Gene Norman

Gene Norman (January 22, 1922—November 2, 2015) was an American concert agent, record producer, and jazz and blues impresario. He was the founder of GNP Records, and from 1954 to 1963, he owned and operated Crescendo Jazz Club on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Gene Norman was born Eugene Abraham Nabatoff in Brooklyn, New York City, on January 22, 1922. He was a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

Norman began his radio career in San Francisco, California, before relocating to Los Angeles in the 1940s. In Los Angeles, he worked as a jazz promoter and a radio disc jockey. He hosted popular radio shows on KFWB and KLAC and promoted jazz sessions as "Just Jazz", a jazz concert à la his friend Norman Granz's Jazz At The Philharmonic. Beginning with Pasadena Civic Center, Norman promoted concerts at several Los Angeles venues including The Hollywood Bowl and Shrine Auditorium.

In 1948, Norman and Frank Bull, a fellow DJ, launched Dixieland Jubilee concert events that featured Teddy Buckner, Sidney Bechet, and Kid Ory And His Creole Jazz Band. In addition to jazz, he also held annual Blues Jubilee concerts that hosted many blues greats like Dinah Washington, Jimmy Witherspoon, Helen Humes, Big Joe Turner.

In 1954, Norman purchased the "Chanticlair" venue at 8572, Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood from singer Billy Eckstine and turned it into a jazz club named Crescendo. On the second floor of the building, he launched a comedy club named Interlude. Crescendo and Interlude hosted many jazz and comedy legends of the time, including Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Don Rickles, Lenny Bruce, Johnny Mathis, Louis Armstrong, Paul Bley, Count Basie, Mort Sahl, Bob Newhart, Dick Gregory, and Woody Allen, among others.

Shortly after, Norman founded GNP (Gene Norman Presents) Crescendo Records to issue live recordings made at the concerts promoted and hosted by Norman. Initially focused on jazz, the label released works of Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton (Star Dust), Woody Herman, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Stan Kenton, Gerry Mulligan, Frank Morgan, Muddy Waters, Max Roach, and Charlie Ventura.

In 1963, Norman sold his nightclub to focus on his record business and expanded the label into other genres, including blues, rock, and comedy. In the following years, the label released works by such musicians as Robin Trower (British guitarist), Billy Strange, The Challengers (surf band from L.A.), and The Seeds(American garage rock band), and Savoy Brown (British blues rock band). In 1982, GNP won its first and only Grammy award with American zydeco musician Queen Ida's live album Queen Ida & The Bon Temps Zydeco Band.

The new owner of the Crescendo club renamed it The Trip in 1965.

Norman also introduced the Snader Telescriptions, an MTV-styled concept documenting top recording artists of the time, 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, a commercial AM radio in Los Angeles.

Norman 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.

After Norman retired, his son Neil took up the reins of the record label. A fan of science fiction, Neil secured a licensing deal from Paramount to release soundtracks of Star Trek, both movies and television series. Neil is a musician and audio engineer who studied film and music at the University of California, Los Angeles. With his band "Neil Norman & his Cosmic Orchestra," he released a series of Greatest Science Fiction Hits albums on GNP. In 2014, Neil directed a feature-length documentary film about the band The Seeds titled The Seeds: Pushin' Too Hard.

Even after his retirement, Norman remained close to the music industry, consulting with musicians and his son.

Norman was married to actress June Bright. Their only child, Neil Gorman, runs the GNP business.

Norman died in Los Angeles, California, on November 2, 2015, at age 93.