George Avakian

Born in Russia in 1919 but raised in the U.S. by his Armenian parents, George Avakian's contributions to jazz were huge across the greater part of the 20th century. He was a jazz critic as early as 1937, wrote about jazz for Mademoiselle and Pic during 1946-1948, helped revise Charles Delauney's famous Hot Discography when it was first published in the U.S. in 1948, and contributed to both Down Beat and Metronome. Avakian's greatest importance was as a producer. He put together one of the first jazz albums, Chicago Jazz, for Decca in 1940. Soon afterwards he began producing ja...