain. Sometimes he had a good ear in spite of himself, as when he signed an easy listening-country-polka ensemble called the Mom and Dads on the strength of the fact that they had sold tens of thousands of records for a Canadian label.
“They were this group from Spokane, Wash., who played very, very square versions of standards,” Neil Norman told Variety last year. “They made Lawrence Welk look like Pink Floyd.”
He continued: “My father took them on without even hearing them. When he finally listened to their records, he said, ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’ But they sold millions for us.”
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# There is also a Florida, USA, rockabilly musician named Gene Norman.
Body & Soul
Gene Norman Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
For you I sigh, for you dear only
Why haven't you seen it
I'm all for you body and soul
I spend my days in longing
And wondering why it's me you're wronging
I tell you I mean it
I can't believe it
It's hard to conceive it
That you'd turn away romance
Are you pretending
It looks like the ending
Unless I could have just one more chance to prove, dear
My life a wreck you're making
You know I'm yours for just the taking
I'd gladly surrender myself to you body and soul
My life a wreck you're making
You know I'm yours for the very taking
I'd gladly surrender myself to you body and soul
In Gene Norman's "Body and Soul", the singer is expressing his deep love and longing for someone who has yet to reciprocate those feelings. He starts by saying how sad and lonely his heart is, and how he only sighs for this person. He wonders why they haven't noticed his love for them. He then goes on to say that he spends his days in longing and wondering why this person is wronging him. He expresses how much he means it when he says he's all for them, body and soul.
The singer then asks the person if they're pretending or if it's really the end of their romance. He begs for just one more chance to prove his love. He concludes by stating that his life is a wreck because of this unrequited love, but he'd gladly surrender himself to the person, body and soul. The lyrics are filled with deep emotions and vulnerability, showcasing the singer's love and longing.
Line by Line Meaning
My heart is sad and lonely
My spirit is melancholic and desolate
For you I sigh, for you dear only
Only for you, my dearest love, I yearn and exhale a deep sorrowful breath
Why haven't you seen it
Why haven't you perceived my affection for you
I'm all for you body and soul
I am devoted to you with every fiber of my being
I spend my days in longing
I pass my time consumed by a deep desire and yearning
And wondering why it's me you're wronging
I am uncertain why you are mistreating and betraying me
I tell you I mean it
I am not deceiving you, I truly mean all that I say
I'm all for you body and soul
I am entirely yours, in every aspect of my existence
I can't believe it
I am in disbelief of the situation
It's hard to conceive it
It is difficult to imagine or understand
That you'd turn away romance
That you would refuse or reject a loving relationship
Are you pretending
Are you feigning or falsifying your emotions or intentions
It looks like the ending
It appears to signify the conclusion or termination of our connection
Unless I could have just one more chance to prove, dear
Except if you would grant me another opportunity to demonstrate my love for you, my beloved
My life a wreck you're making
You are demolishing my existence and leaving it in disarray
You know I'm yours for just the taking
You recognize that I am yours for the accepting, the receiving or the seizing
I'd gladly surrender myself to you body and soul
I would eagerly yield, concede or relinquish myself entirely to you, both in physical and spiritual terms
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Written by: PAUL MICHAEL BARRY, PHIL SIMPSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Kevin Chan
Yesterdays - 0:19
Introductions/The Peanut Vendor - 1:34
Euphoria - 3:33
Fine and Dandy - 10:28
East of Suez - 12:52
If I Had You - 16:11
I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles - 18:44
Pennies from Heaven - 21:30
How High the Moon - 23:36
Phil Pryor
I'd read about this, and heard it when a fellow student turned up with it, circa, 1959 at college. My hair stood out on the neck, flushed, wow!! I HAD to learn sax, play tenor,and I DID. It's been a long and good amateur career, with travel, highlights, notice, a little money (hah) and such great memories...So good...
Kevin Chan
Yesterdays - 0:19
Introductions/The Peanut Vendor - 1:34
Euphoria - 3:33
Fine and Dandy - 10:28
East of Suez - 12:52
If I Had You - 16:11
I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles - 18:44
Pennies from Heaven - 21:30
How High the Moon - 23:36
Mac
Your channel is the greatest source of jazz on youtube. |Everything you post is amazing!
60otaku4
Thank you so much, Mac-san!
Your nice comment make me very happy!!
Otaku4 (^_^)v
Elik Jazdzewski
Hi Otaku! Just wanted to say that you’re one of my favorite ever channels on YouTube! Very fortunate to have stumbled upon you all those years ago… Thank you for the amazing memories!
60otaku4
Hi Elik-san,
I’m very pleased for enjoying my channnel a long time.
Please continue to take care of me!
Otaku4 (^_^)/
BurkeDevlin66
i thought long ago i lost you on YT, and now i have found you again. Thank you for your great postings
60otaku4
You're welcome, BurkeDevlin66-san!
and thanks for finding out my latest video!!
Otaku4 (*^_^)b
moxnix88 lark
オタクさんこんにちは！バップフォーザピープルてこれですね。
楽しくて最後まで聴かせて頂きました。コンサートのお客も大
満足。腕っこき揃いのメンツも見せ場もあって素晴らしい。
ジャッキー＆ロイは初レコーディングですかね。本当にありが
とうございました。
60otaku4
どういたしましてMoxnix88 Larkさん！
いかにビバップを大衆に親しんでもらえるかの最良な回答がこのアルバムに満ちておりますね。