Todd Barkan
Todd Barkan (born 1946 or 1947) is an American jazz impresario and producer.
Barkan grew up in Columbus, Ohio and attended Oberlin College.[1] He ran a club in San Francisco called Keystone Korner from 1972 to 1983, which became, in the words of journalist Bob Margolis, "legendary for its adventurous bookings and its bohemian ambience".[2] A fan of jazz from a young age, Barkan ran the club despite its inability to break even, and financial troubles resulted in its closure in 1983. Barkan then relocated to New York City, where he became the manager of the Boys Club of Harlem; around 1990 he returned to the Bay Area to manage the club Yoshi's in Oakland.[2] He quit Yoshi's in 1993 and worked as a record producer for the rest of the decade, with labels such as Fantasy, Milestone, HighNote, Columbia, Sunnyside, and Concord, as well as many Japanese labels.[2]
In 2000, Barkan was hired to take Joel Dorn's place as head of the jazz label 32 Records.[2] In 2001 he began working as the director of Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center, a position he held until 2012.[1][3] In 2011, Barkan was in a car accident which left him hospitalized for weeks.[1] Starting in 2013, he began hosting a jazz night at Iridium, a club in New York City.[4]
References
- ^ a b c Sylvia Levine Leitch, Todd Barkan: Taking Care of the Music. JazzTimes, February 22, 2011.
- ^ a b c d Bob Margolis, Producer Todd Barkan On The Past And Future Of Jazz. MTV News, August 24, 2000.
- ^ Vincent Jackson, Todd Barkan hosts Point jazz festival. Press of Atlantic City, May 9, 2016.
- ^ Nate Chinen, Summoning a West Coast Spirit. New York Times, February 28, 2013.