Irving Townsend

Irving Townsend
Born Irving Joseph Townsend Jr.
1920
Died 1981 (aged 61)
Occupation Producer & Author
Nationality American
Education Princeton University[1][2]

Irving Townsend (1920–1981) was an American record producer and author. He is most famous for having co-produced, with Teo Macero, the Miles Davis album Kind of Blue, which is the best-selling jazz album of all time according to the RIAA. He later served as president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States.[3][4]

Townsend, a former jazz bandleader, became an advertising copywriter for Columbia Records. He then convinced George Avakian to have him assist on recording sessions, and by the mid-1950s he was a full-time producer. He became Davis's producer after the departures of Avakian and Cal Lampley.[5]

Townsend wrote many liner notes for Columbia,[6][7] including notes for the album Black, Brown and Beige, by Duke Ellington and His Orchestra, Featuring Mahalia Jackson.[7] In 1975, Townsend wrote an article in The Atlantic Monthly called, "Ellington In Private" detailing his meeting with Duke at Newport Jazz Festival in 1956 which led to Ellington's subsequent signing with Columbia.[8]

In a passage from Music Is My Mistress, an autobiography by Duke Ellington Ellington writes:

"Irving Townsend is a very sensitive musician. He plays clarinet in a trip symphony, one of those groups that includes doctors, lawyers and accountants who worked their way through college as professional musicians and who like to get together once or twice a week to try out their chops. He is now executive producer for Columbia Records on the West Coast.

"As an A. and R. man he is wonderful. He has full knowledge of the mechanics of the business, and he also has such understanding that he seems to know what the artist is trying to get without going into long-winded rigamarole of rules and regulations, and without being swayed by what some other artist did last week. I love him and his whole beautiful family. We are indebted to him for having produced many of our favorite and most satisfactory records."[9]

Select Discography as Producer

Author

References

  1. ↑ "Princeton Alumni Weekly". 71. Princeton University Press. September 29, 1970: 122.
  2. ↑ "Princeton Alumni Weekly". 82. Princeton University Press. September 21, 1981: 56.
  3. ↑ "Townsend is Re-Elected by Coast NARAS". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media. June 15, 1968. p. 3.
  4. ↑ "4 Elected to NARAS Board". Billboard. Vol. 79 no. 29. Nielsen Business Media. July 22, 1967. p. 6. ISSN 0006-2510.
  5. ↑ Kahn, Ashley (2001). Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece, p. 91. Da Capo Press.
  6. ↑ Irving Townsend Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  7. 1 2 "Liner Notes: Irving Townsend on "Black, Brown and Beige," by Duke Ellington and His Orchestra, Featuring Mahalia Jackson". Jerry Jazz Musician. November 27, 2013. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  8. ↑ Irving Townsend (May 1975). "Ellington in Private". The Atlantic. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  9. ↑ Ellington, Duke (1973; 1976 report). Music Is My Mistress, pp. 247-48. Da Capo Press.
  10. ↑ Billie Holiday – Lady In Satin Discogs. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  11. ↑ Irving Townsend. Irving Townsend at AllMusic. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  12. ↑ Mahalia Jackson – Mahalia Jackson's Greatest Hits Discogs. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  13. ↑ Leonard Bernstein. Irving Townsend at AllMusic. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  14. ↑ Johnny Mathis – Live It Up! Discogs. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  15. ↑ The New Dynamic Chico Hamilton Quintet – Drumfusion Discogs. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  16. ↑ John H. Hammond; Irving Townsend (February 1, 1981). John Hammond on record: an autobiography. Penguin Books. p. 432.
  17. ↑ The Less Expensive Spread: Delights & Dilemmas of a Weekend Cowboy. J.N. Townsend Publishing. 1990. p. 169.
  18. 1 2 Irving Townsend books Biblio.com. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  19. ↑ "The Atlantic Monthly". Vol. 235. Atlantic Monthly Company. 1975.
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