Verve Records Celebrates 60 Years
Label will Celebrate Landmark Anniversary
with Releases Throughout the Year
One of the most prestigious labels in the history of jazz, Verve Records
will celebrate its 60th anniversary throughout 2016 with a trove of
historic reissues and stunning new collections from its legendary
archives. The release schedule constitutes a who's-who of jazz legends,
including such pioneers as Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery, Louis Armstrong, Jimmy Smith, Stan Getz, and the label's heart and soul, Ella Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald will be honored with the release of Jazz at the Philharmonic: The Ella Fitzgerald Set,
a new compilation bringing together all of her Jazz at the Philharmonic
performances previously issued by Verve on various albums, on a single
collection for the first time ever. The collection-which includes
concerts from 1949, 1953 and 1954 and features appearances by Parker,
Lester Young, and Hank Jones among others-will feature newly re-mastered
music and an essay by author Will Friedwald.
The first set of releases, due out in March 2016, is also highlighted by the new digital collection Verve 60, featuring 60 stellar tracks by 60 different artists from throughout the label's history, spanning from Ella and Oscar through Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock to Diana Krall and Christian McBride. In addition, five favorites from the Verve catalogue will be reissued on vinyl, including Ella & Louis, the first pairing for the label of Fitzgerald and Armstrong; Billie Holiday's Lady Sings the Blues; Charlie "Bird" Parker's innovative Charlie Parker with Strings; Oscar Peterson's Night Train; and Count Basie's April in Paris.
Several classics will also make their debuts in HD digital audio and iTunes, including titles by Fitzgerald, Evans, Parker, Wynton Kelly, and Stan Getz. Organ master Jimmy Smith's classic singles for the label will be compiled into a digital box set.
The release schedule continues
in May and June with more vinyl and digital reissues, including
Getz/Gilberto and albums by Wes Montgomery, Blossom Dearie, Coleman Hawkins, and Anita O'Day. A new CD collection will compile unreleased music by Charlie Parker, while Louis Armstrong's complete studio recordings for the label will be collected onto one multi-disc set.
Verve was founded in 1956 by Norman Granz,
the forward-thinking impresario responsible for the hugely popular Jazz
at the Philharmonic concerts, which brought the music to new audiences
and garnered jazz an unprecedented level of respect in the popular
culture. Granz also managed Ella Fitzgerald and launched the label in
large part to create new opportunities worthy of the singer's immense
talent, including her landmark series of Songbook recordings.
Under the visionary leadership of Granz and later Creed Taylor
(after MGM purchased the imprint in 1961), Verve continued to set new
trends. The label sparked the Bossa Nova craze with the 1964 release of
the GRAMMY® Award-winning Getz/Gilberto and brought a lush,
elegant new sound to jazz with the arrangements of Claus Ogerman and
Oliver Nelson. Its focus also encompassed groundbreaking comedy, and
later widened to embrace folk and rock recordings, including now-iconic
releases by The Velvet Underground, Richie Havens, Frank Zappa & The
Mothers of Invention and Janis Ian.
It was its jazz legacy that
cemented Verve's place in the popular imagination however, and after a
fallow period in the '70s and '80s Verve was revived in the mid-1990s,
again signing many of the biggest names in the music: Herbie Hancock,
Wayne Shorter, John Scofield, Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln, Jeff Lorber,
Chris Botti and Incognito all recorded for Verve during this period. Its
diverse and distinguished lineage continues today through the work of
artists like Diana Krall, Sarah McLachlan and Third Story.
Over the course of its
six-decade history, Verve has become synonymous with the very best in
jazz, venerating the music while charting its course and helping to
break down racial and stylistic barriers. There's no better way to
celebrate that legacy than with the music itself, and 2016 will allow
listeners to revisit the breathtaking sounds of Verve in new and
exhilarating ways.
For more information, please visit: VerveMusicGroup.com
For media information, please contact:
DL Media · 610-667-0501
Serving the Finest in Jazz Since 1988
Information and press materials (including album covers, promotional photos
and bios) on all DL Media artists can be found at our website: dlmediamusic.com
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