President of Blue Note Records, Bruce Lundvall, poses for a picture in his office in New York City on March 26, 2009.
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
By Shirley Halperin / May 19, 2015 6:01 PM EDT
Bruce Lundvall, the former CEO of Blue Note Records and a key figure in jazz music, has died. He was 79 years old.
Lundvall had been living in a senior assisted living center in New Jersey for complications related to his battle with Parkinson's, according to biographer Dan Ouellette, who wrote the book Bruce Lundvall: Playing by Ear, and tells Billboardthat during a brief hospitalization, Lundvall underwent surgery but never regained consciousness. He passed on May 19.
Lundvall, a beloved figure in the industry, is credited with signing such Grammy Award winning musicians as Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Natalie Cole and Norah Jones, among many others.
Reads a statement from Blue Note issued on May 19:
Born in Englewood, New Jersey in 1935, Bruce was a lifelong jazz lover whose passion for the music was ignited by Clifford Brown, Charlie Parker & the other beboppers he heard as an underage teenager at clubs along West 52nd Street in New York City in the 1950s.
A self-described "failed saxophone player," Bruce took an entry level marketing job at Columbia Records in 1960 and over the following two decades rose to lead the North American division of the label, signing artists including Dexter Gordon, Herbie Hancock, Stan Getz, Wynton Marsalis & Willie Nelson. After launching the Elektra/Musician label in 1982, he received the offer of a lifetime in 1984 when EMI approached him about reviving Blue Note Records which had been dormant for several years. He jumped at the chance, partnering with producer Michael Cuscuna to bring back the label's earlier stars like Jimmy Smith, McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson & Jackie McLean, and signing new artists including Dianne Reeves, Cassandra Wilson, Michel Petrucciani, John Scofield, Charlie Hunter and Medeski Martin & Wood.
read more: http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6568888/bruce-lundvall-blue-note-records-veteran-beloved-label-executive-dead-at-79
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