Anecdotes

During his years at Columbia Records, George Avakian signed Miles Davis to Columbia Records in Early 1955.

Manager of Keith Jarrett in the early seventies.

Older brother of Aram Avakian.

His parents were cloth traders who had fled western Persia at the start of WWI. Growing up in New York, he began listening to jazz in high school, partly because it resembled Armenian music.

He received a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters award in 2010.

He taught one of the first jazz history courses.

He served in the Army during WWII.

He was a producer and record executive who was influential in popularizing long-play vinyl records, live albums, and liner notes. He helped revitalize interest in jazz musicians Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, and Sonny Rollins. He signed rock musicians Bill Haley and the Everly Brothers to Warner Bros. Records, and produced one of the best-selling comedy albums in history, "The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart" (1960).

Graduated from Yale University.

In 2009 he received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.

Produced records for Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Johnny Mathis, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis.