Entrepreneur. Norman Granz received recognition as a jazz promoter starting in the mid-twentieth century. Although he could not sing a musical note or play a musical instrument, he made a major impact on the American musical industry. Born to Russian-Jewish immigrants from Moldova, his childhood was in California during the Great Depression. In the early 1940’s, he helped to schedule jazz groups in night clubs, promoting segregation of the audience as well as the band members. During World War II, he served in the United States Air Force in the morale unit, providing entertainment for the troops. At the age of 25, he produced his first “Jazz at the Philharmonic” concert, which was held at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Auditorium on July 2, 1944. The show was very successful and marked his career as a music producer. He worked with such artists as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Rich, and Billie Holiday. He took the “Jazz at the Philharmonic” concerts on world tours but the group did not perform in the segregated South of the United States. All his artists were paid the same salary and traveled together as one group. By the late 1940s, he released recordings of concerts, which were made by his recording company, Clef Records. In the early 1950s, he worked with Ella Fitzgerald, producing “The Cole Porter Songbook” for the Verve recording label. When Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson was awarded the 1979 Grammy, he gifted the covet award to Granz in appreciation as Granz had promoted Peterson’s music career for thirty years. He promoted pianist Art Tatum in the 1950s and his recordings were re-released in the 1970s to a new generation of fans. Between 1960 and 1974, he produced world-wide concerts for such artists as Osmonds, Santana and the Mothers of Invention. He recorded on the Verve label trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie in 1961 at Carnegie Hall in New York City, which was very successful. In 1977 he recorded five albums at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Promoting individual artist expression in an age of conformity, he produced recordings on his label, Pablo Records from 1974 until his retirement in 1986. According to sources, he produced 427 jazz recordings. He married three times. His only child was with his first wife, a daughter, who was disable from birth, and he adopted his first wife’s son. He married for the third time in 1974 to Grete Lyngby from Denmark; his wife inscribed on his grave marker, “I will love you forever. GG.” He died of cancer. His biography “The Man Who Used Jazz for Justice” was written by Tad Herhorn in 2011.