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Harvey Glatt

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Harvey Glatt
Born (1934-03-28) 28 March 1934 (age 90)
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Occupation(s)Music promoter, record retailer and record label owner, radio station owner
Years active1955-present
LabelsPosterity, True North

Harvey Glatt (born March 28, 1934 in Ottawa, Ontario) is an award-winning Canadian music promoter, manager, broadcaster, record and instrument retailer, and record label owner.

History

Harvey Glatt was born in Ottawa, Canada, graduating from Glebe Collegiate Institute in 1951. He thereafter obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1956 from the Clarkson College of Technology in Potsdam, New York.[1] While at Clarkson College, Glatt co-produced his first concert, presenting Dave Brubeck in 1955.[2]

Glatt's interest in music developed from an early age. He became a regular reader of Billboard Magazine as of the age of thirteen.[3]

Glatt commenced his professional association with music in the early 1950s, as a broadcaster, both at Clarkson College and for CFRA Radio in Ottawa. In 1957, initially with partner Arnold Gosewich,[2] who later became the President of Capitol Records of Canada and subsequently Chairman of CBS Records of Canada,[4] Glatt opened his first retail music store, The Treble Clef, in Ottawa, which grew to a chain of fifteen stores. At the time of the opening of the first store, The Treble Clef was the first stand alone record and music store in Ottawa.[2]

Glatt's first Ottawa concert promotion was a 1957 co-production, with Gil Levine[5] and Max Sternthal, assisted by Montreal promoter Sam Gesser (at the time the Canadian distributor of Folkways Records), of a concert by Pete Seeger. The opening act was Sonny Terry, accompanied by his nephew, J.C. Burris, playing bones.[2] Glatt thereafter formed a loose association with Gesser and Toronto-based Vivienne Stenson, who owned two theatre businesses,[6] to produce a number of concerts, including performances by Theodore Bikel, Tom Lehrer, The Weavers, Odetta, Andre Segovia, Josh White and the Kingston Trio. They also presented the Jose Greco Flamenco Dance Company and one person theatre performances by Emlyn Williams and Elsa Lanchester.[2]

Glatt later expanded into large concert promotion (through Bass Clef Productions), music distribution (through Treble Clef Distribution) and music publishing (through Bytown Music Publishing).[1] Glatt's interest in music publishing had evolved from his management experiences with Ottawa-area bands, particularly The Children, which featured William Hawkins and, in later versions, Bruce Cockburn[7] and David Wiffen. In particular, he had encouraged Hawkins, a poet, to complement his poetry with songwriting.[8] Songs by Hawkins, Cockburn and Wiffen were published by Bytown Music Publishing. Glatt was also an investor in Le Hibou Coffee House, which promoted many international artists as well as local bands, such as The Children.

In the later 1960s, Glatt managed The Soul Searchers, an influential Toronto-based band featuring keyboardist William "Smitty" Smith, saxophonist Steve Kennedy, drummer Eric "Mouse" Johnson and singer Dianne Brooks[9] among others. Smith and Kennedy would later form Motherlode, in 1969.

Through Bass Clef Productions, Glatt became the major producer of concerts of international artists playing in Ottawa. For example, it was Glatt who brought Jimi Hendrix to Ottawa, for an historic concert in March 1968, when Hendrix also met Joni Mitchell. Mitchell was playing at the Glatt-financed Le Hibou Coffee House that same evening.[10][11] Glatt also produced concerts by Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin, Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray and The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, among others. [2]

In 1977, Glatt founded CHEZ-FM, an Ottawa-based rock radio station which promoted Canadian as well as international artists.[1] During this period, Glatt also founded Posterity Records, which existed from 1976 to 1981. The label released records by Lenny Breau, the Downchild Blues Band and Ian Tamblyn, among others.[12]

Glatt's radio holdings expanded through the 1984 acquisition of the CKUE[13] and CJET radio stations in Smiths Falls, Ontario,[1] the broadcasting ranges of which included Ottawa. In 1985, he acquired a 75% interest in Calgary's CKIK,[14] assisting it during a period of financial distress, and then selling his interest ten years later. To concentrate on his radio interests, Glatt sold his Treble Clef record stores in 1979 and his Bass Clef concert promotion business in 1985. In 1999, Glatt sold his radio interests to Rogers Media and served with Rogers as a board member (1999–2004) and director of Canadian music development (1999–2005).[1] In 2007, he was an investor, along with Linus Entertainment, in the acquisition of True North Records.[15]

In 2007, Glatt was honoured through his induction by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame.[16] In 2014, Glatt was the recipient of the Estelle Klein Award, sponsored by Folk Music Ontario.[17]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Pip Wedge, Biography of Harvey Glatt; www.broadcasting-history.ca.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Harvey Glatt, In appreciation of Pete Seeger. Ottawa Citizen, February 14, 2014. Retrieved 2014-02-15.
  3. ^ Peter Robb, The music man: Harvey Glatt has never stopped moving to his own beat. Ottawa Citizen, October 12, 2014. Retrieved 2014-10-21.
  4. ^ Uncredited, About Arnold; arnoldgbooks.com. Retrieved 2014-02-15.
  5. ^ 1924-2009; former Research Director of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. See Obituary of Gilbert Levine; Ottawa Citizen, November 18-19, 2009. Retrieved 2014-02-24.
  6. ^ Later Vivienne Muhling. Then the owner of two theatre businesses in Toronto, Vivienne Stenson Concerts and Vivienne Stenson Publicity; Profile of Vivienne Muhling. Performing Arts Lodge Toronto. Retrieved 2014-02-23.
  7. ^ Glatt also managed The Flying Circus, which featured Cockburn, prior to Cockburn commencing a solo career; see The Flying Circus.
  8. ^ Greg Quill, William Hawkins: Lost and Found Songwriters Magazine, Fall, 2008.
  9. ^ In addition to releasing solo material, Dianne Brooks later worked as a touring backup singer for Count Basie, Bette Midler, Boz Scaggs and The Boss Brass. She also appeared on recordings by Funkadelic, Bette Midler, Herb Alpert, Dusty Springfield, Emmylou Harris, Gino Vannelli and Anne Murray. See Yves Perret, Profile of Dianne Brooks, January 7, 2006. Five Bucks on By-Tor. Retrieved 2014-02-15.
  10. ^ March 19, 1968. This was the Hendrix concert at the Capitol Theatre, during which the famous hat that Hendrix wore in concert (and featured in photographs, such as those accompanying Electric Ladyland), was stolen by an audience member close to the stage, as Hendrix leaned forward. It was Glatt who acted immediately to successfully recover the hat as the audience left the theatre. The hat had a particular sentimental value to Hendrix. See uncredited, Oh what a night! Jimi and Joni Come Together. The Ottawa Citizen, October 24, 1998; www.jonimitchell.com.
  11. ^ Glatt had similarly introduced Joni Mitchell to Graham Nash, when Nash was with The Hollies and also playing at the Capitol Theatre in 1966, while Mitchell was playing at Le Hibou. That meeting resulted in a romance between Nash and Mitchell and, indirectly, the formation of Crosby, Stills and Nash in 1968, since it was through Mitchell that Nash first met David Crosby. See Mark Kearney and Randy Ray, Whatever Happened To...?: Catching Up With Canadian Icons (Hounslow Press, 2006), p. 199. This recollection by Harvey Glatt is at variance with other accounts in relation to dates and facts. Mitchell did not commence her solo career until 1967 (see Joni Mitchell), while others assert that Graham Nash first met David Crosby in England, during the course of a 1966 tour by The Byrds (see Crosby Stills and Nash). Others assert that it was Stephen Stills and David Crosby who first met Nash in 1968, after attending a performance by The Hollies at the Whiskey A Go Go in Los Angeles (see The Hollies).
  12. ^ Posterity Records Releases; Discogs. Retrieved 2013-12-16.
  13. ^ Evolving by 2004, through several call letter and music format changes, to become country music station CKBY-FM, formerly located in Ottawa. See Bill Dulmage, History of CKBY-FM; www.broadcasting-history.ca. The abandoned call letters of CKUE were acquired by CKUE-FM, a rock station in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, when the station was established in 1999.
  14. ^ Which changed call letters to CFGQ-FM in 2004.
  15. ^ Robert Thompson, Linus Acquires True North Records. Billboard, December 18, 2007; www.billboard.biz.
  16. ^ Lynne Saxberg, November 5, 2007 Ottawa's Harvey Glatt enters Canada's Broadcast Hall of Fame
  17. ^ Folk Music Ontario, 2014 Estelle Klein Award Recipient Selected. Retrieved 2014-10-21.
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